How Much Information Is There In The World?

Think you're overloaded with information? Not even close. A study that appeared in the February issue of Science Express calculated the world's total technological capacity. The researchers calculated that humankind is able to store at least 295 exabytes (a number with 20 zeroes in it) of information.

Put another way, if a single star is a bit of information, that's a galaxy of information for every person in the world. On two-way communications technology, such as cell phones, humankind shared 65 exabytes of information through telecommunications in 2007, the equivalent of every person in the world communicating the contents of six newspapers every day.