Floppy disks were the new hot thing back in the ‘80s. They were easy to store items that could contain enough information for those days. But their golden age is long gone. Now nobody uses floppy disks anymore… right? We have devices that can store up to several terabytes. Well, wrong.
One of the most important systems in the U.S., the Defense Department, is still relying on 8-inch floppy disks. It seems that the technology used in nuclear programs is based on a type of memory storage that hasn’t been commonly used for almost 30 years. Now, you might be wondering why that is. The short answer is because it still works.
Most of the government’s technology budget is used for maintaining operations, not for modernization or development. In fact, much of the technology used by the U.S. is old, rusty and outdated. They use the money to keep working what they already have, and don’t spend their energy on designing clever and modern technologies.
That can be a good thing as well as a bad one. It could mean that money is not wasted on something that isn’t needed, as long as the old machines still perform the same tasks. But it could also be an indicator of the fact that the potential of new technologies is not fully exploited. Maybe the same tasks could be done faster, cheaper and better. Anyway, the important thing is that floppy disks are still used for major national defense issues right as you are reading this.