John Titor

John Titor's military insignia.

John Titor is the name used by the person or persons claiming to be a time traveler from the year 2036 who posted on several time-travel–related bulletin boards during 2000/2001. In these posts "he" made numerous ambiguous predictions about events in the near future, starting with events in 2004.

Whether or not John Titor was a hoax has been a topic of controversy on web-based paranormal discussion boards. He has also been discussed occasionally on the radio show Coast to Coast AM.

Information about his life

Most of the electronic bulletin board posts made by "John Titor" no longer exist. Titor posts appeared at Time Travel Institute, Anomalies Net, and Time Travel Portal, among other places. Darby @ Anomalies Network has copied the Titor-related threads from these bulletin boards. Titor made his first post there as "TimeTravel_0". More recently the story has been collected into a number of more "narrative" web sites.

When asked if John Titor was his real name, he responded that John Titor is a real name.

In his online postings, Titor claimed to be an American soldier from the year 2036 who was assigned to a government time travel project. He was supposedly sent back to 1975 to retrieve an IBM 5100 computer which he claimed was needed to "debug" various legacy computer programs in 2036. He claimed he was making a stopover in 2000 in order to observe the effects of the Y2K bug, and this is when he started posting to the discussion groups. According to IBM engineer Bob Dubke, Titor's statements regarding the IBM 5100's ability to emulate and debug mainframe systems were correct. It has been stated that this information was not publicly available when Titor made his declaration.

Titor made many contradictory statements with regard to his age. In 2000, Titor wrote that he he had his 2-year-old self, implying a birthdate in 1998. On other occasions, however, he claimed to have been a 13-year-old soldier in 2015 during World War III, and a frightened 14-year-old boy in 2012 hiding during the 7th year of a supposed future American civil war.

Titor's alleged time machine

When questioned about the mechanisms of time traveling, Titor answered that he was no engineer. Nevertheless, some of these postings described the time machine and how it worked.

He described it as a "C204 time distortion gravity displacement machine' built by General Electric in 2034. It weighed approximately 500 pounds and was transported in a 1966 Chevrolet Corvette convertible. The vehicle remained stationary with the engine switched off while traveling through time. Apparently the time machine was removed from the Corvette and placed in a 1987 four wheel drive truck. According to the posts, there were six main components to his time machine:

1. Two dual micro-singularities
2. An electron injection system
3. A cooling system
4. Gravity sensors
5. Four caesium atomic clocks
6. Three computers

The posts stated that the "two top-spin, dual positive singularities", produced a "standard off-set Tipler sinusoid". The mass and gravitational pull of the micro singularities were manipulated by injecting electrons onto its surface, replicating the effects of a Kerr-Newman black hole. When pressed for further details, he would claim he "was not an engineer", which seemed at odds with his statement about tracking down an IBM computer. Nevertheless, he also posted images of the machine, and its effects on the beam of a laser pointer when operating, as well as posting parts of its technical manual. When asked to provide a better picture of his time machine, he replied that he wasn't a photographer.

When asked why the time machine did not lead to time travel paradoxes, he stated that this was explained through the many-worlds interpretation (or as it was called, the Everett-Wheeler model), which he claimed was proven to be correct in the future. Simplistically, the Many Worlds theory suggests that for any event that could have different possible outcomes, every one of those outcomes occurs in a separate "universe". According to the posts, a time traveler does not actually enter their own past, but some other, similar, past. When asked to use the time machine to perform some paradoxical action, he replied that that would only affect this universe, but not his. He appeared to imply that there were many worldlines, and his time machine could not control its outgoing destination exactly, but could return to a worldline exactly similar to his own home. His originating "worldline" would, in turn, receive a John Titor exactly similar to the original. Therefore, his original "worldline" would indeed receive the benefit of his mission.

Predictions

The postings also described various future events between 2004 and 2037, including World War III (predicted for 2015) followed by two decades of recovery.

One such entry cited escalating conflict between Arabs and Jews as a harbinger of World War III:

"Real disruptions in world events begin with the destabilization of the West as a result of degrading US foreign policy and consistency. [...] The Jewish population in Israel is not prepared for a true offensive war. They are prepared for the ultimate defense. Wavering western support for Israel is what gives Israel's neighbors the confidence to attack. The last resort for a defensive Israel and its offensive Arab neighbors is to use weapons of mass destruction. In the grand scheme of things, the war in the Middle East is a part of what's to come, not the cause."

Along with this report of World War III's approach, another notable claim was that of a civil war in America, which was slated to begin in 2004, around the time of the presidential election, and would escalate until 2008 which, according to Titor, is "a general date by which time everyone will realize the world they thought they were living in was over." Another claim was that 2004 would be the last year in which the Olympic Games would occur.

A hoax?

A cursory examination of the claims suggests several problems with the alleged story.

For instance, he describes a future in which money is largely dispensed with in favor of communal bartering, but in other cases claims that money is widely used and they still have credit cards. These claims appear to be opposed, it does not seem obvious how one could operate a credit system with widespread barter because of the smaller number of cash transactions this would imply. In another post he speculated that today's money would be usable in his time, but this would be after the collapse of the federal government according to his own history, which would make the money worthless.

Other predictions has simply proven not to be true. For instance, he stated that the Olympics would end in 2004, but this proved contrary to subsequent real-world events as the 2006 Winter Olympics were successfully held. He also predicted that the US would be breaking down into a civil war starting in 2004, or in other posts 2005, and that "wako-like" events (referring to the Waco Siege of 1993) would be commonplace today. In light of such predictive failings supporters have speculated, ex post facto, that the history relayed by Titor could have referred to one possible course for the future, suggesting that humans may have since created an alternate future by going about things differently. This apologetic approach is exemplary of the more forgiving interpretations for Titor's specific errors.

In terms of physics, the explaination of the time machine's workings are technobabble, a pastiche of terms that could be found in a general science magazine or science fiction work. Of particular interest is the fact that the device is implied to be a Tipler Cylinder, but one well known "side effect" of this device is that it can only be used to travel to times in which the device already existed – Titor could travel into the past with one, but only to 2034, which is when he claimed it was first built. It has been suggested, in fact, that the entire description of the system has been copied with almost no modification from a particular work, the general science book Hyperspace written by Dr. Michio Kaku.

The images are likewise problematic. The image of the laser pointer's beam being "bent" has the obvious problem that objects around the beam are not bent. For instance the framing of the window visible in the background shows no distortion, which would not be the case if there was a large gravity gradient in the area. Some have speculated it is a fiber optic.

Titor claimed that he was sent back to obtain an IBM 5100 because it could emulate mainframes. Supporters have implied that this capability was a "secret" that was not known in 2000/1 when the posts were being made. However, this capability was actually widely known in the industry, and commented on in depth in numerous publications, both about the 5100 and APL in general. References to this fact were also available on the internet as early as 1999. This is a fairly obscure bit of trivia, however, which suggests whoever was making the posts was familiar with the machine, or had an interest in retrocomputing.

The most obvious interpretation of the story is that "John Titor" is the creation of one or more hoaxers. All of the evidence consists of postings to a few bulletin boards, and a small number of questionable pictures. Nevertheless the story still circulates, and has spawned web sites that question the intellect of anyone who considers it to be a hoax.

Summary

These are taken from John Titor's original statements and summarised.

• 2004 would be the last official Olympics due to global conflicts.
• A Second American Civil War from 2004 to 2018 dividing the large cities against the rural areas
• An event similar to the "parting of the Red Sea" will occur in 2012.
• Association Football (soccer) becomes the most popular sport in the United States.
• Third World War in 2015, a gradual global escalation that was ended by Russia bombing American, European, and Chinese cities.
  • Sometime before this point (referred to as "N-Day"), China forcefully annexes Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.
  • Chemical and biological weapons are used, and some "non-lethal" weapons turned out to be quite lethal.
  • Australia successfully repels a Chinese invasion.
  • The war kills almost 3 billion people.
• Post-war
  • Communities of survivors gather and grow around libraries and universities.
  • The United States splits into five regions based on various factors and differing military objectives.
  • The US Constitution is changed by a Constitutional Congress.
    • A President is elected for each of the five major areas of the US.
    • The powers of the union government are more defined and reside at the county and state level.
    • The Vice President is elected separately.
    • The US Capital is in Omaha, Nebraska.
• Life in 2036:
  • Society
    • Military service plays a large part in day-to-day life.
    • Capital punishment is still implemented.
    • Communities have returned to a family/community centred state, advised by elders.
    • Texas is Hispanicized.
  • Religion and Beliefs
    • Religion is far more personal and plays a major part in day-to-day life.
    • The Ten Commandments have been restored to the "10" that God gave Moses.
    • Sabbatarianism, or worship on Saturday, is a common practice.
  • Technology
    • Wireless internet is ubiquitous.
    • Television and telephony are delivered via the Web.
    • Books and other hard media are now distributed online and printed from local hubs.
    • Microsoft and Yahoo! no longer exist. Napster still distributes music via the web.
    • Power is not distributed over long distances. Alternate forms of energy generation are common, the most prevalent being solar.
  • Environment
    • The environment is heavily affected by radiation. The lack of potable water is the biggest environmental issue.
    • Global warming has had little effect. Temperature is about the same although there were anomalies after the war.
  • Health
    • The birth rate is much lower, due to a high number of birth defects and stillbirths.
    • Mad Cow disease, or vCJD in humans, is a devastating public health problem.
    • Cures for AIDS and cancer have not been found. Viral therapy is used for cancer.

In other media

• In 2003, the John Titor Foundation published a book, John Titor: A Time Traveler's Tale, discussing his claims (ISBN 1-59196-436-9).
• In 2004, Cyburbia Productions presented Time Traveler Zero Zero, a stage performance based on the Titor story.
• In 2005, Figure 26 Films produced the film Obsessed & Scientific, which touches upon time travel and includes the story of John Titor.
• TimeTravel_0, a film about Titor, is supposedly in production.

See also

• Andrew Carlssin

External links

• The original forum where John Titor posted
• John Titor Archive
• Interviews with Oliver Williams
• John Titor - Time Traveler - collection of all forum posts by John Titor
• John Titor, Fake Time Traveller - Argues that the prediction of an American Civil War in 2004 has been proven to be false.
• John Titor: a Time Traveller From The Year 2036? BBC
• Obessed & Scientific - Documentary about time travel and John Titor