So I get to thinking when im stoned. Mostly about the cosmos/science/nature. I love those subjects. Anyway, I have a theory, dont know if anyone has thought about this before (someone must have?). 1. We see into deep space because the light coming from distant objects is still traveling through space, even millions of years later. 2. if the above is true, the light from our own planet is still travelling through space, even from its earliest times. 3. this would lead one to beleive that light from Earth's entire past is STILL out there, somewhere, if not very dim, since our planet does not produce light, but rather reflect it. 4. With the above criteria met, we could build a device that could, somehow, detect and seek out said light. Thus, giving us the capability to see back in time. Possible? Anything is possible. Probable? probably not very. Interesting to think about tho. Of course this would not work from light that is trapped inside buildings, but anything reflected off into space. Could we see what really happened to Christ? ~peace
i dont see how viewing light from a former time, will give us anything to see besides the light itself?
I've thought about a similar thing. What if we can find a reflective surface normal to earth's light. So basically a mirror somehwere on a far away planet. If we'd detect the light coming back, we'd see a reflection of earth in the past.
To the OP, very interesting theory for sure. It's the same as sound waves. Sending radio waves into space aliens could pickup on them if they have the correct receivers, but they wouldn't hear the message until it got to them. So if they're hundreds of light-years away, a message we sent in 1708 would just now be getting to them. I don't know the exact science on the light thing but if it worked the same way that would be very interesting.
I like the idea. I've thought about it many times myself. Our entire history is out there, really. Wonder if anyone is watching. Possible? Not according to our current understanding of science. We'd have to build what amounts to a very large telescope, but then we'd have to get it out there in front of the light, which would require faster than light travel. But who knows what will be considered possible tomorrow, let alone 100 years from now. That little detail aside, you'd just need a big enough telescope. In order to resolve individual people at a distance of 2,000 light years, it'd have to be incredibly large, probably with an aperture several light years wide. Some sort of gravitational lensing, maybe?
ye i think it is possible but you would have to travel out into space away from the earth FASTER than the speed of light for a while and than look back at the earth.
If we built a device that could exceed the speed of light, then sure. We could also, then, probably go to the edge of the known universe and watch the big bang happen before our eyes.
Nice theory! +rep It technically isn't time travel, more like viewing the past since you can't actually interact with things and live there. But it would require one of two things: - We create a way of traveling faster than the speed of light, and the further into the past you want to go, the faster you would have to travel. For instance, if you want to travel 1000 years into the past, you would have to go a thousand times faster than you would if you wanted to travel 1 year into the past, in order to get there in the same amount of time. The speed required to do this is hard to even comprehend, so I don't think this method will work. - The other possibility is we invent technology that allows us to teleport, through the use of worm holes. Sounds like something out of science fiction, but it would be much more practical and achievable than literally traveling faster than the speed of light. We would also have to develop a telescope so powerful that it could see humans from light years away. For example, if you wanted to see into Jesus' time, it would have to be able to zoom in 2000 light years, or 1,173,139,200,000,000 miles. (That's over one quadrillion if you were curious.) Who knows, maybe one day it could be reality.