Avoiding digital decay

Not forgotten

How to store data for a billion years

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Readers' comments



I don't really get some of the party-pooping comments below.

*carras - there are still devices capable of reading those old formats. Just having the ability to store so much information for a long time is reassuring. Data in an old format may be hard to retrieve, but is still retrievable.

*StatusQuo Smasher - I think there are many intelligent people working on global warming/pollution issues in the fields of recycling, renewable energy, energy-efficiency, etc. There are still plenty of diplomats trying to avert wars, and so on. I doubt the goal of this research was to design data storage for a billion years per se, but rather durable data storage that will last a long time. Most current methods are estimated to last around 80 years (based on what I've read). Ironically, being able to stably store terabits of information for millennia would be a great asset if we (human beings) do bring some apocalyptic catastrophe on ourselves and our civilization (for those of us prone to melodrama).

*Gorjan - In a post-apocalyptic scenario, just having the information of the pre-apocalyptic world would be an enormous boon, as eventually mathematicians and then linguists would be able to work out the language(s) of the stored data. And it's debatable whether or not our language is changing more rapidly now or less. On the one hand, vocabularies, and to some extent grammar, have been modified greatly due to new inventions--and not just technological ones. On the other, the ease of wide-scale communication could be solidifying language. English is the first de facto global lingua franca, spoken by millions on every continent except Antarctica. In newer countries like the United States, Canada, and Australia, the population (by-and-large) speaks a single language, often with almost the same lexicon and accent, whereas in older countries people separated by only a few miles speak mutually unintelligible languages. The Economist has written articles about the extinction of languages.

So I don't see why people would rain on this parade. This sounds like pretty exciting research to me.


IMHO at least three perspectives are required for long-term data storage:
Data durability (as is presented in the article)
Hardware compatibility (as user "carras" writes about)
Continuous semantic updating (who can understand 1bn years old language?)

Not many of us understand Shakespeare word for word, and that's only 400 years old. Without semantic maintenance to make sure the data is comprehensible, the physical data storage durability is useless.

A few centuries from now even words like "iceberg", "newspaper" or "panda" might be a thing of the past.

StatusQuo Smasher

Before anyone gets carried away with such a lofty feast, we must consider if it makes sense. How much information can human beings handle when our life span is limited to about 100 years? What is the use of billion years of information? Why don't intelligent people work on issues that will save the human race and the earth? Military conflicts and bloodshed continues. Pollution continues. The race to an apocalyptic continues, and we tinker with data storage for a billion years.


I'm not understanding the earlier comments regarding the need for uninterrupted power.

The way the article reads - it takes energy to 'move' the particles within the tube. So you don't need a permanent energy source to 'store' the information (keep the particles at one side or another) you need an energy source to move them/write/change the information.

Without energy they would stay at their respective ends of the nanotube - marking them as 1 or 0.

So all you would need is some amount of shielding from stray energy fields that would uncontrollably move the particle from its set position.

Either way - this is just the latest in a long line of technology - even it does what they think it could - we'll just find or create new materials for the next great thing.


The research reported is surely an important landmark in preserving digital information. But the small problem of having a device capable of extracting that information still remains. Unfortunately, the computer industry is not known for durable standard devices or formats. Who can read now those ZIP tapes, or magnetoptical disk? Not to mention the not so old 3.5” floppy disks.

Mr. Marcus

Presumably you've invented some sort of permanent energy source Rob. Alternatively maybe, just maybe the memory cell doesn't need to be plugged in to retain the memory. Hopefully you won't be keeping your laptop on for a billion years. dread to think what your bill would be.


What happens when the current fluctuates or is interrupted? Wait! Don't unplug that, Bobtron! It has data on it that is a billion years old!!! Ooops.



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