Galactic Encyclopedia questions

Have a couple concepts I want to make a thread about. ahem

• The first idea is simple, Wikipedia...scaled up to a intergalactic agent. An encyclopedic network that compiles every known information about every star, easily accessible from Earth to Alpha Centauri to the Andromeda Galaxy. Admittedly is is currently more of a hand wave to explain why certain aspects are somehow relevant.
• the second idea builds off the first. As a logistics cheat, the encyclopedia would run off both Phlebotonum and Genetic Memory, The idea being that humans and their offshoots have installed the database into their very DNA, allowing them access it with the aforementioned Phelebotinum

I want to ask about it as it currently is described above and also one without the phlebotinum, as I feel like the logistics are worth exploring, and also because I want to see about ways of elevating it from HW status into something that is core to the setting like the ramifications of such a system would make it.

Wikipedia stores considerably more information that human DNA - going by this the human genome stores about 1GB of data (I am factoring methylation in) while Wikipedia's articles store 23GB per this. That's without counting page histories and non-article pages.

Add to this that you need to convert between genetic and normal memory. That's a hellaciously complex machine that would need to evolve.

I do also see a potential question in the matter of updating the database: when an entry is added, or removed, or updated, does everyone have their DNA rewritten...?

Or is the database static at this point in history, with no new information being reflected?

The idea is supposed to be the former, but the issues has since dawned on me (freak mutations for starters, as well as the aft memory capacity)

I have to wonder if nanomachines and sufficiently advanced chips (enough to store a terabyte of info each) could help? Or if it's possible to use only specific genomes for specific topics instead of cramming everything into the human genome and the copying that to every instance in the body?

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Oct 17th 2022 at 7:54:19 AM

I suppose that my next question, then, is this: Why not just have it be a chip that slots into a port that everyone is given at birth? Something that can be removed if there's a problem, updated without invasive techniques, and so on.

Good question. I guess the thought either hadn't occurred to me or I somehow though that it was somehow less practical than the Genetic Memory route.

For a static database, and if mutation could somehow be prevented, then genetic memory might actually be more practical: after all, it's self-copying to all descendants.

However, when the database needs updating, or mutation is a potential issue, I would say that an installed-at-a-young-age port that takes a chip of some sort might well be more practical.

(And there might be other approaches to such a database, I imagine!)

Genetic access to some kind of telepathic server comes to mind.

Honestly, with how we're heading for everyone having a smartphone and access to the internet we effectively have psychic links to Wikipedia.

Oh, what if the codex for reading the database was encoded in DNA? Like you'd be able to psychically access the tech even though it's digital and you're (presumably) biological because of genetic engineered psychic traits.

Edited by Belisaurius on Oct 18th 2022 at 7:50:17 AM

DNA is a lossy format. Encoding any computer data in it is a bad idea.

If we want to give everyone access to a universal data repository, implanted chips seems like the obvious way to go. I don't think that genetically engineering humans to have organic computer I/O is a workable plan.

Edited by Fighteer on Oct 18th 2022 at 9:26:36 AM