Mon Apr 21 02:58:40 UTC 2008
Big numbers and DARPA …
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This isn't strictly a Security topic, but the start of the chain of thought comes from DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of the USA.
One of DARPA's current projects is creating insect cyborgs -- inserting interface electronics into early-stage insects, and keeping them stable throughout the metamorphosis stage.
The goal of the MEMS, inside the insects, will be to control the locomotion by obtaining motion trajectories either from GPS coordinates, or using RF, optical, ultrasonic signals based remote control.
My colleague Arthur said “Ah! That's why there are so many addresses in IPv6!”
It's not trivially easy to determine how many insects there are in the world – wikipedia didn't have a number on the Insects page, for example! However, from 42explore.com (googled for “number of insects”) comes the unsourced quote
Entomologists (scientists who study insects) estimate that the average number of insects for each square mile (2.6 square kilometers) of land equals the total number of people on the earth.
So, rough calculations – there are 6.7 x 10 9 people, a land area of 1.5 x 10 8 km 2. 2.6 x 10 18 insects. There are 3.4 x 10 38 addresses in IPv6 … plenty for all the cyber-roaches!