Fiction:Retroscope

The Retroscope is a device created by the Adaisical Technocracy that can be used to render a three-dimensional model of any given location in any reasonable instant in time.

Usage
Because of its great cost and its potential for crime, the Retroscope is rarely distributed for personal use. Most Retroscopes are owned by institutions, commercial or educational, that can use them most profitably.

Retroscopes are planted into the ground at the area that they are to scan. Then, the user will manually enter chronological coordinates. The Retroscope must be left undisturbed for an indefinite amount of time to properly create its model. The model's distance in the past is directly proportional to the amount of time the model takes to render. A particularly distant model, one that ages almost back to the planet's birth, has been operating for thirteen years and is yet to hit the thirty-percent mark.

The Retroscope has been a huge scientific asset, providing researchers with a first-hand look at various aspects of the world around them. Since the chronological coordinates are so specific, it even models the basic shapes of organisms, providing entirely accurate reconstructions of long-extinct plants and animals.

Mechanics
Though the Adaisical Technocracy has not yet mastered the usage of wormholes altogether, this technology creates and manipulates small, traversable ones to model images of the past. The wormhole is created so that one end of it is located in the reactor of the Retroscope (called the local end), while the other is planted in the exact space-time coordinates it is instructed to (the opposite end). Then, the Retroscope whirs the local end of the wormhole at light-speed, causing it to age significantly slower than that of the opposite side. Then, using an opposite technique, the opposite of the wormhole ages more quickly, bringing it back to the requested time. Once the requested time is reached, the opposite end of the wormhole is brought to a temporal halt as it analyses the space around it and converts it to data. It sends this data to the local end in small amounts, so as not to overload the system, creating the 3D model.

Rendering this 3D model can take a lot of time, depending on the temporal distance of the local and opposite ends. The longer the distance, the longer the data must travel to arrive at the local end.

Controversy
Retroscopes were once provided to any that had sufficient funds to purchase one. However, their potential for personal use was quickly withdrawn, after they were used for sexual and criminal purposes. By moving back in time, individuals could view any document they wished, including compromising personal information.

The Retroscope was once suggested to have an opposite function, that allowed users to see into the future, but this idea was quickly put to rest due to the myriad disadvantages that would inevitably stem as a result.