The course material for a Rochester Institute of Technology teaching Semiconductor Process Engineering exists in three states. It is printed on paper with pigments and bound with plastics. It is stored electronically on a USB and hard drive. It is inscribed into nickel. The nickel format will outlive the other formats by millions of times and the data will survive as long as the elemental nickel which has no half life.
Preserved as it is intended to be recovered, an entire course work beginning with the history of transistors to the modern process of nano-lithography, is inscribed microscopically to easily be retrieved regardless of time. The course is human readable with the aid of optics and light.
One day our future may look back to the secrets that created the electronic computer age as we look back and marvel at how the ancients built the pyramids and other wonders that elude our logic. The NanoFiche will unlock the mysteries that proved to be pivotal in our humanity’s ascent.
A copy will go to the moon on the next Astrobotic Griffin-1 Mission.
Awesome