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[NullPointer]

Soon we will be able to store the entire universe.

I've always had a sinking suspicion that all of our mountains and rocks and more are just a natural HDD format we don't know how to read.

Of course that could be all the acid talking.

And probably the shrooms.

Edit: RoyalFool gets it. *high five*

 

[RoyalFool]

It makes you wonder what information is already stored in plain sight on a microscopic scale. There is probably some boring old space rock in a museum somewhere that has an entire galaxies wikipedia on it.

 

[kabel]

I've always had a sinking suspicion that all of our mountains and rocks and more are just a natural HDD format we don't know how to read.

They kind of are. We just don't really know the file format

 

[Moosichu]

whats up with all these quark puns

back down with that shit

At least there haven't been any strange quark jokes. Sadly they have lacked charm though

 

[gaugebozo]

Ok so there's no way we're getting any smaller than this right

Photons!

chilly 5 kelvin (-450°F)

Going to need liquid helium cooling for the next gaming PC.

 

[IndoAssassin]

So it took over 200 years for us to got from the first atomic theory to now storing data onto a single atom. How long until we start storing data on subatomic particles?

 

[sans_pants]

I think it was kurzweil(of course) that talked a bit about this, ie once we can turn atoms into computers we basically turn the earth into a massive computer then the solar system then beyond.


I'm sure we won't make it that far as a society but it would be pretty dang cool

 

[oreomunsta]

Is this better, or at least more practical than storing data in DNA?

Waaayyy more spacially efficient. DNA bases need a lot of atoms

 

[Log4Girlz]

Can't wait for my first atomic hard drive.

It'll be a small improvement

 

[Ray Wonder]

That kept getting delayed and I don't think it ever came out. Doesn't keep scammers from "selling" it for $20-50.

Yeah, I didn't link the site because I suspected something might be up with that.

 

[FuuRe]

I'm positive this discovery will be radical

Spoiler

where are mah puns!

 

[oreomunsta]

Jesus, though, how much holmium can there be on Earth? That, and the low temperature requirements are going to put limits on this for a few decades, if this is the way of the future

 

[Elfotografoalocado]

With this requiring 5 degrees Kelvin to be stable I don't see it being deployed on phones...

 

[kabel]

With this requiring 5 degrees Kelvin to be stable I don't see it being deployed on phones...

"...introducing the new LN2 iCool technology..."


I would not want to touch that smartphone.

 

[akira28]

Still waiting for Planck storage.

I'll stop there, thanks.

 

[oreomunsta]

With this requiring 5 degrees Kelvin to be stable I don't see it being deployed on phones...

We all get to wear liquid helium backpacks to keep the tech portable!

 

[Funyarinpa]

Holy shit. Nice

 

[phisheep]

Hey. I just worked out how to store data on half an atom (on average). Just read presence of atom as "1" and absence of atom as "0".

Suck on that, IBM.

 

[Armoured Priest]

Storing bits on one atom in an isolated environment is going to be a lot different than storing bits on billions of tightly packed together that are moving around and crashing into each other.

Still, gotta start somewhere.

All about the them time crystals to keep the atoms from crashing into each other:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1350961&highlight=time+crystal

 

[WhateverItTakes]

Is this better, or at least more practical than storing data in DNA?

A single nucleotide takes uses around 25 atoms from a quick count. Three of those code for 1 amino acid (the combo of three being a codon), or as a stop function, so that's 75 atoms for one function. I don't know enough about binary to know if we can engineer that same mechanism out of 1s and 0s but as another poster said, way more spatially efficient, especially if this Holmium is arranged more like a metal than an organic change.

With 25 atoms of Holmium that offers over 30 million (2^25) combinations, which covers way more than the twenty amino acids in our genetic code. So yeah even like 6 atoms could be engineered to be read like all the codons necessary for human DNA and then some.

Still all academic until you can A) put these atoms together and B) write/rewrite the information as easily as a typical harddrive. Though if that's too tecchy it could still make for an excellent one use only Store everything drive.

Also for fun just crunched the numbers, treating this as a traditional hard drive, and assuming pure Holonium, 1 gram of the stuff gives you 3.65e+21 bits. That's in the zettabit range, which is way more than I can really comprehend.

 

[Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!]

When can I get my nanomachines installed?

 

[Undefined]

good news for me cause i have a micropenis

 

[Calabi]

But what's the read and write speed.

 

[andthebeatgoeson]

Had to Google holmium. Wasn't sure it was real.

 

[Falchion]

Science is wild.

 

[stuminus3]

Most of the article honestly seems to just be "crafting a story" around a rather straightforward matter.

I see what you did there. I laughed.

 

[UrokeJoe]

That shit baffles me

Yeah it's way beyond me. Freaking crazy coming from the past...

 

[RangerX]

The third paragraph hurt my brain. This sounds like it could have amazing potential in the future.

 

[Easy_D]

Is this better, or at least more practical than storing data in DNA?

I mean, at the end of the day, DNA is made up of atoms

Hey. I just worked out how to store data on half an atom (on average). Just read presence of atom as "1" and absence of atom as "0".

Suck on that, IBM.

Wouldn't that require twice as much space with half the storage capacity?

 

[Kojirospath]

Protons and Neutrons have spin...,)

So does this article

 

[Piggus]

Can it run Crysis?

Did some really rough math and if you could store info on atoms in silicon dioxide (sand, basically), you could fit the entire game on a space 1/500,000,000th the size of a typical grain of sand.

 

[sphinx]

I think the real question here is,

how many gamecubes duct-taped together fit in a single atom?

 

[thespot84]

RIP holmium

Our estimated data production is 44 zettabytes (44x10^21 bytes, or 3.5x10^23 bits) per year by 2020.

A holmium atom, the bits, weighs ~ 2.7x10^-22 grams. That means our annual storage production would need ~100 grams of holmium a year, which costs about $100. (there are 400,000 tons in reserve according to wikipedia)

 

[YaBish]

Our estimated data production is 44 zettabytes (44x10^21 bytes, or 3.5x10^23 bits) per year by 2020.

A holmium atom, the bits, weighs ~ 2.7x10^-22 grams. That means our annual storage production would need ~100 grams of holmium a year, which costs about $100. (there are 400,000 tons in reserve according to wikipedia)

The more you think about this, the more it makes you wonder about where this tech is headed in the future if we can replicate this in a less stable scenario.

 

[falconxcrunner09]

Can it run Crysis?

A better question is how long until it runs Doom

 

[archangelmorph]

Surely any kind of commoditization of this tech would require like... at least a modicum of consideration around how they're going to solve the whole "5 Kelvin" requirement...?

 

[FyreWulff]

I've always had a sinking suspicion that all of our mountains and rocks and more are just a natural HDD format we don't know how to read.

Of course that could be all the acid talking.

And probably the shrooms.

Edit: RoyalFool gets it. *high five*

It makes you wonder what information is already stored in plain sight on a microscopic scale. There is probably some boring old space rock in a museum somewhere that has an entire galaxies wikipedia on it.

Well, if you think about it, data is recorded into rocks, etc. Just in a different format.

We can see a record of periods in Earth's athmosphere over time, for example. But only humans have found a reason to even 'read' it.

 

[Gaardus]

That shit baffles me

Spoiler

That's a counterfeit microSD card.