Take the wheel, although a constantly occuring shape in nature it still had to be “discovered” and through innovation, its early uses made it a ubiquitous techology employed in everything from ox carts to Pyramid building. The inventiveness and uses has continued of course, evolving through the era of pulley and gear systems to the first factories powered by water wheels – now we don't give wheel technology a second thought: they're just wheels...used everywhere – even on the Mars Perseverance Rover.

Another naturally occuring curiosity was something first noticed thousands of years ago in fish that gave a shock when touched and lightning bolts that appeared to be the same sort of energy of immense intensity - but it took until the 19th Century for serious experimentation to begin and then around 1880 Edison harnessed electricity for lighting in a commercially viable way. Then, as they say - the rest is history: because once electricity and how to generate it was understood, electrically powered innovations exploded going from a lightbulb to the very same Mars Perseverance Rover in only 140 years. But the point is that every single electrically powered device ever invented is reliant on the same knowledge of electricity for its power source (open knowledge like the wheel) - so no matter what the energy source the power created is identical. And so production and supply of electricity whether it is converted from coal fired steam, from oil, or nuclear it is generally available to most of the planet wherever there is a source of energy that can be exploited and converted into electrical power. This of course has given rise to - and been the root cause of - a lot of the global problems in the last 140 years because of the struggles and conflicts fought over who controls the sources of energy. After all it is what it “says on the tin” - POWER. (Not long ago names like King Coal and Black Gold were used). So the history of elecricity is just as evolutionary as the wheel and has been the dominant universal power for 100 years or more. But every power has its reign and already the more traditional, monolithic power companies and their installations have become more fragmented and dispersed – on top of windy hills, out at sea or over acres of solar panels. And there's something I only realised quite recently with these new generation wave, wind and solar powered generating companies they are starting to resort to the term energy - “clean energy” - and that made me think!
With the ever accelerating advance of clean electrical generators (and even more innovations in the pipeline) maybe electrical power is becoming so easily and cheaply available that it's losing the classification of “power” and in the same way that the wheel is just taken for granted – electricity is somehow being downgraded to just energy now. But then if so, does that mean...cutting off a sector of society's vital power supply might not mean cutting off electricity any more?

Which I suppose brings me to the crux of this piece - and about the title. So it's just my observation of what power really is but specifically the power which is now in the ascendant – raw data. As with these examples of other fundamental discoveries – the wheel and electrical power - once identified and harnessed, their uses are limited only by the imagination and invention. So now if the new base unit of power is data - already having a profound influence on the planet and still at the embryonic stage – then structures setting up to harvest and process these unimaginable quantities of raw data are basically the true power-brokers of today.

They are able to “hoover” up and utilise almost any information they choose from their customers, exploiting their desires and their weaknesses, be it for goods, services, communication, entertainment or whatever. And it isn't just their customers they exploit, they do exactly the same with their competitors: or just gobble them up whole, straight from their inception (hence the Pacman imagery). They can initiate or clone a new virtual or online based version of almost any business they choose. Some can even conjure new businesses up out of empty space – in empty space - almost overnight! Which is brilliant of course, but it begs the question in every case – how did they grow so quickly - what are these behemoths consuming? It's as though they're taking some sort of growth data-steroid. Well part of the answer of course has to be the spark of innovation or opportunity which someone has seen in utilising this new power source of raw data. Then with a novel or specialized use of data it can very quickly construct or attract a new marketable product – all it needs then is the right amount of ready investors to jump on board. Something else just struck me as interesting – considering where most of these Big Tech companies are located – is this just the same as the gold rush? Anyway, growth usually starts slowly but through specialisation (or being first in its application) it can easily propel it to the top of any specific food chain very quickly where they then get to keep picking the “biggest, ripest fruits” before anyone else gets to them. Some recent examples of the power they now wield (rightly or wrongly) are search engines blocking undesirable competition, Presidents blocked from communication facilities, whole countries blocked out from newsfeeds etc. and of course these are only the “big” headline stories we get to hear about...ironically reported by the very same organisations that are doing it. I have to put in here that I'm only refering to so-called “free” democratic systems - we can't even imagine the other 99.9% that's going on in the whole of “data-land”.

And all I can say about the power of currencies is that they are only symbolic constructs and have always been manipulated: but in the words of Bachman Turner Overdrive – “You Ain't seen Nothing Yet”.