An arrow pointing into a folder, similar to this. Sidesteps the tech issue altogether.

You can't just jump to the future, so use this one for the next decade:

every letter in the alphabet started as a symbol of something 2500-6000 years ago, "A" for instance is an upside-down Ox head. people in future generations will continue using the floppy symbol, cuz they learned that means saving, despite floppies not being relevant to their lives

SD card. Half us old timers won’t even realize it’s not a floppy disk.

A squirrel, as in to squirrel it away

Nobody else immediately thought of this?

I reject the question. That's not a picture of a floppy disc, that is the glyph that means save

You literally called it the save symbol. And that's what it is...100 years from now, if we're still around and still have computers, the save icon will still be some stylized glyph based on the floppy disc

The existence of the floppy disc is already just a bit of trivia about the save icon

It's like asking what we should change the Bluetooth symbol to? Why do you yearn for the world to burn?

An icon can be any random glyph, but it has to stay recognizable and consistent in meaning, that's the entire concept here

Something completely abstract, like this

A crucifix...

...because Jesus saves.

I've already seen it replaced in some applications. Don't like that.

I know it's "if you have to", but if I have any choice at all, the floppy icon stays.

Ouuh this is a fun one. I find that floppy disks look somewhat similar to SD-cards. Do you think the majority of kids (18 and younger) would recognize SD cards?

Han solo frozen in carbonite

A safe or vault symbol as an indicator for safe keeping

I think we should just keep the floppy disk symbol at this point, because it doesn't matter what it was originally based on or whether that exists any more--everyone knows what that symbol means, and it can't really be confused with anything else.

There's no point making an icon that looks like any other particular kind of storage device since those are changing all the time. So we either have to pick some real world thing like a safe or warehouse or grain silo or whatever. or invent some completely new symbol that's not related to anything and then everyone would have to learn it. Which takes us back to just keeping the floppy disk symbol.

I choose a labeled, icon-free button that says save

A dark souls campfire/site of grace

Down arrow pointing to a line, box, folder, or similar. Icons like that are what I've seen most commonly in software that has an icon for saving over the last few years.

Gotta go with an even older symbol, the ring buoy.

Given the impermanence of any storage medium today, I'm thinking a puff of smoke would convey the sentiment with the right level of user expectation.

💨

probably a safe.

Ice cube, because you're freezing it in whatever working state you're in.

A CD image. Got to move with the times.

Something like this ?