[Rca2000]

I described the operation like this(bear in mind this is FICTION, and I just made it up, but tried to make it sound as plausible as possible):

A photosensitive plate, has billions of microscopic "lands" on it. Depending on the phase of the light, a "1" or 0"" is stored in a land, as a result of a change in its reflectivity quotient. The land then retains this state, even when power is off. To change that state, it is merely necessary to alter the phase of the lightpassing over that land. The "1" on a land will then revert to a " 0 ", and vice versa. With billions of these, you then have a viable storage medium, one that is about 100 times faster than a hard drive.

[Nowhere Man]

A photosensitive plate, has billions of microscopic "lands" on it. Depending on the phase of the light, a "1" or 0"" is stored in a land, as a result of a change in its reflectivity quotient. The land then retains this state, even when power is off. To change that state, it is merely necessary to alter the phase of the lightpassing over that land. The "1" on a land will then revert to a " 0 ", and vice versa. With billions of these, you then have a viable storage medium, one that is about 100 times faster than a hard drive.

Sort of like a plate in an old image orthicon camera or a plumbcon perhaps except it is non-volatile where it retains the information even when you turn the power off.

[Paul_Denton]

VERY COOL!!! Sounds like it COULD be done in real life :)

[nhoward14]

You realize you basically are describing DVD-RAM, right?