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Human/machine readable memory

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Whilst doing nothing at all interesting, I thought of something that I can't categorise into a display or a memory storage.

A magnetic ferro-fluid, in a tray could act as both. It would store information in the form of where the surface particles are in three axis, by using electromagnets to contort the material.

Ideally it would be possible to have the entire volume of fluid readable but I can't think of a way of moving the individual particles magnetically without altering their polarity. So, surface only it is.

From the human point of view, it could also spell out words on the surface, like "Exterminate, exterminate" etc or possibly even be the answer to the eternally vexing problem of displaying braille cuneiform rapidly enough.

Nobel prize, in a plain brown cover please.

not_morrison_rm, Aug 16 2013

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       // braille cuneiform //   

       For that surreal image alone, your Nobel prize is assured.   

       In the meantime, have a bun.
8th of 7, Aug 16 2013
  

       //sentient custard.// Ever stuck your finger in a brain?
MaxwellBuchanan, Aug 16 2013
  

       //Next up: sentient custard.//   

       I bet you say that to all the girls.
Wrongfellow, Aug 16 2013
  

       I seem to have "won" something, as this idea was of such genius, that simply posting it seems to have crashed the HB server.   

       For my next trick...
not_morrison_rm, Aug 17 2013
  

       It's more likely that the halfbakery went down due to insignificance than significance ie. "we need to make room in the server room for the dehumidifier, unplug that server there's nothing important on it".
rcarty, Aug 17 2013
  

       Oddly enough, it went down just before I was going to post an NSA idea, I hadn't even started typing it, or even mentioned it aloud...
not_morrison_rm, Aug 17 2013
  

       That's simply Big Brother applying a general paranoia inducement. I myself had feelings of persecution stemming from the outage, naturally assuming it was something I had done, or was to prevent something I was about to do that caused it. However, I found an excellent cure for paranoia is to undertake a series of actions that actually lead oneself to be put under surveillance by state security intelligence services.
rcarty, Aug 17 2013
  

       Aha, redolent of the GCHQ points card system I have posted..   

       Although I'm currently more interested is finding a gas so dense it makes chipmunk's alarm call sound like an angry t-rex. God alone knows what influence this will have on evolution long term.
not_morrison_rm, Aug 17 2013
  

       God knows long term everything is dead, therefore I'm god?
rcarty, Aug 17 2013
  

       I dunno, I always thought God would be a bit...taller?   

       I have completely forgotten what I was going to type.   

       Aha, draggable annotations. So I hide all the ones denigrating my ideas to the bottom of the screen so I can't see them.
not_morrison_rm, Aug 17 2013
  

       Well of course I'm not god, I'm just following from your premises, which would make you god, if those deductions make me god, and you aren't god, are you?   

       Because it would really come in handy if one of us was god.
rcarty, Aug 17 2013
  

       I don't agree, it would be handy if I was god. I could retrospectively alter all the dictionaries so I could use all those crappy consonants I always end up with in scrabble.   

       You'd just do something like world peace or something,
not_morrison_rm, Aug 17 2013
  

       Oh there would be peace alright, a whole world of peace, but not for my detractors to enjoy.
rcarty, Aug 17 2013
  

       Ah, very much the Old Testament "Fire, Brimstone and Thuderbolts with a Side Order of Boils and Leeches" sort of god, rather than the New Testament "Peace, Light and Love for All" variety, are we correct ?
8th of 7, Aug 17 2013
  

       More in a scientology- mormon-esque sense where I would use large quantum dream vacuums to capture the consciousness' of the dead before they decay from a state of low entropy (on Earth in a living biological system) to high entropy destruction, saving them from a near eternity of waiting for everything that can possibly happen to happen again, and putting those consciousness' on a peaceful planet and into the bodies of animals that will evolve, but those of my aforementioned detractors will be placed on a hostile war games planet dangerously near a sun and isolated from all other livable planets where they will never find peace, and have vague hopes of reaching close by but kind of crappy uninhabitable planets.
rcarty, Aug 17 2013
  

       ^ been reading Asher ?
FlyingToaster, Aug 17 2013
  

       Gah, ain't read "Acephalous Dreams" in yonks.   

       //will be placed on a hostile war games planet dangerously near a sun and isolated from all other livable planets where they will never find peace, and have vague hopes of reaching close by but kind of crappy uninhabitable planets.   

       You can just say "Planet Earth" and save a few zeroes and ones.
not_morrison_rm, Aug 17 2013
  

       You're also aware that Asher is a book of old testament? That had me confused as I went to find out what you were alluding to in a search
rcarty, Aug 17 2013
  

       Surprisingly few mentions of of Csorians in the old testament. Hang on, are you talking about Esther, as I can't see a book called Asher.
not_morrison_rm, Aug 17 2013
  

       Yes, ether for the masses.
rcarty, Aug 19 2013
  

       Neil Asher's universe includes a race that put themselves into silicon and also into sub-intelligent beings. One of the representatives of an evil race was splatted into a brown dwarf where it spread around but couldn't leave.
FlyingToaster, Aug 19 2013
  

       Anyway, where my damn Nobel? Getting bored of sleeping on the front doormat.
not_morrison_rm, Aug 19 2013
  

       // in a plain brown cover please //   

       <riffles anxiously through post>   

       Yes, and where's our DVD of "Busty Beach Babes" "in a plain brown cover please" ? All we have here is a Nobel Prize ....
8th of 7, Aug 19 2013
  

       <pauses and has difficulties working out who came out best from that situation>
not_morrison_rm, Aug 19 2013
  

       Right, I've decided. Obviously it's easy for me to get yet another Nobel, but honesty is the best policy and all that,   

       If that Nobel comes back even slightly sticky, the deal is off.
not_morrison_rm, Aug 21 2013
  
      
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