Professor Peter G. Kazansky is a physicist leading a group at the Optoelectronics Research Centre at the University of Southampton to develop a data storage technology called the 5D Memory Crystal. It is a long-term data storage technology that will long outlive the human race and potentially the whole universe.

 

He is currently collaborating with Arch Mission Foundation and SpaceX to preserve all of the world’s data on Earth, in orbit around the sun, on The Moon, on Mars and beyond. He is also collaborating with artists to create the first pieces of eternal art and has been in partnership with Memory of Mankind to develop ways to store video & audio on the 5D Memory Crystal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peter spoke with me in March 2018 to discuss the form and function of his pioneering and complex new storage technology the 5D Memory Crystal. We discussed a wide range of complex and fascinating subjects including lasers that can transform matter, the development of the fundamental phenomena that defines the storage capabilities of the 5d Memory Crystal, the incredible lifetime of the technology, what was stored on the memory crystal, the read/write technicalities, collaborating with Arch Mission Foundation and SpaceX, the future of the technology and collaborations with artists to create the first pieces of eternal art, a surprising discovery of an application of the technology, and finally the strange serendipitous reasons behind the name of Serendipity Photonics involving a Barbara Hepworth sculpture and theories on our possible futures now changed by the fact of the conversation itself! Also please excuse the fact that I keep referring to the 5D Memory Crystal as the 5D Storage Crystal, sorry Peter.

 

This is an abridged version of our full conversation, a number of other subjects were also discussed that feature in the film.