Weblog
11 October 2019
Canadian Museum of Historical past (CMH)
On November 2, 2000 a set of posts started to appear on a discussion board about time journey. Writing beneath the identify TimeTravel_0, the creator claimed to have understanding of what it takes to construct a time machine. In later posts he claimed to have truly traveled from the 12 months 2036, with a mission to save lots of the world. In lots of of those later posts he wrote beneath the pseudonym for which he could be identified: John Titor.
Titor clearly understood some points of physics and time journey theories, and knew fairly a bit a couple of Seventies transportable laptop often known as the IBM 5100. Based on Titor, the IBM 5100 was central to his mission. The specificity of his posts, in addition to his willingness to make predictions concerning the future made him a little bit of a legend. He’s featured in a number of fictional works similar to Steins;Gate, and is usually talked about in discussions about time journey.
Titor stopped posting in 2001, and none of his predictions got here to be, so there isn’t a lot cause to take his claims severely. After all, one may argue that his time journey modified historical past, but it surely’s way more possible that the creator was simply making issues up. An Web troll who was forward of his time, you may say. However basic relativity does trace at some small chance of time journey. Suppose somebody truly did journey to the previous. May their web presence show their existence?
In 2013 Robert Nemiroff and Teresa Wilson got down to examine this query. Utilizing Web archives and search histories, they needed to see if there was proof of what they known as “prescient Web communication.” That’s, posts or searches that indicated data of a well-known occasion earlier than it occurred.
Of their analysis they targeted on two broadly identified occasions: Comet ISON and Pope Francis. Comet ISON was found on September 21, 2012, and is the one comet to have that identify. Pope Francis was elected on March 16, 2013, and is the primary pope to take that identify. These phrases could be broadly identified after their announcement, however have little likelihood of getting used earlier.
As anticipated, searches of Web historical past in addition to social media websites similar to Twitter and Fb discovered no point out of those phrases earlier than their announcement. Equally, Web searches as recorded by Google confirmed no exercise for these phrases till they grew to become public, at which level their recognition skyrocketed.
The authors additionally checked out lively makes an attempt by time vacationers to confirm their presence. In September of 2013 they requested that point vacationers put up the hashtags #ICanChangeThePast2 or #ICannotChangeThePast2 on Twitter a while prior to now. No time traveler took up the problem, and these phrases didn’t seem on the web earlier than their announcement.
As you may count on, the examine discovered no proof of time vacationers. Both they don’t exist, or they’re maintaining quiet about it. However it’s a enjoyable little examine, and it simply goes to indicate that even wild scientific claims can at all times be examined.
