A virtual time machine
In the novel Rome's Revolution, OMCOM designed and built star-probes which became, in the Rome's own words, a virtual time machine. It was not a physical device a la H. G. Wells but rather an observational time machine. I have discussed this before in an article entitled "Legal" Time Travel.
Say that such a device existed, not on the grand cosmic scale like OMCOM used but rather on a local, personal scale. Imagine if you had a device maybe a cross between a TV and an Etch-a-Sketch, that allowed you to view into the past. The dials could be used to navigate in space and time.
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Such a topic has been dealt with many time before. For example, there was the movie Deja Vu starring Denzel Washington and Paula Patton where scientists were able to view exactly 4 days, 6 hours, 3 minutes, 45 seconds and 14.5 nanoseconds into the past. They use that look-back to investigate the bombing of a ferry. However, this movie turns into an actual time travel movie when Denzel's character jumps back in time to save Paula Patton's character's life.
A better example is the book called The Light of Other Days by Stephen Baxter, based upon a summary by Arthur C. Clarke. This novel is centered around a time viewer which peers through quantum wormholes (hmmm, PPT tunnels?) and raises a host of questions. Some people hook up the wormholes directly in their brain to create a group mind (hmmm, the Overmind via PPT resonance?).
Some of the uses are practical. Solving crimes, the idea raised by Deja Vu, becomes easy because the police simply go back in time and watch the crime unfolding. There is no privacy so restaurants spring up which are totally dark so nobody could spy on you during that interval. Historical mysteries are cleared up. They even go so far back in time (three billion years) and discover there was another form of life, not DNA-based, that came and went and all of life today was the result of one of their scientific experiments.
To me, the lack of privacy would be a showstopper. After all, as mentioned two days ago, plenty of people do plenty of things that would be embarrassing if they came out. But the rest of it is a fascinating concept.
Say that such a device existed, not on the grand cosmic scale like OMCOM used but rather on a local, personal scale. Imagine if you had a device maybe a cross between a TV and an Etch-a-Sketch, that allowed you to view into the past. The dials could be used to navigate in space and time.
[image error]
Such a topic has been dealt with many time before. For example, there was the movie Deja Vu starring Denzel Washington and Paula Patton where scientists were able to view exactly 4 days, 6 hours, 3 minutes, 45 seconds and 14.5 nanoseconds into the past. They use that look-back to investigate the bombing of a ferry. However, this movie turns into an actual time travel movie when Denzel's character jumps back in time to save Paula Patton's character's life.
A better example is the book called The Light of Other Days by Stephen Baxter, based upon a summary by Arthur C. Clarke. This novel is centered around a time viewer which peers through quantum wormholes (hmmm, PPT tunnels?) and raises a host of questions. Some people hook up the wormholes directly in their brain to create a group mind (hmmm, the Overmind via PPT resonance?).
Some of the uses are practical. Solving crimes, the idea raised by Deja Vu, becomes easy because the police simply go back in time and watch the crime unfolding. There is no privacy so restaurants spring up which are totally dark so nobody could spy on you during that interval. Historical mysteries are cleared up. They even go so far back in time (three billion years) and discover there was another form of life, not DNA-based, that came and went and all of life today was the result of one of their scientific experiments.
To me, the lack of privacy would be a showstopper. After all, as mentioned two days ago, plenty of people do plenty of things that would be embarrassing if they came out. But the rest of it is a fascinating concept.
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Tales of the Vuduri
Tidbits and insights into the 35th century world of the Vuduri.
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