Digital Rosetta Stone memory could last a thousand years

The race for bigger and better memory continues apace, it seems. It was only a week or two ago that we caught wind of the work that scientists in Berkeley were doing with nanotubes and thousand-year-plus memory lifespans, and now it looks like a group of researchers in Japan have made some headway using an electron-beam direct-writing technique that utilizes semiconductor devices that can keep data intact for a thousand years, so long as humidity is kept at 2% or less. The prototype Digital Rosetta Stone, developed by Keio University, Kyoto University, and Sharp, has a storage capacity of 2.5TB and a max transmission speed of 150Mbps. Of course, there's no telling if or when this will become a reality, so if you want to ensure that your adolescent poetry lasts for the next thousand years, you'd better print out your MySpace blog and have it carved in granite.

[Via TechShout]

[Makavre @ Jun 23rd 2009 6:52PM]

I only wonder what language the data will be stored as ...



*too doomm tsssss*

[JS @ Jun 23rd 2009 7:31PM]

The english language won't change much over a thousand years. It will be hard to understand, but not impossible to comprehend .. it'll be like reading the writings of Chaucer. A bit weird but not totally alien.

Hmm, then again people have problems understanding the Us Constitution and that's only what .. 230 years old?

[CaptSaltyJack @ Jun 23rd 2009 7:37PM]

WHOOSH, the sound of a joke flying over JS's head. ;)

[granny down east @ Jun 23rd 2009 6:55PM]

So how realistic is 2% humidity or less? Will the machinery that keeps the humidity that low last for a thousand years?
...or, that's a lot of silica gel.

[justanotherperson @ Jun 23rd 2009 7:00PM]

seal it.

[Chris Anderson @ Jun 23rd 2009 7:04PM]

that's what she said.

[Newone @ Jun 23rd 2009 7:13PM]

They are going to seal them into glass, even the memorys cantacts and read them inductively. That leaves the readers contacts exposed which might become problematic. Sealing them into glass is pretty good protection, but with 1000 year lifespan even glass might leak a bit.

[Ristic @ Jun 23rd 2009 11:11PM]

Enclosures

[Dave @ Jun 23rd 2009 7:06PM]

How many times did I read 'apace' as 'space'? Too many to confirm my supposed literacy. Back on task, it seems that other technologies are more realistic in their suitability to be stored. 1000 years plus with that degree of accuracy in humidity would probably mean it was in a lab...under observation, which kind of takes the point out of long term storage.

[Newone @ Jun 23rd 2009 7:07PM]

This is first time I hear of a long term archive done with active electronic components. More tricky than the even more hardcore archive project:

http://blog.longnow.org/2008/08/20/very-long-term-backup/

predicted lifespan 2000 to 10 000 years. You need just a microscope to read it.

[Superstition @ Jun 23rd 2009 7:10PM]

Mmmmmm..... waffles....

[russlar @ Jun 23rd 2009 7:39PM]

thanks, now I'm hungry.

[Smokex365 @ Jun 23rd 2009 7:32PM]

realistically, if we're around in 1000 years you can bet any important data will be backed up and moved to new medium. anything over ~200 years is usless apart from time capsules, space probes/satellites

[Levi @ Jun 23rd 2009 7:38PM]

I've probably learned more with this program in the last few weeks than.... months.... of former classes.

...anybody?

[Wes @ Jun 23rd 2009 9:16PM]

Are you joking about that horribly cheap Language Learning software? It looks so much like it came from the 80s. I think it should have remained there. The visual-basics style interface is not nearly as nice as the colorful commercials make it seem :). It really should be called learn Windows 3.1 GUI to English to _language of choice_.

[paul34 @ Jun 24th 2009 12:14AM]

Wes, what version of Rosetta Stone are you using? I have the latest in several languages and the GUI is great, very polished and modern, as well as quite clean. Nothing like Windows 3.1 or whatever you are referring to.

[Dillon @ Jun 24th 2009 12:52AM]

Well, since we're on the topic of things that have the same name as this article, but are completely unrelated; here are my takes on the Rosetta Stone language learning software.

I honestly don't think it's really worth as much as it costs. The quality of the sound clips aren't very consistent (some, such as polish, being pretty bad). It also fails to teach you any grammar whatsoever, so you don't really understand what's being said - only the general idea. The vocabulary it also gives you is also somewhat narrow and doesn't go very far with anything useful beyond the very basics.

I guess it's a neat toy to play around with as an addition to actual learning from a class, but it definitely cannot be a substitute for a class as they make it out to be.

[Ed T @ Jun 23rd 2009 7:47PM]

Who cares? None of the stuff we "archive" now will last for even a couple of hundred years. The only known methods for storing information long term are stone tablets and large structures. Anything that requires special technologies for decoding and use in the future is doomed to fail.

[apple nerd without a cause @ Jun 23rd 2009 7:50PM]

King TUT

[AltairAntares @ Jun 23rd 2009 8:06PM]

And would we be able to read this in a thousand years? We have enough trouble reading data from computers that was 20 years ago...

[dsteve303 @ Jun 23rd 2009 8:33PM]

Cool. 1000 years from now people will see the peak of our time... TWO GIRLS ONE CUP!

[Amun @ Jun 23rd 2009 8:43PM]

A common misconception is that humidity is an absolute percentage, as if air were simply a pitcher that could be X% full -- this is incorrect since humidity is relative to temperature. 2% RH at 300K is much different from 2% RH at 1000K or 200K. So simply saying "so long as humidity is kept at 2% or less" is a bit ambiguous.

[pika2000 @ Jun 23rd 2009 9:18PM]

It seems that everybody claim their medium to last x number of years. Problem is, nobody can really proof it until the time is up.

[acme @ Jun 23rd 2009 10:31PM]

so, when did they find the time to test it...

[eattrn @ Jun 23rd 2009 10:59PM]

Neither my battery or myself will last that long. http://www.eattrn.com/

[paul34 @ Jun 24th 2009 12:15AM]

What does your personal site have to do with this?

[Excelsium @ Jun 23rd 2009 11:48PM]

Ooh this could be a good mechanism to store the contents of brains for re animation/archival purposes someday.

[gmastrx2689 @ Jun 24th 2009 12:01AM]

I wonder if our evolved cousins will enjoy our present-day porn. I mean, if our body changes would we still be attracted to our current physical appearance? ...Assuming we're still on Earth for the next billion year.

[paul34 @ Jun 24th 2009 12:15AM]

You've seen Roman porn, right?


Admit it... you'd hit it.

[AMiSH PiRATE @ Jun 24th 2009 5:08AM]

um... there's a slight difference between a thousand years and a billion years. Humans as a species aren't even close to a billion years old.

[Sirocco @ Jun 24th 2009 12:06AM]

Stop it!

[nichow @ Jun 24th 2009 1:01AM]

Hmm, the "Original" Rosetta Stone is about 2200 years old already and still works, although you can't get it to work in slot load dvd drives. Sometimes it's funny to me that our high-tech stuff doesn't last quite as long as the primitive chiseled rock...

[Kebab in Korea @ Jun 24th 2009 1:28AM]

Data lifespan is provided by proliferation.

[Garth Bock @ Jun 24th 2009 9:33AM]

Ok, so we have a device that can store information for a thousand years.......what would you put on it ?
Make sure it is useful for the Logans Run millennium and in a language that might still be around. Oh and maybe you might want to laser carve into a quartz crystal the instructions on how to build a player for it. One thing....which will get read first, your data or the record on the Voyagers......