Microsoft develops ultra durable glass plates that can store several TBs of data for 10000 years::Project Silica’s coaster-size glass plates can store unaltered data for thousands of years, creating sustainable storage for the world

  • BestBouclettes@jlai.lu
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    14
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    11 months ago

    It’s fairly easy to store data for a very long time. What’s hard is remembering how to read that data after all that time.

    • Schmeckinger@feddit.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      11 months ago

      You could use like 10% of the storage to have a pictogram that explains how to read the data.

      • BestBouclettes@jlai.lu
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        11 months ago

        Well that’s the problem, you have absolutely no way to know if it will make sense 10000 years down the line. Humans only invented writing around 6000 or 7000 years ago. It’s a really long time on our scale.

        • Schmeckinger@feddit.de
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          edit-2
          11 months ago

          What does that have to do with writing? Pictograms are images. You take a microscope look at it and it tells you in image form how to decode it. Something like the arecibo message or the golden record, but way more detailed, because you have way more space.

          • BestBouclettes@jlai.lu
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            11 months ago

            It has a lot to do with it, because writing is nothing more than standardised pictograms which have meanings and these change a lot over time.
            I’m not saying it can’t be done but to believe that what has been drawn or represented will be understood correctly 10000 years down the line, by humans or anything else is a big bet.