7 ms·

Best Practices for Time Travelers (2003)

189 points by swatkat 10y ago

rwmj 10y ago
I thought John Titor was an innovative bit of science fiction writing. Did we ever work out who was behind him?
- mikkom 10y ago
  There was some speculation http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/11945420/Who-was-John-Titor-the-time-traveller-who-came-from-2036-to-warn-us-of-a-nuclear-war.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/11945420/Who-was-Joh...
di 10y ago
More about John Titor: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Titor https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Titor
hunterjrj 10y ago
Should add (2003) to the title
- coderdude 10y ago
  Were you disappointed that this wasn't bleeding edge advice for time travelers?
  - david-given 10y ago
    "What do we want?" "Time travel!" "When do we want it?" "That's irrelevant!"
  - EGreg 10y ago
    If time travel is possible this may well be the state of the art
  - chambo622 10y ago
    Or is it?
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- idlewords 10y ago
  2023!
ianbertolacci 10y ago
This would be a really good title for a book on HPC best practices...
mirimir 10y ago
OK, I must point to http://emilkirkegaard.dk/en/wp-content/uploads/Robert-A.-Heinlein-All-You-Zombies.pdf http://emilkirkegaard.dk/en/wp-content/uploads/Robert-A.-Hei...
- joshschreuder 10y ago
  Predestination, starring Ethan Hawke, is a great adaptation of Heinlein's story too.
  - mirimir 10y ago
    Thanks, that's very cool!
  - nickpsecurity 10y ago
    It was a great movie. Slow for about the first half doing a lot of character development, then moving quick into all kinds of territory, and then mindbending finish. I didn't know it was adapted from Heinlein. Darnit. Scratch it off my list of "original" movies to put it on "risky but good." Also, worth mentioning that the actor playing "John" had one of best presentations I've ever seen. Smart that they picked at "tomboy" for it as that fit most of the movie really well. Also, showed John's more straightforward acting took more talent than one would figure at first. EDIT: "All You Zombies." Extra obvious now. Wish I read it sooner. :)
officialjunk 10y ago
A few links are broken in that article. Here's an archive which contains the pictures referenced: http://web.archive.org/web/20070202095050/http://www.anomalies.net/time_travel/john.html http://web.archive.org/web/20070202095050/http://www.anomali...
- to3m 10y ago
  I assume the war destroyed all the decent smartphones then, along with the vaping devices. Those photos look worse than ones taken on my Moto G.
  - zeven7 10y ago
    The civil war in Titor's time line started in 2004, well before the first iPhone. I'd imagine the war altered his timeline enough that modern smart phones with nice cameras were not invented.
    - arjie 10y ago
      Ha ha, hilarious. But the Nikon DSC 995 existed in 2001 and took vastly better digital photographs than that. Not only did the technology exist but I was using one in India around that time. I suppose the one thing hoaxes can't really compensate for is the fact that technology moves so fast.
- joe563323 10y ago
  Could this have happened because some one altered the timeline?
stock_toaster 10y ago
El Psy Kongroo.
- AznHisoka 10y ago
  that anime is the only reason i know about John Titor
  - voltagex_ 10y ago
    For anyone else wondering, this is a reference to a password used in an anime called "Steins:Gate". No idea how it relates to John Titor.
    - eslaught 10y ago
      Steins;Gate[1] contains references to John Titor[2]. I actually thought they had made him up until I looked on Wikipedia and discovered he was a real ("real") conspiracy theory. An English version of the game is now up on Steam. Highly recommended. http://store.steampowered.com/app/412830/ http://store.steampowered.com/app/412830/ [1]: Edit: the game. Not sure about the anime. [2]: Edit: In the game at least this is more in depth than just a password. Saying more would require spoilers.
      - voltagex_ 10y ago
        Thoroughly offtopic, would you recommend Steins Gate? I haven't watched any anime for a while but enjoyed Ergo Proxy and Eden of the East.
        eslaught 10y ago
        I can't speak to the anime, but I enjoyed and recommend the visual novel version. I got into it because I wanted a break from more traditional games (such as RPGs) which may claim to have a story but often don't go deep into character development and so on. If that's what you want, Steins;Gate definitely delivers. I'd make two cautionary points if you're going to try it: 1. It's a visual novel, so it's not going to be interactive like a more traditional game. You get some choices, which among other things determine what ending you get, but really don't influence much otherwise. 2. There's a lot of banter. You'll know in the first 10 minutes of the game if this bothers you or not. I personally didn't have a problem with it, but your mileage may vary.
sgt101 10y ago
William Gibson's book "The Peripheral" is a fantastic take on this (and many other things).
spullara 10y ago
I stopped reading when he said that the clocks would tip over at 2^32 seconds after 1970 (136 years), but it is really 2^31 since it uses a signed 32-bit int (68 years).
- idlewords 10y ago
  Fixed. You can finish reading.
  - flashman 10y ago
    Only 4.155×10⁸ seconds late :)
lux 10y ago
Hahaha this is great! What I love about the John Titor story is how you kind of want to believe in it against your better judgement. The desire to be in on something larger than life, I suppose.
thinkloop 10y ago
There is no such thing as time, or time travel. There are only positions of particles. To go back in time by 1 minute, all particles in the universe have to be moved/changed back to their previous position. This is not time travel, but universe manipulation except for one subject. If there were parallel universes with every possible outcome and you traveled to one, this would also not be time travel, but a moving to a place that looks like another place where particles were at a certain position. Time is just a way to label snapshots of particle positions in the universe.
- austinjp 10y ago
  > this... would not be time travel, but... a different time. Hmmmmm.
  - openfuture 10y ago
    He probably should have said 'not time travel but a different world'
    - Retra 10y ago
      That's what different times are.
- booleandilemma 10y ago
  You make a good point. What if a civilization figured out how to do this on a local level? To finely manipulate particles within a small area? It would be like version control for reality.
  - sudhirj 10y ago
    This idea is referenced quite a bit in an Asimov novel, but I can't remember the name. Something about earth in the far future, and called Eternity Circuits. Computers enforce physical arrangement at an atomic level, and redundancy circuits enforce the computer and each other, basically creating systems that last forever.
sakopov 10y ago
Does anybody know if the forum archives with John Titor's posts are still floating around somewhere? I remember reading some of his stuff a few years after he disappeared and it made for quite an entertaining read. This guy had his story figures out to the very bone. Everything down to the sci-fi tech. He had every nook and cranny covered.
pmiller2 10y ago
If you really want to be believed, just show up to Stephen Hawking's time traveler party he held in 2009[0]. [0]: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/howaboutthat/10488058/Professor-Hawking-fan-tries-to-prove-time-travel-by-creating-invitations-for-party-thats-already-happened.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/howabouttha...
sandworm101 10y ago
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/time_travel/johntitor03.htm http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/time_travel/johnti... Interesting fiction. I'm not physicist, but anything pumping out enough gravity to bend a laser beam 45* over a couple feet (see pic in link) should also collapse that car into a sphere. I also laugh at seeing that while the laser seems bent, all the other light passing through the same area seems unperturbed.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
zenithcobra 10y ago
the earth spins around the sun. the sun spins around the milky way. so if one where to time travel wouldn't they just pop into a space where we are now but where the earth hasn't reached yet?
- matt_kantor 10y ago
  Relativity tells us that there is no preferred reference frame. Earth is just as "special" as the center of the galaxy.

189 points by swatkat 10y ago

rwmj 10y ago

I thought John Titor was an innovative bit of science fiction writing. Did we ever work out who was behind him?

mikkom 10y ago
There was some speculation http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/11945420/Who-was-John-Titor-the-time-traveller-who-came-from-2036-to-warn-us-of-a-nuclear-war.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/11945420/Who-was-Joh...

di 10y ago

More about John Titor: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Titor https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Titor

hunterjrj 10y ago

Should add (2003) to the title

coderdude 10y ago
Were you disappointed that this wasn't bleeding edge advice for time travelers?
- david-given 10y ago
  "What do we want?" "Time travel!" "When do we want it?" "That's irrelevant!"
- EGreg 10y ago
  If time travel is possible this may well be the state of the art
- chambo622 10y ago
  Or is it?
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
idlewords 10y ago
2023!

ianbertolacci 10y ago

This would be a really good title for a book on HPC best practices...

mirimir 10y ago

OK, I must point to http://emilkirkegaard.dk/en/wp-content/uploads/Robert-A.-Heinlein-All-You-Zombies.pdf http://emilkirkegaard.dk/en/wp-content/uploads/Robert-A.-Hei...

joshschreuder 10y ago
Predestination, starring Ethan Hawke, is a great adaptation of Heinlein's story too.
- mirimir 10y ago
  Thanks, that's very cool!
- nickpsecurity 10y ago
  It was a great movie. Slow for about the first half doing a lot of character development, then moving quick into all kinds of territory, and then mindbending finish. I didn't know it was adapted from Heinlein. Darnit. Scratch it off my list of "original" movies to put it on "risky but good." Also, worth mentioning that the actor playing "John" had one of best presentations I've ever seen. Smart that they picked at "tomboy" for it as that fit most of the movie really well. Also, showed John's more straightforward acting took more talent than one would figure at first. EDIT: "All You Zombies." Extra obvious now. Wish I read it sooner. :)

officialjunk 10y ago

A few links are broken in that article. Here's an archive which contains the pictures referenced: http://web.archive.org/web/20070202095050/http://www.anomalies.net/time_travel/john.html http://web.archive.org/web/20070202095050/http://www.anomali...

to3m 10y ago
I assume the war destroyed all the decent smartphones then, along with the vaping devices. Those photos look worse than ones taken on my Moto G.
- zeven7 10y ago
  The civil war in Titor's time line started in 2004, well before the first iPhone. I'd imagine the war altered his timeline enough that modern smart phones with nice cameras were not invented.
  - arjie 10y ago
    Ha ha, hilarious. But the Nikon DSC 995 existed in 2001 and took vastly better digital photographs than that. Not only did the technology exist but I was using one in India around that time. I suppose the one thing hoaxes can't really compensate for is the fact that technology moves so fast.
joe563323 10y ago
Could this have happened because some one altered the timeline?

stock_toaster 10y ago

El Psy Kongroo.

AznHisoka 10y ago
that anime is the only reason i know about John Titor
- voltagex_ 10y ago
  For anyone else wondering, this is a reference to a password used in an anime called "Steins:Gate". No idea how it relates to John Titor.
  - eslaught 10y ago
    Steins;Gate[1] contains references to John Titor[2]. I actually thought they had made him up until I looked on Wikipedia and discovered he was a real ("real") conspiracy theory. An English version of the game is now up on Steam. Highly recommended. http://store.steampowered.com/app/412830/ http://store.steampowered.com/app/412830/ [1]: Edit: the game. Not sure about the anime. [2]: Edit: In the game at least this is more in depth than just a password. Saying more would require spoilers.
    - voltagex_ 10y ago
      Thoroughly offtopic, would you recommend Steins Gate? I haven't watched any anime for a while but enjoyed Ergo Proxy and Eden of the East.
      - eslaught 10y ago
        I can't speak to the anime, but I enjoyed and recommend the visual novel version. I got into it because I wanted a break from more traditional games (such as RPGs) which may claim to have a story but often don't go deep into character development and so on. If that's what you want, Steins;Gate definitely delivers. I'd make two cautionary points if you're going to try it: 1. It's a visual novel, so it's not going to be interactive like a more traditional game. You get some choices, which among other things determine what ending you get, but really don't influence much otherwise. 2. There's a lot of banter. You'll know in the first 10 minutes of the game if this bothers you or not. I personally didn't have a problem with it, but your mileage may vary.

sgt101 10y ago

William Gibson's book "The Peripheral" is a fantastic take on this (and many other things).

spullara 10y ago

I stopped reading when he said that the clocks would tip over at 2^32 seconds after 1970 (136 years), but it is really 2^31 since it uses a signed 32-bit int (68 years).

idlewords 10y ago
Fixed. You can finish reading.
- flashman 10y ago
  Only 4.155×10⁸ seconds late :)

lux 10y ago

Hahaha this is great! What I love about the John Titor story is how you kind of want to believe in it against your better judgement. The desire to be in on something larger than life, I suppose.

thinkloop 10y ago

There is no such thing as time, or time travel. There are only positions of particles. To go back in time by 1 minute, all particles in the universe have to be moved/changed back to their previous position. This is not time travel, but universe manipulation except for one subject. If there were parallel universes with every possible outcome and you traveled to one, this would also not be time travel, but a moving to a place that looks like another place where particles were at a certain position. Time is just a way to label snapshots of particle positions in the universe.

austinjp 10y ago
> this... would not be time travel, but... a different time. Hmmmmm.
- openfuture 10y ago
  He probably should have said 'not time travel but a different world'
  - Retra 10y ago
    That's what different times are.
booleandilemma 10y ago
You make a good point. What if a civilization figured out how to do this on a local level? To finely manipulate particles within a small area? It would be like version control for reality.
- sudhirj 10y ago
  This idea is referenced quite a bit in an Asimov novel, but I can't remember the name. Something about earth in the far future, and called Eternity Circuits. Computers enforce physical arrangement at an atomic level, and redundancy circuits enforce the computer and each other, basically creating systems that last forever.

sakopov 10y ago

Does anybody know if the forum archives with John Titor's posts are still floating around somewhere? I remember reading some of his stuff a few years after he disappeared and it made for quite an entertaining read. This guy had his story figures out to the very bone. Everything down to the sci-fi tech. He had every nook and cranny covered.

pmiller2 10y ago

If you really want to be believed, just show up to Stephen Hawking's time traveler party he held in 2009[0]. [0]: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/howaboutthat/10488058/Professor-Hawking-fan-tries-to-prove-time-travel-by-creating-invitations-for-party-thats-already-happened.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/howabouttha...

sandworm101 10y ago

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/time_travel/johntitor03.htm http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/time_travel/johnti... Interesting fiction. I'm not physicist, but anything pumping out enough gravity to bend a laser beam 45* over a couple feet (see pic in link) should also collapse that car into a sphere. I also laugh at seeing that while the laser seems bent, all the other light passing through the same area seems unperturbed.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

zenithcobra 10y ago

the earth spins around the sun. the sun spins around the milky way. so if one where to time travel wouldn't they just pop into a space where we are now but where the earth hasn't reached yet?

matt_kantor 10y ago
Relativity tells us that there is no preferred reference frame. Earth is just as "special" as the center of the galaxy.