I agree with you here. There is a crying need for ENORMOUS size record storehouses that will archive the scientific data that we are gathering daily right now. Terabytes of photos and data from the Hubble Telescope and other space observations really ought to be archived forever, so we are able to more closely examine historical records of specific stars or galaxies or sections of the sky when something is noticed (supernova, comets, etc.). All the “basic science” data such as terabytes of data the world’s particle accelerators create daily should similarly be archived be available for continuing access. Weather/climate data are similarly voluminous, however in that case the value is much lower due to the measurement uncertainties. Of course, we would love to maintain such things as the classics of literature, motion pictures, etc., but that is small potatoes in the data industry compared to the importance of maintaining the other records I mentioned.
If this technology proves to be realizable and truly as permanent as it now seems, it would be a godsend to these and many other scientific endeavors. I would guess that such a capability would be worth over ten times the cost of current data retention techniques.
Nice to see your comments AFPhys. Haven’t seen you around much of late.
Yes, the permanent nature of this type of large storage would be a real Godsend.
Do you ever ponder the storage of all this data on an archival device though, and what it might be like if it were found in say 3,000 years?
English might not be known at that point in time. Things like the electrical supply, the language, the fundamental understanding of the computer, the data itself, it might be tough for them to fully access and understand what they had in their hands.
You’d probably need to leave a Rosetta stone type of decoder, or perhaps even an English primer, and then directions.
It certainly wouldn’t be as easy as just saving the data and hoping someone could access it later. There would have to be a fairly sophisticated plan to make sure access was possible at that point.