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Ask HN: How to store your data for 200 years?

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Re: Ask HN: How to store your data for 200 years?

#31

Post by NarcisMirandes »

I am also interested in this area. All I know is under development. Meanwhile I would store things in a more conventional way to let those projects time to develop consumer products that are reliable and at a reasonable price.

For the future wha I think it is promissing:

- Microsoft project Silica https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rfEYd4NGQg&list=WL&index=5

- 5D optical data storage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5D_optical_data_storage

- DNA Data Storage. To use DNA to store vast amounts of digital data https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_digital_data_storage

Re: Ask HN: How to store your data for 200 years?

#33

Post by kbrannigan »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #27
austin-cheney wrote: post #20

Just use a regular spinning hard drive, not any kind of solid state media. Solid state media must be charged and accessed periodically to retain its contents, like RAM, but billions of times slower. Spinning hard disks use aluminum platters coated in an extremely purified layer of iron oxide (rust) all of which is super chemically stable. Once written your data will remain stable for hundreds of years until it is slo…

Drive bearings may not last 200 years. Drive electronics almost certainly won't last 200 years - especially the capacitors.

Paper might outlast most modern storage systems. That's my controversial opinion.

Or like a stone tablet,

Re: Ask HN: How to store your data for 200 years?

#35

Post by YaBa »

Text as simple ASCII

Images, videos and others, attach a text file with the format description, syntax and structure, who knows if in 200 years people still use jpg or mpeg or how to read/decode them.

I have some very old games with binary formats without any additional information, reversing them takes a lot of time, so, other than the physical medium, remember that what we take for granted today, might not be tomorrow.

Re: Ask HN: How to store your data for 200 years?

#36

Post by paulcole »

Figure out the amount of money you’re willing to spend on this and then give it to a deserving cause who can actually do something useful with it.

Hardly anybody alive today wants their grandparent’s vacation slides. You thinking A) that you’re going to have great-great-great grandchildren and B) that they’re going to want pictures you took 200 years ago?

Re: Ask HN: How to store your data for 200 years?

#37

Post by LabMechanic »

ac2u wrote: post #3

Money + redundancy Copies in multiple physical locations. Copies on paper if it's text. Digital copies on tapes and archive quality DVDs. Storage in low UV, low moisture, low everything fireproofed faraday cages. Store some complete hardware along with some copies for helping to access the data, along with instructions. Then assume all of that will fail and take a load of money and put it in a trust so it can be acce…

A layman question:

If Faraday cage holes are smaller than the gamma ray wavelength, does it protect against gamma rays? Or is a thick lead wall needed for M-Disc protection? Is it even possible to construct such small cage holes?

gamma rays = electromagnetic waves

Preserving an M-Disc against a nuclear blast seems futile, as the high temperatures can turn even stone into dust. Is there even a practical way to engineer survival in a nuclear blast? (Any physicists? Engineers?)

Here's a guide on making a Faraday cage, but can it also protect against gamma rays?

https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Faraday-Cage

Re: Ask HN: How to store your data for 200 years?

#38

Post by LabMechanic »

YaBa wrote: post #35

Text as simple ASCII Images, videos and others, attach a text file with the format description, syntax and structure, who knows if in 200 years people still use jpg or mpeg or how to read/decode them. I have some very old games with binary formats without any additional information, reversing them takes a lot of time, so, other than the physical medium, remember that what we take for granted today, might not be tomor…

Indeed. We seem to assume semiconductors and computers are unlimited. It is just not practical to use your dog, a raven, or yourself as a Turing complete machine. You can't run Google on your Dog or yourself.

Hence, keeping "unused" electronics around might be wise, given the so called "unpredictable future" and supply chain interruptions.

Arguably, old and slow tech is still better than having nothing, as you do not have to do these boring computations by hand.

Re: Ask HN: How to store your data for 200 years?

#40

Post by ac2u »

LabMechanic wrote: post #37
ac2u wrote: post #3

Money + redundancy Copies in multiple physical locations. Copies on paper if it's text. Digital copies on tapes and archive quality DVDs. Storage in low UV, low moisture, low everything fireproofed faraday cages. Store some complete hardware along with some copies for helping to access the data, along with instructions. Then assume all of that will fail and take a load of money and put it in a trust so it can be acce…

A layman question: If Faraday cage holes are smaller than the gamma ray wavelength, does it protect against gamma rays? Or is a thick lead wall needed for M-Disc protection? Is it even possible to construct such small cage holes? gamma rays = electromagnetic waves Preserving an M-Disc against a nuclear blast seems futile, as the high temperatures can turn even stone into dust. Is there even a practical way to enginee…

>does it protect against gamma rays

Probably not. Might need to throw in some lead, concrete and water barriers.

I wrote my answer as pretty tongue in cheek. It gets to a stage where certain threats being solved for would wipe out humanity anyway, which is why my last suggestion is summarising the lessons of your data into stories and parables to be passed on from generation to generation :)

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