The Dead Past is a science-fiction short story by Isaac Asimov.
Part of the Multivac series, it was first published in the April 1956 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. It was later collected in 1957's Earth Is Room Enough, 1973's The Best of Isaac Asimov, 1985's The Edge of Tomorrow, 1986's The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov, and 1990's The Complete Stories Volume I.
Summary[]
Arnold Potterley, an academic specializing in ancient history, becomes obsessed with gaining access to the "chronoscope," a government-controlled invention that can view the past. His goal is to prove whether the Carthaginians practiced child sacrifice. After his official request is denied by a bureaucrat, Thaddeus Araman, Potterley secretly enlists the help of a physicist, Jonas Foster, and a science writer, Ralph Nimmo, to build a private chronoscope.
Their project leads to two critical discoveries. First, Foster develops a method to create a much simpler and cheaper chronoscope. Second, they prove the device is fundamentally limited to viewing events within the last 120 years, revealing that the government's claims of observing ancient history are false.
The team's motives unravel: Potterley is subconsciously driven by guilt over his own daughter's death, while Foster becomes a zealot for scientific freedom. Their success is short-lived. Araman apprehends them and reveals the government's true reason for suppression: the chronoscope's real danger is not viewing the distant past, but spying on the immediate, "dead" past, effectively allowing unlimited, real-time surveillance of anyone, anywhere, destroying all privacy forever. Despite this warning, Nimmo has already publicized the chronoscope plans, making the loss of privacy inevitable for all humanity.
Characters[]
Trivia[]
A sequel to "The Dead Past", titled "The Present Eternal", was written by Barry N. Malzberg and appears in the Asimov tribute anthology Foundation's Friends.
Adaptations[]
It was adapted into an episode of the anthology television series Out of the Unknown.
See Also[]
List of short stories by Isaac Asimov