
How to Store Data Forever - janvdberg
https://drewdevault.com/2020/04/22/How-to-store-data-forever.html
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sigmaprimus
I guess I shouldn't be too disappointed but I read this hoping to find a
permanent storage solution, after all thats what the title says.

If it's too good to be true it probably is.

I suppose etched gold laminated in glass (simlar to plastic laser discs) might
provide a very long term storage solution with high enough data density for
the current times. Other than that I can only think of punch cards which dont
have the density for a current long term storage schemes.

I have heard murmurs of some sort of genetic engineering system that
theoretically allows for the storage of data in a GMO plant that could in
theory last forever.

Maybe some sort of space radio telescope system that bounces back signals?

Anyone else know of a way, or have an outside the box idea to store data for a
very very long time?

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ddevault
Author here. The problem is, on a long enough time scale, you don't just need
your data to be intact - you need it to be interpretable and relevant, too.
How would you communicate with someone 10,000 years in the future? I _did_
address this in my article: the answer is, you need a real life chain of human
beings between you and there which is maintianing the data to ensure it is
understandable and useful.

~~~
sigmaprimus
Yes I did read it all, like I said the title is a quite click baity. As far
sharing data with people(or other lifeforms) 10k years from now,that is an
entirely different problem than "How to store data forever".

I'm not saying I have the answer to your title or the other problem, both good
questions that I wish I did have answers to. I believe that the voyager team
created a golden record as they faced a simmilar communication/interpretation
issue.

Another "out there" idea that might solve the problem would be attaching a
transmitter to a comet with a regular and frequent orbit, possibly Halley's
comet which returns every 75 years, it is a short enough duration that the
technology should still be available to receive the data. The comet idea would
work well in preventing future generations from corrupting the data. Eg
history is written by the victors of war.

Other than those ideas, short of creating a religion I cant see too many ways
to store data forever and keep it useful and uncorrupted. Which is kind of too
bad and "too good to be true too!" as per my original comment! ;)

