Do You Understand the Digital World

A question is do you truly understand just how many data sources/movement exist around you. This is a photo on a random day in Houston Texas off Beltway 8. How much data do you see in the picture?

Data is intangible to the eye - meaning it is not something directly seen. There are the exact same machines that do not create the same amount of data based on what extra devices are connected.

My main point is that there are innumerable number of data and data collection that we, as society in general, take for granted. The same could be said for the common light switch. It is fair to state that almost everyone has clicked a light switch at some point in their life but many could not articulate the how of why the light comes on - they just use it. The light switch is integral to the lives of humans and data has become as well. The proliferation of data has enhanced the lives of millions of people just through connectivity alone (cell phone accessibility).

If you wanted a hint - there are thousands of data points in the picture. to give an example- think of a single car (say a modern model). The car's computer is taking regular measurements and data while the car is moving - if the radio is on there is data moving through the airspace to play music - if the person is having a hands-free communication there is cell phone info - in the background there is information being shared (bi-drectional) if they also have Waze app on. There is also Satelite GPS information being shared - if the car has lane sensing then there are alerts when cars are in the blindspot - are there passengers in the car (doing a myriad of different things on their phones?). The cell phones hit 5G/6G/LTE cell towers (collecting info on calls/pings) - cameras on Beltway 8 monitor traffic - toll tags collect data for billing and traffic movement. That was one vehicle and if pressed you could find more... (and yes I do know it is a run on sentence).

Here is the final point. If we truly think ourselves as data savvy we should know just how much information/data is actually processing around us every second. It is beyond mind boggling to think about it on a local level let along global.

Just some friendly digital thoughts.