5D Storage Will Preserve Human History for Eternity
Researchers have just discovered a way to preserve data forever in 5D. What exactly does that mean and how does it work?
Eternal 5D Data Storage Could Record the History of Humankind (University of Southampton)
"Scientists at the University of Southampton have made a major step forward in the development of digital data storage that is capable of surviving for billions of years. Using nanostructured glass, scientists from the University's Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) have developed the recording and retrieval processes of five dimensional (5D) digital data by femtosecond laser writing."
How CDs Work (How Stuff Works)
"The incredibly small dimensions of the bumps make the spiral track on a CD extremely long. If you could lift the data track off a CD and stretch it out into a straight line, it would be 0.5 microns wide and almost 3.5 miles (5 km) long!"
Researchers Raid the Fifth Dimension for 'Eternal Data Storage' (Wired.com)
"Modern storage technologies- from magnetic tape to Blue-ray discs to hard disks - hold data for only so long. If you want your data to last for any lengthy period of time - meaning many decades - you'd better copy to a new place every few years or so."