The research, published in an online version of the journal Science, puts that amount of data in some perspective, figuring that storage capacity would amount to a stack of CDs from here to the moon and a quarter of that distance beyond.  Yes, that would be a lot of . 

BIG NUMBERS:  

The study covered the period between 1986 and 2007, which includes what the researchers say was the start of the digital age, the year 2002. That's when the amount of digital storage capacity overtook analog storage capacity.

Now, the study says, 94% of our memory is in digital form. And over that period of 1986 to 2007, worldwide computing capacity grew 58% a year.

Communications technology has naturally led to an explosion in data. that global mobile data traffic increased over 159% during the past year.  USC's numbers are even more daunting, showing that humans shared 65 exabytes (20 zeroes) of information in 2007 via telecommunications devices such as cell phones. Yeah, that's before cell phones even took over the world.