9781422280744

IN 1986, ONLY ONE PERCENT of the world’s information was stored digitally —using computer technology to process data in numbers or discrete units—including CDs, DVDs, and computer hard drives. The other 99 percent was stored in analog (non-digital) form such as books, newspapers, and videotapes. By 2014, that ratio flipped upside down, with 99 percent of information in the world stored digitally and just 1 percent in analog form. Similarly, in 1986, 41 percent of the world’s data-processing power was in pocket calculators and only 33 percent in personal computers. By 2007, 66 percent of processing power was in computers, and calculators did not even account for 1 percent. These vast changes are representative of the Digital Revolution —the advancement of technology from analog electronic and mechanical devices to digital technology. The Digital Revolution started in the 1970s and continues today. It marked the beginning of the Digital Age , or Information Age, in which information has become a commodity that is quickly and widely spread and easily available, especially through the use of computer technology. BOOK OVERVIEW chapte r HISTORY OF THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION

Living in the Digital Age, you probably use the Internet quite a lot, perhaps every day. But do you ever pause to think about

how it is changing people’s lives or even impacting those who do not have access to it? The Internet is one of many digital technologies—such as smartphones , cloud computing, and artificial intelligence—that

Computers have been around since the mid-twentieth century. The first computers were big and slow, and very few people used them.

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