This reminds me of the IBM 1360 photodigital storage system, designed for the CIA to store a terabit of data in the 1960s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_1360
It was basically cathode ray tubes to expose photographic strips, an automatic chemical photo wet lab, robotic storage and retrieval of the developed film strips, and optical readout.
It was basically cathode ray tubes to expose photographic strips, an automatic chemical photo wet lab, robotic storage and retrieval of the developed film strips, and optical readout.
Absolutely bonkers.