[littlelion33]

In the sci-fi"the voice of steel",there is a word"datacrystals",what is it ?thanks.this time,I must give 'a little more information'.:p
Here is two passages of it:

"Our missionary zeal has taken us two hundred light years into space. So far we have encountered sixteen species of reasonably intelligent apes on four worlds. We have established missions to educate them, and begun to convert them to the word of the gospel. We have also conquered two more sentient species whose ancestors were writing books on philosophy while ours were learning to make Earth's first spears. You must know all, this however."

"Yes, Lordship. Our inquisitors are currently on their worlds, destroying alien temples and religious datacrystals, and burning heretics. We also bombed another world down to the bedrock when they defied our missionaries. I wrote a tract against it—but you probably know all that."

[psikeyhackr]

Holographic data storage is something that has been worked on for years. Apparently the theory indicates great potential. Very high density and very high speed with very little mechanical involvement. So we would end up with data stored in crystals.

There have been sci-fi shows where people have taken clear crystals and stuck them into holes in a device and acted as though they were reading information from it. A 1000 terabyte thumbdrive only clear. No electrical connections required.

Just keep your Windex handy to keep from smudging the index.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_memory

That story just sounds like a repeat of European conquests from the 16th and 17th centuries with space ships replacing sailing ships. Not too original.

psik