> "But what about 200 years after the apocalypse? Or maybe just 1,000 years from now, no apocalypse needed?" -Thanks to flash memory cell charge leakage, I'd b

> "But what about 200 years after the apocalypse? Or maybe just 1,000 years from now, no apocalypse needed?" -Thanks to flash memory cell charge leakage, I'd be surprised if the micro-SD card or USB drive kept its data for more than 3-5 years. They're designed for low cost, not longevity. -The electrolytic caps will probably have dried out and failed by 50-100 years. -The plasticizers used will have evaporated away by a century, leaving any plastic or rubber components brittle and crumbly. -The lead free solders used in modern electronics are prone to the "tin whiskers" phenomenon. Not sure about the mitigations or timeframe for growth but a couple centuries is far, far longer than any reasonable design timeframe, making it a distinct possibility in my mind. -At 1000 years, I'd wonder about diffusion effects in chips wrecking the circuits. It would be interesting to do a calculation to see how long that would take for an unpowered chip at room temperature.