DNA storage :O

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
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Anyone here think that using DNA as a storage medium is a good idea?

Who knows for sure. It's cool to think of all the different paths they are beginning to go down. Much like the elderly view current tech as amazing and unbelievable, I'm sure they will have some amazing technology when we are all old. They'll probably have an "ancient technology" class where students will learn that early computers of the 21st century first used spinning hard drives that were soon replaced with SSD/NVMe drives. A student will then ask "How could they have been productive with those slow NVMe storage devices that could only hold 2 TB of data? I mean, even my toaster can hold 100 zettabytes of data". :)
 

Brado78

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Jan 26, 2015
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:), lol I would probably be very old or dead, with this DNA storage comes to light, but you're right, platters and nand can only hold so much, and servers are huge and getting bigger every year. Some form of new storage medium has to be invented. The class would wonder how the hell we survived with our primitive technology :p
 
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Rayniac

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Oct 23, 2016
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I'm skeptical of the read/write speeds you could achieve. Not worth the effort IMO. I don't think the data density is even that much better compared to modern flash memory.
 

Mike64

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Apr 22, 2011
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I'm skeptical of the read/write speeds you could achieve. Not worth the effort IMO. I don't think the data density is even that much better compared to modern flash memory.
Probably not worth it for the same purposes for which binary digital media are currently used except possibly for long-time archival purposes, if the data density those articles refer to really becomes practical, or maybe very large scale parallel processing where the speed of data transfer wouldn't be a serious bottleneck, but thinking in a very general "sci-fi"/conceptual way, it could certainly have potential for other purposes, especially when (I assume "when" rather than "if") we eventually develop organic "computing" technology/devices, either in cybernetic form or as standalone "devices" or indeed, life-forms... Again in broad concept, one can certainly at least imagine uses for self-sustaining/self-maintaining "data storage" that doesn't require mechanically or "artificial" chemically-produced power, for example (e.g., storage that can use ambient heat, light, or kinetic energy to produce electrical energy via biological processes rather than relying on batteries or generators as we currently know them... )
 
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Rayniac

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Oct 23, 2016
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Probably not worth it for the same purposes for which binary digital media are currently used (except possibly for long-time archival purposes, if the data density those articles refer to really becomes practical), but thinking in very general "sci-fi"/conceptual way, it could certainly have potential for other purposes, especially when (I assume "when" rather than "if") we eventually develop organic "computing" technology/devices, either in cybernetic form or as standalone "devices" or indeed, life-forms... Again in broad concept, one can certainly at least imagine uses for self-sustaining/self-maintaining "data storage" that doesn't require mechanically or "artificial" chemically-produced power, for example (e.g., an organism that can use ambient heat, light, or kinetic energy to produce electrical energy via biological processes rather than relying on batteries or generators as we currently know them... )
That's true. I didn't think of that.