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Originally Posted by GGG
With regards to light be used to transmit data are you referring to Bell’s photo phone from the 1880s?
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Bell's photo phone relied on reflection of analog wave forms. A very different approach from modern fiber optics. Fiber optics were considered more of an illumination technology than a data transmission technology. Bell was probably the first to try using the medium but it proved to be a failure and no one else used it that way for an other 70 years.
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The other challange is that if we did discover bodies and ships why are we so arrogant to believe we could learn anything from it? If I sent my iPhone back 1000 years it would offer zero value to the people using it.
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Yet we continue to take things apart we don't understand and learn from them. If man maintained the belief you just tossed out, we never would have learned about anatomy or internal medicine. We learned about the human body by taking it apart, even when it was verboten by both the church and state. It's what we do. We're curious and we need to know how things work.
If you did send that iPhone back 1000 years there certainly is something that people would learn from it. Much of it would be alien to them, but they would recognize certain components and the refinements in the product. It would drive innovation in trying to replicate such craftsmanship and improve the products of that timeframe. People would learn from it, but learn only that which their context would allow them to understand.