But only after 10 years. You couldn’t see anything that wasn’t visible from the viewpoint of the mirror beforehand, as from earth’s point of view the mirror isn’t there yet. And if you’re there anyway… you can just look at Earth with the craft that’s on the position of the mirror already.
That’s why we need to find a natural mirror somewhere already out there, so we can see into our past. Something like a planet made of pure mercury, or an arrangement of blackholes doing gravitational lensing that bends our light back to us, or whatever. We’d also need instruments vastly superior than what we currently have in order to get any useful information out of seeing our own light bounced back to us from so far away
… But still! the idea that it’s at least hypothetically possible to actually see our own past is very exciting!
He didn’t curse in that line. In fact he didn’t curse much generally. I don’t have any objection to curse words, it just doesn’t sound like his voice when you add curse words in.
Fuck shit ass titties. I just had to get that out after talking about not cursing
You don’t even need a mirror, just look at your hands or feet or whatever, that’s what your hand or foot or whatever looked like 2 or 3 nanoseconds ago.
I’m assuming the inverse square law would hinder us from seeing anything useful. But now I’m imagining scientists being ecstatic about discovering a foreign signal, only to realise its us from the past
That’s highly unlikely basically because of the inverse square law. Even tightly focused beams dissipate quite effectively over light-hours, let alone light years. We’d be lucky to catch a single photon from our past selves over any significant distance.
For reference, look up how weak the signal is even just coming back from the moon when people try to hit the retroreflectors with lasers. Or how crazy weak the signals are when they reach Voyager.
No, the light would be reflected as soon as the mirror is set up. If the mirror is set up 10 lightyears away it would take 10 years for you to see it and whatever it reflects. There already is light on the way to the position of the mirror before you set it up.
But only after 10 years. You couldn’t see anything that wasn’t visible from the viewpoint of the mirror beforehand, as from earth’s point of view the mirror isn’t there yet. And if you’re there anyway… you can just look at Earth with the craft that’s on the position of the mirror already.
That’s why we need to find a natural mirror somewhere already out there, so we can see into our past. Something like a planet made of pure mercury, or an arrangement of blackholes doing gravitational lensing that bends our light back to us, or whatever. We’d also need instruments vastly superior than what we currently have in order to get any useful information out of seeing our own light bounced back to us from so far away
… But still! the idea that it’s at least hypothetically possible to actually see our own past is very exciting!
Just look in any mirror. What you see is also you in the past.
“‘That’s a picture of me when I was younger.’ Yeah, no shit. Every picture of you is a picture of you when you were younger.”
-Mitch Hedberg
He didn’t curse in that line. In fact he didn’t curse much generally. I don’t have any objection to curse words, it just doesn’t sound like his voice when you add curse words in.
Fuck shit ass titties. I just had to get that out after talking about not cursing
Fuck shit ass tities right back at you.
He did on the record.
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True true. Heck it takes some 100-150ms for your brain to register what your eyes have seen.
You don’t even need a mirror, just look at your hands or feet or whatever, that’s what your hand or foot or whatever looked like 2 or 3 nanoseconds ago.
So you are saying, I always looking younger in the mirror?
I’m assuming the inverse square law would hinder us from seeing anything useful. But now I’m imagining scientists being ecstatic about discovering a foreign signal, only to realise its us from the past
That’s highly unlikely basically because of the inverse square law. Even tightly focused beams dissipate quite effectively over light-hours, let alone light years. We’d be lucky to catch a single photon from our past selves over any significant distance.
For reference, look up how weak the signal is even just coming back from the moon when people try to hit the retroreflectors with lasers. Or how crazy weak the signals are when they reach Voyager.
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You’re missing the idea of why this is cool. Recorded images only go back a couple hundred years
Hey, don’t you bring logic in here!
Only after 20 years. Light will take 10y to make it from earth to the mirror, and 10y to travel back.
No, the light would be reflected as soon as the mirror is set up. If the mirror is set up 10 lightyears away it would take 10 years for you to see it and whatever it reflects. There already is light on the way to the position of the mirror before you set it up.
Oops, that’s right!
it takes way more than 10 years to ship a mirror from Earth to some place 10 ly away from earth.
None of these sound like deal breakers to this great idea
Also it would take at least 10 years to put a mirror there.
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