Technology is what happens when we look at nature and say, “No.” Nature wants us to starve to death, so we invented agriculture. Nature wants us to freeze to death, so we invented socks. Nature wants to bore us to death, so we invented billiards. But sometimes, our tech breaks down. Sometimes, it’s nature’s turn to say no.
Go to a High Enough Elevation, and Hard Drives Stop Functioning
Hard drives work kind of like record players. And whenever someone has drawn that comparison during the last several decades, it’s prompted jokes about how kids today don’t know what a record player is. Still, every single person reading this can picture a record player in their mind, so shut up, and let’s get back to the explanation.
Like a record player, a hard drive contains a spinning medium that stores stuff. It’s called the platter. Like a record player, a hard drive has a thingy that reads from the spinning platter, and can also write to it. It’s called the head. Unlike a record player, the head of a hard drive does not make contact with the platter. It can read and write upon the platter from a tiny distance away, using the power of magnetism.
It can do that, and it must do that. Because the platter spins thousands of times every minute, and if a head ever scratched against it directly, then, well, we don’t want to use the word “apocalypse” here, but it wouldn’t be great for the drive. Though the cushion of air between the head and the platter measures just nanometers across, it provides vital lubrication, and we all know the importance of lubricating the head.
