Chronoscope

A **chronoscope** or **time viewer** is a device that can see events in the past.

The accidental result of research into better quantumn navigation systems in 2071, the Chronoscope remains controversial, as direct surveillance of past events often contradicts established religious and cultural dogma, and poses a threat to privacy. Because of these potential problems, the use of Chronoscopes is tightly regulated.

## History

The basis for chronoscopes makes use of quantum capacitance and non-local recording algorithms, which originates from the invention of the NLOFES (NLO field-effect sensor) by Dalton Yang and Elijah Ali at China Lake in 2071. This led to the development of quantum image sensors, the first example being tested at Bell Labs in 2081. The Nakamura XS-9 was the first production version of the chronoscope, manufactured in 2087 and employed for nearly a decade by the National Reconnaissance Office, NASA, National Geographic, and major universities.

By 2104 chronoscopes had become small enough and cheap enough for the masses to afford. The cultural impact in the following years has led to the 2110s to be often labeled as "the decade of exposure." During that period chronoscopes were used to not only generate incredibly accurate images of past events and locations, allowing for novel uses such as relocating lost personal items to somewhat more controversial applications such as exposing personal indiscretions by individuals. This led to a period of virtually unprecedented accountability among politicians AND an endless race of investigations into the personal lives of public figures and private individuals. Eventually most governments adopted tight regulations or outright bans on chronoscope use, limiting it to where a license would be required to own and operate a chronoscope and a ban on their use outside of law enforcement and the military to view events more recent than a decade prior to the present (though this range varies between jurisdictions).

## Applications

A chronoscope's range in space-time is largely proportional to its size and sophistication, modern personal chronoscopes only have a range of a few hundred meters from the point of origin and a few years into the past, but are restricted in most cases to a maximum deviation to only a few meters from the user, thus allowing it to be used for applications in the home, but not for major violations of privacy. Those who are able to defeat manufacture installed governors are a source of modern blackmailing efforts and are often punished severely.

The most common application of non-personal chronoscopes is in academia for researching human history and by law enforcement. The former of which has led to the restoration, and in many cases reinhabitation of many ancient cities and communities destroyed by natural disaster or abandoned by fallen civilizations. Most governments encourage restoration projects for these ancient sites as a source of national or even local pride.

Law enforcement's use of chronoscopes was first employed in the 2100s in State of New York, in which a 30 year unsolved murder case was broken using a Nakamura XS-9. Pierluisi v. New York eventually made its way to the Supreme Court who ruled in 2112 that use of chronoscopes without a warrant constituted a 4th Amendment violation. While the Pierluisi case was thrown out, it paved the way for judges giving out warrants, often with very little cause, to allow for the use of chronoscopes in investigations. Many have argued that this has all but defeated due process as evidence obtained by chronoscopes is incontrovertible, leading to most criminal defenses to focus on criminal intent or negotiating plea deals for lighter sentences for their clients. As of 2140, the average trial in countries with even a high Liberty Index is only a few hours from pre-trial to sentencing compared to the days or week long court procedures common prior to their adoption.

### Super-chronoscopes

Modern Super-chronoscopes are capable of imaging the extreme past in high resolution, however these devices are so large and require so much energy to operate that very few are ever in service at one time. The largest and most powerful such device, Soberon 14 at Mexico's INAOE lab is used for cosmological research, namely studying the formation of the universe and charting its rate of expansion, achieving the the most accurate three-dimensional model of the Big Bang in 2134.

Other super chronoscopes have been essential for researching prehistoric life that went extinct too far back in time for De-Extinction to be possible. At Horner University in Utah, the Mnemosyne-9 chronoscope has been tasked with making a complete map of the fossil record, and provided new insight into the taxonomy of many species. In popular culture the Mnemosyne project has led to documentaries and individual artists employing hyper accurate timelapses of evolution.