Image by: www.compoundsemiconductor.net
According to a recent study, “Earth could continue to host life for at least another 1.75 billion years.” The challenge: how do we begin to digitally archive what we have learned about the last 4 billion years, and what we will uncover in years to come?
As much as we would want to think hard drives are capable of storing information forever – they aren’t. Hard drives have the ability to store vast amounts of data but last roughly ten years at room temperature. Other form of media be it tape or optical last a bit longer, but not nearly as long as some scientists want.
Scientists like researcher Jeroen deVries from the University of Twente MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology who has demonstrated that it is possible to store data for extremely long periods,” according to an article titled, “A Storage Medium Which Could Outlive The Human Race” on Compound Semiconductor’s website.
“One scenario is that a disaster has devastated the earth and society must rebuild the world. Another scenario could be that we create a kind of legacy for future intelligent life that evolves on Earth or comes from other worlds. You must then think about archival storage of between one million and one billion years,” according to deVries.
This million plus year storage medium looks like something out of a science fiction movie from the 60s. It leverages QR code technology that includes many smaller QR codes etched into Tungsten – a material that can withstand extreme temperatures (pictured above).
Pretty cool stuff.
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