Archiving Tweets for the Next Millenium

Imagine the enthusiasm surrounding the discovery of the Rosetta Stone at the twilight of the 18th century. Found near the Egyptian port city of Rashid by Napolean's army, the stone (along with other items plundered by the invading French army) eventually was claimed by the British. It was recognized as something special, but wasn't deciphered until 1814.

The stone allowed archaeologists read ancient languages that before hadn't been linked to known ones, helping them to understand cultures from more than 2,200 years ago.

Today, most people communicate via digital devices and store information on disks that lack the staying power of etched stone. As advanced as we think we are, will archaeologists 2,200 years from now have access to a similarly durable record of our existence? Japanese researchers think they've found the solution by storing data in a permanently sealed, wirelessly accessible data bank, according to a story by BBC News.

The team of researchers, led by Keio University professor Tadahiro Kuroda, "has proposed storing data on semiconductor memory-chips made of what he describes as the most stable material known — silicon." Typically stored on magnetic disks, silicon-stored data, Kuroda claims, would last into the future as if it were "set in stone."

Naturally, they've dubbed it "The Digital Rosetta Stone" after the famous chunk of rock. It's not ready for prime time just yet, and Kuroda believes the storage device should be completed inside 10 years, but, he notes, his team already has made progress in figuring out how to read and write more data on its device than is housed in all the British Library.

But what will future generations think when they crack open that musty silicon vault and find Tweets about American Idol or similar "advances" in human civilization? I guess it's fair to say that evolution works in mysterious ways.

Photo courtesy of Hans Hillewaert, via Wikimedia Commons.