Data then, Data now, Data in 2040
From ancient bone etchings to blockchain brilliance: Discover how 20,000 years of data revolution is reshaping our world, why you should care, and how it impacts you.
This blog will synthesize a 20,000-year timeline between ancient Babylon, record keeping, AI DAOs, machine-to-machine payments, and everything from then, to 2040 and beyond.
TLDR: Data has been here and is here to stay. It’s always been about the data. Walk through what it has been and why now is the time to pay attention.
19,000 BC: The Great Baboon
Evidence of early data collection dates back to the earliest known human civilizations. The first use and record of a ‘data point’ can be found in 19,000 BC when our Paleolithic ancestors used a baboon tool called the Ishango bone to perform simple calculations. Back then, there were no calculators, pencils, or chat GPT— imagine how people got around or knew what coffee to order?! For this, we consider this invention as the first evidence of tallying or recording information.
2,500 BC Sumerians & Bookkeeping
Ancient Sumerians, who lived in what is now modern-day Iraq, kept written records of harvests and taxes on clay tablets over 5,000 years ago. The evolution of writing helped shape data collection, as written records became more widespread and sophisticated. Libraries, which first appeared in ancient Egypt around 2,000 BCE, were instrumental in the curation and preservation of written records. The earliest libraries were typically housed in temples and contained religious texts, but over time, libraries began to expand their collections to include works on various subjects.
History of Data in 1640: The GodFather of Public Health Statistics
In 1640, John Graunt, a hat maker, started collecting information regarding deaths in London. John noted down statistics such as:
- The number of deaths
- The mortality rate among age groups
- The causes of death
By this seemingly mundane tallying, he revolutionized how we use medical data and human organization records to this day. In fact, Graunt was the first person to use data analysis to understand and solve a problem.
In 1665, he published his book, Natural and Political Observations Mentioned in a Following Index, and made upon the Bills of Mortality, as the collective result of his research. In it, the innovator stored information in tables and even attempted to predict life expectancy.
As a result of Graunt’s publication, the city started issuing a weekly report called “Bills of Mortality”. Knowing the number of deaths and births better-prepared people for a possible plague outbreak at that time.
History of Data in the 1880s: The Era of Data Processing
Speeding through centuries into the 1880s, the German-American statistician Herman Hollerith saw a train conductor punching train tickets for passengers. That’s how the idea of using punch cards in writing and processing data was born. Hollerith started working on the design of the tabulation machine that uses punch cards, based on a previous model invented by the silk weaver Joseph Jacquard in the 1800s.
A punch card is normally a type of stiff paper, onto which a machine would create holes in specific locations. The cards are moved between brass rods so that the data is read electronically. With this great breakthrough, Hollerith helped the American government complete the US census within the same year — after it took them nearly a decade of trial and error.
Data in 1928: The Concept of Storage
Pfleumer’s Magnetic Tape
In 1928, German engineer Fritz Pfleumer patented a magnetic tape that he used to replace wire recording for storing data. Essentially, he coated very thin paper with iron oxide powder and glued it with lacquer. The idea of storing information on magnetic tapes actually inspired the invention of floppy disks and hard disk drives later on.
Present-Day: Here comes the Internet Era
The rise of the internet consequently came with its counterpart of big data. Thanks to Sir Tim Berners Lee, hypertext and hyperlinks made it easy to share information and connect resources globally.
The introduction of Google in 1997 took Lee’s work and scaled to the masses. Data became even more widely available to everyone with access to a computer or mobile device.
For the context of this topic, we can point readers to inquire on Life After Google by George Gilder, highlighting the rise and fall of Big Data.
Most people believe the internet is here to stay, specifically, those who’ve yet to think about digital ownership, blockchain, or privacy as any concern, nor the rise of AI. Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 allowed us to have the ability to read and write…creating data points every second we update the screen. Reading and writing are certainly not the final destination on the history of the data timeline graphic shown above. With every innovation in technology, data science, machine learning, & artificial intelligence comes a new way of creating and spreading information, knowledge, or capital.
Data has altered the way we view and assume the world, and continues to shape our reality in different ways. Industries like Finance, Insurance, Supply Chain, and Natural Sciences benefit from employing data-driven thesis & techniques to improve their operations.
Internet Era -> Blockchain Era (2023, 2040, and beyond)
As mentioned above, Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 allowed us to read and write. Web 3.0 states the ability to read, write and own.
Web3 is positioned to Decentralize the Internet and bootstrap a more multidimensional and immersive environment (ie: the “metaverse”) designed for more participation, reward, engagement, and privacy by/for users.
The first question to this is how? Shorthand's answer is Blockchain technology. The distributed ledger technology changes how information is shared and stored. Deliverables: provide verifiable, trustless, distributed data on peer-to-peer nodes or servers that can enable the creation of new economic sectors and new forms of commerce.
Furthermore, decentralized applications (dApps) are the vehicle to transfer much of the power and control back to the public and consumers, marking a shift to a more user-owned web. Remove middlemen, expose bad actors, and streamline business processes to tailor to users and creators, rather than for-profit entities. DApps built inside the Ocean Protocol Ecosystem can be found here.
Peer-to-peer buying and selling of assets are just the beginning. The peer-to-peer ownership of data, assets, information, and algorithmic scriptures is executed through the standard of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The growing adoption of cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and ever-expanding mobile eCommerce has effectively cut the middlemen out of parts of the economy.
Example:
Infamously, we will use credit card fees as an example. Consider the transaction fees charged to retailers by credit card companies. The seemingly small 1 to 4% adds up moving through the supply chain. The inefficiency of small transactions forces many companies to purchase in bulk and effectively shuts out smaller businesses.
Advocates of ‘DeFi’ or decentralized finance lobby for more personalized financial models and even a future without banks and centralized stock exchanges.
Pioneers in the space include OpenSea, the most prominent digital marketplace for crypto collectibles and NFTs, Coinbase for buying, selling, and storing cryptocurrency, and Ocean Protocol, an open-source tool kit to own and deploy web-native applications, algorithms, and assets on the blockchain.
Ocean Protocol combines the ownership of data and payment rails into one. This takes the digital payment providers (Stripes of the World) and data storage (Snowflake of the World) and wraps ownership into one rail. The cost reduction, efficiency, and scalability of this mesh will be quantified in years to come.
About Ocean Protocol
Ocean was founded to level the playing field for AI and data. Ocean tools enable people to privately & securely publish, exchange, and consume data.
Follow Ocean on Twitter or Telegram to keep up to date. Chat directly with the Ocean community on Discord. Or, track Ocean progress directly on GitHub.
