4 ms·

I remember an Asimov short story in which scientists developed a machine that could see backward in time. If I recall correctly, the upshot was the government

I remember an Asimov short story in which scientists developed a machine that could see backward in time. If I recall correctly, the upshot was the government became terrified because any machine that can see 1000 years into the past can also see 1000 milliseconds into the past and therefore functionally be used to spy on anyone in real time.

SimonPStevens 4y ago
Different author, but sounds somewhat similar to 'The Light of Other Days' by Arthur C Clarke and Stephen Baxter. Although iirc correctly it starts with being able to see other locations in space but at the same time, and the historical viewing is a second development. Fantastic book, even if it's not the same one you were thinking of.
- nonrandomstring 4y ago
  Pretty sure both those authors wrote similar concepts, with the same creepy conclusions of taking the technology to a limit. It came up in an acoustics class once. I said that sound never really dies. It just bounces around until it becomes thermal energy, thus warming the room a little as a prelude to joking about professors talking hot air. A student asked whether, one could recover sound from reverberations that had fallen below RT60? Could you listen back in time to conversations that had happened hours ago? Obviously entropy can't be put back in the box with the technology we have now, but it makes you wonder. Two things have since made me revise the question. One is recovery of sound from video images. The other was an archaeological recovery of sounds from a ceramic vase spun on potters wheel many centuries ago. Sorry but the references for both escape me atm.
  - progman32 4y ago
    The pottery record thing was tested on mythbusters and hailed from an episode of csi.
    - nonrandomstring 4y ago
      Fake? Got a link so I can dig in a bit. Thanks. EDIT: found this thread https://groups.google.com/g/sci.archaeology.moderated/c/5JecJ-EWmNk https://groups.google.com/g/sci.archaeology.moderated/c/5Jec... Damnit, seemed so plausible.
- abruzzi 4y ago
  Clark also used it as a throwaway line in Childhood's End. IIRC, humans were given a device that would allow them to see the past--most religions didn't survive seeing the true origins of their faith.
lbayes 4y ago
There was an article some years ago (2 or 3?), that described a drone (or drones?) that flew 24/7 over Mexico city taking high resolution video of the entire city at all times. Whenever there was a crime, the police could zoom into that location at the time of the crime and then run backwards to see where the vehicles came from. They then knocked on that door. I'm disappointed that I can't seem to find it using Google anymore, maybe it was from a movie or TV show?! That would be weird though, because it seems technically quite reasonable to achieve and hard to believe governments wouldn't jump on it.
- netsharc 4y ago
  I've read about that happening in Cleveland, using tech developed to find insurgents leaving IEDs in Afghanistan. Yeah, citation needed...
  - lbayes 4y ago
    So glad someone else saw this, I'm not finding anything on it and I'm starting to question my own memory, as I'm quite sure I saw the original article about the Mexico program on this site. FWIW, I also recall the tech being originally used to find people who planted IEDs in Afghanistan. I'm kind of shocked about how all the articles I am finding seem to emphasize real-time police chases. Now I'm feeling super suspicious.
    - netsharc 4y ago
      Well, a bit more googling ( https://www.google.com/search?q=police+drone+afghanistan+rewind https://www.google.com/search?q=police+drone+afghanistan+rew... ) got me just 2 relevant hits. https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/04/sheriffs-deputy-compares-drone-surveillance-of-compton-to-big-brother/360954/ https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/04/sheriff... https://scholarship.law.uc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1249&context=uclr https://scholarship.law.uc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1... (search for "rewind") I'd rather think it's because Google sucks now, and those keywords just bring up too many similar articles, but my metaphorical tinfoil hat is my hands.
creativeembassy 4y ago
I wonder if this was an inspiration to the "Devs" miniseries. Won't say more about it for fear of ruining it. Amazing show.
andrewla 4y ago
It was The Dead Past [1] The idea of it was that it was known that the technology existed, but the government went to great lengths to imply that it could only see into the far distant past. The reality was it could only see 20 years back or so, and the government was covering it up because of the 1000 milllisecond issue. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dead_Past https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dead_Past
- unsupp0rted 4y ago
  Yes, that was it! Nice find :)

SimonPStevens 4y ago

Different author, but sounds somewhat similar to 'The Light of Other Days' by Arthur C Clarke and Stephen Baxter. Although iirc correctly it starts with being able to see other locations in space but at the same time, and the historical viewing is a second development. Fantastic book, even if it's not the same one you were thinking of.

nonrandomstring 4y ago
Pretty sure both those authors wrote similar concepts, with the same creepy conclusions of taking the technology to a limit. It came up in an acoustics class once. I said that sound never really dies. It just bounces around until it becomes thermal energy, thus warming the room a little as a prelude to joking about professors talking hot air. A student asked whether, one could recover sound from reverberations that had fallen below RT60? Could you listen back in time to conversations that had happened hours ago? Obviously entropy can't be put back in the box with the technology we have now, but it makes you wonder. Two things have since made me revise the question. One is recovery of sound from video images. The other was an archaeological recovery of sounds from a ceramic vase spun on potters wheel many centuries ago. Sorry but the references for both escape me atm.
- progman32 4y ago
  The pottery record thing was tested on mythbusters and hailed from an episode of csi.
  - nonrandomstring 4y ago
    Fake? Got a link so I can dig in a bit. Thanks. EDIT: found this thread https://groups.google.com/g/sci.archaeology.moderated/c/5JecJ-EWmNk https://groups.google.com/g/sci.archaeology.moderated/c/5Jec... Damnit, seemed so plausible.
abruzzi 4y ago
Clark also used it as a throwaway line in Childhood's End. IIRC, humans were given a device that would allow them to see the past--most religions didn't survive seeing the true origins of their faith.

lbayes 4y ago

There was an article some years ago (2 or 3?), that described a drone (or drones?) that flew 24/7 over Mexico city taking high resolution video of the entire city at all times. Whenever there was a crime, the police could zoom into that location at the time of the crime and then run backwards to see where the vehicles came from. They then knocked on that door. I'm disappointed that I can't seem to find it using Google anymore, maybe it was from a movie or TV show?! That would be weird though, because it seems technically quite reasonable to achieve and hard to believe governments wouldn't jump on it.

netsharc 4y ago
I've read about that happening in Cleveland, using tech developed to find insurgents leaving IEDs in Afghanistan. Yeah, citation needed...
- lbayes 4y ago
  So glad someone else saw this, I'm not finding anything on it and I'm starting to question my own memory, as I'm quite sure I saw the original article about the Mexico program on this site. FWIW, I also recall the tech being originally used to find people who planted IEDs in Afghanistan. I'm kind of shocked about how all the articles I am finding seem to emphasize real-time police chases. Now I'm feeling super suspicious.
  - netsharc 4y ago
    Well, a bit more googling ( https://www.google.com/search?q=police+drone+afghanistan+rewind https://www.google.com/search?q=police+drone+afghanistan+rew... ) got me just 2 relevant hits. https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/04/sheriffs-deputy-compares-drone-surveillance-of-compton-to-big-brother/360954/ https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/04/sheriff... https://scholarship.law.uc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1249&context=uclr https://scholarship.law.uc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1... (search for "rewind") I'd rather think it's because Google sucks now, and those keywords just bring up too many similar articles, but my metaphorical tinfoil hat is my hands.

creativeembassy 4y ago

I wonder if this was an inspiration to the "Devs" miniseries. Won't say more about it for fear of ruining it. Amazing show.

andrewla 4y ago

It was The Dead Past [1] The idea of it was that it was known that the technology existed, but the government went to great lengths to imply that it could only see into the far distant past. The reality was it could only see 20 years back or so, and the government was covering it up because of the 1000 milllisecond issue. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dead_Past https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dead_Past

unsupp0rted 4y ago
Yes, that was it! Nice find :)