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Tonks
18 Apr 2006, 09:46 PM
This morning on the bus ride to work, I was pondering. If light
travels into space, so do the visual representations of everything
that happens on earth. So, if there would be faster than light travel
(yeah I know it's supposed to be impossible, but what the heck) you
could hypothetically build a machine far out in space to catch the
light rays and project them on a screen, so you could see the past as
it really happened.
Think about what a revolution that would be for historian knowledge.
And what a commercial succes, as many older people will want to relive
their happy memories.
Wow, if I asked for a patent on the idea, I would become rich in,
like, ehm, 300 years...? :whistle:

MacGuffin
18 Apr 2006, 09:49 PM
There are so many practical problems in application that... sure go ahead!

Rhu
18 Apr 2006, 09:52 PM
There are so many practical problems in application that... sure go ahead!

Perhaps the most important of the practical problems of viewing Earth's past from afar comes in the form of this:

distraction tactics
18 Apr 2006, 10:07 PM
Perhaps the most important of the practical problems of viewing Earth's past from afar comes in the form of this:

:lol:

'Single Female Lawyer' - what a show!

Re: OP - As an idea, it's great. I've often thought about it and it's uses for definitively nailing what events happened when. However, the positive, maybe plausible corollary is that one day we may be able to watch another living planet evolve 'real time' through its past.

There will be Earth News and then there will be Xenon-5 News.

tinribz
18 Apr 2006, 10:42 PM
Yeah, I suppose anyone with telescopes on planets orbiting other stars looking at earth would be watching the dinosaurs in real time about now.

How about artificially created worm holes to transport the scope, transmit the data back to earth, and reconstructed computer generated 3d.

It would answer a lot of interesting questions. There might be a few technical issues with the earth rotation and stuff, and maybe a bit of interference from the asteroid belt etc.

ferunandesu
20 Apr 2006, 06:19 AM
not to mention the atmosphere, night and day, and perspective