Instead of TRAVELING to the past, can we at least SEE the past?

Question

Do you think at least the past can be viewed?

Answer 1

Set up a high resolution polished mirror on the moon. Send an information encoded pulse laser beam from your backyard on earth to the moon mirror. Set up a telescope in your back yard focused on the moon mirror. You will "see" your message 2.6 seconds after you sent it.

Now do the same thing on a planet orbiting a star 2 light years away. You will "see" your message 4 years after you send it.

Now do the same thing on a planet orbiting a star 20 thousand light years away. Send your message and 40 thousand years from now, your ancestors will be able to "see" it. If your pulsed message carries a 3-D holographic signal from a camera trained on yourself, then your ancestors will be able to look 40 thousand years into their past and "see" you waving hello.

Answer 2

I realize that I may come across as a cynic, but I would have to base my assumption on what we have already learned. For example:

If we really were able to view the past, then we all would have the ability to know exactly who shot JFK.

We would all know what our ancient ancestors (cavemen) had for dinner 1billion years, 900days, and 14 minutes ago.

We would know exactly how the universe was formed, because according to scientist, we are all made up of the exact same material that was present during the big bang. If we are made up of this material, then our material would have some sort of memory of that event.

Think about it. What were you doing the first Tuesday of April ten years ago at 7:31 PM?

It's impossible (I am sorry to say) to see something that has happened outside of a memory situation. And even memories themselves can be proven wrong.

If 10 people saw a murder happen 1 year ago, and you asked all 10 people what the murderer looked like, I can guarantee you that no two people will agree 100%. If seeing into the past were possible, then the cops wouldn't even need eye-witnesses. They'd just look into the past and then know who the killer was.

Theoretically, it sounds possible. But we have been on this planet for eons. If we cannot cure the common cold, change the weather with a flick of the wrist, or even stop war, then how is it possible to see into the past?

Perhaps our biggest challenge as a human race would be to concentrate on what is to happen in the future. For what we do now will determine our true fate. Looking over our shoulder at things in the past will only cause us to stumble as we move forward

Answer 3

No- "seeing" requires either your physical eye, or a technical extension of it. If you can't go back neither can your instrument. As far as our perceptions go we are viewing almost infinitely small sections of our physical world; a movie with very rapid scan rate. From our view point the past is gone and the future has not occur ed yet. Now, having said that, theoretical physicists have a problem with the "boat in a stream" view of time. Some believe that time does not exist, but is just a artifact of our precept ion. Interestingly enough, many Buddhist and Hindu sects believe the same thing and that we can view our "past and future" when outside the physical body and that everything that has happened and will
happen exist-- that the possibilities in infinite array spread out in an infinate array from our "now". Some call this the "eternal now", which is all our bodies can preceive.
michael

Answer 4

Vision is based upon light and light is not instant, it travels at about 186,000 miles per second. Therefore, everything you see is the past. If you look into a mirror at your reflection, you are actually looking into the past. If you look at an object in your hand you are looking into the past. If you look at another person, you are looking into the past. Admittedly the time that has elapsed is very small, but time has elapsed and the image you see is never the present.

The greater the distance between the observer and the subject, the greater the disparity in time. If you could move away from the subject at a speed greater than the speed of light then you would observe the subject traveling backwards in time. If you could move towards the subject from far away at high velocity, they it would appear to advance in time at a rate higher than normal. What you see is nothing more than an illusion of relative time. Real time is constant.

Answer 5

Many psychic can.. however most of us are not that gifted. I see the past ..but only in history books and on the history channel. If I could choose between seeing the past or future I think I would take the past.. I dont want to know what will happen tomorrow...

Answer 6

If you're talking about your personal past, then yes, your memories can allow you to see the past, and as they become more adept and reading the mind with brain scanning devices it might be possible that one day you could plug your brain in a click through your memories on a screen. It's a little bit off, but the tech is already heading towards it.

Answer 7

The past HAS been "experienced." I'm not speaking of stars long dead, of possible future technologies or barriers of physical sciences. Nor of the copious people who claim to remember being Cleopatra. There are dimensions open to us (if we are open) where we are another entity, in a time & place of which we've never had any knowledge upon which to
"draw" images. These incidents take place in altered states of conscousness on which I won't digress. I shall possibly be called crazy as a loon, in any case, which is of no concern to me. I'm sure it's difficult, if not impossible for anyone to comprehend this who hasn't experienced it. We can BE the past. Random & unpredictable, but true.

Answer 8

If time is a direction and we can get light to go that way and come back, we would be able to see it. So I bet we can, maybe not at our level of technology and science but soon enough.

And you know something else? In the meantime, while we wait, photographs and videos are a pretty good way to see the past. Not as cool as future technology though ;)

Answer 9

Being a hypnotherapist, I have regressed many people to the past in either their current life and often in a previous life and they claim to see and hear their past. I guess this would also be construed as everyone's past.

I'm honestly not sure if I believe that past lives and these memories are real, but it is certainly starting to seem that it is.

Answer 10

Well, we can view old light from stars, but I don't think that's what you mean.

Unfortunately, the only method we have of visually observing past events is through photographs and videos. "Peeking" into the past is physically impossible, at least in regards to science as we know it.