From: ChuckKuecker (ckuecker@mcs.net)
Date: Mon May 18 1998 - 17:08:46 MDT
At 11:45 AM 5/18/98 -0700, you wrote:
>
>I also see a good possibility for non-destructive scans in this time
>frame. Possibly using a technology mentioned on this list before. A
>light source is pulsed on one side of the head and only the photons
>that made it through without any collisions are recorded on the other
>side. The head is slightly rotated and this is repeated 360 degrees.
>Since most of your head is empty space (at least mine is) the
>non-empty space is recorded per voxel.
Tomography! However, to get atomic level resolution, as I imagine you would
need to get the physical memory structures of the brain recorded, you would
need some pretty short wavelengths. These might end up being anything but
non-destructive..
MRI has always intrigued me, but I believe it cannot achieve the required
resolution due to the same wavelength limitations. What is fine for imaging
is terrible for replication..
>
>Since I've gone from being conservative on my first point to being
>speculative on my second, I may as well step out there on the fringe
>for my third.
>There has been some recent discussion about traveling into the past on
>this list. I've always been more interested in the possibility of a
>"peering into the past technology" (PIP Tech) rather than actually
>traveling into the past. I define PIP Tech as the ability to peer
>into the past focusing on known coordinates at a specified past time
>with the ability to scan a biological brain with near molecular
>resolution. I do not see PIP Tech as having some of the paradox and
>contradiction problems associated with time travel. Although the
>Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle causes some concern. I just want to
>throw this long shot idea out for the space time engineering types to
>consider because it is obviously outside of my area of expertise. The
>idea of using a black hole as a lens into the past by re-mapping the
>distorted star field would not work here because I don't think you
>could use the nearest existing black hole to peer through our
>atmosphere at that resolution. But what if we had a similar machine
>to the light pulsing and rotating one described above pointed to the
>nearest black hole. Such a machine could be built cheap with todays
>tech because the difficult part is receiving only the photons in that
>very short window that underwent no collisions. And that part would
>be accomplished by the future machine. This is just one possible path
>to (machine in the present) assisted PIP Tech. That is, we build a
>machine now in anticipation of assisting a future machine to peer into
>the past. I really have no sound working theory for PIP Tech. The
>above example was just to get the idea across so the space time
>engineering types could ponder the idea. But I cannot dismiss it
>because of the immediate grand impact it would have. The present
>machine along with a sound theory for the future machine(as opposed to
>a working model)would have an immediate impact. Thats a first. We
>use a sound theory for a future machine to get immediate results
>before building that machine. If nothing else, I guess this could
>make for some interesting sci-fi.
>
>Joe Jenkins
>Joe_Jenkins@yahoo.com
That reminds me of an ad in the back of Fantasy and Science Fiction back in
the '70's. The premise was 'Be part of our quest to achieve time trasvel!'
The method (I bit and sent in my $5) was that the organization would bury a
'time capsule' somewhere with the names of all the people who donated
money. At some time and place to be named on the plaque, a future time
traveller would appear with his machine, which would then be donated to the
organization to achieve their goal.
Never did hear what happened to them, I consider the $5 to be an investment
in a rather bad sci-fi plot..
Chuck Kuecker
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