Vaporized summary

With all of our handy internet-connected devices, it’s easy to understand why today is called “the information age.” Less easy to understand is how this information behaves.

It’s helpful to think of information like water, or other chemical elements since it can exist in a variety of different states depending on how we want to use it.

To start with, information can be in a solid state, like in a book or on a CD. The downside of having information in a solid state is that it’s hard to share with more than one person.

But selling information in physical form is a convenient way to monetize it, which is another reason why keeping information in a solid state has, historically, been preferred.

Remarkably, the way we exchanged information didn’t change much at all between 1455 (when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press) and the recent emergence of the internet. Throughout this span of time, information was always stored in a solid state, whether as books, CDs or DVDs.

Though these physical states are durable and long-lasting ways to store information, they also demand a lot of money and energy to produce and distribute. What’s more, they eat up storage space and can only be shared one person at a time. Plus, things like laser discs quickly become obsolete.

So when the internet emerged, people didn’t hesitate to free information from its physical constraints and transform it into a more liquid state.

Imagine an ice cube beginning to melt; information, water-like, was now much easier to spread over a large area. With the click of a mouse, it was simple to post, edit and instantaneously share a file with the entire world.

But there was still another change of state in store. As information moved from desktop computers to the smartphones, it became like a vapor: fast-moving, free and constantly changing.

This is where we are now. With high-speed internet in our pockets, information is no longer bound to your office, or even to your laptop. It moves all around you, like atmospheric gasses.

No matter where or who you are, be it a scientist in a lab or a monk in a mountaintop monastery, today learning anything, at any time, is but a tap or two away.