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.Every day, something like a hundred thousand new racks were filled with newly recorded spools.And every few days a huge new storage building or underground cavern had to be brought into commission, to house the next crop of spools.The space requirement for Records was now far and away the most important factor in City planning.The ever-multiplying spools steadily ate into the space allotted to the human population.Harben had seen, in his monitoring of life on the upper levels, the new flats being built to replace those which had been pulled down to make way for Records storage depots.The flats were smaller than ever before.They allowed each inhabitant only a fraction of the space considered to be the absolute human minimum only five years ago.Desperate little rat-holes they were.but necessarily so.The Records must have priority, that much was obvious to everyone.And the unpalatable reality had to be faced that things were going to get even worse in the future.So much was clear, to Harben if to no one else.He was in serious mood as he went on with the dictation of his monthly report to Headquarters.Phrases shaped themselves in his mind, words arranged themselves in order, and thoughtfully he spoke them into the slender microphone poised like an insect’s antenna below his chin.He became a little breathless and found it an effort to articulate clearly, after being alone and mute for so long:“The tape now being used is 0.1 micron wide and, with data accumulating at the present rate, storage-space requirements are increasing at the rate of 2 cubic kilometres per week.”That should give them something to chew on, Harben thought wryly.Two cubic kilometres per week was over a hundred cubic kilometres per year.But they didn’t need a computer to work that out.“With the additional stereo monitoring of supersonic frequencies, plus 3-D infrared surveillance, required under new Statute from the first of next month, it is estimated that storage requirements will increase by at least twenty cubic kilometres per year.”Good.Let Headquarters mull that over.It was obvious, really, even before they brought in the new channels.Place a colour TV camera and stereo sound mikes in every room in every building in the City.Place one in every doorway, at every junction, every few metres along every roadway and walkway at every level.Suspend cameras in mid-air.Watch everything, from every angle, record every movement of everybody, every instant.Capture every word spoken, casual or profound, trivial or tragic, gay or gruesome.Record at all moments the expression on everyone’s face.See what they are doing, and how, and with whom.All that is obviously going to call for a lot of recording tape, and a lot of space in which to store the completed tape, with its priceless irreplaceable record.Harben switched off the message-channel for a moment to ponder his next sentence.He liked to end his reports on a thoughtful note.Possibly even in a somewhat philosophical vein.It helped to round off what otherwise tended to be a rather forbidding mass of facts and figures.In a few minutes he had composed his thoughts, and began dictating again, but more slowly:“Paragraph.From time to time, in the past, there have been improvements in the packing density of information.It may be worth considering what further achievements are likely in this direction.“Improvements have almost invariably been made by reducing the cross-section of the recording tape.At present our standard recording tape is a filament which measures 0.1 micron wide by o-oo8 micron thick.This replaced, three years ago, the previous standard, which was more than double these dimensions.”Harben cleared his throat rather nervously.Now came the piece he’d long been brooding over.The punch-line of his report:“It may be interesting to speculate on the ultimate possible packing density of information.It is thought that the limit will be reached when we have a recording filament which is only one molecule in cross-section.In other words it will consist of a string of single molecules joined end to end.“It is clear that a physically viable tape could not be less than one molecule thick.Each bit of information would then be recorded by an individual molecule polarized in one direction or the other.”Harben rubbed his chin with satisfaction.Good, that.One molecule thick.Kind of a continuous whisker.Give them something to work on.However, it didn’t do to let Headquarters get too optimistic.One had to be careful, or some starry-eyed theorist would run away with the impression that the storage problem was licked.The next thing one knew, they would be adding extra channels to the monitoring spectrum.So perhaps he’d better end his report on a note of caution:“A hypothetical filament as slender as this, if it proved technically possible, would represent a considerable economy in cross-section, compared with the present filament.However the gain would be less than at first appears.“Since each bit of information would consist of a single molecule polarized in one direction or the other, information could be stored only in binary form.The present filament, on the other hand, permits recording in analogue form, with the result that in principle more information can be stored in a given length of tape.This difference in the form of the recording would offset to a considerable extent the gain resulting from reduced cross-section.”Harben switched off the message channel and chuckled.He felt he had the H.Q.people in a cleft stick.They were mostly non-technical.Loads of paper qualifications, of course, but no real grasp.He pictured them running to consult their own research boys about his report.A fat lot of good that would do them.His reasoning was sound, his conclusions were valid and there was no way round them.Now for the final sting in the tail of his report.A last twist of the knife.He switched on again.“It would thus appear that we are working close to the ultimate packing density for information, and any gain from thinner filaments would be quickly swallowed up by the absolute daily increase in information.Furthermore, much space would be required for converters to translate existing information to the new standard
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