[Summary]
The Web was about 5000 days old early in 2008. In those 5000 days the Web has brought email, auctions, Youtube, Blogs, phone service, Google, real time stock prices, sports scores, weather, news, real estate prices, every street map, encyclopedias, library books, IRS forms, every song, movie and television program, dictionaries, phone books, show and game tickets, family trees, all patent records, catalogs, banking...[End of Summary]
5000 days ago we never saw this coming. There was no economic model on how all this new wealth could be generated and then given away for free. So, the Web taught us that we have to get better at believing the impossible. That's the major lesson. What impossibilities will the next 5000 days bring?
The Internet is the largest and most reliable machine in human history, consuming 5% of the world's electricity (2008 figure). 5000 days ever growing, never stopping. 100 billion clicks a day, 55 trillion links, a billion connected PC chips. Every second 2 million emails, 1 million IM messages and 8 terrabytes of traffic move throughout this organism. 65 billion phone calls per year, 255 exabytes of hard drive storage. It behaves like a brain with neurons, automatically connecting ideas to each other. Roughly equivalent to the processing power of the human brain, it doubles in power every 2 years. By 2040, it will match or exceed the processing power of humanity.
[Ted's Notes]
Meanwhile, it is behaving ever more intelligently using automated decision making, analysis, testing, learning, creativity, invention, design and autonomous self-improvement simulations.
Simultaneously it is developing sophisticated sense organs. Vision, hearing, smell, touch and taste.
[End of Ted's Notes]
What will the next 5000 days bring? From Kevin Kelley: "Expect the Impossible." From Larry Page Google Co-founder: "What we really want to do at Google is create an AI."
Definitely worth the watch. The Q&A is just as juicy.
