Thought experiments...
Aug. 22nd, 2006 11:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aribWhile I'm not very good at coming up with ideas that turn into whole stories, I occasionally get smaller ideas that make for fun thought experiments. Here are two, submitted for your consideration.
-Astronomers discover a space probe entering our solar system. Technologically speaking, it's on par with the Voyager probes, or other probes that NASA, the ESA, and the Russian space program have developed, so it's not likely that any new technological advances can be derived from it. Basically, it's got a rudimentary starchart, a recording of voices and music, and a plaque with etchings of aliens on it. (Something like this or this. It travelled at sublight speeds, and took hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years to get here from a solar system that we may or may not be able to determine, and won't likely be able to go and visit. Ramifications?
Unrelated to the scenario above, but similar:
-Suddenly, everyone on Earth has a time capsule from the future appear on his/her doorstep. The capsule contains a newspaper article about the launching of the time capsule program, but otherwise doesn't give any news away, with the possible exception of the date that the capsule comes from. Any media included in the capsule is recorded in present-day formats (CDs, tape casettes, MP3s on jump drives, etc.), so it's unlikely anything can be reverse engineered on that end. We now know that time travel exists in some form, but are unlikely to replicate it before the date listed in the newspaper clipping that was sent through. Now what?
-Astronomers discover a space probe entering our solar system. Technologically speaking, it's on par with the Voyager probes, or other probes that NASA, the ESA, and the Russian space program have developed, so it's not likely that any new technological advances can be derived from it. Basically, it's got a rudimentary starchart, a recording of voices and music, and a plaque with etchings of aliens on it. (Something like this or this. It travelled at sublight speeds, and took hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years to get here from a solar system that we may or may not be able to determine, and won't likely be able to go and visit. Ramifications?
Unrelated to the scenario above, but similar:
-Suddenly, everyone on Earth has a time capsule from the future appear on his/her doorstep. The capsule contains a newspaper article about the launching of the time capsule program, but otherwise doesn't give any news away, with the possible exception of the date that the capsule comes from. Any media included in the capsule is recorded in present-day formats (CDs, tape casettes, MP3s on jump drives, etc.), so it's unlikely anything can be reverse engineered on that end. We now know that time travel exists in some form, but are unlikely to replicate it before the date listed in the newspaper clipping that was sent through. Now what?
