Microsoft’s Project Silica can store data on glass disks with potential lifespan of thousands of year

According to the latest report, music albums can now be preserved for a long time for future generations of human (or aliens) entertainment. Long-term data storage experiments are being carried out by Microsoft Project Silica in collaboration with the Norwegian government.

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Known as a global music library, the idea is to preserve our culture for the future, in case the end of the world comes or humanity loses its memory. Ordinary CDs or flash drives full of MP3s are no longer sufficient for this lofty goal. Instead, it needs to use storage that won’t degrade for hundreds or even thousands of years. Microsoft’s Project Silica can keep data on glass disks with a possible lifespan of thousands of years.

The Global Music Bank is a parallel project to the Global Seed Bank, which protects the seeds of today’s trees and plants in case they are needed, in case agriculture can be rebuilt, etc. The vault is located on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen within the Arctic Circle. It lacks tectonic activity and is permanently frozen, enough to keep it dry even as the polar ice caps melt.

Even in the worst-case scenario, there will be no thaw for at least 200 years. For safety, the main vault is built into a 120m sandstone mountain, and its security system is said to be strong. As of June 2021, the seed bank holds 1,081,026 different crop samples.

The music will be stored in a dedicated library on the same mountain used by the seed bank. The glass used is an inert material in the shape of a platter 75 mm (3 in) wide and 2 mm (less than 1/8 in) thick. Lasers encode data in glass by creating three-dimensional nanoscale gratings and deformable layers.

Machine learning algorithms read the data by decoding the images and patterns created by polarized light passing through the glass. Quartz glass discs are fully resistant to electromagnetic pulses and the most challenging environmental conditions. It can be baked, boiled, washed, and soaked without damaging the data written on the glass. Tests are underway to preserve music that can be assumed to last for thousands of years.

How the music library is retained is determined, but the form of the content in it also matters. Global Music Libraries, therefore, launched the ARV project, which aims to collect musical expressions from around the world to celebrate and preserve.

(via)