Storage space has always been a reliable indicator of the relentless march of technology. Our parents had ginormous washing machines that stored a couple hundred K, after all. This week, I grabbed a new cell phone. It’s nice – it’s sleek and shiny and text messaging is easier, given its larger screen. Most impressive is the “Oh by the way” addition of a Mini-SD card reader to store photos and video clips recorded by the phone.
Fifteen years ago, I saved up $400 and purchased a 100MB SCSI hard drive in an external case the size of an old family Bible. I named it ‘The Abyss’ because it was inconceivable that it could ever be filled. Today, I paid $12 for a one gigabyte Mini-SD card the size of my pinky-nail. It cost less than lunch.
Of course, every time I stop to experience awe, someone has to go and one-up it. Asian World of Warcraft gold-farmers, for example, recently spammed a server by raining dwarves on the town square to spell out their URL. Charlie Stross rightly points out that it’s basically three decades of severe future shock packed into one anecdote.