Time Travelling John Titor - A 2036 Hoax.. Or Was It?
Sun, Nov 4, 2007
Travel back in time to October 2000, a time when the world’s population of 6.5 billion lived with little fear of global terrorism. Enter a forum poster, TimeTravel_0, alleging he was US army traveller from 2036, a world in which terrorism and civil war has left 3 billion dead.
John Titor
TimeTravel_0, who later referred to himself as John Titor, began posting on internet forums and engaging in chat conversations about time travel, making short posts that typically centred around what would be required to make a time travelling machine.
Later he changed his name to John Titor in order to post on the Art Bell BBS forums which required registration. He confirmed that ‘John Titor’ was a real name but never whether it was his own or not. After a while Titor began to reveal more of himself, eventually leading to the revelation that he was a time traveller who had originally been sent back to 1975 to acquire an IBM5100 computer to enable the military to debug legacy systems still used in 2036.
Titor then revealed that he was visiting 2000 for personal reasons, visiting members of his family and collecting pictures that were lost in a civil war in the year 2015. Titor then claimed in 2001 that he was returning to his own time. The forum posts stopped and never resumed.
Some Predictions Made By Titor
During his time posting, John Titor made various predictions or, should I say, revelations as to what had already happened from the perspective of his own timeline -
- Instances of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD or ‘mad cow‘ disease) would increase.
- Almost half the world’s population would perish in World War Three in 2015
- The 2004 Olympics would be the last
- Civil war would start in America around the time of the 2004 presidential election, due to erosion of freedoms
In the case of CJD, Titor’s prediction is partially correct as CJD certainly does appear to be a growing problem in this day and age. The Olympics claim was obviously wrong though as the 2006 Winter Olympics were successfully held.
As for the other two, well freedoms have been eroded, but no civil war has occurred in America… yet, and WWIII may or may not begin in 2015. Skeptics make a point of highlighting a prediction that Titor didn’t make - there was never any mention of September the 11th in any of his posts.
The Time Machine
Titor, over the period he was posting, gave information about his time machine, including parts of the operating manual and photographs. The main components of his time machine, he said, were -
- Three supercomputers
- Gravity sensors
- An X-ray based cooling and venting system
- Four caesium clocks
- Two magnetic housing units for the dual micro singularities
- An electron injection manifold, used to alter the gravity and mass micro singularities
In his forum posts Titor stated that the device was originally installed in a 1967 Chevrolet Corvette and then later re-fitted into a 1987 4-wheel drive truck.
Though Titor said that UFOs were still largely unexplained in 2036, it was his belief that aliens were actually humans from further into the future, using far more advanced and accurate versions of his time travelling machine in order to return to the past for other future time missions of their own.
Conclusion
Whatever views you may have on the authenticity of John Titor and the possibility of time travel either now, or in the future, it certainly makes entertaining reading.
Many of Titor’s predictions seem to have failed to have come true but, as with any good hoaxer (if that is what he is), there is a fallback to help perpetuate the story - Titor claimed that the future exists in many different formats and multiple universes, thereby making it possible that ‘reality’ can be altered in one such ‘world’ whilst continuing as expected in another - talk about a great get out jail free card!
Supporters of Titor also claim that his failed prediction about the Olympics was because he was referring to the summer games and not the winter ones. Additionally, they suggest that civil war in America since 2004 is not evident as it is in fact slowly growing in momentum and that historians will later point to that year as being the beginnings of bigger things yet to come.
Personally, I think that someone with an advanced knowledge of retro-computing and physics has had a good laugh at those he managed to fool with some very clever forum posts.
What do you think - was John Titor a time traveller from a post-nuclear 2036 or a master hoaxer?
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This is definitely a hoax. If time travel was possible surely people would come back for far more interesting things than an ancient computer and a few photos.
If you could go back in time what would you do then Col?
That’s easy, I would bet everything I had on a horse or the lottery safe in the knowledge I was going to win.
Then, when I became a billionaire, I’d marry Paris Hilton.
I really don’t know why men rate Paris Hilton
I think she’s ugly.
I’d love to believe that time travel was possible as it would allow us to go back and right so many wrongs. In terms of physics though it just isn’t possible is it?
There are some physicians who would argue it is possible. I’m no expert but I believe Einstein’s theory of relativity and gravity does allow for it doesn’t it?
I’ve made a living and successful television career out of time travel
Why couldn’t you be Billie Piper.. at least she looks alright!
I have no idea if time travel is possible but it is a concept that fascinates me. I watch everything I can find on the subject from films like Timecop to documentaries. If we can bend time just think what we could go back and do!
I’d go back and ask people to make objections during my wedding ceremony!!
As far predictions are concerned I don’t think anyone can equal Nostradamus and his fame. Time travel is scifi
Nostradamus didn’t get much right though did he Aruna?
The time markings in the great pyramid in Egypt are another matter though…
His prediction about skyscrapers, aircrafts, in his time, hitler are very interesting so is his biography
Don’t you think a lot of his predictions were open to a lot of interpretation though?
I think he was a genius very underrated during his time.
i loved the movie nostradamus
I never realised there was a film actually. Who played Nostradamus?
Nostradamus 1994 movie
I particularly like the prediction he makes as to which colour pig will be served for dinner.
All pigs are pink so what was so interesting about that prediction?
don’t be a racist Scam! Just kidding.
Black pigs do exist.i don’t want to spoil it for you that is if u want to watch the film
I’ve never heard of the film so I might have to search around to find it. It certainly sounds like something I might enjoy though.
Tcheky Karyo played the role he is a French actor
I’ve never heard of him either!!
On a side note, I have received an email hoax or two about Nostradamus’ predictions.. I’ll have to see if I have saved any of them..
Eureka! Scammy! I got my avatar here.
wooohooo !!!
How did you get it working in the end?
If John Titor was real he should have spoken to world leaders and told them how to prevent the war shouldnt he?
Hi! Wow I like this newspaper look. COOL!!!!
I keeping this one for quite some time.. my first semi-custom design.
Glad you like it.. still a lot of modifications to make and bugs to fix though.
Can you let me know if you find any bugs Aruna?
Hi
I am not able to see the site map
I know.. the plugin that powers that was causing problems elsewhere so I had to remove it. Hopefully I can find an alternative.
Working fine Scam I cant see any bugs.
What is that icon Jon uses??Is it coke or something?
Is this even a serious question?
There’s rather a lot of people who believe it’s true Joseph!
I’m not sure, I think it might be.
What do you think of the new theme?
I like it better than the previous one. It is easier to find articles with the categories placed on top. But a site map is a must so pls work on that soon.
I had to remove it because it was causing a problem when people left comments. It’s the #1 priority today though
I have an alternative now that will do until I find a better plugin - it now lists the 99 most commented upon posts.
I am yet to look into the videos section…my net is slow
I like that feature - I can add a video from YouTube in about 10 seconds now!!
Great! It will be only related to scams?
Do you have some ideas of what else you would like to see?
aw Scam I think you know me quite well by now…I love watching funny stuff.
I’ll see what I can find that is both humourous and somehow related to the theme of this site.
Can you del the no image tag beside the videos?
I’m not sure what you mean??
I can see “no image” icon beside the video.The video plays.No prob with that.
I don’t see that myself. Are you using IE or Firefox, or something else?
Firefox
Have you noticed any other errors, graphical or otherwise?
No errors!
Phew!!
Everything was well messed up for a while yesterday!!