Why is everybody worried about the future people knowing how to read the data? Barring some unprecedented catastrophe, we should still have detailed technical specs of today's formats in 50 years.
Just bury 250TB worth of SSD storage, along with a device that activates every year and copies from one 5TB block to the next. Any single SSD will only be in use for a year. If the drives can survive 49 years before their first use, it will work.
Storing the data in some ridiculous format is just going to discourage anyone from ever reading it. I'm sure the people of tomorrow have better things to do than OCR millions of sheets of paper just to see grandpa's porn collection.
How many digital devices that were created in 1960 are still running today? Most digital devices back then were created using vacuum tubes. How many vacuum tube makers still exist? The military was buying vacuum tubes from Checkoslovakia in the 80's to keep the SAGE early warning system running. ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi_Automatic_Ground_Environme... That's because there were no American manufacturers of vacuum tubes after the late 70's.
Sure, we still have the technical specifications for how to build it, but manufacturing the individual components would be a giant pain in the ass.
I suppose it depends on how much effort we assume will be expended reading this data. If humanity bands together and exploits every available technology, it should be a piece of cake. If it's just our grandkids doing it for kicks, that may present a real challenge.
Regardless, I think it's likely that we will be better at reading 2010 media in 2060 than we are at reading 1960 media in 2010.
I've read that, for some systems, they use microcontrollers and opamps to precisely emulate the original tube's current and temperature response characteristics.
Who says that in 50 years SSD storage won't be a ridiculous format? It might be just as hard to get data off an SSD as it would be to get data off an LP, or some other device.
Even so, it should be possible, especially if full documentation for the interface and filesystem used is included. There will probably still be a few computers around which still use SATA interfaces, even if it's only because of how old they are.
And currently, it's fairly easy to get data off of LPs, and they're actually somewhat popular for musical releases. There are devices which let you record LPs into computers, even. So perhaps not quite the best comparison.
(A minor nitpick: it being a SSD doesn't matter. The interface used to connect to it does. There is no difference in the hardware used to talk to a SSD or a HD, as long as they're both using a SATA connector. Note that I refer to the entire unit, what you get if you buy a HD or SSD, not to the actual internal systems that unit uses to access and store data. Those are obvious different, but the computer talking to it doesn't have to know about them.)
Just bury 250TB worth of SSD storage, along with a device that activates every year and copies from one 5TB block to the next. Any single SSD will only be in use for a year. If the drives can survive 49 years before their first use, it will work.
Storing the data in some ridiculous format is just going to discourage anyone from ever reading it. I'm sure the people of tomorrow have better things to do than OCR millions of sheets of paper just to see grandpa's porn collection.