Would you want to go back?
I had a thought-provoking answer in my conversation with Sugata Mitra when I asked him "If you could invent one technology today, what would it be?" He did not hesitate one second. "The Chronoscope".
"Why?" I asked. He responded: "Because it could change our reality. We can see things we did not see when they happened. It would change the world."
If you do a quick spin around the internet, you'll see that the idea of a chronoscope is not new. It is referred to in science fiction in different ways and shapes. However, Sugata's inventive vision is precise and lets you control far you want to go into the past. He also explains the value this could have for people.
He starts with the fact that all pictures are slightly in the past.
"When you take a picture of me, you're looking at me, just a picosecond in the past. In the chronoscope, I should be able to adjust that amount of time when I take a picture. I should be able to see myself one hour before or two hours before or a day before or 20 years or a million years ago.
"Whatever I'm pointing the camera at, I should be able to roll time back and then shoot. That's a chronoscope. So I want somebody to invent that."
He continued:
"If a device called the chronoscope exists, all of history will change. It will become one single document with no controversies because there will be evidence, visual evidence, audio evidence. Crime will, I think, largely disappear....
"The controversies and the politics around history would largely disappear....
The chronoscope will change the world."
And so it would. In this short "Chronoscope: A Camera That Can Rewind Time!"- - Sugata shares his vision in less than 60 seconds in a way you won't forget!
Would you want to own a chronoscope? Do you think it would change your life? Or the history of the world?
If you like it, share it with your friends!
Seeing the past, understanding the consequences of past actions should indeed change our perspective and our reality.
But... if history taught us anything, it is that we do NOT learn from history. History for the past 200 years or so has been documented ( with huge biases I admit but still). More recent history, thanks to mobile cameras and recordings of all kinds, also should have taught us not to make the same mistakes again.
Did it?
Not sure a chronoscope would change that.
We have known for a long while that fire burns the flesh...but, just in case, we still want to touch it. Like a moth to a flame, humans seem to be doomed!
But hey... I still love science fiction!