First there were 5 and a quarter inch floppies...

[GrantSP]

Scientists have devised the next storage medium, and this one is going to take a lot to better it.

 

5D data storage that will last ~13.8 Billion years.

 

Just imagine all the Skyrim texture files that you can store on that puppy?

[MonoAccipiter]

Yet my mouth waters more at the thought of an old vinyl record. Guess I'm just an old soul in a young body (you and me, Matt Smith).

 

More seriously though, is it weird that this unsettles me ever so little?

Edited February 16, 2016 by MonoAccipiter

[Nebulous112]

Years in the future, when I finally achieve that sacred "perfect" mod list, I will have the satisfaction of knowing my Skyrim folder could outlive the dying of the sun. By about a billion years. LOL

 

This is fantastic. The exponential pace of technology advancement is simply phenomenal. I never thought I would see something like this, at least not for decades to come.

 

What unsettles me, MonoAccipiter, is the advances in AI, and on a lesser note, the advances in combat robotics. Maybe I have read too much Sci-Fi, but I think we need to take a minute and devise some serious safeguards before developing something we can't handle.

[MonoAccipiter]

I honestly can't see why a machine would want to hurt man more than he is hurting himself. Though I suppose there could be a vindictive element to consider. Nonetheless, most courses on artificial intelligence within these shores give considerable weight to the ethical aspects of the subject.

[Nebulous112]

The way I look at it, a conscious AI could possibly look at us the way we look at animals. We do not want to hurt animals, but we don't really care about them either. They are just insignificant. Personally, I like humans being the top creature on this planet. If the AI Singularity occurs, I worry we would soon no longer be at the top...

 

Anyway, back on the topic of the new glass storage medium...I hope they make some really good cases to store these in. Being that they are made of glass, I assume they will only last 13.8 billion years if someone doesn't drop them! Lol. ;-)

[MonoAccipiter]

I wonder how fast they are. Are they like SSDs if you have small lasers in your computer? 

 

I don't know about AI, really. I just think we'd destroy each other long before we'd allow any machine to do it. Might just be the post-humanist (not posthuman, that is a field entirely too complicated for me) in me speaking, but I see many a man willing to thread on his kin if it leads him where he wants.