IMMORTAL INFORMATION
Can information be immortal? Scientists at the University of Southampton (UK) say it can be.
For most of us, this claim would sound preposterous. We know that any medium we write or draw on, or encode our data on, will be destroyed over time. Heat, humidity, and chemical breakdown will rot paper. Clay tablets crumble. Stone breaks, and is eroded by the elements. Ferrous metals will rust. Celluloid melts under high heat, and decomposes as the chemicals that form it break down. The substances that form our DVDs and hard drives may last longer, but they too are subject to the relentless process of decay.
Finding a truly permanent data storage medium has been one of the great quests of the Information Age. A few weeks ago, scientists at the University of Southampton’s Optoelectronics Research Center demonstrated just such a medium. It is by far the most permanent and versatile data storage and retrieval method yet.
The new storage medium is a nanostructured glass disc made of fused quartz. A femtosecond laser writes the data onto the disc. The US ORC team calls its new data-writing method “five-dimensional”, based on the three position dimensions, plus orientation and size.
Each disc, slightly larger than a U.S. quarter, can hold 360 terabytes of data. It will last for 13.8 billion years, approximately the age of the universe, at 374 degrees Fahrenheit. At room temperature, it will be nearly immortal. The molecular structure of the disc will remain stable at up to 1832 degrees F.
Reading the disc requires shining a light through it, then measuring the resulting data with an optical microscope and a polarizing filter. Experiments in 2013 proved the feasibility of this method with a 300 kilobyte file. The method has been refined since then, and now can accommodate files more than a million times larger.
It is possible now to record the entire history of civilization, without concern about limits in storage capacity, or decay of the storage medium. The Southampton ORC gave UNESCO an immortal ‘5D’ disc with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Christian Bible (KJV), the Magna Carta Libertate, Newton’s Opticks, and other important historical documents have been stored on ‘5D’ discs.
Does this mean the story of your life will be immortal? It might. Be careful how you live. Your cat videos, your social media posts, your financial records, and your behavior at bars may be preserved for future generations to puzzle over.
It isn’t just glory that could live forever. Embarrassment could, too.
(Do you have enough bandwidth for your data needs? Talk to us. We can find the plan that works best for you.)