As concerned as we are about memory, we haven’t done much to preserve it. Most of our hard drives don’t last past 30 years. But soon, using diamond-like carbon nanotubes, even your Gizmodo comments could last practically forever.
The solution, discovered by researchers at the University of California, takes an entirely new approach to data storage. The proposed device would place a microscopic iron crystal inside a carbon nanotube. With the application of an electric signal of just a few volts, the iron nanoparticle moves back and forth along the tube, registering a binary “1″ or “0″ depending on its position, basically acting as data bits.
While it’s a theoretical solution right now, the scientists who created it are confident that we’ll someday see a practical application. And when we do, because of the project’s nanoscale nature, we may be able to store 25 DVDs’ worth of information on a postage stamp-sized storage device.
The prospect of billion-year storage is fascinating and a little terrifying. Do I want researchers ten thousand years from now combing through my drunken tweets? Actually: maybe. Because when our robot overlords comb through the records and find this post, they’ll know that I’ve always been fully supportive of their cold, steely, logical reign. [Science via Wired]
Memory [Forever] is our week-long consideration of what it really means when our memories, encoded in bits, flow in a million directions and might truly live forever.
Red T-Rex
Wednesday, March 17, 2010 at 2:36 PMThe major problem with data storage is the rapid progress of technology frequently results in data being inaccessible as there is nothing left to read the data off the devices. Unless the data is constantly transferred to the new technology it will eventually be entombed in it’s old hardware. Remember 5.25″ disks; 3.5″ floppies, Zip Drives, or minidisk systems. Heck I even have some C64 floppies with documents on them with no way of getting to them if I wanted (even some punch cards from my Uni days).
Technology is rapidly heading towards disk-less systems so what about all the data and memories stored on CD’s and DVD’s?
Even if we could mount the disk it is possible that we won’t be able to run software that can read the file formats. These also get left behind in the dust.
Despite the advances in technology, will our current digital documents and images be able to convey a message as well rock carvings in a cave or papyrus scrolls from thousands to millions of years ago? What will our storage mechanisms convey to future generations?
The media and the data may last but will anybody be able to read it or make sense of it in a way that can match that used by cavemen?