1. Home
  2. ⚗ Material Sciences
  3. Question - Lifespan of digital media

Question - Lifespan of digital media

I have a question for physicists/material scientists: As we know, digital media eventually degrade until they're unreadable. Even the best won't last more than a hundred years in conventional storage conditions.

But what if we took the most inert and resilient media - say a gold plated glass-master DVD - and stored it on a satellite in a vacuum. Would this last indefinitely? After all, the temperature would be negligible, so even the most gradual of processes (such as the glass 'melting' and rolling into a ball) would take millions of years.

-
Reply to
Beacon of Truth and Light (maybe)
Loading thread data ...

You'd be better off welding it in a stainless-steel can and burying it in Egypt. Micrometeoroids are more of a problem than earthquakes.

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

Reply to
Phil Hobbs

Good question. Here's the patents on the technology used to preserve the works of L. Ron Hubbard:

Go here to look at them:

formatting link

6,659,272 System for storing and transporting discs and accessory materials

D462,561 Storage container for compact discs

D462,224 Case for storing and transporting compact discs and accessory materials

After placing them in a suitable storage site, cut a large symbol of some type into the ground to alert future travellers as to their location:

formatting link

Reply to
Mark Thorson

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.