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Poll

Will it ever be possible to see into the past?  (Like what you were doing in a locked room with no windows ten years ago.)

Yes.
- 10 (45.5%)
Maybe.
- 5 (22.7%)
No.
- 7 (31.8%)

Total Members Voted: 18


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Author Topic: Will it ever be possible to see into the past?  (Read 5204 times)

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Alex Libman

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Will it ever be possible to see into the past?
« on: March 30, 2009, 12:19:52 PM »

Of all things that intrigue me, the fractal nature of spacetime takes the cake (remember my God-builder thread?), and a recent article by NewScientist got me thinking about this again.

Does the past really go away as time passes, or does it leave some sort of quantum residue behind that can be read in the future?  This could apply to all matter and energy - the data on your computer, your body, your thoughts at any particular moment of your life.  Can you just imagine the social consequences of this?!

On one hand this is wonderful - no information can truly be lost.  We can find and analyze the quantum residue of what Julius Cesar, Mohammad, and Shakespeare were thinking verbatim!  And petty crime would be downright impossible.

On the other hand this is awful - the government tyranny that this could enable makes the Catholic Inquisition and the imagined dystopia of Orwell's 1984 look pleasant in comparison - at least there you could still be in possession of what's taking place inside your own skull!

This is why the battle we fight now is so important.  If humanity doesn't abandon its collectivist ways now, right now, we could end up like a giant ant-hill with individual thought being downright impossible to even dream about!
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BonerJoe

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Re: Will it ever be possible to see into the past?
« Reply #1 on: March 30, 2009, 12:24:06 PM »

If the past can be seen, then the future can be predicted.
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trivergata

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Re: Will it ever be possible to see into the past?
« Reply #2 on: March 30, 2009, 03:21:24 PM »

You ever been to West Virginia?
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Njal

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Re: Will it ever be possible to see into the past?
« Reply #3 on: March 30, 2009, 03:26:35 PM »

Since "seeing" the past involves seeing the light reflecting off the interesting event, yes. Ya just gotta get ahead of the light and take a peep through a telescope (of COURSE you will have a kick ass telescope if you can warp space). Just think, an alien civilization 1000 LY distant are watching the Vikings loot and they are thinking, "what a bunch of Iron Age savages. I think we will aim our talky radio elsewhere.

Fucking aliens.
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Alex Libman

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Re: Will it ever be possible to see into the past?
« Reply #4 on: March 30, 2009, 03:55:03 PM »

You're thinking in only four dimensions...   :shock:
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Njal

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Re: Will it ever be possible to see into the past?
« Reply #5 on: March 30, 2009, 04:28:33 PM »

You're thinking in only four dimensions...   :shock:


Sorry.
FUCKING ALIENS!!!

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Dylboz

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Re: Will it ever be possible to see into the past?
« Reply #6 on: March 30, 2009, 07:28:02 PM »

Have you read The Light of Other Days? It is about exactly such a phenomenon, and a really great sci-fi book. It's co-authored by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter. Check it out.
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Russell Griswold

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Re: Will it ever be possible to see into the past?
« Reply #7 on: March 30, 2009, 07:49:49 PM »

No. Also, I bet projects that deal with this type of research would depend on high amounts of government funding. Cue tyranny...
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Ecolitan

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Re: Will it ever be possible to see into the past?
« Reply #8 on: March 31, 2009, 01:11:13 AM »

There are far too few maybes.
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voodoo

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Re: Will it ever be possible to see into the past?
« Reply #9 on: March 31, 2009, 02:27:16 AM »

Since "seeing" the past involves seeing the light reflecting off the interesting event, yes. Ya just gotta get ahead of the light and take a peep through a telescope (of COURSE you will have a kick ass telescope if you can warp space). Just think, an alien civilization 1000 LY distant are watching the Vikings loot and they are thinking, "what a bunch of Iron Age savages. I think we will aim our talky radio elsewhere.

Fucking aliens.

This is where I am confused.  As I look into the sky tonight I see the past. 

What's the big deal?  It's all a matter of line of site and sufficient light for my gelatinous orbs to perceive.
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pete1061

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Re: Will it ever be possible to see into the past?
« Reply #10 on: March 31, 2009, 02:39:57 AM »

The past could be visible to those that exist on a different level than what we exist on, someone who exists in a non linear time space.
Such a technology, or ability would be so vastly different from what we know in our primitive world.
We don't even know what direction time is flowing in.
Just as there are a vast number of possible futures, couldn't there also be many possible pasts?
The past is just in our imagination, and frequently two different people will remember the past differently.

The only thing I can be sure of is the now. Everything else is speculation.
Time is like a dynamic seascape extending out in all directions.

I answered maybe.
But a definite no based on humanity as it is now with the forms of technology we embrace.
But maybe on some distant spiritual level when our spirits move beyond the need for physical bodies.
The ability to accurately view other locations in time would require an existence involving many more dimensions than 3 or 4.
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jeffersonish

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Re: Will it ever be possible to see into the past?
« Reply #11 on: March 31, 2009, 05:03:01 AM »

I have the loose outline of a novel in my head that involves visiting the past. It isn't time travel per se because although it would be a little like a holodeck, you couldn't interact. The holos would not have any substance.
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Richard Garner

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Re: Will it ever be possible to see into the past?
« Reply #12 on: March 31, 2009, 06:32:24 AM »

Quote
Will it ever be possible to see into the past?  (Like what you were doing in a locked room with no windows ten years ago.)

Isn't it called... remembering stuff?
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Alex Libman

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Re: Will it ever be possible to see into the past?
« Reply #13 on: April 01, 2009, 04:00:09 PM »



Have you read The Light of Other Days? It is about exactly such a phenomenon, and a really great sci-fi book. It's co-authored by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter. Check it out.

Thanks for pointing this out, I didn't know.  Getting the eBook (torrent) as we speak.


Isn't it called... remembering stuff?

I do mean a time viewer / chronovisor, that is scientific equipment that can analyze matter that was in a particular spot a particular number of seconds ago, which can then be applied to make privacy downright impossible, here on this planet.
« Last Edit: April 01, 2009, 04:28:23 PM by Alex Libman »
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Dylboz

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Re: Will it ever be possible to see into the past?
« Reply #14 on: April 01, 2009, 05:37:01 PM »

You're welcome. There's also Asimov's short story "The Dead Past" which uses a similar idea, I think they even call it a "Chronovisor" in the story.
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