Lifetime of memories stored on a sugar cube?

A device similar in size to a sugar cube could store the equivalent of a lifetime of human memories in the not too distant future.

That's according to professor Nigel Shadbolt, president of the British Computer Society, who said if current trends continue, by 2025 an entire human life experience could be held in video form on a device similar in size to the cubes you drop in your coffee.

If Moore's Law - that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit doubles every 18 months – holds true, Shadbolt said this could be a very real possibility.

And with the development of technologies such as holographic memory and perpendicular recording, Shadbolt told silicon.com data storage could even outstrip these predictions.

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This potential for huge increases in memory capacity could have some very useful applications, which were discussed at the Memories for Life conference in London by Shadbolt and others.

One major benefit of storing digital video data documenting a person's life is that it could be used to treat people with memory disorders or help to improve the lives of Alzheimer's sufferers.

But Shadbolt also pointed out that these possibilities could prevent people from forgetting painful memories and lead to concerns about privacy.