I think this will be quite helpful in developing a true positronic brain...as if people were worried about that, but maybe these guys in the video are!

I don't think I want genetically engineered recordings (DNA strands) implanted in my body...think of the weird new diseases you could conjur by implanting that "stuff".

Funny thing is that when they implanted this DNA into stem cells the resultant child looked like Carl Sagan...weird.

Yes, but think of the advantages! [Carl Sagan look-alike waiting on the platform, glassy-eyed]: "Are you okay?" "Shaddup, I'm watching 'The Matrix' reruns!" :-)))

"DNA can survive for hundreds of thousands of years in a box in your garage."

Surely they don't mean that same box where I'm already storing my lp's, eight tracks, cassettes, floppies and CD's....!

Of course that's a joke. The best package for DNA storage is a plasmid, naturally. Just leave it on the kitchen counter, get millions of copies made for free!!!

"DNA can survive for hundreds of thousands of years in a box in your garage."

Yeah, but you will never find it when you need it!

Pif. The box for the DNA is not even big enough to stick a label on.

What's a 'label' lol

Would that be what my grandpa tried to do to plastic bags with a dry erase marker he kept stuff in in his shop?

You never know when you may need to reuse and thus re label a plastic bag. Its not like they are easy to come by you know.

The other option was labeling cardboard boxes with chalk.

Surely they don't mean that same box where I'm already storing my lp's, eight tracks, cassettes, floppies and CD's....!

Yes, the very same box, you better check to see if its still there, I think your wife dropped it off at Good Will.

The math does not matter. As neither input, nor output of the supposedly stored info is even considered. Worse, the existence and meaning in biological sense is not even considered. It is at best an alcohol filled frat night's spillover.

Interesting idea which at least helps illustrate the amount of info which can be encoded at the molecular level. As I see it, long term storage is still a problem. A gram of DNA may be stable, but a cockroach or bacteria would still want to consume it. The difficulty of accessing the data makes it attractive for security purposes, and it can quickly be totally destroyed with a little sulfuric acid.

Oooo, real software bugs, yuck!

Sort of puts a new twist on "The dog ate it!", doesn't it?

For small size and long-lasting data storage, it would really be optimal for space travel or exploration... except what about ionizing radiation effects? Your data would be subject to mutations...

That's true of any media. One really strong cosmic ray will trash a hard drive if it strikes the directory tracks. Semiconductor memory? Forget it. Ionizing radiation will wipe even the most hardened ROM. To protect any memory device (including this one) long-term from the space environment, best to encase the thing in depleted uranium after first wrapping it in lead (to protect it from the DU's own mild radioactivity).

Well at least it'll be easier to find the ol lead DU box in the garage..