The use of "flood" reminded me of a few years ago when I was researching the post-war information technology era. What struck me was how many papers used phrases like "flood" or "deluge" of data.<p>For examples:<p>> The problems of adequate storage, preservation and service for the increasing flood of periodical literature coming into their collections are of special urgency for librarians. Many studies have been made, all of which view with deep concern the rapidly increasing rate of growth of American libraries.’ Such growth, if continued even at the present rate, will in a short time result in collections of almost unmanageable proportions, both as to physical size and servicing.<p>("The Use of High Reduction Microfilm in Libraries", J. Am. Doc. Summer 1950 - <a href="https://search.proquest.com/openview/14f723869613e43376c4a7646f583183/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=41135" rel="nofollow">https://search.proquest.com/openview/14f723869613e43376c4a76...</a> ).<p>> With the advent of the IBM card programmed calculators, actual calculating time on the data was materially diminished, leaving the problem of reading and processing the data standing as a very real bottleneck. It therefore became evident to responsible personnel concerned that a system would have to be devised that would allow either automatic or semi-automatic processing of much of the data incurred at the Air Force Flight Test Center if the Center was to survive this deluge of data.<p>("A centralized data processing system", 1954, <a href="https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1455227" rel="nofollow">https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1455227</a> )<p>Even "deluge of data" is still common, says <a href="https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22deluge+of+data%22&t=ffsb&ia=web" rel="nofollow">https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22deluge+of+data%22&t=ffsb&ia=web</a> .<p>65 years later and the data waters keeps rising.