Is this possible? (Storage) (Off-topic?)

From: John Rollins <rexstout_at_uswest.net>
Date: Fri Apr 10 13:36:36 1998

>Sorry, but this has been bugging me for quite some time. In Star Trek, they
>use "Isolinear" based memory circuts to store information in both the short
>and long term. So, from the looks of it, it's some kind of crystal, and can
>transmit it's data very quickly, and with no moving parts, so I'm guessing
>that it's similiar to today's RAM. Now, for the hard part: It can hold
>entire encyclopedia's in tiny amounts. In one episiode, they had nanites,
>little robot-bugs that could hold "gigabytes of information," and were
>microscopic. Furthermore, in some episodes, they find Chodak and T'Kon
>ruins, between 900,000 to 700,000 years old, with half or more of the data
>intact.
> Was crystaline storage ever attempted like this? Is it possible?
>Feasable?
A very interesting question, which being a Star Trek fan I have asked
myself several times. Just as a stupid guess, the technology for such
holographic memory probably exists right now, but it has either not been
developed yet, or it's sitting in a bunker at Area 51(or maybe IBM's labs?
Or does IBM own Area 51?!)... A while back I remember reading a little
blurb about IBM's blue lasers, and something about holographic memory,
along with a picture of a nice laser lab with some blue lights flying
around(lasers are MUCH more fun when it's foggy), but I don't know anything
after that. I suppose I should probably go searching for info... I don't
have my TNG Tech Manual around, so I can't give you what the storage
capacity is, but it is far past GB or TB... In fact, I'm sure they made up
the term... Wouldn't you agree that it would be tiring to say that it held
1,000,000,000,000,000,000TB everytime someone asked?
As for previous attempts, I haven't heard of any. Although there are
several theories flying around that some of the sci-fi people(Gene
Rodenberry being one example) had inside contacts, and that perhaps many
sci-fi TV shows/movies are to get the general public used to the idea of
ET's, in preperation for the fact that they ARE in fact here right now...
And that much of the stuff in these shows are based on fact(as buried as it
might be). Not to mention that Star Trek has been very close to reality as
far as physics... Among the first popular discussions about wormholes,
black holes and space travel...
Well, we can dream, can't we?

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Received on Fri Apr 10 1998 - 13:36:36 BST

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