4 ms·
The thing I love about the idea of storing data on paper is that we have lots of experience with paper, have a clear understanding of the failure modes, and kno
by jf 17y ago
The thing I love about the idea of storing data on paper is that we have lots of experience with paper, have a clear understanding of the failure modes, and know how to keep paper around for hundreds of years.
The frustrating thing is that even using high density barcodes, it still takes several banker boxes per gigabyte.
My current thinking surrounding long term data archives is to store data on a durable, high density medium and use paper to keep the instructions for how to decode the data on the high density storage.
- aristus 17y agoA modern laser-printed page has better archival characteristics than the Domesday book. Most paper is now acid-free. It's chemically stable cellulose that few creatures can eat. Laser toner is black plastic powder, heat-fused to the paper and thus waterproof and fadeproof. It's not fireproof but nothing short of stone or metal is anyway. And it's available in virtually unlimited quantities. If you wanted to preserve the most important terabyte or two of our civilization's legacy you could do worse than a cargo container full of Xeroxes.