Chronovisor
From Free net encyclopedia
The chronovisor was supposedly a machine for viewing past and future events. Its existence was alleged by François Brune, author of several books on paranormal phenomena and religion. In his book The Vatican’s New Mystery he claimed that the device had been built by the Italian priest and scientist Father Pellegrino Maria Ernetti (1925-1994). While Father Ernetti was a real person, the existence (much less the functionality) of the chronovisor has never been confirmed.
The chronovisor was portrayed as a large cabinet with a normal cathode ray tube for "viewing" the received events and a series of buttons, levers, and other controls for selecting the time and the location to be viewed. According to its inventor, it worked by receiving, decoding and reproducing the electromagnetic radiation left behind from past events. Its existence is dubious owing to lack of scientific principles on which such a device could operate.
In theory, such a device could be set to constantly "monitor" a relatively recent moment of the past (e.g. 1 second or even less) of a certain place or even object or person, effectively turning it into a powerful espionage and surveillance tool, practically destroying any concept of privacy or secrecy.
This particular (surveillance) use of a device similar to a chronovisor, called chronoscope was referenced in Isaac Asimov's short story The Dead Past, and was also given as the main reason why the chronovisor/chronoscope concept itself was a closely guarded secret, and all related research was discouraged.
The alleged existence of the chronovisor has fueled a whole series of conspiracy theories, such as that the device was seized and is actually used by the Vatican or by those that secretly control the world.