This mirror would be a computer program about the recorded history around a location. It would simulate time reflection, where time slice reflected (replayed) starts from a time negatively and scaled[ly] proportional to the distance to the mirror (so as to inject the long history into, say an interval of [0, 20] meters distance from the mirror, from which a person with normal vision would still be able to make out a meaningful view). Touching the mirror would reflect the present, and the closer you are, the more recent past would be displayed in it, but the further the you are, the older events would unfold in the earlier and earlier recorded history, and replayed in reverse frames order.

The mirror would sync up with the one particular viewer, whom it would identify, and display the past based on known past of the individual. If there would be no data about the long past, it would extrapolate it based on further details, like haplogroups, and the history known about them.

Presumably, the temporal you could also call them "memory mirrors." They could stand in various famous locations, where tourists, and people who want some immersion into the events of the location in relation to themselves, would gather.

People would come to such mirrors to look at the past, and also, simulations of their own selves as they were young, and the histories of the location mixed with the histories of their ancestors.
-- Mindey, Jun 08 2019

De Selby http://crookedtimbe...n-obriens-birthday/
the secret of time and a vision of youth [xenzag, Jun 08 2019]

Portrait of Lotte 0 to 18 years. https://www.youtube...watch?v=nPxdhnT4Ec8
[beanangel, Jun 08 2019]

Light of Other Days http://baencd.freed.../1932093001__17.htm
The story [beanie] mentioned. [Wrongfellow, Jun 09 2019]

Baked, by De Selby in 'The Third Policeman'.
-- xenzag, Jun 08 2019


Wouldn't the other way around be more useful?

Then you could look at your haircut before the barber starts & decide if you want it.
-- Skewed, Jun 08 2019


See last link to the one of the works of the greatest author who ever lived, via De Selby, a character assigned to the footnotes, and an heroic figure of genius for me.
-- xenzag, Jun 08 2019


If you hung one of these on one of the few remaining blue London police boxes, the reactions of passers-by would be worth recording ...
-- 8th of 7, Jun 08 2019


I once read a story, Light of Other Days, about a material (slow glass) with such a high refractive index that would take months or years to pass through it. People would leave it out near beautiful alpine lakes or something, where it would soak up gently varying natural images for a few months then put it on display where they lived. A laminate of these could make a moire of a couple or more intervals of the past superimposed on each other.

Also, there is a fun and nifty video of a girl going from less than a year old to 18. [link]. I first watched it years ago and she has gone from 14 to 18, gently.
-- beanangel, Jun 08 2019


//few remaining blue London police boxes//

There are some?
-- Skewed, Jun 09 2019


Oh yes ... there's even one in Baker Street.
-- 8th of 7, Jun 09 2019



random, halfbakery