The WhereWas Eye

[agorski]

Here's a found object with mysterious capabilities.

This appears to be a large screen tablet. Holding it up in front of the user like a smartphone camera, it displays the scene in front of the user except that all lifeforms are missing. A forest looks like empty terrain. Useful for finding those ruins in the jungle.

The displayed image is not shown in the correct colors, as if designed for a sophont with vision different from humaniti.

Still holding the tablet, controls allow viewing the current scene at different times in the past. Scroll(?) back while viewing those jungle ruins that are now a pile of rocks and see what was originally built.

 

[willtron3030]

Ooh, step aside Mr. Night Shylaman, daddy has a twist to add:

Time travel, we all know, is impossible[1]. This device is peering into the present of alternate realities where time proceeds at rates different from ours. The device always picks an alternate reality whose present time best matches the time from our own that the user has selected, but optimizes for least energy required to make the observation. That usually means that what's happening there very closely matches what happened here. But you're always seeing the Temu version, so your results may vary.

... Oh, nuts. It just dawned on me that idea I picked out of the recesses of my skull just now wasn't mine. It's an echo of something I read recently.

::15 min later:: It feels like something Moe Lane would write, but I've gone thru a couple of months of his Patreon work and nada.

::15 more minutes:: It was "The Historians", by K.M. Sykes, published in "The 2024 High Caliber Awards" story collection, by Cannon Publishing. In the story, the reality shown is the closest match to the expectations of the viewer.

::5 more minutes::
My confusion about Moe Lane was because he recently published an RPG sourcebook about a setting where time travel is no longer possible (skepticism optional), and the PCs are tasked with cleaning up the aftermath of the Time Wars which inadvertently produced that result.

[1] Yeeah, right. Nonetheless, any sophont race with robust philosophical foundations and inventive dystopian storytellers would prefer to keep believing that it is not, in fact, possible.

 

[Spinward Scout]

Reminds me of the device in the first Guardians of the Galaxy when Quill was looking for whichever object and it showed him what the area looked like in the past. But it had living people/things on that one.

Cool idea!

 

[kilemall]

Reminds me of the device in the first Guardians of the Galaxy when Quill was looking for whichever object and it showed him what the area looked like in the past. But it had living people/things on that one.

Cool idea!

That looked like an archival film holoprojector of footage taken from an earlier active civilization time, not a time player.

I have a hard time with terrestrial time machines just cause of planetary/star system motion.

 

[agorski]

I get my best ideas when trying to go to sleep. The whole thing, including the name, just popped into my head and I remembered it clearly the next day.

 

[Commander Truestar]

@willtron3030
Sounds like some serious considerations need to be recognized...
Like "It can't predict the affects or outcome of anything it can't see or detect"
So, it can't project into a future where:
1) a hidden bomb explodes
2) the time signature a bullet is fired from a covertly not-yet-deployed weapon
3) the random number to be generated by a not-yet-activated machine used in gang-level street gambling
[Explanation: In bad neighborhoods in excessively high pop worlds, some gangs will have a "large screen" random number generator/display
---- Muscle gang members move it around ahead of roving police patrols and hold it while a more "charismatic" gang member moves around with
-----a "loud speaker" mic and speaker unit, all supported by a crowd of gang protection. The last piece is a plastic tape "number printer"
-----When they show up on "your street", each person steps up, puts their thumb on the reader, says their number and pays a One to five Credit fee
-----When the "buying" closes, the ganger holding the printer activates the unit, which dumps the "buy data" to the RNG-display unit.
-----That chooses a random number for the range that was advertised while buying was still open and displays that number on the screen.
-----Anyone who "won" because they bought that number can step forward, "thumbprint in" and be given their share as displayed on the RNG-unit

 

[willtron3030]

@willtron3030
Sounds like some serious considerations need to be recognized...
Like "It can't predict the affects or outcome of anything it can't see or detect"
So, it can't project into a future where:
1) a hidden bomb explodes
2) the time signature a bullet is fired from a covertly not-yet-deployed weapon
3) the random number to be generated by a not-yet-activated machine used in gang-level street gambling
[Explanation: In bad neighborhoods in excessively high pop worlds, some gangs will have a "large screen" random number generator/display
---- Muscle gang members move it around ahead of roving police patrols and hold it while a more "charismatic" gang member moves around with
-----a "loud speaker" mic and speaker unit, all supported by a crowd of gang protection. The last piece is a plastic tape "number printer"
-----When they show up on "your street", each person steps up, puts their thumb on the reader, says their number and pays a One to five Credit fee
-----When the "buying" closes, the ganger holding the printer activates the unit, which dumps the "buy data" to the RNG-display unit.
-----That chooses a random number for the range that was advertised while buying was still open and displays that number on the screen.
-----Anyone who "won" because they bought that number can step forward, "thumbprint in" and be given their share as displayed on the RNG-unit

1) Triangulation? skip ahead until a point is reached, then backtrack in time units until it isn't. Skip forward again in smaller units until it is, then backwards in smaller units again until it isn't. Rinse, repeat.
2) Triangulation again, but infinitesimally different conditions might significantly timing, placement of shooter, etc.
3) True, unless the RNG isn't really random to begin with... and that is a whole other problem.

 

[Commander Truestar]

1) Triangulation? skip ahead until a point is reached, then backtrack in time units until it isn't. Skip forward again in smaller units until it is, then backwards in smaller units again until it isn't. Rinse, repeat.
2) Triangulation again, but infinitesimally different conditions might significantly timing, placement of shooter, etc.
3) True, unless the RNG isn't really random to begin with... and that is a whole other problem.

Everyone says triangulation, but - using what?
I had to repeatedly tell my players that there often was either:
1) No GPS system at all (worlds with tech level 7-)
2) No GPS they were allowed to use.... (you just landed on the world, detect GPS signal-type broadcasts but don't have the access code for it)
3) ...
The list goes on.

So, in order to Triangulate, you need to have at least two (if not more) distinct units in the field "And" the person/location/etc... has to have a device that can also participate in the triangulation effort.

99% of players I have found don't consider that.
Which means that it is up to the GM to determine "IF" they "Can" triangulate or not?

Added to that, I'll bet most reading this word have nav-sat units that are different than US-available models.
Regardless if that's true or not, you may be able to create your own distributed "Directional" system, but it won't come with the electronic map.

And, even if you did take nav-scans of the region in which you are landing, you will need to spend some time figuring out where you are and then adjusting the scale of the image you took so you can align what you're looking at so that your readings are even near correct.

And, finally, your unit-based triangulation system is trying to burn through every single obstruction from Unit 1 to 2, From Unit 2 to 3, etc....
The normal Sat-nav you're thinking about shoots "Up" to satellites. That's one reason they're so clear. Another is that your sat-nav is usually hitting well more than 3 sat's. Often, no less than five or six(I did this for a year as a contractor for the US Army)

So, your results with two or three teams (where your "target" item is also able to participate) is going to be degraded in spaces where obstructions include structures, etc....

That said, I am pleased with an answer like triangulation only if you've done the math to insure the players "Can" triangulate.

 

[willtron3030]

Everyone says triangulation, but - using what?
I had to repeatedly tell my players that there often was either:
1) No GPS system at all (worlds with tech level 7-)
2) No GPS they were allowed to use.... (you just landed on the world, detect GPS signal-type broadcasts but don't have the access code for it)
3) ...
The list goes on.

So, in order to Triangulate, you need to have at least two (if not more) distinct units in the field "And" the person/location/etc... has to have a device that can also participate in the triangulation effort.

99% of players I have found don't consider that.
Which means that it is up to the GM to determine "IF" they "Can" triangulate or not?

Added to that, I'll bet most reading this word have nav-sat units that are different than US-available models.
Regardless if that's true or not, you may be able to create your own distributed "Directional" system, but it won't come with the electronic map.

And, even if you did take nav-scans of the region in which you are landing, you will need to spend some time figuring out where you are and then adjusting the scale of the image you took so you can align what you're looking at so that your readings are even near correct.

And, finally, your unit-based triangulation system is trying to burn through every single obstruction from Unit 1 to 2, From Unit 2 to 3, etc....
The normal Sat-nav you're thinking about shoots "Up" to satellites. That's one reason they're so clear. Another is that your sat-nav is usually hitting well more than 3 sat's. Often, no less than five or six(I did this for a year as a contractor for the US Army)

So, your results with two or three teams (where your "target" item is also able to participate) is going to be degraded in spaces where obstructions include structures, etc....

That said, I am pleased with an answer like triangulation only if you've done the math to insure the players "Can" triangulate.

Chronological triangulation... If you know where something occurred, but not exactly when or how. I've had to use this at work to assist staff in figuring out lost/stolen equipment, incorrect medicine counts, vandalism, unclosed security doors, etc. we have 135 cameras in 4.5 acres of floorspace.