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Microsoft develops ultra durable glass plates that can store several TBs of data for 10000 years
(unlocked.microsoft.com)
this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2023
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MS: it can last for 10000 years!
Me: have you tested that
MS: well no b-
Me: your company is not even 50 years old
MS: but we ran the simulations
Me: ...
I really hate this like 'in my imaginary world, where everything is perfect and not as much as an atom of dirt comes into contact with the product, and therefore nobody uses the product while it is sealed in a vacuum chamber, then hypothetically it will still be good in a billion years. MTBF = infinity. ship it.'
You make a good point, and it's funny.
But we can make estimates for the endurance of various materials from today. And we know the limitations of most of our media is quite short. So having something that's predicted to last a while is still a good thing, even if we don't have empirical evidence yet.
Ignoring physical damage, by being crushed or said on fire. We know that some materials are not inherently stable. Like they haven't reached their final molecular state. Especially in the presence of oxygen or other catalysts.
Papers a great example, a lot of paper, and a lot of ink used on paper can be acidic degrading the paper over time. So we know that what's printed today, the vast majority of it, is not going to last very long. Just because of the acid ignoring all the other issues with paper and rot etc.
So if they have some stable glass material that can encode data, and is in molecular steady state, so it doesn't want to degrade on its own. That changes the problem from how do you prevent this material from reacting to its own environment, to how do you prevent this material from being manually destroyed. It's a different problem, but it's an easier problem
Very good explanation. Thanks for that.
Also, with any storage system, it's not "store it and forget it". With something like this you'd store, then do testing in determined intervals, to ensure it's still retrievable.
You'd also do replication and duplication. I.e. replicate the data on disparate and different media, with each location performing duplication onto new media as part of the ongoing testing/validation process, eventually leading to longer and longer intervals for testing/duplication.
I don't want to detract from your point, but I'm picturing Jaskier's new skill being lyrical literalization in which he can said Geralt on fire just with the line "burn, witcher, burn"
Well said
I get where you're coming from, but I also think it's fair to say archaeologists have at least some insight into what happens to glass over long periods of time. Hopefully Microsoft has consulted with them.
Bruh, it’s quartz glass. Tf you think is going to happen to it?
I dunno, I'm not 10,000 years old. I'llet you know.
Just some real world experience:
Many, but not all books made of paper have survived the last world war. I'm not so sure about all the glass plates.