hi, I'm a long time reader of this site, but a first time poster to your boards.

in the interest of offering a break to those of you who have been worn down by yesterdays events, here's a somewhat non-sequiter theory that has been rolling about in my head for awhile. please feel free to refine it wherever it needs it.

the window to the past:

what is it? -- a glass like substance that alows you to view events that occured on the other side of it a set number of years ago

how does it work? -- as we all know, light travels at about 300,000 kilometers per second, but what if you could slow it down? well then it probably wouldn't be light anymore, but you could concievably impede it's speed by detouring it. in the molecular structure of this hypothetical material is a vast and intricate network of tiny mirrors that would act to bounce around any light that enters for a given number of years. by the time the light finally passes through, a veiwer of the glass would see not what is on the other side of it, but what was on the other side of it, say, twenty years ago (and in real time)! the effect could also be created using exceptionally tiny fiberoptics, but I use a mirror network in my theory as it seems slightly less far fetched.

what are it's uses? -- well, since it really doesn't do anything that other forms of technology aren't more practical for, it it admittedly a novelty object. one use would be public art: you could place a pane of "twenty year glass" on a wall, and for twenty years it would apear black, until it's twentieth aniversary date, at which point you flip it over so that it can display twenty years of people walking past. in the same vein, you could place a 10X10 ft cube of the stuff in a public square, so that people would be able to walk around this living holographic time capsule. you could schedule important public events to take place in front of it, so that in the future the people could relive those events. but good luck trying to arrest that guy who thought it would be funny to expose himself in it when no one was looking! and just think of what cool effects could be created by carving this stuff into rounded shapes: you could have one time smoothly transition into another (dollars to donuts, if someone did this, enterprising weed dealers would set up shop nearby!)

small peices of the material would also make great heirlooms! you might hang a blank piece of the stuff on your keychain, and give it to one of your children twenty years down the line so that they would have a living record of you, until the pass it on to their kids, and so on.

but it might also have practical applications in the field of solar power, since you would be able to store the sunlight itself for a given period of time. people living in polar regions could have skylights made of the stuff, so that they could have summers light in winter!

so what do you guys think of this idea? obviously it's not something that could be made now, but I think in the future such a material might be possible to manufacture using advanced nanotechnology.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: sacrelicious on 2003-02-02 22:10 ]</font>

Sounds really cool to me, i would buy it. But it would be a one time use technology. Once you view that image, the photons would be gone forever and you would not be able to view that image anymore.

but it's not meant to be used as a photograph in the first place. for it's entire existance it would document what was on the other side of it exactly X years (days, months, whatever) ago. the beauty of it is you never know what you will see in it from one day (hour, minute, second, whatever) to the next!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: sacrelicious on 2003-02-02 22:17 ]</font>

so basically it is not ment to be replayed, something like a continuous time machine? Basically continuous recording fo 20 years ago. So something like what happened 20 years ago today? Then to see the next day you would have to way 24 hours? Cool. I like it.

and imagine if you are unable to experience a particular thing (say you're handicapped and cant climb a mountain, or aren't able to get into the astronaut program but you want to experience a space walk, or you are poor and can't afford to see venice), you could have someone who can do those things wear a set of "time goggles" above his/her eyes, and then for a fee you can view that experience by wearing the goggles!

Wow! Sounds like a magic mirror.

Exactly this subject is dealt with in a Nebula Award winning (1966) short story by Bob Shaw called "Light of Other Days". The substance in question is called Slow Glass. Panes of it are "farmed" in scenic locations and sold as works of art, the thicker the piece and the better the location the higher the price. It's a good story and it has been anthologized several times, beginning with NEBULA AWARD STORIES TWO.

__________________
If you can't dazzle 'em with dexterity, baffle 'em with BS.

That is very kewl. I like the public display idea, it would be great for anniverseries of buildings, cities, parks etc.

Here is something that may be the beginning of that sort of tech:

http://www.businessweek.com/technolo...20617_5587.htm

I just found the Bob Shaw story Dickenmeyer was refering to: http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/clas...haw/shaw1.html

don't you just hate it when you come up with a great idea, only to find out that someone else has already thought of it? I was considering writing my own story in graphic novel form. on second thought, I probably still could, since the glass is merely a catalyst fro certain events, while the story itself is much, much different. I could also improve on some of the details of the glass, although he seems to not have left anything major to improve on in that respect.

but anyway, one author coming up with the concept of robots, time travel, ring-like spacecraft, etc, never stopped others from building on those ideas, right? and besides, the odds are better that someone might actually try to make this stuff for real if the concept has been presented in several stories.

Funny you should mention this; I just finished reading 'The Light Of Former Days' (I think that's the title in english at least, I couldn't get the original version) by none other Than Arthur C. Clarke; the book was published in 2000 I think, and in it Clarke uses wormholes to open up windows to the past. Obviously, with the wormhole technology, everyone can watch everyone else, not just in the present, but in the past as well. I was actually quite surprised at the book; it shows a very dark and cynical Clarke, obviously disappointed or at least desillusioned by humanity as he describes the bizarre changes that take place in society as a result of the "Wormcam". Everyone can see everyone else at all times, and can go back to replay whatever event in anyone's life they want to watch. Suicide rates become incredibly high as people start to find out what their friends really think about them, human relations crumble now that every dark secret anyone's ever had is easily revealed, and aside from that the wormcam is generally used for 'peeping'. Humanity's view on its own history changes drastically as people find out the truth about past heroes and historical figures thought to be great men, and about how much of human history is either falsely interpreted or just an outright lie. Clarke goes pretty far in his descriptions, and I think the novel's quite disturbing overall. Especially cause it's very realistic - disquietingly so.

Wow. I bought a copy of The Light of Other Days by A.C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter just last month. I haven't read it yet though. It sounds pretty interesting.

And it seems that Bob Shaw has a short story with the same name and a similar premise. And it's online. Now I've got a lot of reading to do (as if I didn't before [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]).

_________________
"If we die, we want people to accept it. We're in a risky business and we hope if anything happens to us it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life." -Gus Grissom

<font size="-1">(What is my problem with italics today?)</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: David Hall on 2003-02-03 15:56 ]</font>