Long term information storage

[FrankM]

If one wants to store specific information for the long term, just what media provides a reasonable assurance that it will not be altered and will be understandable to the "viewer" after an extended time period. I want to consider time periods that extend over many decades and centuries.

My old IBM PC (8088 cpu), which I have stored in a box, is an example of a "throwaway" magnetic media reading device, and I don't even know if any of the associated "disks" are still readable. Its diskettes are definitely not recommended for long term information storage. Who can read them now, and who could read them 100 years from now (if the diskettes were still useable)?

If one wishes to leave a "time capsule" of information, what form would it have to be in such that it is understandable or even retrievable after a very long time? Consider what has to be used to "read" the information.

[alexander]

You could employ Vynil technology and CD's to come up with a golden disk. I've read about this somewhere, but there the explorer craft that was sent to take pictures of one of the Jupiter's moons. Scientists knew that this thing would eventually leave our solar system and go into deep space, so they decided to come up with some kind of a way to let others know we are here. They took a series of 5 disks and recorded lots of information about us and the history of this planet as well as scientiffic discoveries in different ways, so anyone viewing the media could understand. What was interesting was that they also put explanations of how to use the disks written in some kind of "universal" language with diagrams and such, so anyone could understand it. Knowing that the craft should be out in space for a while, i'd say that the informaion on thise disks was made to be able to be read for many years, so i think that this is the closest thing we have to a perfect storage media...
oh and here is a for you.

[GAHD]

Long term is a very good point. CDs are worthless past a few decades as changes in temperature invariably warp the backing used to store the information. Magnetic media will always be prone to tampering and looses it's charge.

I would say take a lesson from history and carve a rock, but it's hard to decypher archaic languages. That leaves solid state technology such a flash ram.Iif it were built into the device that retreives the information, and the device was solar powered or used some other form of self renewing power supply, it would have a good chance of surviving. Still it would have to be built to be redundant in case of component failure, and contain the information necessary to teach whoever was reading it how to use it with easy access(definatly not something using Window$).

[alexander]

Originally Posted by "GAHD

definatly not something using Window$

lol, good one GAHD, you are definately right in saying that!

I think flash memory is a good storage media that will last for a while...

[FrankM]

Originally Posted by alexander

... They took a series of 5 disks and recorded lots of information about us and the history of this planet as well as scientiffic discoveries in different ways, so anyone viewing the media could understand. What was interesting was that they also put explanations of how to use the disks written in some kind of "universal" language with diagrams and such, so anyone could understand it. ... .

The message on the Pioneer 10 and 11 vehicles was so obscure that most of the best minds in our sciences couldn't decipher the intent of the message. Here is the home page of Pioneer:
http://spaceprojects.arc.nasa.gov/S...eer/PNhome.html
Here is the plaque:
http://spacelink.nasa.gov/NASA.Proj...r.10.Plaque.gif

Originally Posted by GAHD

I would say take a lesson from history and carve a rock, but it's hard to decypher archaic languages.That leaves solid state technology such a flash ram.Iif it were built into the device that retreives the information, and the device was solar powered or used some other form of self renewing power supply, it would have a good chance of surviving.

We don't have a self renewing power supply, and we don't have a clue how long solar cells will last. We have no idea how long our technology devices will remain in working order even if stored in the best of environments. Where would such a device be "stored" such that it was preserved from accidental destruction by some idiot that thinks it might make a good nut cracker?

Rock is good, if it is big enough so it can't be picked up and used to built a wall like the Rosetta Stone. It was pure luck it was found, and it was broken.

[Tormod]

Originally Posted by FrankM

We don't have a self renewing power supply, and we don't have a clue how long solar cells will last. We have no idea how long our technology devices will remain in working order even if stored in the best of environments. Where would such a device be "stored" such that it was preserved from accidental destruction by some idiot that thinks it might make a good nut cracker?

Inscribe the information on titanium and place it inside a diamond satellite which is stored in orbit around the sun?

[alexander]

diamond satellite filled with liquid nitrogen?

No but seriously, i think that flash is the way to go for most people who dont have the money for titanium and diamond... Think about it, it consists of, chances are, an Indium crystal with a whole bunch of switches grown into it, as you apply power the switch turns on or off, as the power is taken away the switch remains in its position until you read it's position off in 100 years, and it will take a seriously powerful electromagnetic field to erase the data,+ there's always insalation that could be put in place to prevent that from happening...

[Freethinker]

Depending no how much data you wish to store, so far the longest lasting "portable" media we have developed is (as was first suggested) vinyl. It will far outlast any "CD" or dvd technology.

As far as moderate long term storage, we still reccommend tape systems to DVD storage. Longer shelf life. But still storage condition dependant.

One other approach is a large hard drive. The media is very stable over very long periods of time. The biggest problem might be interfacing. If in the distant future they were to see the device would they have any idea how to recover the data on it?

What might have been the best system, but it seemed to popup then disappear was magnetic bubble storage. In it "magnetic bubbles" could be moved thru passages in solid material. It is highly stable in a good range of environmental conditions. But it never caught on.

Perhaps some reliable form of optical storage will come along. But Mag is the media right now (other than pure mechanical vinyl.) Then there is electron displacement and DNA computing being worked on.

[FrankM]

Originally Posted by Tormod

Inscribe the information on titanium and place it inside a diamond satellite which is stored in orbit around the sun?

With all the junk that is in orbit around the sun, how would anyone distinguish a small artifical satellite from the junk? "Inscribe the information", now that is the basic issue. If the "time capsule" is not found for 100,000 years by some accidental traveler, just what inscriptions could be interpreted at that time.

Any technical device that we conceive of now will be hopelessly out of date a century from now and absolutely unknown to anyone 10 to 20 centuries hence. What language never changes with time?

[alexander]

Originally Posted by FrankM

What language never changes with time?

as Freethinker suggested (or rather hinted), perhaps DNA, the language has been around for 4 billion years, another 20000 is nothing for it, that ought to be the ultimate language to use...