My time machine theory, including the secret of everything

[Dr Lobster*]

i have a theory on how it would be possible to look into the past, the future, to see everybodies life as they see it, and to see every other possible permutation of events, whether they are possible or not.

the premise is in fact ridiculously simple.

as you know, your pc screen is made from a number of pixels, my theory is basically, if we went through all the possible combinations, we would in theory see everything which could be represented as an image (including text)

do you think this would work?

if we had an 800x600 pixel canvas, and we have 16777216 colours, there would be (800x600)x16777216, which is 8053063680000 possible combinations.

so is 8053063680000 the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything? or is my maths wrong and the number much bigger?

[Square Eyes]

Oh no, this won't do, can't we have more Morrisons chatter ?

[Chris]

What happens if you had a bigger screen? Would you have more of an opportunity to see more combinations and scenarios?

[Lorns]

Nope! You've lost me.

[DAS]

What do people think about Zacarias Moussaoui? Would he dial 999 or 112 in an emergency?

There is a fatal flaw in your theory. You forget that one human does not see the same image as another, even their identical twin. The way in which your brain processes the world is highly subjective and the images you think you see are in fact far more pretty and interesting than the world you interpret. While computer screens may, in theory, present the same picture, they cannot be the actual same picture in more than one head.

And that's scratching the surface. I'm sure if someone took a different twist to it they would come up with another completely different explanation of why the theory is sadly impossible.

Good stab though.

[Dr Lobster*]

What happens if you had a bigger screen? Would you have more of an opportunity to see more combinations and scenarios?

in theory yes, but also, like a higher resolution digital camera image you would jus t have more detail, you could also do it to a smaller image to save time, and in monochrome (only 256 colours). i just wonder how long you would have to leave it before you'd start getting images and not random splats of colour

[Dr Lobster*]

What do people think about Zacarias Moussaoui? Would he dial 999 or 112 in an emergency?

There is a fatal flaw in your theory. You forget that one human does not see the same image as another, even their identical twin. The way in which your brain processes the world is highly subjective and the images you think you see are in fact far more pretty and interesting than the world you interpret. While computer screens may, in theory, present the same picture, they cannot be the actual same picture in more than one head.

And that's scratching the surface. I'm sure if someone took a different twist to it they would come up with another completely different explanation of why the theory is sadly impossible.

Good stab though.

the theory itself shouldn't be impossible, it should be possible given enough time to get an image, but, like you say most of the images would be meaningless, even if they were of actual people (living or dead) because there isn't any context.

[Pete]

What do people think about Zacarias Moussaoui? Would he dial 999 or 112 in an emergency?

How would he know it was an emergency though? Would there be someone outside his house with a megaphone?

[James H]

What do people think about Zacarias Moussaoui? Would he dial 999 or 112 in an emergency?

How would he know it was an emergency though? Would there be someone outside his house with a megaphone?

no because you're an ungrateful cunt. don't you dare skit his megaphone or he'll come around and shoot you.

[cat]

What do people think about Zacarias Moussaoui? Would he dial 999 or 112 in an emergency?

I thought 1800-AL-JAZEERA was the standard emergency number for all Arab terrorists?

[Psythor]

I suppose the other obvious problem with using it to look into the past is not knowing whether or not the images generated were accurate.

For every "photo" of Shakespeare there's a two headed Shakespeare with a speech bubble remarking on the new News 24 tower, or something.