Muon Detectors: Do "Star Trek"-Style "Sensors" Already Exist?

If you are thinking of it, then it is possible. The communicator badges, the automatic doors, medical diagnostic computers ,,, they are here. Why not a scanner?

No technology is so obsolete that it won't work. A stone knife still can kill you as dead as a laser.

What would you say about the Earth-centered Universe technology? Sometimes obsolence is because it was wrong in the 1st place.

Cardio07,

Earth-centered Universe technology???

I'm not familiar with any "technology" based upon Earth-centricity.

That was a THEOLOGY, NOT a Technology...

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"Because muons hit the Earth at the rate of about 1 per square centimeter per minute, it will take several months to get a good image of the guts of the pyramid."

Sounds like a substantial limiting factor for making a "useful" sensing instrument out of this phenomenon, and a pretty long way from "realizing Star Trek Technology".

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Just my $0.02...

"That was a THEOLOGY, NOT a Technology..."

I'm not so sure about that. Earth-centricity goes back at least as far as the Greeks. I think the Greeks were simply interpreting their observations as well as they could with the information available to them, just as scientists today. However, any scientific theory, if held long enough, becomes dogma. Contrary to popular opinioin, the new theories develped by Copernius and Gallileo were resisted not just by the church, but by all of society including the scientific establishment of the day, just as the new theories of Einstein were resisted by the scientific establishment centuries later. It is disengenuous to argue that the controversy was simply a religous one. It part of the human condition to resist change and cling to accepted principles.

Bill Morrow

""Because muons hit the Earth at the rate of about 1 per square centimeter per minute, it will take several months to get a good image of the guts of the pyramid."

Sounds like a substantial limiting factor for making a "useful" sensing instrument out of this phenomenon, and a pretty long way from "realizing Star Trek Technology"."

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Right! This goes to the heart of my question. We are continually improving the efficiency of camera sensors, x-ray detectors, etc. I hoped someone with some knowledge of muon detectors might give a prediction about the future of the technology.

Bill Morrow

Bill,

I don't care how much "we" improve the efficiency of a camera sensor or x-ray detector, "we" aren't going to change the laws of physics, or alter the rate at which Muons bombard the earth (at least not any time soon...)

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Now with respect to your prior comment questioning my statement that Earth-centricity was/is a theology, not a technology...

I'm well aware that the notion of Earth-centricity dating back "at least as far as the Greeks". But how does that make it a Technology??

Webster's dictionary defines technology thusly:

1 a: the practical application of knowledge especially in a particular area. b: a capability given by the practical application of knowledge

2: a manner of accomplishing a task especially using technical processes, methods, or knowledge.

In what way did Earth-centricity meet either of these definitions??

Are you equivocating a Theory and a Technology?

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Just my $0.02...

You are absolutely correct. I believe Cardio misspoke when he used the word technology instead of theory.

Bill Morrow

The point is that if a tool or machine ever worked it will still work in the manner it was intended to work.

Name one that is obsolete because it was wrong and explain how it was wrong by your definition. Please consider that wrong usually is used in a moral sense.

What is "Earth-centered Universe technology"?