Back in the days, having a floppy disk with 5MB
of capacity was a major achievement. The same happened with a Zip Drive.
Everything seemed possible with it. Nowadays, the same happens if we have a USB
drive or an external disk. The capacities go from 1GB up until 3TB. We can have
everything we want in this tiny little piece of equipment. There is also
storage in cloud (Google Drive, One Drive…) that we don’t even need any
equipment. Technology has been growing with no precedents and the future will,
for sure, bring some other huge developments in this area.
Vanessar Bush in “As We May Think” look forward in time. Trying to show people that
science can help human race to grow in wisdom, but also that technology had the
power to come up with new machines that reject the idea that “complexity was
synonymous with unreliability”. Among several
options, Bush came up with the ideal machine called “Memex”. “A device in which an individual can store all
the books, records, information, and communications, and which is mechanized so
that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility.”
This machine would be the climax of all technology that was available that
time. It would phase out all the existent problems.
While
the “Memex” was the climax of storing and recovering data during that time (the
20century), for us the climax is still place somewhere in the future. But it is
becoming closer. Several new ways are emerging:
- Western Digital came up with a futuristic and revolutionary way of storing data. It's called Helium Drives. Using helium instead of air has a lot of advantages:
- The drives use less power to run the disks;
- They run cooler;
- They can even pack in more disks.
Plus, we
also have some other new way of storage that might surprise those who hear it
for the first time. It’s called DNA. That’s right. DNA will be in a way of
storage information. Surprised? Yes, the so famous molecule that stores biological
information, will have the capacity to stock other kinds of data. In 2012,
Harvard University concealed DNA with digital information. Storing 53,400-word
book, 11 JPEG images and one JavaScript program this was one of the first
experiments in this area. Even more surprised we become knowing that a little
DNA hard (about the size of a teaspoon) offers a 2.2 petabytes storage capacity
(which means 2 200 000 gigabytes). 2.2 petabytes are enough to stock
all the world’s data. Besides, and in comparison, with some other flash drive,
DNA storage could last 400,000 years without getting broken. However, this storage
method has two major problems: His cost and his reading speed. For instance, the
cost to backup 83kb is around $1,500 US Dollars.
A
lot has changed since “Memex” and his time. Technology and science have grown
side by side and helped us came up with a lot of new discoveries. These new
discoveries are now fulfilling all our wishes and needs. However, times are
already changing and we are becoming even more demanding. And with new
demanding comes new discoveries. We live in this vicious cycle without even knowing.
And to be honest, we really don’t care. In a few years, we would look back and
ask ourselves: “How could we be able to live with a 12GB flash drive?”. And
with all this, there’s one main question: “What will come next?”
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