The Light of Other Days

The original story outline by Arthur C Clarke

©Arthur C Clarke 2000

Oft, in the stilly night,

Ere Slumber's chain has bound me,

Fond Memory brings the light

Of other days around me.

      — Thomas Moore (1779-1852)

Hiram ("Hire 'em and fire 'em") Patterson (nee Hirdamani Patel) is a ruthless media magnate of the 2020's. (Prototypes: Maxwell, Turner, Beaverbrook.) One day he is furious because his network has been scooped by its main rival on a major story - and he has a sudden inspiration, triggered by the stories of all-powerful Hindu gods his grandmother used to tell him.

He calls in his chief of staff and says: "Why do we have to keep stringers and camera crews scattered all over the world, waiting for stories they miss half the time? Can't our engineers invent a gadget that will allow us to see anything that's happening, anywhere, any time - without actually going there?"

In the usual "Don't say yes until I've finished" tradition, he receives the answer: "What a brilliant idea - I'll get my boys to look into it."

When they are assembled, the engineers all decide that Hiram has gone nuts, but know better than to say so. However, presently someone remembers that a celebrated pop-scientist (c.f. Stephen Hawking) has put forward a theory that there is really no such thing as Space - all points are co-incident in the Mind of God.

"So all we have to do is to read His mind - we've had plenty of practice with Hiram."

The lab staff also realise that this gives them an opportunity for getting more money to develop some of their pet ideas - though none, of course, as crazy as this...So Project Nullspace is launched - with precisely zero expectation of success.

Note 1

This section must be based on genuine - or at least plausible - scientific concepts. I expect to work them out with someone like Greg Benford, the NASA advanced concepts team - or possibly Hawking himself (we had a three-hour session when filming GOD, THE UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING ELSE.)

Such a completely realistic basis is essential before we go on to develop the even more far-out ideas later in this treatment. The whole strength of the books/TV series will depend on it not being fantasy; we must leave the terrified reader/viewer thinking "My God - this really could happen!"

And I'm just a bit scared myself, of making a self-fulfilling prophecy...

(Since writing the above, I've read Greg's Cosm - the first novel I've opened in a year! - and find we've been thinking along rather similar lines. I'd assumed that the 'detector' would be something like a steerable wormhole or an E-R-P Bridge.)

After numerous experiments and hilarious failures, a crude 'Televisor' is built. It has limited range and poor definition, but the principle is established. Recognisable images can be received, without any local transmitting equipment, even from closed rooms up to a few kilometres away.

At this point, Hiram's staff realise that they have a tiger by the tail; strange characters are seen hovering round the lab, there are several break-ins, and one member of the team defects (or is kidnapped). This is no longer a matter of mere news-gathering: the opportunities for Intelligence, not to mention private blackmail, are awesome.

With his high-level contacts, Patterson tries to protect his property, but fails. Government steps in and classifies everything. It is too late: the secret is out.

From this point, there are several lines of development which I'll merely list here without going into details.

1. The CIA, FBI, police angles - legitimate crime detection, national security.

2. Attempts of unfriendly (and friendly!) foreign governments to steal the device. One of them may greatly improve it, extending range (world-wide?) and definition (able to read documents?)

3. Criminal organisations use it for blackmail and pornography - but are continually frustrated by (1). So elaborate deception and counter-deception strategies are devised.

4. Monitoring systems (Red Cross, Air Sea Rescue) services use it to save many lives.

5. Etc, etc...

After a few years, human society adapts to this new power, though there are many suicides from people who were afraid they were being spied on all the time (I believe this happened when X-rays were discovered, and their powers were exaggerated by the popular press!) On the whole, standards of morality improve, because no-one can be sure how many Big Brothers and Sisters are watching.

But then there is an even more stunning development, which makes the original Televisor almost trivial by comparison. A break-through in physics allows it to view not only current events - but to look into the past...

The Chronovisor opens up the whole of history - and all the secrets buried in the ages.

Note 2

The concept of a 'time viewer', perhaps because it is so much less dramatic than time travel, does not seem to have been much used in science fiction. One of the best-known examples is Bob Shaw's ingenious 'slow glass' story, which also took its title from Moore's poem. Others in the genre include Asimov's The Dead Past and Taine's Before the Dawn. Neither gave any hint of the technology involved.

A more thorough - and for its time remarkable - treatment is S Fowler Wright's Throne of Saturn, and in the George Gaylord Simpson novel I edited with Stephen Jay Gould, I did discuss at some length whether such a device violates the laws of physics (as a 'time machine' certainly does. Oh well - almost certainly.)

So before developing The Light of Other Days any further, it will again be necessary to invent a plausible technology. I am sure that this can be done (though probably not by me). The essential point is that, once again, the reader must have a complete suspension of disbelief. I suspect that the man for this job is IBM's Cliff Pickover, who has just published Time: A Traveller's Guide (Oxford 1998)

And again, we must describe the - perhaps slow and frustrating - development of the Chronovisor, from a device that shows smudgy images from a few minutes in the past, to one that gives perfect definition (and sound??) back to the dawn of history.

(Even to the dinosaurs?)

The possibilities now open are virtually unlimited. Here are a few.

1. Destruction of religions based on charismatic founders.

2. Instant obsolesence of all history books, biographies.

3. Solution of all past crimes, mysteries. (We have to be careful here not to get too close to the present, for fear of libel or instant disproof!)

4. Retrieval of all lost treasures, historic artefacts.

5. Tremendous public demand for access to personal past.

This is perhaps the most challenging theme. If you had the ability to scan your whole life (Fast backwards!) would you be able to resist the temptation, despite all the inevitable sadness and regret that it would induce?

Who would provide this facility? It seems very unlikely that Chronovisors would be cheap enough for general use, even if this was permitted. Perhaps local servers would be established, like today's Websites, accessible through the home info-unit. And I can imagine a kind of dedicated Priesthood which would monitor their use, and provide the - often necessary - psychological counselling.

It would be the ultimate Nostalgia Machine, and the impact on society would be overwhelming. Would the average family survive, if all its members could, in principle at least, see every detail of the lives - and deaths - of parents and siblings?

Endless dramatic possibilities here! What sort of morals would develop in a 'Glasshouse World'?

And nothing could be more frustrating, and heart-breaking, than being able to watch helplessly all the tragedies and horrors of the past. Inevitably, the question would be raised "Is the past immutable? Can it be changed for the better?"

Many answers would be given, but the only one which seems - barely! - plausible is Resurrection. Given a sufficiently advanced technology, it should be possible to re-create the body, and memories, of anyone from the past. But would this replica be the same person - what compensation to anyone tortured to death would it be to have a Xerox copy in the far future, starting a new life?

Note 3

There is a classic Russian study (Verdansky?) of this subject, suggesting that Resurrection should be the ultimate goal of civilisation. Must get hold of it.

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