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future storage tech

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Evilsizer

Senior Forum Spammer
Joined
Jun 6, 2002
I found the DNA article a day or two ago on my phones news feed. i know im just now posting it the second one i did a search for because i remembered a show called "beyond 2000". in the show they showed off a prototype that took up about the entire room they were in. it was a laser setup used to write data to a man made quartz crystal.

To start off the links is from a few days ago, MS DNA STORAGE EXPERIMENT
http://www.engadget.com/2016/04/29/microsoft-dna-storage/
http://arstechnica.com/information-...nts-with-dna-storage-1000000000-tb-in-a-gram/

Next is what i found through google, looks like updated projects of using quartz crystals for data storage.
http://gizmodo.com/optical-data-storage-squeezes-360tb-on-to-a-quartz-disc-1759359652
http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/17/technology/5d-data-storage-memory-crystals/

what i found interesting about the crystal links for the latest projects is how much smaller they have gotten. as in the show they were showing a cube crystal i think it was something like 4inx4in. I dont think that earlier prototype held nearly as much data in the testing.

Both promising techs for data storage, its kind of hard to say which will last longer. as scientist say DNA can repair it self, im not sure exactly how this happens or works. with so many variables could DNA withstand sub zero temps, what about the crystal. with so many questions about environment conditions i think its hard to say which exactly will last longer. i think it would be safe to say that if both were dropped into molten lava both would melt and neither would be viable then. sub zero temps might be a different story but i would think DNA has a better chance at withstanding that vs crystal's.
 
I had heard of the crystal storage a couple months back, couple that with Stephen Hawkins mini space ship tech and we might start seeing interesting stuff in the next ~5y or so. Not holding out hopes for the DNA storage anytime soon though, as in my view that would require nanotechnology = prohibitive cost to the average consumer ?
 
well depending on your POV of our DNA, there is a chance that a large part is DATA and not actually used for what makes "US", US. its been a while since i could recall what they say is what makes humans different from each other. For the sake of what im talking about lets say in our DNA, what makes US, US. That our DNA that allows us to be different from each other is 10% and scientist are right in that DNA can repair it self. what is the other 90% of our DNA, is it something put there that is DATA/information waiting for us to get to the point to be able to read it. would this then not mean that putting money in MS's work be that more interesting "IF" there is information for us to see/read stored in "OUR" DNA.

Food for thought.
 
Too many IF's, and were talking about synthetic DNA, not ours sadly. Could open research to a global panacea IF (again IF) the powers-that-be choose not to listen to the sound of money the pharmaceutical companies throw at them... not seeing that happen unless there's a WWIII or an alien invasion sometime in the near future.
 
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