Microsoft's "Immortal Computing" Project

SeenOnSlash writes "Microsoft is working on a project they call 'immortal computing' which would let people store digital information in durable physical artifacts and other forms to be preserved and revealed to future generations, and maybe even to future civilizations. The artifacts would be designed to make the process of accessing the information clear with instructions in multiple languages or hieroglyphics. In one possible use, messages for descendants or interactive holograms might be stored on tombstones. The project was revealed when their patent application recently became public."

Makes no sense.

[FridayBob]

In 1000 years, people may try to read that data, but then they'll quickly loose interest when they realize it's in an ancient proprietary format that can only be interpreted with an application that hasn't existed for hundreds and hundreds of years. And who says technology will be more advanced in the far future than it is now, allowing people to read it regardless?

Long Term Data Retention

[Anonymous Coward]

Magneto-optical storage technology uses a Natural phenomenon that allows geophysicists to determine the direction of the Earth's weak magnetic field, millions of years ago. Is that kind of data storage long-term enough for you? The sad thing is, because ordinary hard drives have so much more capacity these days than MO disks, the makers of MO technology are considering shutting down the production lines. I don't like this at all, and hope to stock up on spare drives and disks before they are gone forever. My personal needs don't require terabytes of storage; gigabytes are sufficient for me. MO is perfect for this. And long-term access to that data, no bit-rot allowed, is what I need the most.