# A view-only time machine and how it'd affect the study of history **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 15, 2015, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-view-only-time-machine-and-how-itd-affect-the-study-of-history/740546 "2015-12-15T17:14:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2015, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-view-only-time-machine-and-how-itd-affect-the-study-of-history/740546/21 "2015-12-16T19:11:50Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > Let’s assume these things are cheap and easy to run. Then pretty much everyone would have one and it might replace most peoples tv watching time. Also the government would be spying on everyone, more so than they do now. You can do that if you want. But that seems to be a whole other question (not particularly supported by technological reality). Why not just ask if everybody knew pretty much everything about everyone past and present? ---
**Author:** ![Tzigone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2015, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-view-only-time-machine-and-how-itd-affect-the-study-of-history/740546/22 "2015-12-16T19:29:28Z")
> [@](#): > > Again. Let’s say these things are pricey to build and run. Our society is only going to be able to support a rather limited number of these things. > [@](#): > > If these operate on an hour here equals an hour in the past, you are only talking a few thousand hours of time “travel” viewing per year per machine. There are A LOT more historical questions than can be covered by that amount of time. Certainly, if they were pricey and rare as you said. But that’s not set out in the original post (I posted it). For the record, I’d thought of them as something as expensive for an end consumer, but not _that_ expensive. Cheap enough that even a moderately well-off school district in the US could have one and share it amongst schools/classes. But that’s not part of the condition of original post, and people may presume greater or lesser expense/availability as they desire. The real-time viewing is a limitation, though. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-view-only-time-machine-and-how-itd-affect-the-study-of-history/740546/23 "2015-12-17T07:10:36Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > I was just about to make a joke about the signing of the Declaration of Independence and just that thing 🙂 > > I reiterate. Assuming this is just a magic physics machine (though would such a thing actually violate the fundamental laws of physics?) makes a BIG difference than if this is a magic “answer machine”. > > The further back in time you go, the more of a pain in the ass it becomes to hunt down the big event in time and space. > > Even once you find the virgin Mary, you are going to have to follow her for ninth months plus delta for obvious reasons. > > And did Jesus actually turn water into wine or was that just a clever magic trick? Thats true. The Bible says Mary was from Galilee but doesnt give a street address. We dont even know what she looked like. The exact date isnt clear either so you would be looking at every young woman in a given area over a period of about a year. Also from just how close can we see the event? Are we talking within a few feet, a mile away? Pretty soon you couldnt tell details. Can it see thru walls? Does it work at night? ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-view-only-time-machine-and-how-itd-affect-the-study-of-history/740546/24 "2015-12-17T11:48:24Z")
How is at his going to change our perception of religious tradition? Is the idea that people are going to trust this strange new box of visions more than they trust physics in general? ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-view-only-time-machine-and-how-itd-affect-the-study-of-history/740546/25 "2015-12-17T12:38:17Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > The classic short story “Light of Other Days” ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light\_of\_Other\_Days](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_of_Other_Days)) was by Bob Shaw in 1966. > > The 2000 novel “The Light of Other Days” about a time viewing device was by Clarke and Baxter ([The Light of Other Days - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Light_of_Other_Days)) Thank you, you beat me to it. As it turns out, I’ve read both – or, more accurately, all, because there was more from Shaw. The Bob Shaw short story was followed by two sequels and then a novel, _Other Days, Other Eyes_ which incorporated all three short stories and included the text in their entirety. The Clarke and Baxter novel is unrelated except for being also about time travel. Stephen King’s _11/22/63_ concludes with an afterword in which he recommends Jack Finney’s _Time and Again_ as another time-travel classic. ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-view-only-time-machine-and-how-itd-affect-the-study-of-history/740546/26 "2015-12-17T12:46:08Z")
> [@Tzigone](#): > > So, presuming it cannot look off-world We could check out the moon landing filming. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-view-only-time-machine-and-how-itd-affect-the-study-of-history/740546/27 "2015-12-17T19:19:15Z")
Well, we all know what [the Internet](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV7ou6pl5wU) is mainly used for… ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-view-only-time-machine-and-how-itd-affect-the-study-of-history/740546/28 "2015-12-17T19:45:48Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Thats true. The Bible says Mary was from Galilee but doesnt give a street address. We dont even know what she looked like. The exact date isnt clear either so you would be looking at every young woman in a given area over a period of about a year. You’d have to work backwards from the Passover week which ended in Jesus’ crucifixion, which means you’d have almost surely resolved the question of the Resurrection first. And either way that one’s answered, the question of whether Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit wouldn’t really matter much, would it? (If it were proved that Jesus had managed to resurrect himself, would his followers, or anyone else, really care that much about whether he was born of a virgin? And if there was no Resurrection, then Jesus was just another wise man, and nobody expects wise men to be born of virgins.) > [@](#): > > Also from just how close can we see the event? Are we talking within a few feet, a mile away? Pretty soon you couldnt tell details. > Can it see thru walls? > Does it work at night? I’m not the OP, but my assumptions are: 1. How close? I’m assuming you can zoom in or out as needed. 2. Seeing through walls: all the hardware would be in the present, so there’d be no limitations on which side of a roof or wall you were viewing. Seeing the inside of a closed room would be just as easy as seeing the outside of it. 3. Does it work at night? My assumption would be that your scope is picking up all the radiation from the time and place you’re watching, so there’s no reason why you can’t hook up an infrared scope to see whatever you can see via differential heat radiation. And outside at night, if there’s moonlight or star light, you can presumably adjust the settings to amplify what light there is, just the way you can do when you’re editing a digital photo. So presumably you’d be able to watch Mary and Joseph get it on, if that’s what happened. And presumably you’d be able to watch the outside of Jesus’ tomb through two nights as well as the day in between. And presumably you’d be able to watch his body cool to the temperature of whatever surface his body was placed on, if that’s what happened. But it’s the OP’s toy. I’m merely speculating about its abilities. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-view-only-time-machine-and-how-itd-affect-the-study-of-history/740546/29 "2015-12-17T19:54:58Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > Well, we all know what [the Internet](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV7ou6pl5wU) is mainly used for… Yeah, I figured that’s where that link went. 😃 Yeah, we could certainly use this technology to spy on Cleopatra, Messalina, or Catherine the Great, but you’d probably have to watch a lot of boring stuff in between the juicy parts. Even if I had this gizmo, I think that for porn, I’d stick with the Internet. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-view-only-time-machine-and-how-itd-affect-the-study-of-history/740546.md?page=1)