How to read voice clips off a glass plate? (Like in Fringe, the TV series)
This question comes from the context of two great works on popular science, one a book on cognition and artificial intelligence <PERSON>, <PERSON>, <PERSON> (GEB) And the other a fictional TV series Fringe.
In the series there is a particular episode, where a villain, kidnaps a mutant woman who "spontaneously combusts", from her house. Following this, the protagonist gets clues by analysing the partially molten glass of a window by cutting off a chunk and playing it like a record (TV show, so whatever fancy tech), finds out a very small bit of what the woman was saying while she was confronting her kidnapper.
In the book GEB, there is a particular dialogue which involves a massive record player which can play any tune on a single record by altering the record player, rather than the usual case where different arrangement of grooves give different tunes.
I have two related questions, one, is it possible to actually read voice info from the vibration patterns of partially molten glass; and two, is it guaranteed that the possible information will be a snippet of the actual conversation and not be random words/noise that happen to make "sense" due to possibly erroneous decoding?
Note: There is a relevant discussion in this wiki page on archaeoacoustics.
Note 2: For dialogue mentioned in GEB look at-
<PERSON> : What? A jukebox with only one record? That's a contradiction in terms. Why is the jukebox so big, then? Is its single record gigantic- twenty feet in diameter.
Tortoise : No, it's just a regular jukebox-style record.
<PERSON> : Now, Mr. <PERSON>, you must be joshing me. After all, what kind of a jukebox is it that has only a single song?
<PERSON> : Who said anything about a single song, <PERSON>?
<PERSON> : Every jukebox I've ever run into obeyed the fundamental jukebox- axiom, "One record, one song".
<PERSON> : This jukebox is different, <PERSON>. The one record sits vertically suspended, and behind it there is a small but elaborate network of overhead rails, from which hang various record players. When you push a pair of buttons, such as B-1, that selects one of the record players. 624
This triggers an automatic mechanism that starts the record player squeakily rolling along the rusty tracks. It gets shunted up alongside the record- then clicks into playing position.
<PERSON> : And then the record begins spinning and music comes out- right?
<PERSON> : Not quite. The record stands still- it's the record player which rotates.
<PERSON> : I might have known. But how, if you have but one record to play, can you get more than one song out of this crazy contraption?
<PERSON> : I myself asked the <PERSON> that question. He merely suggested that I try it out. So I fished a quarter from my pocket, stuffed in the slot, and hit buttons B-1, then C-3, then B-10- all just at random.
<PERSON> : So phonograph B-1 came sliding down the rail, I suppose, and plugged itself into the vertical record, and began spinning?
Tortoise : Exactly. The music that came was quite agreeable, based on the famous old tune B-A-C-H, which I believe you remember...
<PERSON> : Could I ever forget it?
<PERSON> : This was record player B-1. Then it finished, and was slowly rolled back into its hanging position, so that C-3 could be slid into position.
<PERSON> : Now don't tell me that C-3 played another song?
<PERSON> : It did just that. 406