preview

The Static Storage Model

Decent Essays
Open Document

The following text considers the issues that arise from the static storage model. By looking at mechanisms of death which occur in cells and taking human memory as an example of labile storage, static memory is posited to be a problematic model. A link is traced between cellular death mechanisms and memory transmission (mutations), and the new developments in synthetic DNA storage. As the near future nature of truly embodied data stored in DNA is thought of within the static storage model, I use this text to sketch the implications of this anachronism, and hope to inspire thoughts on possible mutable memory models.
Static storage is understood here as a model, in the first instance, because it ranges across several disciplines as a framework. In literature, static storage is a model in which memory is not altered and representational. This notion has been challenged namely by Thomas Wägenbaur (1998) and Kyle Pivetti (2015), accounting for amongst other factors, recent neuroscientific memory research. In the sciences, neuroplasticity has replaced the notion of the immutable memory. Memory changes every time it is recalled, transmission between neurons is highly mutable (Nader et al. 2000). In computer science, static may refer to storage, variable allocation, or objects (to name but a few). …show more content…

Though some thought is being put into DNA contamination, complex implications or possibilities which could arise from synthetic DNA propagation are still unclear. Also, DNA is itself part of a cycle of life that involves duplication, mutation and suicide. What happens if we try to impose a static model upon a mutable format? Researchers at ETH have developed a sheath of silica glass to encapsulate stored DNA data, which could allegedly survive a million years (Grass et al. 2015). This literal example of impeded mutation begs the question, who does this contrived approach

Get Access