How to preserve electronics (computers, iPads and phones) for hundreds of yearsHow long could we preserve technology post-apocalypse?How might modern humans leave a message for 50,000 years?What planetary conditions would make computer and complex electronics useless, or at least difficult to maintain?How do we make computers care for human life?How could a society with computers still use animals for physically demanding activities?What are the feasible means of keeping a space station existing and operational for thousands of years?What body armor protects against a laser?Could a society attain 1800s technology if limited to using copper and bronze?Scavenging metal resources in post-apocalypse after 100 yearsWhy would precursors create devices that can survive and still work after hundreds of years?How must computers/telecommunication deviate from reality for a retrofuturistic setting?

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How to preserve electronics (computers, iPads and phones) for hundreds of years

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How to preserve electronics (computers, iPads and phones) for hundreds of years


How long could we preserve technology post-apocalypse?How might modern humans leave a message for 50,000 years?What planetary conditions would make computer and complex electronics useless, or at least difficult to maintain?How do we make computers care for human life?How could a society with computers still use animals for physically demanding activities?What are the feasible means of keeping a space station existing and operational for thousands of years?What body armor protects against a laser?Could a society attain 1800s technology if limited to using copper and bronze?Scavenging metal resources in post-apocalypse after 100 yearsWhy would precursors create devices that can survive and still work after hundreds of years?How must computers/telecommunication deviate from reality for a retrofuturistic setting?













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Let's say you wanted to preserve some electronics for 500 years or more in a museum. What could you do to preserve them in working order for hundreds of years? Deep freeze? Lead lined vaults? Vacuum? I've seen questions about how long electronics would last left unattended, but not how to proactively protect them for 500 years.



Let's say this is a fully functioning world, not a post-apocalyptic world. Think of a museum in the future.










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  • 1




    $begingroup$
    Possible duplicate of How long could we preserve technology post-apocalypse?
    $endgroup$
    – JBH
    yesterday






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    I read that question and nobody gave an answer that satisfies my answer. The answer that was selected didn't provide specific technologies to preserve electronics. Let's say this is a museum that wants to keep ancient tech working. I didn't see that in the question you cite. The question possible duplicate question talks about post apocalyptic world. Let's say this is a Utopian world with fully functioning infrastructure.
    $endgroup$
    – farmersteve
    yesterday







  • 2




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    @JBH The answer space for these two questions is different; answers there are unlikely to be applicable here, and vice versa. These are not duplicates.
    $endgroup$
    – Frostfyre
    yesterday






  • 6




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    @JBH Well, as the question specifically mentions : unattended vs proactive protection.
    $endgroup$
    – Ville Niemi
    yesterday






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    @farmersteve, Research is considered a mandatory obligation on all Stacks. The downvote button rollover text states, "This question does not show any research effort...." The help center states questions, "should include research." And this Meta answer is very clear. I'm an EE and there's nothing you can do to store electronics for 500 years with any predictable hope of operation. But I'm not a museum curator (nor are any of your respondents), which makes every answer suspect.
    $endgroup$
    – JBH
    yesterday
















27












$begingroup$


Let's say you wanted to preserve some electronics for 500 years or more in a museum. What could you do to preserve them in working order for hundreds of years? Deep freeze? Lead lined vaults? Vacuum? I've seen questions about how long electronics would last left unattended, but not how to proactively protect them for 500 years.



Let's say this is a fully functioning world, not a post-apocalyptic world. Think of a museum in the future.










share|improve this question











$endgroup$







  • 1




    $begingroup$
    Possible duplicate of How long could we preserve technology post-apocalypse?
    $endgroup$
    – JBH
    yesterday






  • 2




    $begingroup$
    I read that question and nobody gave an answer that satisfies my answer. The answer that was selected didn't provide specific technologies to preserve electronics. Let's say this is a museum that wants to keep ancient tech working. I didn't see that in the question you cite. The question possible duplicate question talks about post apocalyptic world. Let's say this is a Utopian world with fully functioning infrastructure.
    $endgroup$
    – farmersteve
    yesterday







  • 2




    $begingroup$
    @JBH The answer space for these two questions is different; answers there are unlikely to be applicable here, and vice versa. These are not duplicates.
    $endgroup$
    – Frostfyre
    yesterday






  • 6




    $begingroup$
    @JBH Well, as the question specifically mentions : unattended vs proactive protection.
    $endgroup$
    – Ville Niemi
    yesterday






  • 1




    $begingroup$
    @farmersteve, Research is considered a mandatory obligation on all Stacks. The downvote button rollover text states, "This question does not show any research effort...." The help center states questions, "should include research." And this Meta answer is very clear. I'm an EE and there's nothing you can do to store electronics for 500 years with any predictable hope of operation. But I'm not a museum curator (nor are any of your respondents), which makes every answer suspect.
    $endgroup$
    – JBH
    yesterday














27












27








27


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$begingroup$


Let's say you wanted to preserve some electronics for 500 years or more in a museum. What could you do to preserve them in working order for hundreds of years? Deep freeze? Lead lined vaults? Vacuum? I've seen questions about how long electronics would last left unattended, but not how to proactively protect them for 500 years.



Let's say this is a fully functioning world, not a post-apocalyptic world. Think of a museum in the future.










share|improve this question











$endgroup$




Let's say you wanted to preserve some electronics for 500 years or more in a museum. What could you do to preserve them in working order for hundreds of years? Deep freeze? Lead lined vaults? Vacuum? I've seen questions about how long electronics would last left unattended, but not how to proactively protect them for 500 years.



Let's say this is a fully functioning world, not a post-apocalyptic world. Think of a museum in the future.







technology preservation






share|improve this question















share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited 12 hours ago









L.Dutch

88.2k29205430




88.2k29205430










asked yesterday









farmerstevefarmersteve

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26828







  • 1




    $begingroup$
    Possible duplicate of How long could we preserve technology post-apocalypse?
    $endgroup$
    – JBH
    yesterday






  • 2




    $begingroup$
    I read that question and nobody gave an answer that satisfies my answer. The answer that was selected didn't provide specific technologies to preserve electronics. Let's say this is a museum that wants to keep ancient tech working. I didn't see that in the question you cite. The question possible duplicate question talks about post apocalyptic world. Let's say this is a Utopian world with fully functioning infrastructure.
    $endgroup$
    – farmersteve
    yesterday







  • 2




    $begingroup$
    @JBH The answer space for these two questions is different; answers there are unlikely to be applicable here, and vice versa. These are not duplicates.
    $endgroup$
    – Frostfyre
    yesterday






  • 6




    $begingroup$
    @JBH Well, as the question specifically mentions : unattended vs proactive protection.
    $endgroup$
    – Ville Niemi
    yesterday






  • 1




    $begingroup$
    @farmersteve, Research is considered a mandatory obligation on all Stacks. The downvote button rollover text states, "This question does not show any research effort...." The help center states questions, "should include research." And this Meta answer is very clear. I'm an EE and there's nothing you can do to store electronics for 500 years with any predictable hope of operation. But I'm not a museum curator (nor are any of your respondents), which makes every answer suspect.
    $endgroup$
    – JBH
    yesterday













  • 1




    $begingroup$
    Possible duplicate of How long could we preserve technology post-apocalypse?
    $endgroup$
    – JBH
    yesterday






  • 2




    $begingroup$
    I read that question and nobody gave an answer that satisfies my answer. The answer that was selected didn't provide specific technologies to preserve electronics. Let's say this is a museum that wants to keep ancient tech working. I didn't see that in the question you cite. The question possible duplicate question talks about post apocalyptic world. Let's say this is a Utopian world with fully functioning infrastructure.
    $endgroup$
    – farmersteve
    yesterday







  • 2




    $begingroup$
    @JBH The answer space for these two questions is different; answers there are unlikely to be applicable here, and vice versa. These are not duplicates.
    $endgroup$
    – Frostfyre
    yesterday






  • 6




    $begingroup$
    @JBH Well, as the question specifically mentions : unattended vs proactive protection.
    $endgroup$
    – Ville Niemi
    yesterday






  • 1




    $begingroup$
    @farmersteve, Research is considered a mandatory obligation on all Stacks. The downvote button rollover text states, "This question does not show any research effort...." The help center states questions, "should include research." And this Meta answer is very clear. I'm an EE and there's nothing you can do to store electronics for 500 years with any predictable hope of operation. But I'm not a museum curator (nor are any of your respondents), which makes every answer suspect.
    $endgroup$
    – JBH
    yesterday








1




1




$begingroup$
Possible duplicate of How long could we preserve technology post-apocalypse?
$endgroup$
– JBH
yesterday




$begingroup$
Possible duplicate of How long could we preserve technology post-apocalypse?
$endgroup$
– JBH
yesterday




2




2




$begingroup$
I read that question and nobody gave an answer that satisfies my answer. The answer that was selected didn't provide specific technologies to preserve electronics. Let's say this is a museum that wants to keep ancient tech working. I didn't see that in the question you cite. The question possible duplicate question talks about post apocalyptic world. Let's say this is a Utopian world with fully functioning infrastructure.
$endgroup$
– farmersteve
yesterday





$begingroup$
I read that question and nobody gave an answer that satisfies my answer. The answer that was selected didn't provide specific technologies to preserve electronics. Let's say this is a museum that wants to keep ancient tech working. I didn't see that in the question you cite. The question possible duplicate question talks about post apocalyptic world. Let's say this is a Utopian world with fully functioning infrastructure.
$endgroup$
– farmersteve
yesterday





2




2




$begingroup$
@JBH The answer space for these two questions is different; answers there are unlikely to be applicable here, and vice versa. These are not duplicates.
$endgroup$
– Frostfyre
yesterday




$begingroup$
@JBH The answer space for these two questions is different; answers there are unlikely to be applicable here, and vice versa. These are not duplicates.
$endgroup$
– Frostfyre
yesterday




6




6




$begingroup$
@JBH Well, as the question specifically mentions : unattended vs proactive protection.
$endgroup$
– Ville Niemi
yesterday




$begingroup$
@JBH Well, as the question specifically mentions : unattended vs proactive protection.
$endgroup$
– Ville Niemi
yesterday




1




1




$begingroup$
@farmersteve, Research is considered a mandatory obligation on all Stacks. The downvote button rollover text states, "This question does not show any research effort...." The help center states questions, "should include research." And this Meta answer is very clear. I'm an EE and there's nothing you can do to store electronics for 500 years with any predictable hope of operation. But I'm not a museum curator (nor are any of your respondents), which makes every answer suspect.
$endgroup$
– JBH
yesterday





$begingroup$
@farmersteve, Research is considered a mandatory obligation on all Stacks. The downvote button rollover text states, "This question does not show any research effort...." The help center states questions, "should include research." And this Meta answer is very clear. I'm an EE and there's nothing you can do to store electronics for 500 years with any predictable hope of operation. But I'm not a museum curator (nor are any of your respondents), which makes every answer suspect.
$endgroup$
– JBH
yesterday











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TL;DR You cannot.



You need purpose-built items, with specially designed components and maybe even ad hoc designs (PSUs without electrolytic capacitors, etc.), capable of withstanding extreme cold.



Otherwise, there are several chemo-physical processes that would require to be halted.



  • Batteries: batteries will degrade over time, and be the first to go. You might want to store the specifications for the required voltage and just hook up a new battery whenever needed.

  • Static memories and hard disks: temperature, background radiation and charge loss are all enemies. You can cool down the apparatuses as far as possible, and shield them. Even so, they'll need to be reactivated and "refreshed" periodically. This is, on a longer timescale, what happens orders of magnitude times faster with DRAMs. Otherwise, the iPad won't boot up, because it no longer remembers how.

  • Welds. Most electronics being built today will die within fifty years at ambient temperature and pressure, due to the little-known fact that solder islands on circuit boards no longer contain lead or antimony, two poisonous metals that are nonetheless among the few cheap things that can prevent (rather, delay) the formation of metal whiskers. Nickel or gold-plated finishings aren't available on market electronics (some sailors might be familiar with the "brass fluff" growing out of cheap zinc-plated irons. On a much smaller scale, this is the same thing).

  • Condenser decay. This afflicts electrolytic capacitors, due to aluminum dioxide breakdown. Extreme cold will delay this process as well as it delays whiskering, but only up to a point - and some components cannot take extreme cold.

  • Insulator decay. Several rubbers and plastic insulating compounds are mixed with volatile plasticizers, where "volatile" means that they won't evaporate or significantly run off in fifty or sixty years... but the risk is there and I wouldn't bet on their seeing their hundredth birthday.


  • Semiconductor decay and electromigration. This is much faster when devices are powered and junctions are flooded by current, but still goes on when the devices are unpowered. It is slowed by cold.

  • Humidity will lead to galvanic corrosion. This is the easiest to prevent (use a nonreacting, dry storage atmosphere - nitrogen, or argon).

Most components aren't engineered to last at all, because the manufacturers know that the items will be replaced anyway inside, at most, of ten years. Just like ol' Henry Ford, who was said to send forensic teams in junkyards to tell him which parts of his cars had not failed so that he could start manufacturing them with cheaper tolerances. Only, this "controlled obsolescence" makes good business sense, and is actually done.






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    This is what I figured. Consumer electronics are not meant to last any meaningful amount of time. BUT, if someone (company/government) wanted to make something that lasted a very long time, they could.
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    – farmersteve
    yesterday






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    @farmersteve absolutely. Military-grade hardware already is way sturdier (and more expensive) than average. They, too, do not care for overlong stand-alone endurance (they make do with spare parts). But it can be done and in some instances is being done (e.g. NASA-spec electronics can be stored in extreme cold and hard vacuum, and are much more radiation resistant. Just look at some Martian rovers....).
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    – LSerni
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    @I.Am.A.Guy well, "volatile" is perhaps too strong a term, but I hadn't another to express my meaning. Some plasticizers do evaporate, but so slowly you almost don't notice (you still had better not chew on those plastics, though). Others react, also very slowly, and separate into components which may or may not evaporate, but aren't plasticizing anymore. In some cases, plastic insulation becomes brittle and literally flakes away.
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    – LSerni
    17 hours ago






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    Don't forget en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_corrosion - Any two metals in direct physical contact will encounter this, at a slow rate. But electronic microchips involve two different types of metal in contact in very particular patterns. Over the timeframes that electronics typically lives, this isn't an issue. Over hundreds of years it will be.
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    – Dayton Williams
    16 hours ago






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    @DaytonWilliams that would require an electrolyte, but yes, I added that. Thanks
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    – LSerni
    16 hours ago



















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The five major things that can degrade electronics are electromagnetism, corrosion, excessive temperatures, vibration, and impact.



Electromagnetism is your number-one risk. It only takes a static shock with 1/2 the current it requires to make a visible spark to damage data; also, background EM radiation can degrade data slowly over time. Forensics investigators will often mitigate this risk by putting evidence into a static resistant evidence bag, which can then be placed in a Faraday bag essentially blocking out all external EM influence.



The second risk is corrosion. For a device that you are not regularly handling, the only major outside corrosive agents you need to worry about are humidity, and to a much smaller extent, oxygen. An air-tight evidence bag also works well for protecting against these; however, an off-the-shelf evidence bag may not be rated for 500 years. You would likely need to consult with a polymers expert to design such a container.



  • Batteries (as other answers have pointed out) introduce corrosive elements from within; so, they will need their fuel sources removed and/or be stored separately. Then the fuel would need to be reintroduced prior to use.

  • Galvanic corrosion has also been suggested as a risk, but in an electromagnetically inert environment, such as already described, this would not be a problem.

  • Zinc has also been cited as a problem because it is highly volatile. That said, the corrosion you normally see here in electronics only happens when it is exposed to water vapor and oxygen together; so, storing it in a dry/vacuum sealed or noble gas filled bag will stop this corrosion as well.

  • Completely preventing polymer decomposition may also need your storage area to be dark.

Excessive heat and cold become the hardest part to control over a 500 year gap. You can not exactly rely on an air conditioning system to be maintained for that long, but if you were to store your device in an underground bunker at a depth of at least 30 feet, mother nature will keep your temperature more or less constant at a temperature that is ideal for most electronics.



Vibration mostly just affects things with moving disk drives in them; so, for purposes of preservation, I'm assuming you are talking about stored and not actively used hardware; so, this should be a minimal issue. That said, if you are occasionally powering your device on, it is best to do so on a heavy well secured desk or shelf. Lighter desks/shelves can be vibrated by a computer's fans reducing a computer drive's expected life-time by up to 75%.



Last is impact. If you are storing this device in a room full of engineers going about their daily businesses, eventually someone will knock it off the shelf and break it; so, storing it in a place with very limited human access is also pretty important. This makes keeping an electronic device from breaking within 500 years almost impossible for something that you need to use, but if you're talking about purely storage, you should be able to do this and the above four steps and have a pretty good success rate at storing electronics for that long.



In response to the first edit:



If you are talking about a museum scenario, the mostly likely case would be to copy the data onto a replica, and then put the replica on display. Museums rarely put items that fragile and rare on display.






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    You cannot combat dopant and metal diffusion. Modern processors, flash memory and RAM are made up of very many very tiny electronic devices. Semiconductor and metal-oxide junction will degrade over five centuries, no matter what you do. Modern electronic devices are simply not made to last centuries.
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    – AlexP
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    @AlexP If the device is at a very low temperature the diffusion of particles will take longer.
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    – user400188
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    You apparently (I didn't read every word) fail to include the breakdown of electrolytic capacitors and storage batteries due to the chemical degradation they are constantly experiencing.
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    – Hot Licks
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    All the articles I can find on metal diffusion refer to industrial processes at near molten temperatures. Do you have any resources that cite this as happening at lower temps?
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    – Nosajimiki
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Locate your museum on a rocket that is accelerated up to a significant fraction of the speed of light, so that time dilation means that the device you're preserving will only experience a small fraction of the 500 years you're preserving it over.






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    Breaking the device down on a part-by-part basis, and looking at what would be involved in preserving them:



    • Integrated circuits: as far as we know, an unpowered integrated circuit in a controlled environment will last indefinitely.

    • Resistors, solid-state capacitors, and other discrete components: these have the same indefinite lifespan as integrated circuits, and are generally more tolerant of temperature changes.

    • Batteries and electrolytic capacitors: These contain corrosive chemicals that tend to leak on a timescale of decades; lithium-ion batteries additionally tend to destroy themselves if fully discharged. If you're preserving an electronic device in a museum, you're going to need to remove these. When you want to power the device back up, you'll need to install replacements.

    • Circuit traces and wires: these tend to slowly corrode from atmospheric moisture. You'll want to store the device in a dry-nitrogen or argon atmosphere.

    • Plastic wire insulation: the plasticizer tends to evaporate on a timescale of decades. After a century or so, the insulation will be brittle and may be cracking from shrinkage. You'll want to re-insulate the wires or replace them before powering the device back up.

    • Plastic housings: these tend to discolor on a timescale of years to decades. The main cause of this is ultraviolet light, with atmospheric oxygen coming in second. A UV-protected container filled with the dry atmosphere you're using to protect the circuit traces will greatly slow the discoloration, but won't stop it entirely.

    • LCD screens: these are vulnerable to excessive heat or cold, and it's likely that UV light will degrade the dyes that give them the ability to display color. The same temperature and UV protection you're using to preserve other parts should be sufficient to protect them as well.

    • CRT screens: these depend on a vacuum inside the screen to function. Depending on the quality of manufacture, they may leak to the point of unusability over the course of 500 years or so. You may need to re-establish the vacuum before powering the device back up, which requires specialized equipment.

    • Flash/EEPROM memory: the data on these is susceptible to charge leakage on a timescale of decades to centuries. You can reduce the rate of data loss by cooling the device, but the need to avoid freezing the LCD means you can't cool far enough to get a 500-year lifespan. You're going to need to store the data on some more durable medium and re-write it before powering the device back up.

    • Hard drives: the lubrication on the bearings tends to stiffen up on a timescale of years. You'll need to clean and re-lubricate them before powering the device back up, and you'll need a cleanroom to do it in.

    There's no way to preserve an electronic device for 500 years in a way that permits immediate re-powering at any time. A museum would, however, be able to preserve one that only requires relatively minor maintenance before using, and the techniques involved are ones that museums commonly employ.






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      If powered down, electronics can last as long as they don't take physical harm, with the exception of batteries and the bearings in moving parts like fans or platter hard drives.



      Batteries, sad to say, can't be made to last that long -- or at least the kind that are useful for portable devices like tablets,. notebooks, and smart phones. There's a type of rechargeable battery that has been shown to last a century, and can likely last much longer than that -- the Edison iron battery -- but they have rather poor energy density. In English, that means a battery that can run a tablet for four or five hours continuously is closer in size to a car battery than the little lithium wafer cells our tablets have now.



      Nothing would keep those devices from working on external power, however, so it might be worth storing dry-charged lead-acid batteries, which can last indefinitely before filling with acid.






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        Capacitors and Resistors also degrade when not in use, and present day commercial capacitors likely won't last a century.
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        – GOATNine
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        @GOATNine That's true of electrolytics, for certain, but as far as I know not for ceramic, tantalum, or similar solid-state capacitors. There are few if any electrolytics on the surface-mount circuit boards of a modern phone or tablet. I don't know of a mechanism whereby SMD resistors can deteriorate when not powered.
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        – Zeiss Ikon
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        That is a good point in normal storage scenarios, but Capacitors and Resistors degrade due to corrosion and temperature. If you store them in a cool, dry, sealed system, they should only corrode to the point that the environment has contaminates to degrade them with extending their life indefinitely to the point of how well you sealed them.
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        – Nosajimiki
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        @Nosajimiki Argon purge and constant-temp storage at cool room temp should do it. Might require an archival disassembly and cleaning to ensure there's no (for instance) solder flux left in the device to provide those contaminants.
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        – Zeiss Ikon
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      In all honesty, electronics are incredibly difficult to preserve, due to the very nature of their components.



      Particularly, batteries have a defined shelf life, even when unused. Capacitors and resistors (key components in most electronics) also have a limited lifespan, though they may degrade much more slowly if not in use. Storage media (such as flash memory or hard disks) have a limited life cycle related to the number of read/write operations performed. To have the electronics active, even just displaying a static screen, would likely severely limit the lifespan of any electronic device.



      The solution for museum displays would necessarily be restoration/periodic repair. There would have to exist a manufacturing process to produce replacement parts for the duration of the displays existence in the museum.






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        Resistors aren't usually a life-limited part. Electrolytic capacitors, though, definitely are!
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      Preserving electronics for 500 years in working order dictates that they not be used at all in that 500 years.



      Copper, in particular, gets brittle as current passes through it and it heats up, and the copper traces in circuit boards even more so. The resistance of the copper joints also goes up.



      Electromigration is also a problem.



      Unfortunately, the only way you will know if they still work is to turn them on, but every time you turn them on, you increase the chances that next time they will not work.






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        Maybe you can?



        LSemi gives a good list of the problems, but may be too pessimistic with "you can't".



        Most of the problems can be arrested by cooling the device down close to absolute zero. In physics jargon, the decay processes are thermally activated. The question is whether you can get an electronic device down to that temperature without causing irreparable damage while cooling it or thawing it (exactly the same problem as with cryo-sleep for people in sublight starships).



        Electronics is generally tougher than biology.



        The obvious exception is data stored as packets of electrons in flash memory and similar. It relies on regularly being powered up so it can check for and repair any bit-rot while powered down. Charge will not leak away because of thermal effects close to absolute zero, but is still subject to corruption by radiation such as cosmic rays. This will accumulate with time, and reach a point where the data is irretrievably corrupted after thawing it out.



        Some electrolytic capacitors contain a water-based electrolyte paste. If this expands as it freezes, the capacitor will be destroyed. Most quality motherboards these days advertise solid capacitors, which may be more freezable. The big capacitors in power supplies aren't of this type, though. Electrolytes in batteries, similar questions.



        I'd guess that you can cryo-freeze and thaw motherboards, processors, SSDs and probably displays and hard drives (they can go well below freezing point without being destroyed, look at the minimum storage temperatures specified for military grade HDs). Petroleum lubricants do not expand on freezing. About liquid crystals in displays, I would hope that a thin film of liquid in a somewhat flexible container (poke your screen!) would freeze OK.



        Freeze-thaw cycles will tend to cause soldered joints to fail, but here we are talking just about one big freeze and one thaw. The frequent heating and cooling of a computer turned on and off daily is probably more damaging.



        A museum might well buy several of each item it wanted to preserve. One for display, which would become non-functional within decades. Others, for cryo-preservation, so at least one of each component has a good chance of survival. Power supplies and batteries have a simple specification (voltages and currents required, ATX or similar power button logic), so as long as technological civilisation persists, the simplest preservation answer is to reconstruct a power supply at the time one wanted to thaw and power up the preserved technology. If civilisation fails, so does cryo-preservation.



        BTW This sounds like a fun bit of research for anyone with access to a very low temperature freezer or lots of liquid nitrogen.






        share|improve this answer









        $endgroup$












        • $begingroup$
          Electrolytic capacitors are still used in the power supplies and power filtering circuits. Electrolytics are still the go-to capacitors for large capacitance applications.
          $endgroup$
          – Justin Thyme the Second
          4 hours ago










        • $begingroup$
          The problem with freezing is differential thermal expansion. If you go clear down to absolute zero, you're likely to see things like traces flaking off of circuit boards and integrated circuit packages splitting. Additionally, plastic will become so brittle it'll shatter at a touch, and any glue will lose its adhesive properties. Look up videos of people sticking things in liquid nitrogen for more examples of the problems you'd face.
          $endgroup$
          – Mark
          3 hours ago



















        0












        $begingroup$

        I think the thing to do would be to separate the software and electronic function from the mechanical interaction. That is, you could have museum visitors hold and play with dead or dummy iPads that do not turn on, and separately interact with a virtual machine on a touch screen if they wanted to "use" it. This is more or less done today as I've seen multiple websites running vintage operating systems where you can relive the joys of Windows 95 or 3.1.






        share|improve this answer









        $endgroup$








        • 4




          $begingroup$
          "Oh, mommy, mooomy, mommmmy, can I interface with Windows 95?" "No, dear, I would rather you try the 'self-mutilate-by-body-piercing' exhibit, far less traumatic."
          $endgroup$
          – Justin Thyme the Second
          4 hours ago



















        0












        $begingroup$

        You want to look into the "clock of the long now" 10,000 year clock project at http://longnow.org/.



        They've done all kinds of work on this subject.






        share|improve this answer








        New contributor




        James is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
        Check out our Code of Conduct.






        $endgroup$












        • $begingroup$
          Welcome to Worldbuilding.SE! We're glad you could join us! When you have a moment, please click here to learn more about our culture and take our tour. This is a cool idea, but it's a comment, not an answer, and may be deleted.
          $endgroup$
          – JBH
          5 mins ago










        Your Answer





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        10 Answers
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        36












        $begingroup$

        TL;DR You cannot.



        You need purpose-built items, with specially designed components and maybe even ad hoc designs (PSUs without electrolytic capacitors, etc.), capable of withstanding extreme cold.



        Otherwise, there are several chemo-physical processes that would require to be halted.



        • Batteries: batteries will degrade over time, and be the first to go. You might want to store the specifications for the required voltage and just hook up a new battery whenever needed.

        • Static memories and hard disks: temperature, background radiation and charge loss are all enemies. You can cool down the apparatuses as far as possible, and shield them. Even so, they'll need to be reactivated and "refreshed" periodically. This is, on a longer timescale, what happens orders of magnitude times faster with DRAMs. Otherwise, the iPad won't boot up, because it no longer remembers how.

        • Welds. Most electronics being built today will die within fifty years at ambient temperature and pressure, due to the little-known fact that solder islands on circuit boards no longer contain lead or antimony, two poisonous metals that are nonetheless among the few cheap things that can prevent (rather, delay) the formation of metal whiskers. Nickel or gold-plated finishings aren't available on market electronics (some sailors might be familiar with the "brass fluff" growing out of cheap zinc-plated irons. On a much smaller scale, this is the same thing).

        • Condenser decay. This afflicts electrolytic capacitors, due to aluminum dioxide breakdown. Extreme cold will delay this process as well as it delays whiskering, but only up to a point - and some components cannot take extreme cold.

        • Insulator decay. Several rubbers and plastic insulating compounds are mixed with volatile plasticizers, where "volatile" means that they won't evaporate or significantly run off in fifty or sixty years... but the risk is there and I wouldn't bet on their seeing their hundredth birthday.


        • Semiconductor decay and electromigration. This is much faster when devices are powered and junctions are flooded by current, but still goes on when the devices are unpowered. It is slowed by cold.

        • Humidity will lead to galvanic corrosion. This is the easiest to prevent (use a nonreacting, dry storage atmosphere - nitrogen, or argon).

        Most components aren't engineered to last at all, because the manufacturers know that the items will be replaced anyway inside, at most, of ten years. Just like ol' Henry Ford, who was said to send forensic teams in junkyards to tell him which parts of his cars had not failed so that he could start manufacturing them with cheaper tolerances. Only, this "controlled obsolescence" makes good business sense, and is actually done.






        share|improve this answer











        $endgroup$








        • 2




          $begingroup$
          This is what I figured. Consumer electronics are not meant to last any meaningful amount of time. BUT, if someone (company/government) wanted to make something that lasted a very long time, they could.
          $endgroup$
          – farmersteve
          yesterday






        • 2




          $begingroup$
          @farmersteve absolutely. Military-grade hardware already is way sturdier (and more expensive) than average. They, too, do not care for overlong stand-alone endurance (they make do with spare parts). But it can be done and in some instances is being done (e.g. NASA-spec electronics can be stored in extreme cold and hard vacuum, and are much more radiation resistant. Just look at some Martian rovers....).
          $endgroup$
          – LSerni
          yesterday






        • 1




          $begingroup$
          @I.Am.A.Guy well, "volatile" is perhaps too strong a term, but I hadn't another to express my meaning. Some plasticizers do evaporate, but so slowly you almost don't notice (you still had better not chew on those plastics, though). Others react, also very slowly, and separate into components which may or may not evaporate, but aren't plasticizing anymore. In some cases, plastic insulation becomes brittle and literally flakes away.
          $endgroup$
          – LSerni
          17 hours ago






        • 1




          $begingroup$
          Don't forget en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_corrosion - Any two metals in direct physical contact will encounter this, at a slow rate. But electronic microchips involve two different types of metal in contact in very particular patterns. Over the timeframes that electronics typically lives, this isn't an issue. Over hundreds of years it will be.
          $endgroup$
          – Dayton Williams
          16 hours ago






        • 2




          $begingroup$
          @DaytonWilliams that would require an electrolyte, but yes, I added that. Thanks
          $endgroup$
          – LSerni
          16 hours ago
















        36












        $begingroup$

        TL;DR You cannot.



        You need purpose-built items, with specially designed components and maybe even ad hoc designs (PSUs without electrolytic capacitors, etc.), capable of withstanding extreme cold.



        Otherwise, there are several chemo-physical processes that would require to be halted.



        • Batteries: batteries will degrade over time, and be the first to go. You might want to store the specifications for the required voltage and just hook up a new battery whenever needed.

        • Static memories and hard disks: temperature, background radiation and charge loss are all enemies. You can cool down the apparatuses as far as possible, and shield them. Even so, they'll need to be reactivated and "refreshed" periodically. This is, on a longer timescale, what happens orders of magnitude times faster with DRAMs. Otherwise, the iPad won't boot up, because it no longer remembers how.

        • Welds. Most electronics being built today will die within fifty years at ambient temperature and pressure, due to the little-known fact that solder islands on circuit boards no longer contain lead or antimony, two poisonous metals that are nonetheless among the few cheap things that can prevent (rather, delay) the formation of metal whiskers. Nickel or gold-plated finishings aren't available on market electronics (some sailors might be familiar with the "brass fluff" growing out of cheap zinc-plated irons. On a much smaller scale, this is the same thing).

        • Condenser decay. This afflicts electrolytic capacitors, due to aluminum dioxide breakdown. Extreme cold will delay this process as well as it delays whiskering, but only up to a point - and some components cannot take extreme cold.

        • Insulator decay. Several rubbers and plastic insulating compounds are mixed with volatile plasticizers, where "volatile" means that they won't evaporate or significantly run off in fifty or sixty years... but the risk is there and I wouldn't bet on their seeing their hundredth birthday.


        • Semiconductor decay and electromigration. This is much faster when devices are powered and junctions are flooded by current, but still goes on when the devices are unpowered. It is slowed by cold.

        • Humidity will lead to galvanic corrosion. This is the easiest to prevent (use a nonreacting, dry storage atmosphere - nitrogen, or argon).

        Most components aren't engineered to last at all, because the manufacturers know that the items will be replaced anyway inside, at most, of ten years. Just like ol' Henry Ford, who was said to send forensic teams in junkyards to tell him which parts of his cars had not failed so that he could start manufacturing them with cheaper tolerances. Only, this "controlled obsolescence" makes good business sense, and is actually done.






        share|improve this answer











        $endgroup$








        • 2




          $begingroup$
          This is what I figured. Consumer electronics are not meant to last any meaningful amount of time. BUT, if someone (company/government) wanted to make something that lasted a very long time, they could.
          $endgroup$
          – farmersteve
          yesterday






        • 2




          $begingroup$
          @farmersteve absolutely. Military-grade hardware already is way sturdier (and more expensive) than average. They, too, do not care for overlong stand-alone endurance (they make do with spare parts). But it can be done and in some instances is being done (e.g. NASA-spec electronics can be stored in extreme cold and hard vacuum, and are much more radiation resistant. Just look at some Martian rovers....).
          $endgroup$
          – LSerni
          yesterday






        • 1




          $begingroup$
          @I.Am.A.Guy well, "volatile" is perhaps too strong a term, but I hadn't another to express my meaning. Some plasticizers do evaporate, but so slowly you almost don't notice (you still had better not chew on those plastics, though). Others react, also very slowly, and separate into components which may or may not evaporate, but aren't plasticizing anymore. In some cases, plastic insulation becomes brittle and literally flakes away.
          $endgroup$
          – LSerni
          17 hours ago






        • 1




          $begingroup$
          Don't forget en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_corrosion - Any two metals in direct physical contact will encounter this, at a slow rate. But electronic microchips involve two different types of metal in contact in very particular patterns. Over the timeframes that electronics typically lives, this isn't an issue. Over hundreds of years it will be.
          $endgroup$
          – Dayton Williams
          16 hours ago






        • 2




          $begingroup$
          @DaytonWilliams that would require an electrolyte, but yes, I added that. Thanks
          $endgroup$
          – LSerni
          16 hours ago














        36












        36








        36





        $begingroup$

        TL;DR You cannot.



        You need purpose-built items, with specially designed components and maybe even ad hoc designs (PSUs without electrolytic capacitors, etc.), capable of withstanding extreme cold.



        Otherwise, there are several chemo-physical processes that would require to be halted.



        • Batteries: batteries will degrade over time, and be the first to go. You might want to store the specifications for the required voltage and just hook up a new battery whenever needed.

        • Static memories and hard disks: temperature, background radiation and charge loss are all enemies. You can cool down the apparatuses as far as possible, and shield them. Even so, they'll need to be reactivated and "refreshed" periodically. This is, on a longer timescale, what happens orders of magnitude times faster with DRAMs. Otherwise, the iPad won't boot up, because it no longer remembers how.

        • Welds. Most electronics being built today will die within fifty years at ambient temperature and pressure, due to the little-known fact that solder islands on circuit boards no longer contain lead or antimony, two poisonous metals that are nonetheless among the few cheap things that can prevent (rather, delay) the formation of metal whiskers. Nickel or gold-plated finishings aren't available on market electronics (some sailors might be familiar with the "brass fluff" growing out of cheap zinc-plated irons. On a much smaller scale, this is the same thing).

        • Condenser decay. This afflicts electrolytic capacitors, due to aluminum dioxide breakdown. Extreme cold will delay this process as well as it delays whiskering, but only up to a point - and some components cannot take extreme cold.

        • Insulator decay. Several rubbers and plastic insulating compounds are mixed with volatile plasticizers, where "volatile" means that they won't evaporate or significantly run off in fifty or sixty years... but the risk is there and I wouldn't bet on their seeing their hundredth birthday.


        • Semiconductor decay and electromigration. This is much faster when devices are powered and junctions are flooded by current, but still goes on when the devices are unpowered. It is slowed by cold.

        • Humidity will lead to galvanic corrosion. This is the easiest to prevent (use a nonreacting, dry storage atmosphere - nitrogen, or argon).

        Most components aren't engineered to last at all, because the manufacturers know that the items will be replaced anyway inside, at most, of ten years. Just like ol' Henry Ford, who was said to send forensic teams in junkyards to tell him which parts of his cars had not failed so that he could start manufacturing them with cheaper tolerances. Only, this "controlled obsolescence" makes good business sense, and is actually done.






        share|improve this answer











        $endgroup$



        TL;DR You cannot.



        You need purpose-built items, with specially designed components and maybe even ad hoc designs (PSUs without electrolytic capacitors, etc.), capable of withstanding extreme cold.



        Otherwise, there are several chemo-physical processes that would require to be halted.



        • Batteries: batteries will degrade over time, and be the first to go. You might want to store the specifications for the required voltage and just hook up a new battery whenever needed.

        • Static memories and hard disks: temperature, background radiation and charge loss are all enemies. You can cool down the apparatuses as far as possible, and shield them. Even so, they'll need to be reactivated and "refreshed" periodically. This is, on a longer timescale, what happens orders of magnitude times faster with DRAMs. Otherwise, the iPad won't boot up, because it no longer remembers how.

        • Welds. Most electronics being built today will die within fifty years at ambient temperature and pressure, due to the little-known fact that solder islands on circuit boards no longer contain lead or antimony, two poisonous metals that are nonetheless among the few cheap things that can prevent (rather, delay) the formation of metal whiskers. Nickel or gold-plated finishings aren't available on market electronics (some sailors might be familiar with the "brass fluff" growing out of cheap zinc-plated irons. On a much smaller scale, this is the same thing).

        • Condenser decay. This afflicts electrolytic capacitors, due to aluminum dioxide breakdown. Extreme cold will delay this process as well as it delays whiskering, but only up to a point - and some components cannot take extreme cold.

        • Insulator decay. Several rubbers and plastic insulating compounds are mixed with volatile plasticizers, where "volatile" means that they won't evaporate or significantly run off in fifty or sixty years... but the risk is there and I wouldn't bet on their seeing their hundredth birthday.


        • Semiconductor decay and electromigration. This is much faster when devices are powered and junctions are flooded by current, but still goes on when the devices are unpowered. It is slowed by cold.

        • Humidity will lead to galvanic corrosion. This is the easiest to prevent (use a nonreacting, dry storage atmosphere - nitrogen, or argon).

        Most components aren't engineered to last at all, because the manufacturers know that the items will be replaced anyway inside, at most, of ten years. Just like ol' Henry Ford, who was said to send forensic teams in junkyards to tell him which parts of his cars had not failed so that he could start manufacturing them with cheaper tolerances. Only, this "controlled obsolescence" makes good business sense, and is actually done.







        share|improve this answer














        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer








        edited 16 hours ago

























        answered yesterday









        LSerniLSerni

        28.9k25293




        28.9k25293







        • 2




          $begingroup$
          This is what I figured. Consumer electronics are not meant to last any meaningful amount of time. BUT, if someone (company/government) wanted to make something that lasted a very long time, they could.
          $endgroup$
          – farmersteve
          yesterday






        • 2




          $begingroup$
          @farmersteve absolutely. Military-grade hardware already is way sturdier (and more expensive) than average. They, too, do not care for overlong stand-alone endurance (they make do with spare parts). But it can be done and in some instances is being done (e.g. NASA-spec electronics can be stored in extreme cold and hard vacuum, and are much more radiation resistant. Just look at some Martian rovers....).
          $endgroup$
          – LSerni
          yesterday






        • 1




          $begingroup$
          @I.Am.A.Guy well, "volatile" is perhaps too strong a term, but I hadn't another to express my meaning. Some plasticizers do evaporate, but so slowly you almost don't notice (you still had better not chew on those plastics, though). Others react, also very slowly, and separate into components which may or may not evaporate, but aren't plasticizing anymore. In some cases, plastic insulation becomes brittle and literally flakes away.
          $endgroup$
          – LSerni
          17 hours ago






        • 1




          $begingroup$
          Don't forget en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_corrosion - Any two metals in direct physical contact will encounter this, at a slow rate. But electronic microchips involve two different types of metal in contact in very particular patterns. Over the timeframes that electronics typically lives, this isn't an issue. Over hundreds of years it will be.
          $endgroup$
          – Dayton Williams
          16 hours ago






        • 2




          $begingroup$
          @DaytonWilliams that would require an electrolyte, but yes, I added that. Thanks
          $endgroup$
          – LSerni
          16 hours ago













        • 2




          $begingroup$
          This is what I figured. Consumer electronics are not meant to last any meaningful amount of time. BUT, if someone (company/government) wanted to make something that lasted a very long time, they could.
          $endgroup$
          – farmersteve
          yesterday






        • 2




          $begingroup$
          @farmersteve absolutely. Military-grade hardware already is way sturdier (and more expensive) than average. They, too, do not care for overlong stand-alone endurance (they make do with spare parts). But it can be done and in some instances is being done (e.g. NASA-spec electronics can be stored in extreme cold and hard vacuum, and are much more radiation resistant. Just look at some Martian rovers....).
          $endgroup$
          – LSerni
          yesterday






        • 1




          $begingroup$
          @I.Am.A.Guy well, "volatile" is perhaps too strong a term, but I hadn't another to express my meaning. Some plasticizers do evaporate, but so slowly you almost don't notice (you still had better not chew on those plastics, though). Others react, also very slowly, and separate into components which may or may not evaporate, but aren't plasticizing anymore. In some cases, plastic insulation becomes brittle and literally flakes away.
          $endgroup$
          – LSerni
          17 hours ago






        • 1




          $begingroup$
          Don't forget en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_corrosion - Any two metals in direct physical contact will encounter this, at a slow rate. But electronic microchips involve two different types of metal in contact in very particular patterns. Over the timeframes that electronics typically lives, this isn't an issue. Over hundreds of years it will be.
          $endgroup$
          – Dayton Williams
          16 hours ago






        • 2




          $begingroup$
          @DaytonWilliams that would require an electrolyte, but yes, I added that. Thanks
          $endgroup$
          – LSerni
          16 hours ago








        2




        2




        $begingroup$
        This is what I figured. Consumer electronics are not meant to last any meaningful amount of time. BUT, if someone (company/government) wanted to make something that lasted a very long time, they could.
        $endgroup$
        – farmersteve
        yesterday




        $begingroup$
        This is what I figured. Consumer electronics are not meant to last any meaningful amount of time. BUT, if someone (company/government) wanted to make something that lasted a very long time, they could.
        $endgroup$
        – farmersteve
        yesterday




        2




        2




        $begingroup$
        @farmersteve absolutely. Military-grade hardware already is way sturdier (and more expensive) than average. They, too, do not care for overlong stand-alone endurance (they make do with spare parts). But it can be done and in some instances is being done (e.g. NASA-spec electronics can be stored in extreme cold and hard vacuum, and are much more radiation resistant. Just look at some Martian rovers....).
        $endgroup$
        – LSerni
        yesterday




        $begingroup$
        @farmersteve absolutely. Military-grade hardware already is way sturdier (and more expensive) than average. They, too, do not care for overlong stand-alone endurance (they make do with spare parts). But it can be done and in some instances is being done (e.g. NASA-spec electronics can be stored in extreme cold and hard vacuum, and are much more radiation resistant. Just look at some Martian rovers....).
        $endgroup$
        – LSerni
        yesterday




        1




        1




        $begingroup$
        @I.Am.A.Guy well, "volatile" is perhaps too strong a term, but I hadn't another to express my meaning. Some plasticizers do evaporate, but so slowly you almost don't notice (you still had better not chew on those plastics, though). Others react, also very slowly, and separate into components which may or may not evaporate, but aren't plasticizing anymore. In some cases, plastic insulation becomes brittle and literally flakes away.
        $endgroup$
        – LSerni
        17 hours ago




        $begingroup$
        @I.Am.A.Guy well, "volatile" is perhaps too strong a term, but I hadn't another to express my meaning. Some plasticizers do evaporate, but so slowly you almost don't notice (you still had better not chew on those plastics, though). Others react, also very slowly, and separate into components which may or may not evaporate, but aren't plasticizing anymore. In some cases, plastic insulation becomes brittle and literally flakes away.
        $endgroup$
        – LSerni
        17 hours ago




        1




        1




        $begingroup$
        Don't forget en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_corrosion - Any two metals in direct physical contact will encounter this, at a slow rate. But electronic microchips involve two different types of metal in contact in very particular patterns. Over the timeframes that electronics typically lives, this isn't an issue. Over hundreds of years it will be.
        $endgroup$
        – Dayton Williams
        16 hours ago




        $begingroup$
        Don't forget en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_corrosion - Any two metals in direct physical contact will encounter this, at a slow rate. But electronic microchips involve two different types of metal in contact in very particular patterns. Over the timeframes that electronics typically lives, this isn't an issue. Over hundreds of years it will be.
        $endgroup$
        – Dayton Williams
        16 hours ago




        2




        2




        $begingroup$
        @DaytonWilliams that would require an electrolyte, but yes, I added that. Thanks
        $endgroup$
        – LSerni
        16 hours ago





        $begingroup$
        @DaytonWilliams that would require an electrolyte, but yes, I added that. Thanks
        $endgroup$
        – LSerni
        16 hours ago












        11












        $begingroup$

        The five major things that can degrade electronics are electromagnetism, corrosion, excessive temperatures, vibration, and impact.



        Electromagnetism is your number-one risk. It only takes a static shock with 1/2 the current it requires to make a visible spark to damage data; also, background EM radiation can degrade data slowly over time. Forensics investigators will often mitigate this risk by putting evidence into a static resistant evidence bag, which can then be placed in a Faraday bag essentially blocking out all external EM influence.



        The second risk is corrosion. For a device that you are not regularly handling, the only major outside corrosive agents you need to worry about are humidity, and to a much smaller extent, oxygen. An air-tight evidence bag also works well for protecting against these; however, an off-the-shelf evidence bag may not be rated for 500 years. You would likely need to consult with a polymers expert to design such a container.



        • Batteries (as other answers have pointed out) introduce corrosive elements from within; so, they will need their fuel sources removed and/or be stored separately. Then the fuel would need to be reintroduced prior to use.

        • Galvanic corrosion has also been suggested as a risk, but in an electromagnetically inert environment, such as already described, this would not be a problem.

        • Zinc has also been cited as a problem because it is highly volatile. That said, the corrosion you normally see here in electronics only happens when it is exposed to water vapor and oxygen together; so, storing it in a dry/vacuum sealed or noble gas filled bag will stop this corrosion as well.

        • Completely preventing polymer decomposition may also need your storage area to be dark.

        Excessive heat and cold become the hardest part to control over a 500 year gap. You can not exactly rely on an air conditioning system to be maintained for that long, but if you were to store your device in an underground bunker at a depth of at least 30 feet, mother nature will keep your temperature more or less constant at a temperature that is ideal for most electronics.



        Vibration mostly just affects things with moving disk drives in them; so, for purposes of preservation, I'm assuming you are talking about stored and not actively used hardware; so, this should be a minimal issue. That said, if you are occasionally powering your device on, it is best to do so on a heavy well secured desk or shelf. Lighter desks/shelves can be vibrated by a computer's fans reducing a computer drive's expected life-time by up to 75%.



        Last is impact. If you are storing this device in a room full of engineers going about their daily businesses, eventually someone will knock it off the shelf and break it; so, storing it in a place with very limited human access is also pretty important. This makes keeping an electronic device from breaking within 500 years almost impossible for something that you need to use, but if you're talking about purely storage, you should be able to do this and the above four steps and have a pretty good success rate at storing electronics for that long.



        In response to the first edit:



        If you are talking about a museum scenario, the mostly likely case would be to copy the data onto a replica, and then put the replica on display. Museums rarely put items that fragile and rare on display.






        share|improve this answer











        $endgroup$








        • 1




          $begingroup$
          You cannot combat dopant and metal diffusion. Modern processors, flash memory and RAM are made up of very many very tiny electronic devices. Semiconductor and metal-oxide junction will degrade over five centuries, no matter what you do. Modern electronic devices are simply not made to last centuries.
          $endgroup$
          – AlexP
          yesterday










        • $begingroup$
          @AlexP If the device is at a very low temperature the diffusion of particles will take longer.
          $endgroup$
          – user400188
          yesterday






        • 1




          $begingroup$
          You apparently (I didn't read every word) fail to include the breakdown of electrolytic capacitors and storage batteries due to the chemical degradation they are constantly experiencing.
          $endgroup$
          – Hot Licks
          22 hours ago










        • $begingroup$
          All the articles I can find on metal diffusion refer to industrial processes at near molten temperatures. Do you have any resources that cite this as happening at lower temps?
          $endgroup$
          – Nosajimiki
          5 hours ago















        11












        $begingroup$

        The five major things that can degrade electronics are electromagnetism, corrosion, excessive temperatures, vibration, and impact.



        Electromagnetism is your number-one risk. It only takes a static shock with 1/2 the current it requires to make a visible spark to damage data; also, background EM radiation can degrade data slowly over time. Forensics investigators will often mitigate this risk by putting evidence into a static resistant evidence bag, which can then be placed in a Faraday bag essentially blocking out all external EM influence.



        The second risk is corrosion. For a device that you are not regularly handling, the only major outside corrosive agents you need to worry about are humidity, and to a much smaller extent, oxygen. An air-tight evidence bag also works well for protecting against these; however, an off-the-shelf evidence bag may not be rated for 500 years. You would likely need to consult with a polymers expert to design such a container.



        • Batteries (as other answers have pointed out) introduce corrosive elements from within; so, they will need their fuel sources removed and/or be stored separately. Then the fuel would need to be reintroduced prior to use.

        • Galvanic corrosion has also been suggested as a risk, but in an electromagnetically inert environment, such as already described, this would not be a problem.

        • Zinc has also been cited as a problem because it is highly volatile. That said, the corrosion you normally see here in electronics only happens when it is exposed to water vapor and oxygen together; so, storing it in a dry/vacuum sealed or noble gas filled bag will stop this corrosion as well.

        • Completely preventing polymer decomposition may also need your storage area to be dark.

        Excessive heat and cold become the hardest part to control over a 500 year gap. You can not exactly rely on an air conditioning system to be maintained for that long, but if you were to store your device in an underground bunker at a depth of at least 30 feet, mother nature will keep your temperature more or less constant at a temperature that is ideal for most electronics.



        Vibration mostly just affects things with moving disk drives in them; so, for purposes of preservation, I'm assuming you are talking about stored and not actively used hardware; so, this should be a minimal issue. That said, if you are occasionally powering your device on, it is best to do so on a heavy well secured desk or shelf. Lighter desks/shelves can be vibrated by a computer's fans reducing a computer drive's expected life-time by up to 75%.



        Last is impact. If you are storing this device in a room full of engineers going about their daily businesses, eventually someone will knock it off the shelf and break it; so, storing it in a place with very limited human access is also pretty important. This makes keeping an electronic device from breaking within 500 years almost impossible for something that you need to use, but if you're talking about purely storage, you should be able to do this and the above four steps and have a pretty good success rate at storing electronics for that long.



        In response to the first edit:



        If you are talking about a museum scenario, the mostly likely case would be to copy the data onto a replica, and then put the replica on display. Museums rarely put items that fragile and rare on display.






        share|improve this answer











        $endgroup$








        • 1




          $begingroup$
          You cannot combat dopant and metal diffusion. Modern processors, flash memory and RAM are made up of very many very tiny electronic devices. Semiconductor and metal-oxide junction will degrade over five centuries, no matter what you do. Modern electronic devices are simply not made to last centuries.
          $endgroup$
          – AlexP
          yesterday










        • $begingroup$
          @AlexP If the device is at a very low temperature the diffusion of particles will take longer.
          $endgroup$
          – user400188
          yesterday






        • 1




          $begingroup$
          You apparently (I didn't read every word) fail to include the breakdown of electrolytic capacitors and storage batteries due to the chemical degradation they are constantly experiencing.
          $endgroup$
          – Hot Licks
          22 hours ago










        • $begingroup$
          All the articles I can find on metal diffusion refer to industrial processes at near molten temperatures. Do you have any resources that cite this as happening at lower temps?
          $endgroup$
          – Nosajimiki
          5 hours ago













        11












        11








        11





        $begingroup$

        The five major things that can degrade electronics are electromagnetism, corrosion, excessive temperatures, vibration, and impact.



        Electromagnetism is your number-one risk. It only takes a static shock with 1/2 the current it requires to make a visible spark to damage data; also, background EM radiation can degrade data slowly over time. Forensics investigators will often mitigate this risk by putting evidence into a static resistant evidence bag, which can then be placed in a Faraday bag essentially blocking out all external EM influence.



        The second risk is corrosion. For a device that you are not regularly handling, the only major outside corrosive agents you need to worry about are humidity, and to a much smaller extent, oxygen. An air-tight evidence bag also works well for protecting against these; however, an off-the-shelf evidence bag may not be rated for 500 years. You would likely need to consult with a polymers expert to design such a container.



        • Batteries (as other answers have pointed out) introduce corrosive elements from within; so, they will need their fuel sources removed and/or be stored separately. Then the fuel would need to be reintroduced prior to use.

        • Galvanic corrosion has also been suggested as a risk, but in an electromagnetically inert environment, such as already described, this would not be a problem.

        • Zinc has also been cited as a problem because it is highly volatile. That said, the corrosion you normally see here in electronics only happens when it is exposed to water vapor and oxygen together; so, storing it in a dry/vacuum sealed or noble gas filled bag will stop this corrosion as well.

        • Completely preventing polymer decomposition may also need your storage area to be dark.

        Excessive heat and cold become the hardest part to control over a 500 year gap. You can not exactly rely on an air conditioning system to be maintained for that long, but if you were to store your device in an underground bunker at a depth of at least 30 feet, mother nature will keep your temperature more or less constant at a temperature that is ideal for most electronics.



        Vibration mostly just affects things with moving disk drives in them; so, for purposes of preservation, I'm assuming you are talking about stored and not actively used hardware; so, this should be a minimal issue. That said, if you are occasionally powering your device on, it is best to do so on a heavy well secured desk or shelf. Lighter desks/shelves can be vibrated by a computer's fans reducing a computer drive's expected life-time by up to 75%.



        Last is impact. If you are storing this device in a room full of engineers going about their daily businesses, eventually someone will knock it off the shelf and break it; so, storing it in a place with very limited human access is also pretty important. This makes keeping an electronic device from breaking within 500 years almost impossible for something that you need to use, but if you're talking about purely storage, you should be able to do this and the above four steps and have a pretty good success rate at storing electronics for that long.



        In response to the first edit:



        If you are talking about a museum scenario, the mostly likely case would be to copy the data onto a replica, and then put the replica on display. Museums rarely put items that fragile and rare on display.






        share|improve this answer











        $endgroup$



        The five major things that can degrade electronics are electromagnetism, corrosion, excessive temperatures, vibration, and impact.



        Electromagnetism is your number-one risk. It only takes a static shock with 1/2 the current it requires to make a visible spark to damage data; also, background EM radiation can degrade data slowly over time. Forensics investigators will often mitigate this risk by putting evidence into a static resistant evidence bag, which can then be placed in a Faraday bag essentially blocking out all external EM influence.



        The second risk is corrosion. For a device that you are not regularly handling, the only major outside corrosive agents you need to worry about are humidity, and to a much smaller extent, oxygen. An air-tight evidence bag also works well for protecting against these; however, an off-the-shelf evidence bag may not be rated for 500 years. You would likely need to consult with a polymers expert to design such a container.



        • Batteries (as other answers have pointed out) introduce corrosive elements from within; so, they will need their fuel sources removed and/or be stored separately. Then the fuel would need to be reintroduced prior to use.

        • Galvanic corrosion has also been suggested as a risk, but in an electromagnetically inert environment, such as already described, this would not be a problem.

        • Zinc has also been cited as a problem because it is highly volatile. That said, the corrosion you normally see here in electronics only happens when it is exposed to water vapor and oxygen together; so, storing it in a dry/vacuum sealed or noble gas filled bag will stop this corrosion as well.

        • Completely preventing polymer decomposition may also need your storage area to be dark.

        Excessive heat and cold become the hardest part to control over a 500 year gap. You can not exactly rely on an air conditioning system to be maintained for that long, but if you were to store your device in an underground bunker at a depth of at least 30 feet, mother nature will keep your temperature more or less constant at a temperature that is ideal for most electronics.



        Vibration mostly just affects things with moving disk drives in them; so, for purposes of preservation, I'm assuming you are talking about stored and not actively used hardware; so, this should be a minimal issue. That said, if you are occasionally powering your device on, it is best to do so on a heavy well secured desk or shelf. Lighter desks/shelves can be vibrated by a computer's fans reducing a computer drive's expected life-time by up to 75%.



        Last is impact. If you are storing this device in a room full of engineers going about their daily businesses, eventually someone will knock it off the shelf and break it; so, storing it in a place with very limited human access is also pretty important. This makes keeping an electronic device from breaking within 500 years almost impossible for something that you need to use, but if you're talking about purely storage, you should be able to do this and the above four steps and have a pretty good success rate at storing electronics for that long.



        In response to the first edit:



        If you are talking about a museum scenario, the mostly likely case would be to copy the data onto a replica, and then put the replica on display. Museums rarely put items that fragile and rare on display.







        share|improve this answer














        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer








        edited 5 hours ago

























        answered yesterday









        NosajimikiNosajimiki

        2,242118




        2,242118







        • 1




          $begingroup$
          You cannot combat dopant and metal diffusion. Modern processors, flash memory and RAM are made up of very many very tiny electronic devices. Semiconductor and metal-oxide junction will degrade over five centuries, no matter what you do. Modern electronic devices are simply not made to last centuries.
          $endgroup$
          – AlexP
          yesterday










        • $begingroup$
          @AlexP If the device is at a very low temperature the diffusion of particles will take longer.
          $endgroup$
          – user400188
          yesterday






        • 1




          $begingroup$
          You apparently (I didn't read every word) fail to include the breakdown of electrolytic capacitors and storage batteries due to the chemical degradation they are constantly experiencing.
          $endgroup$
          – Hot Licks
          22 hours ago










        • $begingroup$
          All the articles I can find on metal diffusion refer to industrial processes at near molten temperatures. Do you have any resources that cite this as happening at lower temps?
          $endgroup$
          – Nosajimiki
          5 hours ago












        • 1




          $begingroup$
          You cannot combat dopant and metal diffusion. Modern processors, flash memory and RAM are made up of very many very tiny electronic devices. Semiconductor and metal-oxide junction will degrade over five centuries, no matter what you do. Modern electronic devices are simply not made to last centuries.
          $endgroup$
          – AlexP
          yesterday










        • $begingroup$
          @AlexP If the device is at a very low temperature the diffusion of particles will take longer.
          $endgroup$
          – user400188
          yesterday






        • 1




          $begingroup$
          You apparently (I didn't read every word) fail to include the breakdown of electrolytic capacitors and storage batteries due to the chemical degradation they are constantly experiencing.
          $endgroup$
          – Hot Licks
          22 hours ago










        • $begingroup$
          All the articles I can find on metal diffusion refer to industrial processes at near molten temperatures. Do you have any resources that cite this as happening at lower temps?
          $endgroup$
          – Nosajimiki
          5 hours ago







        1




        1




        $begingroup$
        You cannot combat dopant and metal diffusion. Modern processors, flash memory and RAM are made up of very many very tiny electronic devices. Semiconductor and metal-oxide junction will degrade over five centuries, no matter what you do. Modern electronic devices are simply not made to last centuries.
        $endgroup$
        – AlexP
        yesterday




        $begingroup$
        You cannot combat dopant and metal diffusion. Modern processors, flash memory and RAM are made up of very many very tiny electronic devices. Semiconductor and metal-oxide junction will degrade over five centuries, no matter what you do. Modern electronic devices are simply not made to last centuries.
        $endgroup$
        – AlexP
        yesterday












        $begingroup$
        @AlexP If the device is at a very low temperature the diffusion of particles will take longer.
        $endgroup$
        – user400188
        yesterday




        $begingroup$
        @AlexP If the device is at a very low temperature the diffusion of particles will take longer.
        $endgroup$
        – user400188
        yesterday




        1




        1




        $begingroup$
        You apparently (I didn't read every word) fail to include the breakdown of electrolytic capacitors and storage batteries due to the chemical degradation they are constantly experiencing.
        $endgroup$
        – Hot Licks
        22 hours ago




        $begingroup$
        You apparently (I didn't read every word) fail to include the breakdown of electrolytic capacitors and storage batteries due to the chemical degradation they are constantly experiencing.
        $endgroup$
        – Hot Licks
        22 hours ago












        $begingroup$
        All the articles I can find on metal diffusion refer to industrial processes at near molten temperatures. Do you have any resources that cite this as happening at lower temps?
        $endgroup$
        – Nosajimiki
        5 hours ago




        $begingroup$
        All the articles I can find on metal diffusion refer to industrial processes at near molten temperatures. Do you have any resources that cite this as happening at lower temps?
        $endgroup$
        – Nosajimiki
        5 hours ago











        7












        $begingroup$

        Locate your museum on a rocket that is accelerated up to a significant fraction of the speed of light, so that time dilation means that the device you're preserving will only experience a small fraction of the 500 years you're preserving it over.






        share|improve this answer









        $endgroup$

















          7












          $begingroup$

          Locate your museum on a rocket that is accelerated up to a significant fraction of the speed of light, so that time dilation means that the device you're preserving will only experience a small fraction of the 500 years you're preserving it over.






          share|improve this answer









          $endgroup$















            7












            7








            7





            $begingroup$

            Locate your museum on a rocket that is accelerated up to a significant fraction of the speed of light, so that time dilation means that the device you're preserving will only experience a small fraction of the 500 years you're preserving it over.






            share|improve this answer









            $endgroup$



            Locate your museum on a rocket that is accelerated up to a significant fraction of the speed of light, so that time dilation means that the device you're preserving will only experience a small fraction of the 500 years you're preserving it over.







            share|improve this answer












            share|improve this answer



            share|improve this answer










            answered 21 hours ago









            nick012000nick012000

            68517




            68517





















                6












                $begingroup$

                Breaking the device down on a part-by-part basis, and looking at what would be involved in preserving them:



                • Integrated circuits: as far as we know, an unpowered integrated circuit in a controlled environment will last indefinitely.

                • Resistors, solid-state capacitors, and other discrete components: these have the same indefinite lifespan as integrated circuits, and are generally more tolerant of temperature changes.

                • Batteries and electrolytic capacitors: These contain corrosive chemicals that tend to leak on a timescale of decades; lithium-ion batteries additionally tend to destroy themselves if fully discharged. If you're preserving an electronic device in a museum, you're going to need to remove these. When you want to power the device back up, you'll need to install replacements.

                • Circuit traces and wires: these tend to slowly corrode from atmospheric moisture. You'll want to store the device in a dry-nitrogen or argon atmosphere.

                • Plastic wire insulation: the plasticizer tends to evaporate on a timescale of decades. After a century or so, the insulation will be brittle and may be cracking from shrinkage. You'll want to re-insulate the wires or replace them before powering the device back up.

                • Plastic housings: these tend to discolor on a timescale of years to decades. The main cause of this is ultraviolet light, with atmospheric oxygen coming in second. A UV-protected container filled with the dry atmosphere you're using to protect the circuit traces will greatly slow the discoloration, but won't stop it entirely.

                • LCD screens: these are vulnerable to excessive heat or cold, and it's likely that UV light will degrade the dyes that give them the ability to display color. The same temperature and UV protection you're using to preserve other parts should be sufficient to protect them as well.

                • CRT screens: these depend on a vacuum inside the screen to function. Depending on the quality of manufacture, they may leak to the point of unusability over the course of 500 years or so. You may need to re-establish the vacuum before powering the device back up, which requires specialized equipment.

                • Flash/EEPROM memory: the data on these is susceptible to charge leakage on a timescale of decades to centuries. You can reduce the rate of data loss by cooling the device, but the need to avoid freezing the LCD means you can't cool far enough to get a 500-year lifespan. You're going to need to store the data on some more durable medium and re-write it before powering the device back up.

                • Hard drives: the lubrication on the bearings tends to stiffen up on a timescale of years. You'll need to clean and re-lubricate them before powering the device back up, and you'll need a cleanroom to do it in.

                There's no way to preserve an electronic device for 500 years in a way that permits immediate re-powering at any time. A museum would, however, be able to preserve one that only requires relatively minor maintenance before using, and the techniques involved are ones that museums commonly employ.






                share|improve this answer









                $endgroup$

















                  6












                  $begingroup$

                  Breaking the device down on a part-by-part basis, and looking at what would be involved in preserving them:



                  • Integrated circuits: as far as we know, an unpowered integrated circuit in a controlled environment will last indefinitely.

                  • Resistors, solid-state capacitors, and other discrete components: these have the same indefinite lifespan as integrated circuits, and are generally more tolerant of temperature changes.

                  • Batteries and electrolytic capacitors: These contain corrosive chemicals that tend to leak on a timescale of decades; lithium-ion batteries additionally tend to destroy themselves if fully discharged. If you're preserving an electronic device in a museum, you're going to need to remove these. When you want to power the device back up, you'll need to install replacements.

                  • Circuit traces and wires: these tend to slowly corrode from atmospheric moisture. You'll want to store the device in a dry-nitrogen or argon atmosphere.

                  • Plastic wire insulation: the plasticizer tends to evaporate on a timescale of decades. After a century or so, the insulation will be brittle and may be cracking from shrinkage. You'll want to re-insulate the wires or replace them before powering the device back up.

                  • Plastic housings: these tend to discolor on a timescale of years to decades. The main cause of this is ultraviolet light, with atmospheric oxygen coming in second. A UV-protected container filled with the dry atmosphere you're using to protect the circuit traces will greatly slow the discoloration, but won't stop it entirely.

                  • LCD screens: these are vulnerable to excessive heat or cold, and it's likely that UV light will degrade the dyes that give them the ability to display color. The same temperature and UV protection you're using to preserve other parts should be sufficient to protect them as well.

                  • CRT screens: these depend on a vacuum inside the screen to function. Depending on the quality of manufacture, they may leak to the point of unusability over the course of 500 years or so. You may need to re-establish the vacuum before powering the device back up, which requires specialized equipment.

                  • Flash/EEPROM memory: the data on these is susceptible to charge leakage on a timescale of decades to centuries. You can reduce the rate of data loss by cooling the device, but the need to avoid freezing the LCD means you can't cool far enough to get a 500-year lifespan. You're going to need to store the data on some more durable medium and re-write it before powering the device back up.

                  • Hard drives: the lubrication on the bearings tends to stiffen up on a timescale of years. You'll need to clean and re-lubricate them before powering the device back up, and you'll need a cleanroom to do it in.

                  There's no way to preserve an electronic device for 500 years in a way that permits immediate re-powering at any time. A museum would, however, be able to preserve one that only requires relatively minor maintenance before using, and the techniques involved are ones that museums commonly employ.






                  share|improve this answer









                  $endgroup$















                    6












                    6








                    6





                    $begingroup$

                    Breaking the device down on a part-by-part basis, and looking at what would be involved in preserving them:



                    • Integrated circuits: as far as we know, an unpowered integrated circuit in a controlled environment will last indefinitely.

                    • Resistors, solid-state capacitors, and other discrete components: these have the same indefinite lifespan as integrated circuits, and are generally more tolerant of temperature changes.

                    • Batteries and electrolytic capacitors: These contain corrosive chemicals that tend to leak on a timescale of decades; lithium-ion batteries additionally tend to destroy themselves if fully discharged. If you're preserving an electronic device in a museum, you're going to need to remove these. When you want to power the device back up, you'll need to install replacements.

                    • Circuit traces and wires: these tend to slowly corrode from atmospheric moisture. You'll want to store the device in a dry-nitrogen or argon atmosphere.

                    • Plastic wire insulation: the plasticizer tends to evaporate on a timescale of decades. After a century or so, the insulation will be brittle and may be cracking from shrinkage. You'll want to re-insulate the wires or replace them before powering the device back up.

                    • Plastic housings: these tend to discolor on a timescale of years to decades. The main cause of this is ultraviolet light, with atmospheric oxygen coming in second. A UV-protected container filled with the dry atmosphere you're using to protect the circuit traces will greatly slow the discoloration, but won't stop it entirely.

                    • LCD screens: these are vulnerable to excessive heat or cold, and it's likely that UV light will degrade the dyes that give them the ability to display color. The same temperature and UV protection you're using to preserve other parts should be sufficient to protect them as well.

                    • CRT screens: these depend on a vacuum inside the screen to function. Depending on the quality of manufacture, they may leak to the point of unusability over the course of 500 years or so. You may need to re-establish the vacuum before powering the device back up, which requires specialized equipment.

                    • Flash/EEPROM memory: the data on these is susceptible to charge leakage on a timescale of decades to centuries. You can reduce the rate of data loss by cooling the device, but the need to avoid freezing the LCD means you can't cool far enough to get a 500-year lifespan. You're going to need to store the data on some more durable medium and re-write it before powering the device back up.

                    • Hard drives: the lubrication on the bearings tends to stiffen up on a timescale of years. You'll need to clean and re-lubricate them before powering the device back up, and you'll need a cleanroom to do it in.

                    There's no way to preserve an electronic device for 500 years in a way that permits immediate re-powering at any time. A museum would, however, be able to preserve one that only requires relatively minor maintenance before using, and the techniques involved are ones that museums commonly employ.






                    share|improve this answer









                    $endgroup$



                    Breaking the device down on a part-by-part basis, and looking at what would be involved in preserving them:



                    • Integrated circuits: as far as we know, an unpowered integrated circuit in a controlled environment will last indefinitely.

                    • Resistors, solid-state capacitors, and other discrete components: these have the same indefinite lifespan as integrated circuits, and are generally more tolerant of temperature changes.

                    • Batteries and electrolytic capacitors: These contain corrosive chemicals that tend to leak on a timescale of decades; lithium-ion batteries additionally tend to destroy themselves if fully discharged. If you're preserving an electronic device in a museum, you're going to need to remove these. When you want to power the device back up, you'll need to install replacements.

                    • Circuit traces and wires: these tend to slowly corrode from atmospheric moisture. You'll want to store the device in a dry-nitrogen or argon atmosphere.

                    • Plastic wire insulation: the plasticizer tends to evaporate on a timescale of decades. After a century or so, the insulation will be brittle and may be cracking from shrinkage. You'll want to re-insulate the wires or replace them before powering the device back up.

                    • Plastic housings: these tend to discolor on a timescale of years to decades. The main cause of this is ultraviolet light, with atmospheric oxygen coming in second. A UV-protected container filled with the dry atmosphere you're using to protect the circuit traces will greatly slow the discoloration, but won't stop it entirely.

                    • LCD screens: these are vulnerable to excessive heat or cold, and it's likely that UV light will degrade the dyes that give them the ability to display color. The same temperature and UV protection you're using to preserve other parts should be sufficient to protect them as well.

                    • CRT screens: these depend on a vacuum inside the screen to function. Depending on the quality of manufacture, they may leak to the point of unusability over the course of 500 years or so. You may need to re-establish the vacuum before powering the device back up, which requires specialized equipment.

                    • Flash/EEPROM memory: the data on these is susceptible to charge leakage on a timescale of decades to centuries. You can reduce the rate of data loss by cooling the device, but the need to avoid freezing the LCD means you can't cool far enough to get a 500-year lifespan. You're going to need to store the data on some more durable medium and re-write it before powering the device back up.

                    • Hard drives: the lubrication on the bearings tends to stiffen up on a timescale of years. You'll need to clean and re-lubricate them before powering the device back up, and you'll need a cleanroom to do it in.

                    There's no way to preserve an electronic device for 500 years in a way that permits immediate re-powering at any time. A museum would, however, be able to preserve one that only requires relatively minor maintenance before using, and the techniques involved are ones that museums commonly employ.







                    share|improve this answer












                    share|improve this answer



                    share|improve this answer










                    answered 22 hours ago









                    MarkMark

                    13.3k3165




                    13.3k3165





















                        5












                        $begingroup$

                        If powered down, electronics can last as long as they don't take physical harm, with the exception of batteries and the bearings in moving parts like fans or platter hard drives.



                        Batteries, sad to say, can't be made to last that long -- or at least the kind that are useful for portable devices like tablets,. notebooks, and smart phones. There's a type of rechargeable battery that has been shown to last a century, and can likely last much longer than that -- the Edison iron battery -- but they have rather poor energy density. In English, that means a battery that can run a tablet for four or five hours continuously is closer in size to a car battery than the little lithium wafer cells our tablets have now.



                        Nothing would keep those devices from working on external power, however, so it might be worth storing dry-charged lead-acid batteries, which can last indefinitely before filling with acid.






                        share|improve this answer









                        $endgroup$








                        • 2




                          $begingroup$
                          Capacitors and Resistors also degrade when not in use, and present day commercial capacitors likely won't last a century.
                          $endgroup$
                          – GOATNine
                          yesterday






                        • 1




                          $begingroup$
                          @GOATNine That's true of electrolytics, for certain, but as far as I know not for ceramic, tantalum, or similar solid-state capacitors. There are few if any electrolytics on the surface-mount circuit boards of a modern phone or tablet. I don't know of a mechanism whereby SMD resistors can deteriorate when not powered.
                          $endgroup$
                          – Zeiss Ikon
                          yesterday






                        • 1




                          $begingroup$
                          That is a good point in normal storage scenarios, but Capacitors and Resistors degrade due to corrosion and temperature. If you store them in a cool, dry, sealed system, they should only corrode to the point that the environment has contaminates to degrade them with extending their life indefinitely to the point of how well you sealed them.
                          $endgroup$
                          – Nosajimiki
                          yesterday







                        • 2




                          $begingroup$
                          @Nosajimiki Argon purge and constant-temp storage at cool room temp should do it. Might require an archival disassembly and cleaning to ensure there's no (for instance) solder flux left in the device to provide those contaminants.
                          $endgroup$
                          – Zeiss Ikon
                          yesterday















                        5












                        $begingroup$

                        If powered down, electronics can last as long as they don't take physical harm, with the exception of batteries and the bearings in moving parts like fans or platter hard drives.



                        Batteries, sad to say, can't be made to last that long -- or at least the kind that are useful for portable devices like tablets,. notebooks, and smart phones. There's a type of rechargeable battery that has been shown to last a century, and can likely last much longer than that -- the Edison iron battery -- but they have rather poor energy density. In English, that means a battery that can run a tablet for four or five hours continuously is closer in size to a car battery than the little lithium wafer cells our tablets have now.



                        Nothing would keep those devices from working on external power, however, so it might be worth storing dry-charged lead-acid batteries, which can last indefinitely before filling with acid.






                        share|improve this answer









                        $endgroup$








                        • 2




                          $begingroup$
                          Capacitors and Resistors also degrade when not in use, and present day commercial capacitors likely won't last a century.
                          $endgroup$
                          – GOATNine
                          yesterday






                        • 1




                          $begingroup$
                          @GOATNine That's true of electrolytics, for certain, but as far as I know not for ceramic, tantalum, or similar solid-state capacitors. There are few if any electrolytics on the surface-mount circuit boards of a modern phone or tablet. I don't know of a mechanism whereby SMD resistors can deteriorate when not powered.
                          $endgroup$
                          – Zeiss Ikon
                          yesterday






                        • 1




                          $begingroup$
                          That is a good point in normal storage scenarios, but Capacitors and Resistors degrade due to corrosion and temperature. If you store them in a cool, dry, sealed system, they should only corrode to the point that the environment has contaminates to degrade them with extending their life indefinitely to the point of how well you sealed them.
                          $endgroup$
                          – Nosajimiki
                          yesterday







                        • 2




                          $begingroup$
                          @Nosajimiki Argon purge and constant-temp storage at cool room temp should do it. Might require an archival disassembly and cleaning to ensure there's no (for instance) solder flux left in the device to provide those contaminants.
                          $endgroup$
                          – Zeiss Ikon
                          yesterday













                        5












                        5








                        5





                        $begingroup$

                        If powered down, electronics can last as long as they don't take physical harm, with the exception of batteries and the bearings in moving parts like fans or platter hard drives.



                        Batteries, sad to say, can't be made to last that long -- or at least the kind that are useful for portable devices like tablets,. notebooks, and smart phones. There's a type of rechargeable battery that has been shown to last a century, and can likely last much longer than that -- the Edison iron battery -- but they have rather poor energy density. In English, that means a battery that can run a tablet for four or five hours continuously is closer in size to a car battery than the little lithium wafer cells our tablets have now.



                        Nothing would keep those devices from working on external power, however, so it might be worth storing dry-charged lead-acid batteries, which can last indefinitely before filling with acid.






                        share|improve this answer









                        $endgroup$



                        If powered down, electronics can last as long as they don't take physical harm, with the exception of batteries and the bearings in moving parts like fans or platter hard drives.



                        Batteries, sad to say, can't be made to last that long -- or at least the kind that are useful for portable devices like tablets,. notebooks, and smart phones. There's a type of rechargeable battery that has been shown to last a century, and can likely last much longer than that -- the Edison iron battery -- but they have rather poor energy density. In English, that means a battery that can run a tablet for four or five hours continuously is closer in size to a car battery than the little lithium wafer cells our tablets have now.



                        Nothing would keep those devices from working on external power, however, so it might be worth storing dry-charged lead-acid batteries, which can last indefinitely before filling with acid.







                        share|improve this answer












                        share|improve this answer



                        share|improve this answer










                        answered yesterday









                        Zeiss IkonZeiss Ikon

                        1,948115




                        1,948115







                        • 2




                          $begingroup$
                          Capacitors and Resistors also degrade when not in use, and present day commercial capacitors likely won't last a century.
                          $endgroup$
                          – GOATNine
                          yesterday






                        • 1




                          $begingroup$
                          @GOATNine That's true of electrolytics, for certain, but as far as I know not for ceramic, tantalum, or similar solid-state capacitors. There are few if any electrolytics on the surface-mount circuit boards of a modern phone or tablet. I don't know of a mechanism whereby SMD resistors can deteriorate when not powered.
                          $endgroup$
                          – Zeiss Ikon
                          yesterday






                        • 1




                          $begingroup$
                          That is a good point in normal storage scenarios, but Capacitors and Resistors degrade due to corrosion and temperature. If you store them in a cool, dry, sealed system, they should only corrode to the point that the environment has contaminates to degrade them with extending their life indefinitely to the point of how well you sealed them.
                          $endgroup$
                          – Nosajimiki
                          yesterday







                        • 2




                          $begingroup$
                          @Nosajimiki Argon purge and constant-temp storage at cool room temp should do it. Might require an archival disassembly and cleaning to ensure there's no (for instance) solder flux left in the device to provide those contaminants.
                          $endgroup$
                          – Zeiss Ikon
                          yesterday












                        • 2




                          $begingroup$
                          Capacitors and Resistors also degrade when not in use, and present day commercial capacitors likely won't last a century.
                          $endgroup$
                          – GOATNine
                          yesterday






                        • 1




                          $begingroup$
                          @GOATNine That's true of electrolytics, for certain, but as far as I know not for ceramic, tantalum, or similar solid-state capacitors. There are few if any electrolytics on the surface-mount circuit boards of a modern phone or tablet. I don't know of a mechanism whereby SMD resistors can deteriorate when not powered.
                          $endgroup$
                          – Zeiss Ikon
                          yesterday






                        • 1




                          $begingroup$
                          That is a good point in normal storage scenarios, but Capacitors and Resistors degrade due to corrosion and temperature. If you store them in a cool, dry, sealed system, they should only corrode to the point that the environment has contaminates to degrade them with extending their life indefinitely to the point of how well you sealed them.
                          $endgroup$
                          – Nosajimiki
                          yesterday







                        • 2




                          $begingroup$
                          @Nosajimiki Argon purge and constant-temp storage at cool room temp should do it. Might require an archival disassembly and cleaning to ensure there's no (for instance) solder flux left in the device to provide those contaminants.
                          $endgroup$
                          – Zeiss Ikon
                          yesterday







                        2




                        2




                        $begingroup$
                        Capacitors and Resistors also degrade when not in use, and present day commercial capacitors likely won't last a century.
                        $endgroup$
                        – GOATNine
                        yesterday




                        $begingroup$
                        Capacitors and Resistors also degrade when not in use, and present day commercial capacitors likely won't last a century.
                        $endgroup$
                        – GOATNine
                        yesterday




                        1




                        1




                        $begingroup$
                        @GOATNine That's true of electrolytics, for certain, but as far as I know not for ceramic, tantalum, or similar solid-state capacitors. There are few if any electrolytics on the surface-mount circuit boards of a modern phone or tablet. I don't know of a mechanism whereby SMD resistors can deteriorate when not powered.
                        $endgroup$
                        – Zeiss Ikon
                        yesterday




                        $begingroup$
                        @GOATNine That's true of electrolytics, for certain, but as far as I know not for ceramic, tantalum, or similar solid-state capacitors. There are few if any electrolytics on the surface-mount circuit boards of a modern phone or tablet. I don't know of a mechanism whereby SMD resistors can deteriorate when not powered.
                        $endgroup$
                        – Zeiss Ikon
                        yesterday




                        1




                        1




                        $begingroup$
                        That is a good point in normal storage scenarios, but Capacitors and Resistors degrade due to corrosion and temperature. If you store them in a cool, dry, sealed system, they should only corrode to the point that the environment has contaminates to degrade them with extending their life indefinitely to the point of how well you sealed them.
                        $endgroup$
                        – Nosajimiki
                        yesterday





                        $begingroup$
                        That is a good point in normal storage scenarios, but Capacitors and Resistors degrade due to corrosion and temperature. If you store them in a cool, dry, sealed system, they should only corrode to the point that the environment has contaminates to degrade them with extending their life indefinitely to the point of how well you sealed them.
                        $endgroup$
                        – Nosajimiki
                        yesterday





                        2




                        2




                        $begingroup$
                        @Nosajimiki Argon purge and constant-temp storage at cool room temp should do it. Might require an archival disassembly and cleaning to ensure there's no (for instance) solder flux left in the device to provide those contaminants.
                        $endgroup$
                        – Zeiss Ikon
                        yesterday




                        $begingroup$
                        @Nosajimiki Argon purge and constant-temp storage at cool room temp should do it. Might require an archival disassembly and cleaning to ensure there's no (for instance) solder flux left in the device to provide those contaminants.
                        $endgroup$
                        – Zeiss Ikon
                        yesterday











                        3












                        $begingroup$

                        In all honesty, electronics are incredibly difficult to preserve, due to the very nature of their components.



                        Particularly, batteries have a defined shelf life, even when unused. Capacitors and resistors (key components in most electronics) also have a limited lifespan, though they may degrade much more slowly if not in use. Storage media (such as flash memory or hard disks) have a limited life cycle related to the number of read/write operations performed. To have the electronics active, even just displaying a static screen, would likely severely limit the lifespan of any electronic device.



                        The solution for museum displays would necessarily be restoration/periodic repair. There would have to exist a manufacturing process to produce replacement parts for the duration of the displays existence in the museum.






                        share|improve this answer









                        $endgroup$








                        • 3




                          $begingroup$
                          Resistors aren't usually a life-limited part. Electrolytic capacitors, though, definitely are!
                          $endgroup$
                          – Shalvenay
                          yesterday















                        3












                        $begingroup$

                        In all honesty, electronics are incredibly difficult to preserve, due to the very nature of their components.



                        Particularly, batteries have a defined shelf life, even when unused. Capacitors and resistors (key components in most electronics) also have a limited lifespan, though they may degrade much more slowly if not in use. Storage media (such as flash memory or hard disks) have a limited life cycle related to the number of read/write operations performed. To have the electronics active, even just displaying a static screen, would likely severely limit the lifespan of any electronic device.



                        The solution for museum displays would necessarily be restoration/periodic repair. There would have to exist a manufacturing process to produce replacement parts for the duration of the displays existence in the museum.






                        share|improve this answer









                        $endgroup$








                        • 3




                          $begingroup$
                          Resistors aren't usually a life-limited part. Electrolytic capacitors, though, definitely are!
                          $endgroup$
                          – Shalvenay
                          yesterday













                        3












                        3








                        3





                        $begingroup$

                        In all honesty, electronics are incredibly difficult to preserve, due to the very nature of their components.



                        Particularly, batteries have a defined shelf life, even when unused. Capacitors and resistors (key components in most electronics) also have a limited lifespan, though they may degrade much more slowly if not in use. Storage media (such as flash memory or hard disks) have a limited life cycle related to the number of read/write operations performed. To have the electronics active, even just displaying a static screen, would likely severely limit the lifespan of any electronic device.



                        The solution for museum displays would necessarily be restoration/periodic repair. There would have to exist a manufacturing process to produce replacement parts for the duration of the displays existence in the museum.






                        share|improve this answer









                        $endgroup$



                        In all honesty, electronics are incredibly difficult to preserve, due to the very nature of their components.



                        Particularly, batteries have a defined shelf life, even when unused. Capacitors and resistors (key components in most electronics) also have a limited lifespan, though they may degrade much more slowly if not in use. Storage media (such as flash memory or hard disks) have a limited life cycle related to the number of read/write operations performed. To have the electronics active, even just displaying a static screen, would likely severely limit the lifespan of any electronic device.



                        The solution for museum displays would necessarily be restoration/periodic repair. There would have to exist a manufacturing process to produce replacement parts for the duration of the displays existence in the museum.







                        share|improve this answer












                        share|improve this answer



                        share|improve this answer










                        answered yesterday









                        GOATNineGOATNine

                        842213




                        842213







                        • 3




                          $begingroup$
                          Resistors aren't usually a life-limited part. Electrolytic capacitors, though, definitely are!
                          $endgroup$
                          – Shalvenay
                          yesterday












                        • 3




                          $begingroup$
                          Resistors aren't usually a life-limited part. Electrolytic capacitors, though, definitely are!
                          $endgroup$
                          – Shalvenay
                          yesterday







                        3




                        3




                        $begingroup$
                        Resistors aren't usually a life-limited part. Electrolytic capacitors, though, definitely are!
                        $endgroup$
                        – Shalvenay
                        yesterday




                        $begingroup$
                        Resistors aren't usually a life-limited part. Electrolytic capacitors, though, definitely are!
                        $endgroup$
                        – Shalvenay
                        yesterday











                        3












                        $begingroup$

                        Preserving electronics for 500 years in working order dictates that they not be used at all in that 500 years.



                        Copper, in particular, gets brittle as current passes through it and it heats up, and the copper traces in circuit boards even more so. The resistance of the copper joints also goes up.



                        Electromigration is also a problem.



                        Unfortunately, the only way you will know if they still work is to turn them on, but every time you turn them on, you increase the chances that next time they will not work.






                        share|improve this answer









                        $endgroup$

















                          3












                          $begingroup$

                          Preserving electronics for 500 years in working order dictates that they not be used at all in that 500 years.



                          Copper, in particular, gets brittle as current passes through it and it heats up, and the copper traces in circuit boards even more so. The resistance of the copper joints also goes up.



                          Electromigration is also a problem.



                          Unfortunately, the only way you will know if they still work is to turn them on, but every time you turn them on, you increase the chances that next time they will not work.






                          share|improve this answer









                          $endgroup$















                            3












                            3








                            3





                            $begingroup$

                            Preserving electronics for 500 years in working order dictates that they not be used at all in that 500 years.



                            Copper, in particular, gets brittle as current passes through it and it heats up, and the copper traces in circuit boards even more so. The resistance of the copper joints also goes up.



                            Electromigration is also a problem.



                            Unfortunately, the only way you will know if they still work is to turn them on, but every time you turn them on, you increase the chances that next time they will not work.






                            share|improve this answer









                            $endgroup$



                            Preserving electronics for 500 years in working order dictates that they not be used at all in that 500 years.



                            Copper, in particular, gets brittle as current passes through it and it heats up, and the copper traces in circuit boards even more so. The resistance of the copper joints also goes up.



                            Electromigration is also a problem.



                            Unfortunately, the only way you will know if they still work is to turn them on, but every time you turn them on, you increase the chances that next time they will not work.







                            share|improve this answer












                            share|improve this answer



                            share|improve this answer










                            answered yesterday









                            Justin Thyme the SecondJustin Thyme the Second

                            8057




                            8057





















                                3












                                $begingroup$

                                Maybe you can?



                                LSemi gives a good list of the problems, but may be too pessimistic with "you can't".



                                Most of the problems can be arrested by cooling the device down close to absolute zero. In physics jargon, the decay processes are thermally activated. The question is whether you can get an electronic device down to that temperature without causing irreparable damage while cooling it or thawing it (exactly the same problem as with cryo-sleep for people in sublight starships).



                                Electronics is generally tougher than biology.



                                The obvious exception is data stored as packets of electrons in flash memory and similar. It relies on regularly being powered up so it can check for and repair any bit-rot while powered down. Charge will not leak away because of thermal effects close to absolute zero, but is still subject to corruption by radiation such as cosmic rays. This will accumulate with time, and reach a point where the data is irretrievably corrupted after thawing it out.



                                Some electrolytic capacitors contain a water-based electrolyte paste. If this expands as it freezes, the capacitor will be destroyed. Most quality motherboards these days advertise solid capacitors, which may be more freezable. The big capacitors in power supplies aren't of this type, though. Electrolytes in batteries, similar questions.



                                I'd guess that you can cryo-freeze and thaw motherboards, processors, SSDs and probably displays and hard drives (they can go well below freezing point without being destroyed, look at the minimum storage temperatures specified for military grade HDs). Petroleum lubricants do not expand on freezing. About liquid crystals in displays, I would hope that a thin film of liquid in a somewhat flexible container (poke your screen!) would freeze OK.



                                Freeze-thaw cycles will tend to cause soldered joints to fail, but here we are talking just about one big freeze and one thaw. The frequent heating and cooling of a computer turned on and off daily is probably more damaging.



                                A museum might well buy several of each item it wanted to preserve. One for display, which would become non-functional within decades. Others, for cryo-preservation, so at least one of each component has a good chance of survival. Power supplies and batteries have a simple specification (voltages and currents required, ATX or similar power button logic), so as long as technological civilisation persists, the simplest preservation answer is to reconstruct a power supply at the time one wanted to thaw and power up the preserved technology. If civilisation fails, so does cryo-preservation.



                                BTW This sounds like a fun bit of research for anyone with access to a very low temperature freezer or lots of liquid nitrogen.






                                share|improve this answer









                                $endgroup$












                                • $begingroup$
                                  Electrolytic capacitors are still used in the power supplies and power filtering circuits. Electrolytics are still the go-to capacitors for large capacitance applications.
                                  $endgroup$
                                  – Justin Thyme the Second
                                  4 hours ago










                                • $begingroup$
                                  The problem with freezing is differential thermal expansion. If you go clear down to absolute zero, you're likely to see things like traces flaking off of circuit boards and integrated circuit packages splitting. Additionally, plastic will become so brittle it'll shatter at a touch, and any glue will lose its adhesive properties. Look up videos of people sticking things in liquid nitrogen for more examples of the problems you'd face.
                                  $endgroup$
                                  – Mark
                                  3 hours ago
















                                3












                                $begingroup$

                                Maybe you can?



                                LSemi gives a good list of the problems, but may be too pessimistic with "you can't".



                                Most of the problems can be arrested by cooling the device down close to absolute zero. In physics jargon, the decay processes are thermally activated. The question is whether you can get an electronic device down to that temperature without causing irreparable damage while cooling it or thawing it (exactly the same problem as with cryo-sleep for people in sublight starships).



                                Electronics is generally tougher than biology.



                                The obvious exception is data stored as packets of electrons in flash memory and similar. It relies on regularly being powered up so it can check for and repair any bit-rot while powered down. Charge will not leak away because of thermal effects close to absolute zero, but is still subject to corruption by radiation such as cosmic rays. This will accumulate with time, and reach a point where the data is irretrievably corrupted after thawing it out.



                                Some electrolytic capacitors contain a water-based electrolyte paste. If this expands as it freezes, the capacitor will be destroyed. Most quality motherboards these days advertise solid capacitors, which may be more freezable. The big capacitors in power supplies aren't of this type, though. Electrolytes in batteries, similar questions.



                                I'd guess that you can cryo-freeze and thaw motherboards, processors, SSDs and probably displays and hard drives (they can go well below freezing point without being destroyed, look at the minimum storage temperatures specified for military grade HDs). Petroleum lubricants do not expand on freezing. About liquid crystals in displays, I would hope that a thin film of liquid in a somewhat flexible container (poke your screen!) would freeze OK.



                                Freeze-thaw cycles will tend to cause soldered joints to fail, but here we are talking just about one big freeze and one thaw. The frequent heating and cooling of a computer turned on and off daily is probably more damaging.



                                A museum might well buy several of each item it wanted to preserve. One for display, which would become non-functional within decades. Others, for cryo-preservation, so at least one of each component has a good chance of survival. Power supplies and batteries have a simple specification (voltages and currents required, ATX or similar power button logic), so as long as technological civilisation persists, the simplest preservation answer is to reconstruct a power supply at the time one wanted to thaw and power up the preserved technology. If civilisation fails, so does cryo-preservation.



                                BTW This sounds like a fun bit of research for anyone with access to a very low temperature freezer or lots of liquid nitrogen.






                                share|improve this answer









                                $endgroup$












                                • $begingroup$
                                  Electrolytic capacitors are still used in the power supplies and power filtering circuits. Electrolytics are still the go-to capacitors for large capacitance applications.
                                  $endgroup$
                                  – Justin Thyme the Second
                                  4 hours ago










                                • $begingroup$
                                  The problem with freezing is differential thermal expansion. If you go clear down to absolute zero, you're likely to see things like traces flaking off of circuit boards and integrated circuit packages splitting. Additionally, plastic will become so brittle it'll shatter at a touch, and any glue will lose its adhesive properties. Look up videos of people sticking things in liquid nitrogen for more examples of the problems you'd face.
                                  $endgroup$
                                  – Mark
                                  3 hours ago














                                3












                                3








                                3





                                $begingroup$

                                Maybe you can?



                                LSemi gives a good list of the problems, but may be too pessimistic with "you can't".



                                Most of the problems can be arrested by cooling the device down close to absolute zero. In physics jargon, the decay processes are thermally activated. The question is whether you can get an electronic device down to that temperature without causing irreparable damage while cooling it or thawing it (exactly the same problem as with cryo-sleep for people in sublight starships).



                                Electronics is generally tougher than biology.



                                The obvious exception is data stored as packets of electrons in flash memory and similar. It relies on regularly being powered up so it can check for and repair any bit-rot while powered down. Charge will not leak away because of thermal effects close to absolute zero, but is still subject to corruption by radiation such as cosmic rays. This will accumulate with time, and reach a point where the data is irretrievably corrupted after thawing it out.



                                Some electrolytic capacitors contain a water-based electrolyte paste. If this expands as it freezes, the capacitor will be destroyed. Most quality motherboards these days advertise solid capacitors, which may be more freezable. The big capacitors in power supplies aren't of this type, though. Electrolytes in batteries, similar questions.



                                I'd guess that you can cryo-freeze and thaw motherboards, processors, SSDs and probably displays and hard drives (they can go well below freezing point without being destroyed, look at the minimum storage temperatures specified for military grade HDs). Petroleum lubricants do not expand on freezing. About liquid crystals in displays, I would hope that a thin film of liquid in a somewhat flexible container (poke your screen!) would freeze OK.



                                Freeze-thaw cycles will tend to cause soldered joints to fail, but here we are talking just about one big freeze and one thaw. The frequent heating and cooling of a computer turned on and off daily is probably more damaging.



                                A museum might well buy several of each item it wanted to preserve. One for display, which would become non-functional within decades. Others, for cryo-preservation, so at least one of each component has a good chance of survival. Power supplies and batteries have a simple specification (voltages and currents required, ATX or similar power button logic), so as long as technological civilisation persists, the simplest preservation answer is to reconstruct a power supply at the time one wanted to thaw and power up the preserved technology. If civilisation fails, so does cryo-preservation.



                                BTW This sounds like a fun bit of research for anyone with access to a very low temperature freezer or lots of liquid nitrogen.






                                share|improve this answer









                                $endgroup$



                                Maybe you can?



                                LSemi gives a good list of the problems, but may be too pessimistic with "you can't".



                                Most of the problems can be arrested by cooling the device down close to absolute zero. In physics jargon, the decay processes are thermally activated. The question is whether you can get an electronic device down to that temperature without causing irreparable damage while cooling it or thawing it (exactly the same problem as with cryo-sleep for people in sublight starships).



                                Electronics is generally tougher than biology.



                                The obvious exception is data stored as packets of electrons in flash memory and similar. It relies on regularly being powered up so it can check for and repair any bit-rot while powered down. Charge will not leak away because of thermal effects close to absolute zero, but is still subject to corruption by radiation such as cosmic rays. This will accumulate with time, and reach a point where the data is irretrievably corrupted after thawing it out.



                                Some electrolytic capacitors contain a water-based electrolyte paste. If this expands as it freezes, the capacitor will be destroyed. Most quality motherboards these days advertise solid capacitors, which may be more freezable. The big capacitors in power supplies aren't of this type, though. Electrolytes in batteries, similar questions.



                                I'd guess that you can cryo-freeze and thaw motherboards, processors, SSDs and probably displays and hard drives (they can go well below freezing point without being destroyed, look at the minimum storage temperatures specified for military grade HDs). Petroleum lubricants do not expand on freezing. About liquid crystals in displays, I would hope that a thin film of liquid in a somewhat flexible container (poke your screen!) would freeze OK.



                                Freeze-thaw cycles will tend to cause soldered joints to fail, but here we are talking just about one big freeze and one thaw. The frequent heating and cooling of a computer turned on and off daily is probably more damaging.



                                A museum might well buy several of each item it wanted to preserve. One for display, which would become non-functional within decades. Others, for cryo-preservation, so at least one of each component has a good chance of survival. Power supplies and batteries have a simple specification (voltages and currents required, ATX or similar power button logic), so as long as technological civilisation persists, the simplest preservation answer is to reconstruct a power supply at the time one wanted to thaw and power up the preserved technology. If civilisation fails, so does cryo-preservation.



                                BTW This sounds like a fun bit of research for anyone with access to a very low temperature freezer or lots of liquid nitrogen.







                                share|improve this answer












                                share|improve this answer



                                share|improve this answer










                                answered 14 hours ago









                                nigel222nigel222

                                8,8411226




                                8,8411226











                                • $begingroup$
                                  Electrolytic capacitors are still used in the power supplies and power filtering circuits. Electrolytics are still the go-to capacitors for large capacitance applications.
                                  $endgroup$
                                  – Justin Thyme the Second
                                  4 hours ago










                                • $begingroup$
                                  The problem with freezing is differential thermal expansion. If you go clear down to absolute zero, you're likely to see things like traces flaking off of circuit boards and integrated circuit packages splitting. Additionally, plastic will become so brittle it'll shatter at a touch, and any glue will lose its adhesive properties. Look up videos of people sticking things in liquid nitrogen for more examples of the problems you'd face.
                                  $endgroup$
                                  – Mark
                                  3 hours ago

















                                • $begingroup$
                                  Electrolytic capacitors are still used in the power supplies and power filtering circuits. Electrolytics are still the go-to capacitors for large capacitance applications.
                                  $endgroup$
                                  – Justin Thyme the Second
                                  4 hours ago










                                • $begingroup$
                                  The problem with freezing is differential thermal expansion. If you go clear down to absolute zero, you're likely to see things like traces flaking off of circuit boards and integrated circuit packages splitting. Additionally, plastic will become so brittle it'll shatter at a touch, and any glue will lose its adhesive properties. Look up videos of people sticking things in liquid nitrogen for more examples of the problems you'd face.
                                  $endgroup$
                                  – Mark
                                  3 hours ago
















                                $begingroup$
                                Electrolytic capacitors are still used in the power supplies and power filtering circuits. Electrolytics are still the go-to capacitors for large capacitance applications.
                                $endgroup$
                                – Justin Thyme the Second
                                4 hours ago




                                $begingroup$
                                Electrolytic capacitors are still used in the power supplies and power filtering circuits. Electrolytics are still the go-to capacitors for large capacitance applications.
                                $endgroup$
                                – Justin Thyme the Second
                                4 hours ago












                                $begingroup$
                                The problem with freezing is differential thermal expansion. If you go clear down to absolute zero, you're likely to see things like traces flaking off of circuit boards and integrated circuit packages splitting. Additionally, plastic will become so brittle it'll shatter at a touch, and any glue will lose its adhesive properties. Look up videos of people sticking things in liquid nitrogen for more examples of the problems you'd face.
                                $endgroup$
                                – Mark
                                3 hours ago





                                $begingroup$
                                The problem with freezing is differential thermal expansion. If you go clear down to absolute zero, you're likely to see things like traces flaking off of circuit boards and integrated circuit packages splitting. Additionally, plastic will become so brittle it'll shatter at a touch, and any glue will lose its adhesive properties. Look up videos of people sticking things in liquid nitrogen for more examples of the problems you'd face.
                                $endgroup$
                                – Mark
                                3 hours ago












                                0












                                $begingroup$

                                I think the thing to do would be to separate the software and electronic function from the mechanical interaction. That is, you could have museum visitors hold and play with dead or dummy iPads that do not turn on, and separately interact with a virtual machine on a touch screen if they wanted to "use" it. This is more or less done today as I've seen multiple websites running vintage operating systems where you can relive the joys of Windows 95 or 3.1.






                                share|improve this answer









                                $endgroup$








                                • 4




                                  $begingroup$
                                  "Oh, mommy, mooomy, mommmmy, can I interface with Windows 95?" "No, dear, I would rather you try the 'self-mutilate-by-body-piercing' exhibit, far less traumatic."
                                  $endgroup$
                                  – Justin Thyme the Second
                                  4 hours ago
















                                0












                                $begingroup$

                                I think the thing to do would be to separate the software and electronic function from the mechanical interaction. That is, you could have museum visitors hold and play with dead or dummy iPads that do not turn on, and separately interact with a virtual machine on a touch screen if they wanted to "use" it. This is more or less done today as I've seen multiple websites running vintage operating systems where you can relive the joys of Windows 95 or 3.1.






                                share|improve this answer









                                $endgroup$








                                • 4




                                  $begingroup$
                                  "Oh, mommy, mooomy, mommmmy, can I interface with Windows 95?" "No, dear, I would rather you try the 'self-mutilate-by-body-piercing' exhibit, far less traumatic."
                                  $endgroup$
                                  – Justin Thyme the Second
                                  4 hours ago














                                0












                                0








                                0





                                $begingroup$

                                I think the thing to do would be to separate the software and electronic function from the mechanical interaction. That is, you could have museum visitors hold and play with dead or dummy iPads that do not turn on, and separately interact with a virtual machine on a touch screen if they wanted to "use" it. This is more or less done today as I've seen multiple websites running vintage operating systems where you can relive the joys of Windows 95 or 3.1.






                                share|improve this answer









                                $endgroup$



                                I think the thing to do would be to separate the software and electronic function from the mechanical interaction. That is, you could have museum visitors hold and play with dead or dummy iPads that do not turn on, and separately interact with a virtual machine on a touch screen if they wanted to "use" it. This is more or less done today as I've seen multiple websites running vintage operating systems where you can relive the joys of Windows 95 or 3.1.







                                share|improve this answer












                                share|improve this answer



                                share|improve this answer










                                answered 10 hours ago









                                DaveDave

                                28915




                                28915







                                • 4




                                  $begingroup$
                                  "Oh, mommy, mooomy, mommmmy, can I interface with Windows 95?" "No, dear, I would rather you try the 'self-mutilate-by-body-piercing' exhibit, far less traumatic."
                                  $endgroup$
                                  – Justin Thyme the Second
                                  4 hours ago













                                • 4




                                  $begingroup$
                                  "Oh, mommy, mooomy, mommmmy, can I interface with Windows 95?" "No, dear, I would rather you try the 'self-mutilate-by-body-piercing' exhibit, far less traumatic."
                                  $endgroup$
                                  – Justin Thyme the Second
                                  4 hours ago








                                4




                                4




                                $begingroup$
                                "Oh, mommy, mooomy, mommmmy, can I interface with Windows 95?" "No, dear, I would rather you try the 'self-mutilate-by-body-piercing' exhibit, far less traumatic."
                                $endgroup$
                                – Justin Thyme the Second
                                4 hours ago





                                $begingroup$
                                "Oh, mommy, mooomy, mommmmy, can I interface with Windows 95?" "No, dear, I would rather you try the 'self-mutilate-by-body-piercing' exhibit, far less traumatic."
                                $endgroup$
                                – Justin Thyme the Second
                                4 hours ago












                                0












                                $begingroup$

                                You want to look into the "clock of the long now" 10,000 year clock project at http://longnow.org/.



                                They've done all kinds of work on this subject.






                                share|improve this answer








                                New contributor




                                James is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                                Check out our Code of Conduct.






                                $endgroup$












                                • $begingroup$
                                  Welcome to Worldbuilding.SE! We're glad you could join us! When you have a moment, please click here to learn more about our culture and take our tour. This is a cool idea, but it's a comment, not an answer, and may be deleted.
                                  $endgroup$
                                  – JBH
                                  5 mins ago















                                0












                                $begingroup$

                                You want to look into the "clock of the long now" 10,000 year clock project at http://longnow.org/.



                                They've done all kinds of work on this subject.






                                share|improve this answer








                                New contributor




                                James is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                                Check out our Code of Conduct.






                                $endgroup$












                                • $begingroup$
                                  Welcome to Worldbuilding.SE! We're glad you could join us! When you have a moment, please click here to learn more about our culture and take our tour. This is a cool idea, but it's a comment, not an answer, and may be deleted.
                                  $endgroup$
                                  – JBH
                                  5 mins ago













                                0












                                0








                                0





                                $begingroup$

                                You want to look into the "clock of the long now" 10,000 year clock project at http://longnow.org/.



                                They've done all kinds of work on this subject.






                                share|improve this answer








                                New contributor




                                James is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                                Check out our Code of Conduct.






                                $endgroup$



                                You want to look into the "clock of the long now" 10,000 year clock project at http://longnow.org/.



                                They've done all kinds of work on this subject.







                                share|improve this answer








                                New contributor




                                James is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                                Check out our Code of Conduct.









                                share|improve this answer



                                share|improve this answer






                                New contributor




                                James is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                                Check out our Code of Conduct.









                                answered 24 mins ago









                                JamesJames

                                1




                                1




                                New contributor




                                James is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                                Check out our Code of Conduct.





                                New contributor





                                James is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                                Check out our Code of Conduct.






                                James is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
                                Check out our Code of Conduct.











                                • $begingroup$
                                  Welcome to Worldbuilding.SE! We're glad you could join us! When you have a moment, please click here to learn more about our culture and take our tour. This is a cool idea, but it's a comment, not an answer, and may be deleted.
                                  $endgroup$
                                  – JBH
                                  5 mins ago
















                                • $begingroup$
                                  Welcome to Worldbuilding.SE! We're glad you could join us! When you have a moment, please click here to learn more about our culture and take our tour. This is a cool idea, but it's a comment, not an answer, and may be deleted.
                                  $endgroup$
                                  – JBH
                                  5 mins ago















                                $begingroup$
                                Welcome to Worldbuilding.SE! We're glad you could join us! When you have a moment, please click here to learn more about our culture and take our tour. This is a cool idea, but it's a comment, not an answer, and may be deleted.
                                $endgroup$
                                – JBH
                                5 mins ago




                                $begingroup$
                                Welcome to Worldbuilding.SE! We're glad you could join us! When you have a moment, please click here to learn more about our culture and take our tour. This is a cool idea, but it's a comment, not an answer, and may be deleted.
                                $endgroup$
                                – JBH
                                5 mins ago

















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