Hello, Subscribers:
Think for a moment — did “data is the new oil” ever quite catch on as an accepted macroeconomic maxim in the way its proponents hoped it might? You still hear it thrown out from time to time, but do people really buy the notion that figures on a spreadsheet, no matter how slickly conveyed, will ever on their own keep the gears of physical civilization turning? Energy ensures the lights stay on; digital aggregates of information can’t make the same claim.