The storage of data for future retrieval. While human beings have generally stored data as language, either in their heads or as written texts, machines seem to have tended always to [[binary]]. For example: The Jacquard loom stored patterns for weaving as punch cards. A hole meant colour, while a lack-of-hole meant no colour. The phonograph used the same system again, as did music boxes, and then vinyl. With CDs the technology got tiny, but still the principle is the same: conversion of some collection of [[bit|bits]] into meaningful information for a human being.