Comment by Asraelite

Comment by Asraelite 10 days ago

The best one seems to be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5D_optical_data_storage but there's also M-DISC and DNA storage. Microfilm also lasts about 500 years.

As for ubiquitous access, store a reading device or instructions on how to build one along with the data. If you're unable to do that, then I doubt you would be able to keep a massive library of books around for very long either.

There's also no financial incentive to build technologies like this. If the world actually got together and tried to build long-term digital storage then I'm sure we could come up with something even better.

lxgr 10 days ago

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5D_optical_data_storage

An interesting technology, but also not exactly something I could get at my local Best Buy today.

M-DISC, assuming it's writable using consumer Blu-Ray writers, is promising though – Blu-Ray drives can probably still considered ubiquitous enough in a pinch.

> DNA storage

DNA is in fact extremely unstable unless it's part of living organisms that constantly error-correct and replicate it, and even then you have random mutations.

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GTP 10 days ago

AFAIK a library doesn't really require maintenance, unless there are extreme weather conditions, the books will survive for a long time on their own. It's only the ancient books that require a controlled environment, because they already lasted for centuries and we're trying to have them last for even more due to their historical value. So you would be able to keep libraries around for long in many (most?) scenarios. Instead, the devices you need to read those storage media require high-tech factories to be manufactured. Just having the instructions to build one will not suffice.

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Asraelite 10 days ago

How long? I don't think a library would last more than 100,000 years given natural disasters and plate tectonics etc. All you need to do is make a reading device that can last for a similar amount of time. And if the device itself wouldn't last that long then you could provide as much long-lasting equipment or material as possible to help build it.
The scenario you're describing is incredibly specific. It requires a post-apocalyptic world where humans have survived, but have somehow completely lost all ability to access past knowledge. Civilization must be advanced enough to access and read a library that has been shielded from the elements for millennia, but not advanced enough to build microscopes or lasers, even when given precise instructions on how to do so. It must be far enough into the future that any possible small high-tech reading device we could create is unlikely to have survived, but not so far into the future that a very large library structure is likely to have collapsed.

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- GTP 9 days ago
  
  > I don't think a library would last more than 100,000 years given natural disasters and plate tectonics etc.
  100000 years is a very long time. And in that time, you have good chances of reeboting civilization and reconstructing our current industrial world.
  > All you need to do is make a reading device that can last for a similar amount of time
  Easier said than done, and why would you need to do it, if libraries already solve the problem?
  BTW I think we're considering two different scenarios. Libraries are excellent at solving the scenario given here, i.e. the internet collapses tomorrow.
  
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