4 ms·

I always wonder if we could find similar recordings embedded in materials such as clays or paint by people speaking millennia ago. Maybe some day we will have s

I always wonder if we could find similar recordings embedded in materials such as clays or paint by people speaking millennia ago. Maybe some day we will have sensitive enough technology to be able to find and decode this type of information.

timbit42 4y ago
I think I saw something like that quite a few years ago. I think it was clay.
- dannyobrien 4y ago
  there was a hoax video based on extracting audio from ceramics thrown on a potters wheel in 2006. It's an idea -- paleoacoustics -- that's popped up a few times in scientific speculation and science fiction: http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002875.html http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002875.h...
  - chrischen 4y ago
    We’re able to extract audio out of a video of a leaf by analyzing the physical vibrations. Surely some natural phenomena over the centuries would have inadvertently encoded some signal in some process.
    - hattmall 4y ago
      I read there was a sound recording of the explosion in Pompeii I think. But it was kinda, hmm, because yes there's some record of vibrations and stuff, but it seems like a big stretch to really say it is the actual sound of the volcano that one might have heard. Though I guess technically, it is.
      - chrischen 4y ago
        If there's no calibration of the recording method then it may be difficult or impossible to reproduce the sound.
stolen_biscuit 4y ago
Pretty sure mythbusters tested this and were unable to recover anything discernable from pottery in their experiments a.k.a busted. Of course how much you trust the rigor of their research will tell you whether or not you trust their conclusion, but I would be genuinely stunned if such a thing were possible.
kingcharles 4y ago
There was talk of this concerning the building of the pyramids and such. I don't personally feel it is feasible, but then I thought computers making decent art was still 20 years away and now I look very silly.
sixQuarks 4y ago
with enough technological progress, it's conceivable we can recreate the past in full HD quality in both sound and vision using the current state of atoms. It would take enough processing power to recreate the universe itself as a simulation, but it's technically feasible.
- Sunspark 4y ago
  How is it technically feasible if you need to fit the power to run a universe inside a universe?
- smackeyacky 4y ago
  Probably need an actual physicist to answer this one, but if the current universe was poofed into existence by a quantum fluctuation, likely you could create your own quantum fluctuation with the right tools and run your simulation inside that. I guess it's science fiction (how would you look inside it? How would you ensure you were re-running your own universe?). Plus there are a pile of moral objections you could make to trying something like that, but it's a fascinating idea that "the problem of evil" isn't created out of malice, but merely curiosity.
- hoseja 4y ago
  Time reversal has the same quantum uncertainty as normal flow of time.
- usrn 4y ago
  This sounds like the same mistake that people make when they argue for analog computers. Materials have noise so that limits the resolution of analogue data and the Planck constant limits how small things can get regardless. Information is constantly sinking through the noise floor and that's just part of reality.
- nonameiguess 4y ago
  Much like the parent is the plot of an X-Files episode, this is the plot of Devs. They just kind of handwaved away the resolution issue with some nod to many worlds interpretation. Of course, as they noted in the show, the ability to reconstruct the past this way implies you can also predict the future using the same technique.
kurupt213 4y ago
There was an X-Files episode where they had Jesus’s voice saying ‘I am the walrus’ frozen in a hardening pottery glaze from the home of Lazarus.
brap 4y ago
I sometimes wonder if old music recordings have enough information in them to visualize the recording studio, maybe even see the musicians performing. Probably not

timbit42 4y ago

I think I saw something like that quite a few years ago. I think it was clay.

dannyobrien 4y ago
there was a hoax video based on extracting audio from ceramics thrown on a potters wheel in 2006. It's an idea -- paleoacoustics -- that's popped up a few times in scientific speculation and science fiction: http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002875.html http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002875.h...
- chrischen 4y ago
  We’re able to extract audio out of a video of a leaf by analyzing the physical vibrations. Surely some natural phenomena over the centuries would have inadvertently encoded some signal in some process.
  - hattmall 4y ago
    I read there was a sound recording of the explosion in Pompeii I think. But it was kinda, hmm, because yes there's some record of vibrations and stuff, but it seems like a big stretch to really say it is the actual sound of the volcano that one might have heard. Though I guess technically, it is.
    - chrischen 4y ago
      If there's no calibration of the recording method then it may be difficult or impossible to reproduce the sound.

stolen_biscuit 4y ago

Pretty sure mythbusters tested this and were unable to recover anything discernable from pottery in their experiments a.k.a busted. Of course how much you trust the rigor of their research will tell you whether or not you trust their conclusion, but I would be genuinely stunned if such a thing were possible.

kingcharles 4y ago

There was talk of this concerning the building of the pyramids and such. I don't personally feel it is feasible, but then I thought computers making decent art was still 20 years away and now I look very silly.

sixQuarks 4y ago

with enough technological progress, it's conceivable we can recreate the past in full HD quality in both sound and vision using the current state of atoms. It would take enough processing power to recreate the universe itself as a simulation, but it's technically feasible.

Sunspark 4y ago
How is it technically feasible if you need to fit the power to run a universe inside a universe?
smackeyacky 4y ago
Probably need an actual physicist to answer this one, but if the current universe was poofed into existence by a quantum fluctuation, likely you could create your own quantum fluctuation with the right tools and run your simulation inside that. I guess it's science fiction (how would you look inside it? How would you ensure you were re-running your own universe?). Plus there are a pile of moral objections you could make to trying something like that, but it's a fascinating idea that "the problem of evil" isn't created out of malice, but merely curiosity.
hoseja 4y ago
Time reversal has the same quantum uncertainty as normal flow of time.
usrn 4y ago
This sounds like the same mistake that people make when they argue for analog computers. Materials have noise so that limits the resolution of analogue data and the Planck constant limits how small things can get regardless. Information is constantly sinking through the noise floor and that's just part of reality.
nonameiguess 4y ago
Much like the parent is the plot of an X-Files episode, this is the plot of Devs. They just kind of handwaved away the resolution issue with some nod to many worlds interpretation. Of course, as they noted in the show, the ability to reconstruct the past this way implies you can also predict the future using the same technique.

kurupt213 4y ago

There was an X-Files episode where they had Jesus’s voice saying ‘I am the walrus’ frozen in a hardening pottery glaze from the home of Lazarus.

brap 4y ago

I sometimes wonder if old music recordings have enough information in them to visualize the recording studio, maybe even see the musicians performing. Probably not