In modern times the family economy has been based on exchanging time for money. In exchange for X dollars of pay, we worked 40 hours per week. We called it a job. But then something happened. A transoceanic trip that a century ago took four weeks takes four hours today.
Bits traverse the same distance in a fourth of a second.
Today, instead of trading hours for dollars, many of us would trade any number of dollars for even a few hours. A company hoping to obtain a competitive edge would sell its birthright for a month's lead time. We never appreciated white time, because there seemed to be so much of it. We usually described it in pejorative terms - delay , doldrum, drag . In a bit-driven world, white time has been whited out.