A closer look
Deoxyribonucleic acid is so unbelievably efficient at storing complex information that you could theoretically fit every single byte of data currently existing on the modern internet into a single shoebox filled with synthetic DNA. By assigning digital ones and zeros to the four chemical bases of adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine, geneticists have already successfully encoded entire books, high-definition movies, and operating systems into microscopic biological sequences. Unlike fragile magnetic hard drives or degrading optical discs, DNA can remain perfectly stable and readable for thousands of years if kept in a cool, dark environment. So eventually, future civilizations might excavate our ruined world, sequence a tiny vial of synthetic genetic goo, and tragically discover that human history culminated in three petabytes of cat videos and terribly formatted spreadsheet attachments
