In the future, more or less unlimited data storage capacity may be a possibility. The capacity to store huge amount of data is also increasingly becoming cheaper. At the same time, new exciting ways of storing and using data are emerging. Some of these methods and techniques involve moving away from electronic solutions to using cells and crystals to store data. Creative ways of displaying and using data are also appearing such as 3D and info graphs.
When discussing information several different perspectives can be explored. Who is going to use the information? Who has access to the information? Who owns the information? Some of the changes in the way data are stored, displayed, retrieved may lead to changes in the way we look upon ownership. Below is a list of some ideas that are currently being explored.
Data Storing Devices – New ways to increase the capacity and the reduce the storage space
- Sophisticated electronic devices.
- Biological methods such as DNA, click here for a video about Information Storage in DNA
- Nanotechnology.
- Chemically stored in crystals, biochemicalmethods
- Information can be stored in 3Dand molecular computers can be created
- Information can be stored in Photos, Pictures, Paintings
- Geographical identification can be used – Geotagging
- General Positioning System (GPS) can be used to determine where a photohas been taken or to monitoryou training
Data and Information can be collected from
- Our daily activities – human interactions and communications
- Communications from electronic devices that we use such as computers and mobile phones can be collected
- Inside our body
- From our mind or brain
- From other species
- From devices we touch like doors, tables, seats
- From the devices we use . like clothing, shoes, furniture, kitchen equipment, cars, bicycles, mobiles, laptops, sport equipment.
Ways of displaying Information and Data
In the video below, you can see how different world like Paris can be explored using Google Street map. Details in design of buildings and streets can be compared from different cities such as Prague and Barcelona. Images can provide a cultural historical value. A possible way to explore cultural interaction between the different countries.
In the next blog post, we will explore some consequences of these ways of using and storing data. How does our perception of data change when live cells are used to store date? What does our ideas about data change when we see a 3D picture of it? And what does it mean for your identity that more or less your whole lives interaction can be recorded and stored? What are the consequences of the idea that in future you will pay with data?
Photo: “Ideas Button” by Stuart Miles
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