Time lapse, but better somehow
Punch magazine, c. 1899, gave us this line that explains technological advancement. “Quite unnecessary, Sir. Everything that can be invented has been invented.”
Don’t I wish. And I speak, not as a frustrated inventor but as someone that wishes for things (that I don’t have). How about a phone filter that screens out the idiotic calls offering to have me complete a survey about local issues? (I handled that one simply; I let the caller know that there ARE no issue here). But other things will require some technology.
Looking through the Instagram feed from my university, and noticing some of the older (as in really older) photos, I wished that we had some sort of time lapse camera that you could point at a building and see the changes over a period. No, not a movie camera. Something more efficient, where I didn’t have to watch long periods of inactivity. No decades going by with just traces of deterioration. I want magic. Doesn’t string theory cover such a possibility?
And for the climate change deniers, I want something that shows the shoreline (as it disappears). Speed up the presentation. And weather. Was the winter I turned six really that bad, or did I have a foreshortened view of things. Is it true that telephone poles used to be shorter (so the snow just looked deep)? Enquiring minds want to know.
There are others. How about musical history. Was the new symphony by Mozart really that remarkable? Or have our ears been tricked by more modern drivel? So many possibilities here.
