"The Light of Other Days" by Stephen Baxter and Arthur C. Clarke

Arthur Clarke lured me into lifelong science fiction fandom.  I still remember reading his "Against the Fall of Night" and long afterwards dreaming about the cities of Diaspar and Liz.  Eventually I made up my mind to read everything Clarke ever wrote, and almost finished all his fiction works!  Almost, but not quite.  Although I read Clarke's non-fiction as well, I was less impressed by it than by his fiction.  I really liked the Mysterious World series on TV, and bought the book that went with it (actually all three books), but I was disappointed that the book was written by other people, while Clarke would only give his thoughts on the chapter/episode subject matter.

"The light of other days" is a similar case.  It is written by Stephen Baxter based on a synopsis (probably just an idea) by Clarke.  It uses elements from Clarke's "Childhood's End" which is one of the most amazing books I've ever read. 

The idea is along Einsten's joke that if you had a lens powerful enough you could see around the curvature of the Universe, and thus see the past.  You wouldn't be able to travel back in time, as that is always to remain impossible because of entropy and preservation of mass, but you would be able to see the light of the past and thus also the images that light is carrying.   There is no such thing as physical time travel and there will never be one (otherwise we'd be swarmed with time tourists already), despite the silly story arches in sci-fi shows.  Also no one will every be able to influence the past, since light travels only one way, from the past to the present and the future.

Baxter's book talks about a WormCam, which is a wormhole into time and space, that can see light from past events, pretty much anywhere and anytime.  Besides the romantic story and the sociological didactic story about a self-made billionaire creating a clone of himself in order to be in full control (spoilers!!!), the book is mostly a speculation on what changes in society and people when everybody knows that they are under constant surveillance at every moment of their existence.

Obviously the society as we know it would fall apart, as everyone sane knows that it is based on lies, delusions and secrets, that are mostly getting passed for "morality and rules."  When everyone knows everything about everyone else, politics and crime are almost impossible, while people start walking around naked and having sex in public, as everyone can see them through a WormCam nomatter where and when.

Also many myths fall apart, like Jesus, Moses, Ice Age, Human Ancestors, Columbus, etc. as now everyone can see what really happened (or nothing happened at all!) and uncover the lies and cover ups in the official versions.

Interesting book, but it has the attraction of non-fiction, more than that of a fiction book.