Project Silica is a Microsoft initiative, developed since 2019, that uses femtosecond lasers to record data.<\/strong> The process involves modifying the structure of the glass using ultrashort laser pulses. The laser does not burn traditional “grooves” like on a CD; instead, it creates microscopic structures inside the glass. These so-called voxels\u2014three-dimensional counterparts to pixels\u2014change the way the glass refracts light. Each voxel has its own position, size, and optical orientation, and their combinations correspond to encoded zeros and ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Data retrieval<\/strong> is performed using a precise optical system and a microscope that analyses how light passes through the glass and the “hidden” voxels within it. Subsequently, specialised algorithms and machine learning models decode these patterns into bits. This reconstructs the original files. Glass data storage<\/strong> ensures that information remains intact even if the original software becomes obsolete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every piece of glass is fully self-describing, so you can start from scratch and recover the data regardless of the situation,<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n