The Earliest Talking Clock? (was Re: Jane Barbie etc.)
Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey
reminded me of the earliest talking clock I ever heard of...
About ten years ago there was a Silly Science Fair held as part of our
local science fiction convention. Entrants were encouraged to create
bogus or parody science projects.
Dan Cohn entered one whose centerpiece was a recording of the "cosmic
background radiation--" the microwave hiss of 3-degree-Kelvin
blackbody photons left over from the early moments of the hot
universe. It sounded like this:
"Sssssssssssssss...."
Dan claimed to have applied advanced forms of signal processing to
this (apparent) noise, and after all his fancy algorithms and equipment
had worked on the background radiation, the tape sounded like this:
[faint voice over background hiss]
"The time...
at the bang...
will be Zero....
exactly."
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