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A time traveler probably would not want to risk exposure, as most governments would want to capture and torture him for information. An interesting question wou
by dooglius 2y ago
A time traveler probably would not want to risk exposure, as most governments would want to capture and torture him for information. An interesting question would be, could an event be set up that allows a time traveler to reveal himself while retaining some form of plausible deniability?
- tetris11 2y ago> plausible deniability Insanity would probably be an effective defense. There's an analog to the film The Man From Earth where a similar claim tiptoes on the line of credibility and insanity, with the audience never truly knowing.
- matthewdgreen 2y agoOne idea would be to come up with a secret value, then put it in an envelope for a while. Later on, you'd open it and publish the result. If anyone shows up and knows the secret before you open the envelope: maybe they're a time traveler! But while this might be convincing to you, it wouldn't be terribly convincing to anyone else -- they would assume you shared the secret with the "time traveler." And this is effectively what Hawking did: the secret is just the location of the party. (Obviously this isn't foolproof. If a reliable government agency prepares the envelope and makes sure nobody opens it, they could convince themselves you're legitimate. Which is why you need to do this as a fun, unserious joke.) ETA: Also, if you wanted to make sure the government didn't torture the plausibly-deniable "time traveler" anyway, you'd swear everyone to silence and spread the rumor that "nobody showed up." How would we ever know? ;)
- Pompidou 2y agoBetter : people have to Guess on day 1 a random value generated on day 2, and the winner would be awarded with a Big amont of money. Privacy granted. Lottery. Lottery IS a Time traveller detection device.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]