We live in a world where data rules. Or so it seems. We stream, upload, video chat, game, ship, message, browse, and code on a scale that was unimaginable even a decade ago. By some estimates, humans and our machines currently generate over six petabytes of new data every second, though much of it is transient or never stored. Meanwhile, our algorithms get smarter, sharper, and creepier by the byte. And quietly—beneath the front-end layers—a problem has been forming. A small, stubborn problem...

We live in a world where data rules. Or so it seems. We stream, upload, video chat, game, ship, message, browse, and code on a scale that was unimaginable even a decade ago. By some estimates, humans and our machines currently generate over six petabytes of new data every second, though much of it is transient or never stored. Meanwhile, our algorithms get smarter, sharper, and creepier by the byte. And quietly—beneath the front-end layers—a problem has been forming. A small, stubborn problem...