Fictional physical formats

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File Format
Name Fictional physical formats
Ontology

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These physical data formats actually do not exist, but this is just for fun and reference. These include formats from movies, games, tv, sci-fi, etc.

See also Fictional file formats for electronic fictional formats, as well as the "fictional" constructed languages in Spoken Languages.

List

Format Name Description Reference Author Publish Date
Book-Film (fictional) A storage medium for books[1] Prelude to Foundation Isaac Asimov 1988
Data Card (fictional) The data card was a computer storage medium used by various races and governments between the 21st through 23rd centuries. Data cards were later replaced by isolinear chips and isolinear rods. Star Trek: TOS "Where No Man Has Gone Before"
Data Module (fictional) A data module was a storage medium used by Skagarans during the late 19th century and by Starfleet in the 22nd century. To an extent, it was the predecessor to the microtape. Skagaran data modules contained data chips that looked extremely similar to crystals. Star Trek: Enterprise "North Star"
Data Record (fictional) The Data record was a Klingon computer storage medium used in the 22nd century. It is thicker than the Federation Data card. Star Trek: TOS Novelization: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock ~1984
Datawell (fictional) The Pathfinders' term for the "real world". Living in an environment of thought and computer data, many of the Pathfinder machine consciousnesses had a hard time conceiving of it and thought of it only as a source for data and other information. Star Trek: TOS Novel Memory Prime Gar and Judith Reeves-Stevens 1988
Dime Disk (fictional) A very small data storage medium. The Best of all Possible Wars Larry Niven 1998
Filing Crystal (fictional) "... a twelve-foot filing crystal glowed like pin quartz." Babel-17 Samuel R. Delany 1966
Filmbook (fictional) A storage medium for information, both text and video. Any shigawire imprint used in training and carrying a mnemonic pulse. Dune Frank Herbert 1965
Heritable Memories Bloodline (fictional) Using magical means to tie specific memories to the bloodlines of selected families The Time of the Dark Barbara Hambly 1982
History Tape (fictional) A history tape was a data-storage technology designed to hold computer files of visual, audio and text recordings about history. These tapes took the form of thin cylindrical discs which could be inserted for reading into a viewer. Star Trek: TOS "All Our Yesterdays"
Isolinear Optical Storage Chips (fictional) Enterprise-D has three main computer cores, two in the saucer and one in the stardrive section. Each core has "2,048 dedicated modules of 144 isolinear optical storage chips". Star Trek: TNG Technical Manual
Isolinear Rod (fictional) An isolinear rod was a type of information storage technology used by the Cardassian Union. Star Trek: DS9
Memory Diamond (fictional) "The box had contained a gemstone the size of his thumb, sitting atop a ... block studded with optical ports - the reader/writer head. It was memory diamond, atoms arranged in a lattice of alternating carbon 12 and carbon 13 nuclei; the preferred data storage format for thee unborn god's chosen few. Dense and durable, twelve grams was enough to store a thousand neural maps and their associated genome data." Iron Sunrise Charles Stross 2004
Merc-Pool (fictional) A device that stores information in vibration patterns on a mercury surface Caves of Steel Isaac Asimov 1953
Microwire (fictional) A very thin wire used for recording purposes Between Planets Robert Heinlein 1951
Molecule Matrix (fictional) Storing information in individual molecules and atoms Between Planets Robert Heinlein 1951
Optolythic Data Rod (fictional) An optolythic data rod is a device used to store information. Star Trek: DSP "In The Pale Moonlight" Author Year
Pensieve Memory (fictional) a saved memory in the Harry Potter series, playable on a device called a "pensieve" Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire J. K. Rowling 2000
Platinum Alloy Disc (fictional) A silvery disc used for data record storage Triplanetary E.E. 'Doc' Smith 1934
Superman Memory Crystal (fictional) found in his Fortress of Solitude, and can speak to him in the image of his deceased Kryptonian parents. Superman (movie) [2] Richard Donner 1978
Schrön Loop (fictional) A data storage device, capable of storing all of the information in a planetary datasphere in just a very small (cubic inch) space Hyperion Dan Simmons 1989
Synapsis-Coils (fictional) Human-like storage for computers Last of the Masters Philip K. Dick 1954
Tanks (fictional) Device that provides mass storage of information A Logic Named Joe Murray Leinster 1946
Tri-Type Record (fictional) A printed card that stores information about a person, including a perfect three-dimensional representation. The Houses of Iszm Jack Vance 1954
Welton Fine-Grain Memory Cube (fictional) High-density storage device Time Enough For Love Robert Heinlein 1973

Notes and References

  1. The idea that books might be stored on a medium such as film or tape rather than paper is a recurring trope in old-time science fiction.
  2. While the Fortress of Solitude with its multiplicity of artifacts and gadgets, some of them Kryptonian, has a long history in Superman comics (he was shown to have a mountainside fortress in the 1940s, and the Arctic fortress with a huge key only Superman could lift showed up in the 1950s), the crystal aesthetic originated with Donner's 1978 film, and has subsequently been used in many film, TV, and comic book versions of Superman.
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