15. Data Storage
Data storage technology is striving for larger and larger capacities. I remember my first disk drive was capable of holding a whopping 88K of information, a mere drop in the bucket compared to today's Terabyte+ drives. With the advent of big data the need for larger storage capability has expanded exponentially. But at some point there's a bottleneck as to how much data your drives can hold. The first, and only, use of storing mass data in the screwdriver was in Silence of the Library/Forest of the Dead when the Doctor rigged River's screwdriver to store her entire consciousness, in itself, a fairly large chunk of storage. Considering that the library computer, Cal, was the size of a planet, stuffing River's consciousness into that screwdriver was quite a feat. The estimate of data in the human brain is 2.5 Petabytes of binary data that's a lot of storage considering the size difference between a brain and that chip in River's screwdriver. Acoustic Assisted Recording studies how to increase storage capacity using sound to increase magnetic storage. The sound waves warp the recording material in essence, this creates more space and allows more information to be stored on the surface. Once the sound is turned off the material regains its normal shape. To retrieve the information the exact frequency must be applied once more. As mentioned, the chip inside the screwdriver was considerably smaller than a human brain, which means the amount of compression had to be astronomical.