53Kb of Memory

Science historian George Dyson, has a typically insightful piece on the fundamental nature of the internet.  Titled "A Universe of Self-replicating code," he draws parallels between the Big Bang birth of of the universe and the birth of the internet.
Definitely a worthy ready, but the quote that sticks in my mind:

One number that's interesting, and easy to remember, was in the year 1953, there were 53 kilobytes of high-speed memory on planet earth.

In George Dyson's book Turing's Cathedral, the fact is repeated with a reference:

In March of 1953, there were 53 kilobytes of high-speed random access memory on planet Earth.

The reference points to  a book by the US Office of Naval Research: A Survey of Automatic Digital Computers.


update:
After trying to find an online version of A Survey of Automatic Digital Computers, I came across this blog entry (by the author of Geek Atlas) which refutes the claim.