John Titor - Time Traveller

[RottingCorpse]

This is an oldie but a goodie. I went out tonight and we started talking about John Titor, the soldier from 2036 who supposedly came back in time to 2000/2001 for about a four month period. It very well may be a hoax, but if it is, It's an extremely well done one. Fascinating raeding. Quite haunting.

Start at the wikipedia entry, which gives the best overview.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Titor

[Tyson]

From what I can tell, it's definitely a bona-fide "cool thing" because, like what you said, either it's real (har har), or it's an amazingly elaborate and well-done hoax.

It's fun, though.

[Cassander]

interesting, but obvious bullshit.  very clever, but still so much is absent that it's apalling how many believers are out there.  maybe i should try to convince people that i'm jesus.  that's the problem with all these self-made messiahs yelling on street corners: they're not on internet forums!

[Cassander]

ok, so i was talking to my fellow displaced new orleans roommate about this john titor guy and we started talking about time travel, etc., and he tells me about this phenomenon wherein someone is just walking along or something, maybe turns a corner, and all of the sudden they're in the past.  he told me it happened to him, and if you guys want to hear the story, i'll write it up tomorrow (right now i'm beat). anyway, my friend calls it "time flux" but i just did some searches and came up with bupkis.  anyone else ever hear of this or know what it's called?  my friend gave a semi-famous example of these two sisters who were in their hometown, turned a corner, and were 50 years in the past.  what they told people were pretty accurate descriptions of the time and place (which, of course, might be readily available, who knows).  but anyway, they didn't have to do anything, they were just walking along.  so there's no science here, just some kind of ghost/time travel combo.  anyone? bueller?

[Tyson]

It's a phenomenon called "nucking futz".

[jreale]

I knew someone who called his alcoholic blackouts time travel.

[Nubbins]

anyone else ever hear of this or know what it's called?  my friend gave a semi-famous example of these two sisters who were in their hometown, turned a corner, and were 50 years in the past.  what they told people were pretty accurate descriptions of the time and place (which, of course, might be readily available, who knows).  but anyway, they didn't have to do anything, they were just walking along.  so there's no science here, just some kind of ghost/time travel combo.  anyone? bueller?

If this was a phenomenon that actually happened, wouldn't another effect of it be that we sometimes randomly see people just pop into existence from 50 years in the future?

Time is such a weird and human concept, it's really fascinating and confusing to even think about it.  Did you know, for instance, that the further away from the center of the Earth an object is, the slower time moves for that object?  So time is moving microscopically slower for you at the top of a tall building or in an airplane 30,000 feet in the air than it would be for some shmuck getting a tan at sea level.  You should rent the documentary A Brief History of Time or just buy the book outright because they're both awesome mind fucks.

The thing that I find interesting about time travel is that given a large enough telescope and a space ship that can travel many, many, many times the speed of light, we could theoretically zoom out into space and turn around and look back at the Earth through our telescope to see things that happened 50 or 100 years ago.  Like, we could use that technology to solve the JFK assassination, other famous crimes or even just see what our parents were like as kids.

[Tyson]

Did you know, for instance, that the further away from the center of the Earth an object is, the slower time moves for that object?  So time is moving microscopically slower for you at the top of a tall building or in an airplane 30,000 feet in the air than it would be for some shmuck getting a tan at sea level.

Bzzt! Wrong answer. Time does not "move more slowly" based on your relative position to the Earth. It's relative to your speed. If I were to circle the Earth at near-lightspeed (har har), I could come down after a few days or whatever and take a piss in a new 3001 model latrine. Well, that and the fact that if you were travelling at near-lightspeed, you'd be huge. E=mc^2 and all that.

However, it gets interesting when you realize that speed is measured relative to a fixed point, usually your starting point. However, what's to say your starting point is stationary? Where in the universe is your starting point relative to?

But yeah, time is a completely relative concept and the fact that it's a "sense", it's hard to find any logic in it. Most physicists generally agree that it'd be possible to "move forward" in time by altering someone's perception of time (though you'd have to actually alter what their sense senses in order to not kill them). However, there's much contention that it'd be possible to go "back" in time. Evidence points to impossible. But hey, you never know.

Oh, watch Primer too. God that movie rules.

Fun shit!

[Nubbins]

Yeah, I figured I probably fucked something up there... I'll have to look at my books again when I get home tonight.

[Tyson]

Careful. Delve too deep in to that shit and you'll start peeing on park benches and humping chihuahuas.

I recommend "The Dancing Wu-Li Masters". That'll get you in-the-know of physics without castrating your frontal lobe.

[Nubbins]

Did you know, for instance, that the further away from the center of the Earth an object is, the slower time moves for that object?  So time is moving microscopically slower for you at the top of a tall building or in an airplane 30,000 feet in the air than it would be for some shmuck getting a tan at sea level.

Bzzt! Wrong answer. Time does not "move more slowly" based on your relative position to the Earth.

Bzzt!  Wrong retort!  I was fucking right (sort of)!  Although I got the effects confused, time does move differently based on your position, Mr. Smartypants.
 

Another prediction of general relativity is that time should appear to be slower near a massive body like the earth. This is because there is a relation between the energy of light and its frequency (that is, the number of waves of light per second): the greater the energy, the higher frequency. As light travels upward in the earth’s gravitational field, it loses energy, and so its frequency goes down. (This means that the length of time between one wave crest and the next goes up.) To someone high up, it would appear that everything down below was taking longer to happen. This prediction was tested in 1962, using a pair of very accurate clocks mounted at the top and bottom of a water tower. The clock at the bottom, which was nearer the earth, was found to run slower, in exact agreement with general relativity. The difference in the speed of clocks at different heights above the earth is now of considerable practical importance, with the advent of very accurate navigation systems based on signals from satellites. If one ignored the predictions of general relativity, the position that one calculated would be wrong by several miles!

Newton’s laws of motion put an end to the idea of absolute position in space. The theory of relativity gets rid of absolute time. Consider a pair of twins. Suppose that one twin goes to live on the top of a mountain while the other stays at sea level. The first twin would age faster than the second. Thus, if they met again, one would be older than the other. In this case, the difference in ages would be very small, but it would be much larger if one of the twins went for a long trip in a spaceship at nearly the speed of light. When he returned, he would be much younger than the one who stayed on earth. This is known as the twins paradox, but it is a paradox only if one has the idea of absolute time at the back of one’s mind. In the theory of relativity there is no unique absolute time, but instead each individual has his own personal measure of time that depends on where he is and how he is moving.

[Tyson]

Ho ho! I'm going off outdated information.

Where's the ice burn gif?

So: time is relative to each person. OOoooOOOo...

[Nubbins]

Ho ho! I'm going off outdated information.

Where's the ice burn gif?

So: time is relative to each person. OOoooOOOo...

I dunno... I forgot it in my haste to post this.  I was really feeling stupid for half the day, but I was almost positive that I'd read about a clock experiment with a building and a water tower somewhere and since Brief History of Time is really the only layman's book I've pored over, I figured it had to be in there that I read about it.

Chapter 2!!

[Cassander]

yeah, i know it's not real, but i wanted to read up on what other people had experienced because its a new phenomenon to me.  there's always the interest for me, like, well, i know that's probably bullshit, but what really *is* happening to these freaks then?

[Nubbins]

yeah, i know it's not real, but i wanted to read up on what other people had experienced because its a new phenomenon to me.  there's always the interest for me, like, well, i know that's probably bullshit, but what really *is* happening to these freaks then?

Here's my guess:

LSD + Accidentally wander into a Sock-hop = whoaaaaaa man, I'm freakin' out!