The digital universe–now growing by more than 5 trillion bits per second–goes back to a 32-by-32-by-40-bit matrix that took form in 1946. “Decisions between elementary alternatives, and enforcement of these decisions are initiated not with reference to time as an independent variable but rather according to sequence,” Julian Bigelow, the architect of this 5-kilobyte matrix, explained in 1949 – before it was customary to refer to these elementary alternatives asbits. “Time, therefore, does not serve as an index for the location of information,” he added, “but instead counter readings are used.” Because these countershave come to be known as clocks, it is easy to believe that time in the digital universe is equivalent to time in our universe – but nothing could be further from the truth.