FTL and its uses for Historians

[ray245]

Just had this interesting idea recently, and I would like to share it here. Given that the pictures and the lights from the stars are essentially million of years old by the time they reach us, does this mean we can essentially view Earth's history in motion if we travelled faster than the speed of light?

If we can have a powerful enough telescope and camera, we can take a look at how the cities were like a few thousand years ago and even the clothing of the people on the ground.

Could historians in a world whereby FTL and powerful telescope has been invented make uses of such tools and view past events?

[Ahriman238]

Not really, no.

While the theory of racing light to see it's past is sound and interesting, if we wanted to view, say the American Revolution firsthand we'd have to make a trip of over 200 light years. At that distance, we'd need a pretty good telescope to tell there was an earth at all. We'd also have to very carefully plot where we could go to view the Earth at that point, since it orbits a sun that isn't exactly stationary itself. Smallest error leads to a wasted mission.

Unless your super-advanced aliens wanted to do a time-lapse video of their building a Dyson Shell or something, I can't see many uses for it.

Now one thing future historians COULD do with FTL is race down old radio/tv broadcasts. Again, it's a lot of effort for things that are probably pretty well documented and recorded. But maybe rich future Doctor Who fan shells out for a mission to recover the lost episodes or something.

[ray245]

Not really, no.

While the theory of racing light to see it's past is sound and interesting, if we wanted to view, say the American Revolution firsthand we'd have to make a trip of over 200 light years. At that distance, we'd need a pretty good telescope to tell there was an earth at all.

Hence my indication that there is a need to have such a good telescope. If people ever manage to invent FTL, it will not be that out of question for a more powerful telescope to be invented in the far future.

We'd also have to very carefully plot where we could go to view the Earth at that point, since it orbits a sun that isn't exactly stationary itself. Smallest error leads to a wasted mission.

Couldn't that be resolved by having a much better computers that can perform the calculations for us?

[Imperial528]

You'd have to use a solar lens telescope (use a star's gravity well as a lens) which can achieve massive resolution but also would require a lot of work. And though this is interesting, it would be for minimal gain.

EDIT: Thousandth post

Now, I think a better use would be to try and record transmissions. It would also be useful to study how the first radio transmissions hold up, signal-wise, in the interstellar medium, and then compare them to successive transmissions, searching for well-known broadcasts like the moon landing, so we know exactly what the original data quality was.

[White Haven]

Another intriguing application is forensics, particularly if you have realspace FTL and can assemble a timelapse at reasonably short ranges. Want to find out where your hijacked freighter taken and where the pirates that took it came from? Send a recon craft a light-month out and make some popcorn.