John Titor, time traveller?

[jesternl]

Has anyone heard of this guy before?
A man calling himself Timetravel_0 and later John Titor left messages on a few messageboards (I'm trying to find out where) in late 2000 and early 2001 and gave some predictions/hints of future events.
What's your opinion on it? Hoax, or something as yet unexplained?

[Stirrer]

Imaginative Libertarian/Anarcho porn. Good story.

[Lepton]

I'm reading through some of the stuff he posted, and I must say that this guy is brilliant. I mean, as smart as Borodog, probably has a few degrees, thinks a lot about international relations. The "divergence coefficient" was smart - it's the best way to get out of time-travel paradoxes and get away with making lots of predictions. Very well played, I must say.

I don't have a clue what Pete is going on about.

[This message has been edited by Lepton (edited 06-18-2003 04:14 PM).]

[casinopete]

Lepton, Lepton, Lepton...

So near and yet so far...

"as smart as Borodog"?

[jesternl]

I had the same thought, the divergence will set him free of any lies/things that do not pan out.
Can't we, as the GL, debunk him?

[Death Mage]

There would have to be something seriously drastic to start a civil war in the US in 2005.

Secondly, if another large war starts, it would take place in the Middle East first (if it hasn't begun already).

Also, with the use of modern weapons, there's no real reason why it would take 10 years to wage a war if any side was serious about it.

Finally, a war that kills off 3 billion, half the world's population, is currently unlikely using examples from the most recent "modern" war. At least, the US doesn't need to resort to targeting massive civilian populations any longer, we've moved past it. Unless other countries start throwing massive weapons at each other, an the US is unable to, or more likely, unwilling to strike at ALL waring countries in such an incident...

That being said.. the senario *IS* possable, but extremely unlikely.

[casinopete]

I think before deciding whether "Timor" was hoaxing, we should know whether or not the owner(s) of the site(s) is/are hoaxing. Does anyone know someone who knows someone who was on one of the boards "Timor" posted at when he was in business?

The second-level hoax would be much easier than the first, as you could ask yourself whatever questions you wished, and "claim" skepticism, in order to validate yourself. In addition, you get to apply various meta-arguments like: "John was a lot more polite than most hoaxers." and "If it was for notoriety, explain why he disappeared?"

[Death Mage]

I'd have to spend a bit more time reading that info, but I'm busy right now. I just don't see the US starting a civil war (even though there are times when I'd be ready to support one.. but that's another story).

I'll let some of the others start debunking it, and then I'll come back and do some more in-depth checking.

[Gomez]

LOL@Casinopete - Big sci-fi fan, Libertarian, background in Physics...if he's not Borodog he might as well be

[Lepton]

Sadly, Lepton is only as quick-witted as Lepton.

This page shows a picture of a laser beam being bent by the gravitational field of the singularity. However, our sun only has enough mass to bend light by a VERY small angle. This singularity must therefore be significantly more massive than our sun. Yet it does not affect:

the light coming from the laser, the guys hands, or the cigar - they are all fairly sharp for such a low-resolution image

the shape of buddy's hands or his cigar
or even

the the dust particles that are suspended in the air in the same place as the laser beam

Einstein's General Relativity indicates that a beam of light might be bent by gravity in the same manner as matter. AFAIK, there is no possible way to only bend light, and not affect matter at all.

While it could be that our concepts of physics are hopelessly wrong, surely Mr. Titor would have indicated this instead of trying to explain his device in terms of classical General Relativity.

I guess I'll just have to wait until that guy who is as smart as The Anonymous Sarcast comes along and tells me to lay off the physics.

[MacadamiamaN]

I'd like to hear that Anonymous Sarcast on this, too. He's a smart fellow

[Courk]

He said "In my time, everyone can multiple and divide in their heads." Apparently spelling isn't important. Also, some of his historical facts and assumptions seemed a bit shaky. He assumed that the US would have never entered WWII if Japan hadn't attacked Pearl Harbor. Riiight, which is why we kept sending weapons to the Allies and practically had a naval war going against Germany in early 1941?

Also, I find it interesting that he assumes everything that he remembers happened in our timeline. Sure, he could check up on his facts, but you would think at least once he'd mention something like how the USSR helped the US invade Japan to end WWII. You could argue that he could look that up in a history book before he would mention a misfact, but what about "I don't remember a great deal about media coverage during the civil conflicts. I would probably characterize it the same way you see coverage of Waco, Ruby Ridge and Elian Gonzalez." I don't think events like those would be as easy to look up and make sure they happened, or even to make sure they got the amount of coverage he's talking about. I know none of those events were in my American History book last year, much less how major they were.

That's all I have. Goodness, do I suck wookie at debunking.

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[Qball]

What a load of crap. I cannot believe someone put so much effort into this kind of thing. This guy obviously is obsessed with "Back to the Future" and water bongs.

~smacks head~

I can't believe I read that whole thing.

[MacadamiamaN]

Just you wait. It'll become true!

[casinopete]

Courk: I don't think you're doing too bad. More than anything else I saw, it was the overfocus on Waco that caught my attention and ruined the story for me. Again and again he refers back to it as an example. The only way I could see it being so important to him is if 30 years from now it got characterized as "the start of it all," but he doesn't refer to it in those terms - so there is no explanation.

[Courk]

I only saw one reference to Waco, but I got bored reading it. (You would think a time traveller could be more entertaining) I just found it strange that he knew how much media covrage it got, along with those other events, even though he couldn't be sure those events happened in our timeline.

Also, a few times he gave a long, unnecessary, and unrelevant response to a simple question. I think someone asked if they could still own a gun in the future, and he went into something baout the Soviet Union. Or maybe I'm mixing up two questions, but he did do that.

[John Titor]

I believe I might have been suffering from temporal dysphasia and was answering questions out of temporal order.

Either that or you didn't read the context correctly.

[Courk]

So, Mr. Time Traveler, what is the situation of the Thylacines in your time-period? Have they finally been put on the endangered species list?

And it probably was out of context. I sorted by topic.

[Lucresia]

Originally posted by TimeTravel_0:

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TimeTravel_0: If you had to choose between the future I've described and a future where your government enslaves you...which would you choose?

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He's an anarchist!

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