| abstract | - FROM: Samina Ebadji TO: Elisabet Sobeck SUBJECT: Encapsulated DNA And the winner is: Encapsulated DNA. Over the past 10 days I performed an exhaustive review of data storage solutions. Magnetic. Optical. Quantum. Even that Eternity tech that FAS was shilling a year or so ago. But every other solution has one or more fatal shortcomings: too heavy to transport, too massive to install in the allotted space, too power-intensive over the centuries, too prone to failure past 300-400 years, et cetera. Encapsulated DNA will easily hold the 40+ zettabytes we're projecting for APOLLO. There are still many details to finalize, or course. To start with, we need to select the inert material in which we'll embed the molecules (already testing 16 candidate materials), as well as design and fabricate the power systems and sealed reliquaries that will keep the DNA at -18 degrees C for 1000+ years. So long as I assure you that it didn't factor in to my decision, may I confess that I deem it entirely fitting - indeed, propitious - that we will be using the very building blocks of life to preserve human knowledge from mechanized extinction? It's not just ironic, but heroic - Life as the hero, beating back the forces of oblivion. In any case - much to do. Until next time - Peace be with you, Samina
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