The name of John Titor first appeared on the Time Travel Institute forum in November 2000, however, it was then that he signed TimeTravel_0, and soon he gave his "name" - John Titor. He told about himself that he is a soldier from the future, from 2036, and in his time our world has already been destroyed by some kind of computer virus. So, the mission of the time traveler is to return to the distant 1975 and destroy the IBM 5100 computer in order to correct the deplorable future of the planet.

The forum participants enthusiastically questioned the time traveler, asked him questions about the near future, and Titor answered willingly, not forgetting to remind that reality is not one for all, and his reality does not necessarily coincide with others. Be that as it may, he simply aroused great interest in his person, and his predictions for the near future enjoyed great interest and were discussed in the widest possible way.

So, in particular, he predicted the war in Iraq, although very vaguely. However, some of the predictions did not come true at all. So, John Titor said that in the future the United States will be divided into several regions, and as a result will be subjected to a nuclear attack.

He told about himself that he got to the year 2000 along the way, deciding to call in at that time for personal reasons - to see his family, to collect some photographs. In fact, his ultimate goal is 1975.

So, among John Titor's predictions were a US civil war, a nuclear attack, a war in Iraq, the transfer of the US capital to Nebraska, and even a vague allusion to World War III.

Several times, Titor described the time machine in great detail, actively operating technical specifications device, and even, they say, provided her with a very fuzzy photograph.

In March 2001, John Titor wrote his last post on the Internet and disappeared without a trace and forever.

Later, several private investigations were undertaken, during which no information about a man named John Titor was found out. There was no evidence of his family, and only one person, lawyer Larry Haber (Larry Haber), confirmed his possible existence.

Best of the day

Today, everything related to John Titor, a time traveler and a soldier from the future, is usually mentioned with a grain of salt. But more than ten years ago, many, fascinated by the topic of the future, extraterrestrial civilizations and other things, treated him with the liveliest interest. John Titor has remained as much of a legend on the internet as it has remained unsolved. Many call him a hoaxer and even a charlatan, others respect the brilliant idea of ​​​​this, of course, interesting person with extraordinary imagination and wide knowledge in history, technology, astrology and space sciences.

People have been dreaming about flying in a time machine for a long time. And they are tirelessly working on the creation of such an apparatus. But our children have already invented it and freely travel through temporary spaces! At least, this is what those who were convinced of their reality by the legendary John Titor think so.

Who is Titor?

Until January 27, 2001, the name of this person was almost unknown to anyone. Although the first message from him appeared at the beginning of November 2000, and two years earlier, he sent two letters by fax addressed to one TV broadcaster. The man said that his name was John Titor and that he flew in ... from 2036.

Starting from January 27, 2001, this mysterious supposedly alien literally "bombs" the world wide web with his messages, in which he tells people about what awaits them in the near future and how their children and grandchildren live in 2036. John Titor, whose predictions caused a stormy resonance in society, disappeared just as suddenly as he appeared. On the network, he spoke for a very short time - literally a month. But his story still haunts the minds of earthlings.

History of Titor's journey

So, John Titor, claimed that he was an American soldier, at the time of 2036 serving in the military unit of Tampa (Florida). In addition, he is a member of the government time travel program, in which he was sent to the past.

The ultimate goal of the “flight” should be 1975, where 5100 remained. This machine is the ancestor of all portable computers, and people from the future need to get access to it in order to improve software new machines - her descendants. It was Titor who was sent on this mission, since his grandfather was involved in the creation of the IBM 5100. And “at a stop” in the 2000s, the traveler left solely for personal reasons. He needed to visit his family and return some photographs.

About the time machine

Naturally, the interlocutors of a strange man posing as an alien were interested in how exactly he got into the past. And the guest willingly answered all questions.

John Titor's time machine, in his own words, was released by General Electric. In general, the production of such units began in 2034, and CERN became a pioneer.

The model that Titor flew in is called the C204. The device is a gravitational distortion unit, which is usually mounted in an ordinary car and allows you to travel a distance of ten years per hour.

Describing the flight process itself, Mr. John Titor said that at the very beginning it is like starting an elevator, during which people in the cabin feel a jerk. While driving, the sun's rays go around the body of the car, so its passengers find themselves in complete darkness.

The time machine starts moving as soon as the “pilot” loads the coordinates into the system. Before the start, it is imperative to check whether the passengers are securely fixed in their seats. At 100% acceleration, the attractive force becomes very large. As a rule, the flight is well tolerated, but it is still better to fly on an empty stomach.

Apart from detailed descriptions, Titor also posted drawings and diagrams of his vehicle online, so that even today anyone can try to assemble their own personal time machine from them.

About predictions

Of course, after reading all this, a sane person will think that the noise was made out of nothing. After all, when communicating on the Web, anyone can pretend to be anyone. And why did people get the idea that John Titor was not an ordinary "fake", what are millions of? It wouldn't be too hard to come up with stories about a time machine... It could well have been considered so, if not for the predictions that Titor poured out of the bucket.

In fairness, it must be said that far from everything came true. Approximately half of the predictions of this legendary character remained empty words. But their author made sure in advance, giving out the theory of some parallel worlds.

Parallel Worlds by John Titor

The theory announced by Titor is based on the laws of quantum mechanics and the possibility of the existence of many worlds in the universe. Its essence lies, figuratively speaking, in the fact that a beam that has left a certain point will not necessarily reach the place that is predicted at the start. Due to the intervention of various forces, the path of the beam can be changed, and the finish is slightly shifted.

That is, if in the year 2000, for example, a war in a particular country is predicted in 10 years, this means that there are “iron” prerequisites for it. But people still have a chance to change the course of events. And there is, albeit small, but the likelihood that there will be no war. Or it will happen a little later. Or it won't be as big as expected.

John Titor from the future argued that the greater the time gap between the moment of prediction and the date of the predicted event, the less realistic the forecast.

It is with these arguments that Titor's "adepts" operate in a long-term dispute with skeptics, when the latter "poke their noses" at the former's unfulfilled predictions.

Predictions about the USA

The example of the war was given here not in vain. Time traveler John Titor, whose predictions concerned different areas the life of mankind, he paid the most attention in his speeches to armed conflicts.

In particular, he said that a serious civil war awaits the United States. According to his forecasts, it was supposed to start in 2004 due to some twists and turns associated with the presidential election.

Teiter predicted a protracted hard times for the United States, lasting until 2015. He drew pictures in which people leave the cities en masse and, in order to survive, settle in the villages. By 2008, the conflict was completely out of control, and by 2012, the country, choked with blood, showed solid ruins in his forecasts. And an even more terrible event, the Third World War, put an end to all this.

John Titor's predictions about Russia (well, how could it be without it)

Titor saw Russia as a force that should end civil strife in the United States and completely change the world order. The predictor said that she would start the Third World War in 2015, inflicting a series of nuclear strikes on the megacities of the United States, as well as Europe and China.

A long course of the Third World Time Traveler did not predict. He argued that it would be a very short operation, destroying, however, Europe, China and part of the United States of America. And Russia will be given dominance on the world stage.

According to "prophetic John", three billion people will fall victim. The survivors will become wiser and more tolerant of each other. In a renewed world, family and social life will be most valued.

Tyter about residents of the 2000s

But if there are parallel worlds in the Universe, then maybe there is a chance to avoid such a terrible denouement? Shocked interlocutors asked the predictor about this. And he replied that, yes, there is such a possibility. It's just that she's very tiny.

The guest from the future considered earthlings of the “sample of the 2000s” sentenced to punishment, because they allow their rights to be violated, eat poisoned food, deliberately killing themselves, they are indifferent to the suffering of their neighbors…

And all this destroys, undermines society, like a worm. Sooner or later, the "end of the world" must come, which will cleanse the planet of rot. The mysterious soldier John declared that people living at the beginning of the third millennium are not loved and even despised by his current contemporaries, considering them to be a lazy, selfish and ignorant herd.

About future

But in the future, according to predictions, everything is completely different. People no longer eat junk food. They respect old age and cherish childhood. They take care of the orphans and the disadvantaged. Help each other. Actively participate in public life. And - most importantly - people have completely abandoned Nazism and racism.

As for the purely everyday moments of 2036, the clothes of earthlings will become more functional. Hats will be very popular, and bright colors will almost go out of fashion. With hair, no one will bother too much. Any frills will be a thing of the past. Women will simply grow long hair, and men will cut their hair short - that's all the "variety". Both sexes will be drafted into the army and fight.

Other "alien" predictions

One after another, John Titor gave birth to predictions. Their list grew by leaps and bounds. As it has become clear today, the most ambitious forecasts did not come true. And thank God! But some of Titor's predictions found their confirmation.

So, for example, he said that already in 2001, humanity will find a way to move in time. This will happen as soon as miniature black holes are discovered. People have not yet learned to travel through temporary spaces, but holes have been opened. And just when the seer John said.

Titor was not mistaken when he "saw" the war in Iraq, as well as a series of cataclysms in 2012. His words were confirmed: the world has survived "Sandy", abnormal snowfalls in Europe, and Russia. The planet was rocking, but it kept afloat. The promised end of the world did not happen in 2012. The alien also convinced everyone of this.

He predicted lightning-fast development for China space system, and for people - a smooth transition from television and cinema to personal "shows" (in our opinion - video blogs). And here he was not mistaken in the slightest!

Where did Titor go?

John Titor and his predictions seriously shook the world. People were seized with real hysteria, information about the “alien” was spreading at a breakneck pace. And suddenly, at the very peak of his popularity, he disappeared. Just as suddenly as it appeared. Without epilogues and farewells. His last post was dated March 2001.

But the legend of the guest from the future continues to live and acquire new details. The next surge occurs when one or another prediction comes true. Although the most hardened skeptics, of course, long ago “buried” Tithor the alien, writing him down as ordinary “fakes”. And, in addition to unfulfilled predictions, they have other arguments.

So, for example, they “poke their noses” at the public in the gross contradictions that John allowed in his speeches. One of them concerns money. Bringing up this topic, Titor sometimes said that in 2036 they are widely used by people, just like credit cards. And sometimes he argued that the centralized financial system did not survive to that time.

What's this? Some kind of deliberate cunning of an alien or a banal forgetfulness of a fraudster?

Investigation

Trying to answer the question that torments many, interested people even hired private detectives. The detectives managed to establish that there are no citizens named John Titor in the registration documents. And it was not in the foreseeable past. But in Florida there is a firm called the John Titor Foundation. And a certain John Haber works in it - a first-class computer specialist. And he may well have secret information about the IBM 5100 device, which the “alien” flaunted in front of a spellbound audience.

By the way, the above company does not even have an office space. The only thing that is assigned to her on a leasehold basis is a mailbox. Suspicious, of course. But the main question remains. Why???

Titor's trail

In the meantime, the doubters are looking for an answer to it, people who "believed" continue to carry information about their idol to the masses. A soldier who "fell" from 2036, for example, became the subject of a book called John Titor. Time Traveler's Story. She saw the light in 2003. A year later, a computer game based on the adventures of an alien was released, in 2006 his theory of traveling through temporary spaces was patented, and in 2009 the Japanese filmed based on legendary history animated series.

And hundreds of thousands of people live in the world who are sure: "John Titor" is a book that has not yet been finished. There will definitely be a sequel. Only when? And how? Wait and see.

1. Do not eat animal meat.
2. Do not copulate with strangers.
3. Learn how to handle firearms.
4. Learn the basics of water treatment and general sanitation.
5. Always have emergency kits on hand and have the skills to use them.
6. Find five people within 100 miles of your home to whom you can trust your life and maintain constant contact with them.
7. Eat less food.
8. Have the US Constitution at home and review it regularly.
9. Buy a bike and spare tires. Ride it more often.
10. Think about what you can take with you if you were in a situation where you had to leave the house within ten minutes, knowing that there would be no coming back.

There is hardly a person who would not dream of learning about what awaits us and our planet in the future. Is it possible to hope for a meeting with someone who has already been there and probably knows about future events? Most likely, many will say that such a development of events is nothing more than the plot of a science fiction film, and in real life such a meeting cannot take place. Of course, this statement will seem surprising to someone, but many say that a meeting with a guest from the future, whose name is John Titor, has already taken place. Is it really? Let's try to find out.

Who is John Titor? This is a man who proclaimed himself a time traveler, a guest from the future, who came to us from 2036. John Titor literally stirred up numerous Internet forums of the early 21st century. The discussions and disputes that took place at them concerned the predictions given to them. Some of the events described in his messages are said to have happened. But the identity of this man is still a mystery.

First posts

It was not known who John Titor was (sometimes in Russian transcription the surname sounds like “Titor”) until 01/27/2001. And this despite the fact that this person left his first messages on the Internet on 11/02/2000 .

However, then they were signed a little differently - TimeTravel. Two years earlier, on 07/29/1998, he had sent two faxes to a late-night talk show host. These messages said that he was a time traveler, had been here since April of this year and was about to leave soon.

Titor's statements

Appearing on the Internet, this person left many predictions there. Some of them were very specific and did not allow double interpretation. Others were rather vague.

John Titor outlined a terrible future for readers. In it, the United States was divided into five small countries. infrastructure and environment once mighty America was destroyed due to nuclear war. Many world powers are simply destroyed.

At the end of March 2001, the Internet stopped receiving messages from the time traveler, who claimed to be John Titor. Where he is now, no one knows. However, all his predictions were saved by users on hard drives, as well as on the sites he visited. And after 2001, the messages of this person are published on the Web, sometimes in a very modified form.

The story of John Titor is today considered legendary. She was reflected in the book about the traveler, in computer game based on his adventures. Japanese filmmakers made a film about John Titor in the form of an anime series.

Interestingly, the principle of time travel, which was outlined by John, was patented in 2006. Not bad at all for a person whom sane citizens consider to be just an Internet troll.

Travel history

How did John Titor get into our time? According to him, he is an American soldier from the future. The unit in which he serves is based in Tampa, Florida. This man's messages say that he was made a participant in a government project in 1975. The task assigned to John is that he will have to get to the IBM 5100 brand computer. Why was he chosen for such a responsible mission? The explanation for this was also given by Titor. This happened due to the fact that the paternal grandfather of the traveler was directly involved in the assembly and programming of the IBM 5100.

Why did John Titor turn up in 1998? The story of the time traveler describes that he only made a short stop in the past for personal reasons. Allegedly, he wished to return the photographs lost during the future civil war. John wanted to visit his family and meet himself at the age of three.

Autobiography

What did John Titor say about himself to forum participants? The date of birth of this person has remained unclear. Only the year is known. According to Titor, he was born in 1998. At the age of thirteen, the boy himself decided to serve in the army. He also helped his father to work, transporting goods along the river.

At 31, John went to college. After that, he was recruited to participate in the Time Travel program.

According to Titor, in this unit, where there are seven other people besides him, he has the rank of major. Travelers are sent on various missions during the time period from the 1960s to the 1980s.

Johnson has expressed his appreciation for old rock and roll and classical music. He is an avid sailor. Among his hobbies are swimming, online games and cards, reading and chatting with foreigners. Titor is an agnostic in his worldview, and by religion he is a Christian who honors the Sabbath. He is married. He has two sons and lives with his family in the state of Florida, in Tampa. John Titor did not leave a photo for his interlocutors.

Expert opinions

The computer that John Titor is talking about was one of the first handheld devices capable of running on already obsolete programming languages. It's IBM enhanced with Basic and APL. John wrote on the Internet that in the future there was a need for a debugging system for a wide variety of computer programs. He argued that in 2038, Linux will have some problems.

According to Bob Dubk, an IBM engineer, Titor's claims were correct. Indeed, the IBM 5100 had a little-known capability for system debugging and emulation. And this strengthens the position of Titor's supporters. Indeed, in 2000 and 2001 such information was not available to the general public. The time traveler himself said that such a function would be revealed only in 2036. At this time, the Linux operating system will serve as the basis for all computer systems.

However, such an emulation capability is currently well known to those skilled in the art. In addition, it was repeatedly commented on by publications covering topics not only of the IBM 5100, but also of software microcode in general. Links to given fact were available on the Internet in 1999 and clearly preceded the messages received from Titor. From this we can make an unambiguous conclusion that the one who seemed to the readers as a time traveler knew the IBM 5100 well.

Time Machine

Time traveler John Titor spent several months answering questions from forum members online. He described future events using poetic phrases, and constantly talked about the fact that there are other realities in the world.

Time traveler John Titor spoke about vehicle, which delivered it to 1998. At the same time, using extremely difficult algorithms, he told how the machine on which he arrived, and provided grainy photographs of it.

According to the description of this device, it consisted of the following:

• two magnetic units needed to generate a double microsingularity;
• an electronic injection manifold that measures mass and gravity at the microsingularity;
• cooling and X-ray protection systems;
• gravity sensors and systems for blocking changes in gravity;
• three main computers.

The time machine was accompanied by a "User's Manual" which was also published by the traveler on the Internet.

As John Titor said, the time machine was originally installed in a 1967 Chevrolet Corvette, then it was transferred to an all-wheel drive car.

Reasoning about the quantum model of the world

In his messages, Titor wrote that the Everett-Wheeler theory is absolutely correct. According to this model, each possible variant of the quantum solution occurs in a single "universe". According to the time traveler, this explanation was the reason for the resolution of disputes around the "grandfather paradox". So, based on the quantum logic of reasoning, killing your grandfather is simply impossible.

After all, after this, a new universe will necessarily form, where the old man will not be. Besides, in without fail the one who will remain old world where grandpa will be all right. A similar theory was reflected in the film "Back to the Future". In this regard, all quantum events, results and states that take place are quite real.

Predictions

Of course, the whole story could well have been invented by a simple lover of science fiction. In order to present it not as a cheap joke, the author had to provide evidence. And they became predictions. That is, information unknown at the time Titor's messages appeared on the Internet. Some ambiguous statements turned out to be evidence of the veracity of the story, which, of course, the researchers found.

Titor backed up his story with arguments about the laws of quantum mechanics and about the existence of many worlds whose events differ from ours. However, he was still careless in his statement about the fact that the differences between realities are minimal. And he was deeply mistaken. To date, it has become obvious that these differences are still very significant. All this casts serious doubt on the story of time travel. After all, the main events predicted by Titor never happened.

The main forecast of a soldier from the future concerned the upcoming civil war in the United States. What did John Titor say about her? The traveler's predictions clearly indicated that the conflict would develop in 2004, during the presidential campaign. Moreover, his messages claim that the situation is constantly deteriorating until the whole country gets out of control. It will supposedly happen in 2008.

Titor also wrote that in 2011, as a thirteen-year-old boy, he had to fight in an infantry unit. Peace, according to his stories, came only in 2015. However, it was preceded by a short but very intense Third World War, claiming 3 billion human lives.

What predictions did John Titor make about Russia? He claimed that it was she who would launch a nuclear strike in 2015 aimed at big cities USA, China and Europe. The American Federal Empire will be completely destroyed. However, part of its territory, for which Titor fought, will come out victorious, taking Russia as an ally. China and the European Union will also be destroyed. After the end of hostilities, a new capital will appear in the country. It will be the city of Omaha, which is located in the state of Nebraska.

Despite the clear description of specific events, the causes of the Third World War are very vaguely indicated by Titor. He speaks only of its main prerequisites, which were overpopulation and border conflicts. At the same time, he points to the conflict between Jews and Arabs as one of the main milestones preceding the war.

Evaluation of predictions

Was John Titor right? Fortunately, this man's predictions did not come true. And we can talk about this with firm confidence, since all the deadlines named by John have passed. This would make it possible to completely forget the failed prophet. However, Titor's statement about the presence of a large number of worlds worked well here. From this it may follow that the journey of the American soldier did not begin in our reality, but in a parallel universe. Thus, all events in our world can go very differently. And here it is difficult to accuse the time traveler of lying.

Another prophecy by Titor concerns CERN's discovery of a way to travel through time. And this, according to him, should have happened in 2001, immediately after the discovery of miniature black holes. As proof of the veracity of his facts, John Titor (time traveler) even posted a photo, albeit fuzzy, of a time machine. However, this did not happen either. For the sake of justice, it should be said that miniature black holes were indeed discovered during this period.

Titor's successful prediction was also the statement about coming war in Iraq. Nor was he wrong that no weapons of mass destruction would be found.
Today it is impossible for our contemporaries to assess future events. The year 2036 is described by the time traveler as a period of restoration of peace after numerous disasters. John reports on the increasing role of religion, but the decline in the prestige of large church communities. By 2036, according to a guest from the future, people began to work more. Moreover, more attention has been paid agriculture. AIDS was never defeated in the future, and high-energy physicists discovered "strange things."

exposure

Most commentators immediately drew an analogy between the story that appeared on the Internet and the classic post-apocalyptic fantasy novel. Of course, many elements of the time traveler's story can work in any legend. For example, moving from one century to another. The opportunity to make such journeys attracts many, and most of us would still like it to be true.

Another important element The created legend represents distrust of the government. The civil war and martial law described in John's messages, as well as the struggle for respect for democracy and freedoms, are nothing more than the implementation of a conspiracy theory. And many people would like to witness such events. In this case, we can say that John Titor collected the most popular opinions in his stories. To top it all off, he used nothing less than a sports car for his time travel. Many people should like this.

Yes, there are people who believe in the existence of an American soldier from the future. However, those who are familiar with Internet pranks simply scoff when they hear about a traveler from a possibly parallel world. Skeptics cite Titor's controversial stories as an example. So, in one of his messages, he talked about the fact that credit cards and money are widely used in his world. Somewhat later, he argued that there is simply no centralized banking system in 2036. In addition, according to the stories of Titor, he moved into the past in order to prevent the upcoming world war. But at the same time, answering questions about the future, he insisted that it was too late to change the world.

Be that as it may, the legend that appeared on the Internet continues to develop. After all, mankind does not yet know a reliable way by which it would be possible to distinguish an honest person from a swindler. Where is this time traveler now? Maybe he lives quietly among us, or maybe, having completed his mission, he passed into a parallel dimension? We will never know this.

Who claimed to be from the future. The case is funny, but far from isolated. Moreover, many of these "time travelers" were not arrested and not dragged to a psychiatric hospital, but they listened to them and believed almost every word. However, without curiosities and frank hoaxes also could not do. We decided to recall a few high-profile and amazing cases associated with chrononauts.

Soldier from 2036
John Titor

Perhaps the most famous "time traveler", which caused an extraordinary stir, forcing even convinced skeptics to think about his words. Nobody has ever seen Titor himself - John preferred to communicate on the Internet. According to legend, Titor arrived from the year 2036, when the world lay in ruins after the invasion of a computer virus, the Third World War and a whole string of local conflicts. Tithor's future looks like something out of mid-1980s and early 1990s cyberpunk novels: high digital technologies coexist with poverty and decline in other areas, half the world is destroyed nuclear strikes, a political map not at all like the current one.

Schematic of John Titor's time machine

Titor preferred to speak in semi-hints, without naming specific dates and names, referring to "non-intervention" in the affairs of the past. Nevertheless, “non-intervention” did not work out, and he poured out a lot of information on his grateful readers: in addition to fairly transparent hints, he, for example, explained in detail the structure of the time machine and the principle of time travel.

However, in terms of the number of prophecies that came true, Titor is close to Nostradamus, however, in terms of their quality, he can also compete with the famous predictor: everything is rather vague and can be explained by the forecast of a person who more or less understands the political situation of that time. In the main, Titor's predictions did not come true: in 2004-2005, there were no mass riots in the United States that would lead to a new civil war and split the country into several separate states. But it was on this ridge that the whole history of Titor was based. However, in 2015, the Third World War should break out, judging by the words of the chrononaut. True, Titor himself claims that the picture of the future that he painted is typical for the world in which he lives: time travel, according to Titor, involves moving from one parallel reality of the multiverse to another.

Mission Titor was to go back to 1975 and get hold of the IBM 5100 computer, which had a latent capability to fix "old UNIX-based systems, even before the spread of APL and Basic." In 2000, when his first posts on the Time Travel Institute forum appeared, John stopped by “for personal reasons”: to see his family and ... himself at the age of two. Doc Brown is crying tears of blood.

Hokan Nordqvist and Hokan Nordqvist from the future

Swede Håkan Nordqvist came home in 2006 and saw that the kitchen floor was flooded with water. Without thinking twice, he took out his tools and reached into the cupboard under the sink to fix the leak. Further, according to Hokan, the space of the closet suddenly expanded, and a light appeared ahead. Without blinking an eye, the Swede climbed towards the light and ... crawled out from under the sink in his house, but 36 years later. At the same time, says Nordqvist, he managed not only to meet with his 72-year-old self, but also to shoot a video confirmation. It is difficult to judge the similarity of the people captured by him: Nordqvist took a strategically correct position with his back to the sun. However, there are some similarities between men, except that an elderly person is slightly taller than Nordqvist, and in the period from 36 to 72 years, people usually do not grow. There is one more "evidence" - identical tattoos, but it is rather difficult to call this convincing evidence.

Billy Meyer and Dinosaur Photography

Swiss chrononaut Billy Meyer is famous not only for time travel, but also for close contacts with representatives of extraterrestrial intelligence. It was they, according to Billy, who helped him travel to the past, where he took several photographs. True, his most famous photograph, of a pterodactyl, turned out to be a heavily out-of-focus shot of an illustration from the book Life Before Man, and a photo of alien dancers turned out to be a screenshot of a TV screen on which the Dean Martin show was on. Subsequently, the wife of the Swiss confirmed that all the evidence of his words were forgeries and she personally took part in their manufacture.

Future Millionaire Andrew Karlssin

In 2002, the FBI carried out an operation to detain 44-year-old Andrew Karlsin, who was surprisingly lucky in stock transactions. The agents suspected that Karlsin had entered into a criminal conspiracy with the managers of stock trading companies, and with the help of insider information received from them, he received quite good income.

Having started playing with 800 dollars in his pocket, Andrew managed to increase his fortune to 350 million in two weeks, having completed only 126 transactions. This is what brought him to the attention of the US Securities Market Commission, and then the FBI.

The arrested person himself denied the existence of a collusion with representatives of the companies, instead declaring that he had come from the future - from the year 2256, where, of course, everything is known about how stock quotes fluctuated in 2002.

As soon as the story got into the newspapers, a whole hysteria began around the story of Karlsin. Someone claimed that such a person never existed before 2002, there is no mention of him in the databases. Stock brokers assured that, even with insider information, it was impossible to earn so much money in such a short time. True, all these people did not take into account one thing: the first mention of a time traveler appeared on the pages of Weekly World News, a tabloid famous for the most absurd stuffing and fiction.

Chronovisor of the Holy Father Pellegrino Ernetti

Benedictine monk, specialist in archaic music, renowned exorcist and quantum physics Marcello Pellegrino Ernetti became known to the whole world in a completely different capacity. Unlike our other heroes, he did not claim to have come from the future or the past, and it is rather difficult to call what he described a journey. Ernetti claimed to have invented a kind of device - a chronovisor - that allowed him to look at any point in time and see the events that took place there.

As Ernetti himself said, he was inspired to create such an instrument by a passion for ancient music, or rather, for the ancient Roman opera Fiesta, the score of which was lost, but the original sound of which the holy father passionately desired to hear.

Interestingly, Ernetti himself mentioned the chronovisor only once, after which he did not mention this device in any of his works. But Ernetti's assistant and confidant, Father Francois Brun, spoke willingly and a lot about this device and even wrote a book dedicated to this story.

According to Brun, the operation of the chronovisor was based on the theory that there are no solid particles in the world, and all phenomena are waves, which, in fact, are the very Word, which, according to the Bible, was at the beginning of everything. By learning to read these waves, it was possible to call from the past any event that ever happened. The result of the work of the chronovisor, according to Brun, looked like a three-dimensional black-and-white hologram, but taking into account new technologies, color could also be added.

In order to check the operation of the device and make sure of its accuracy, the holy fathers first looked into the recent past by watching a speech by Benito Mussolini. Then we went further, seeing Napoleon, Cicero's speech and, in the end, the crucifixion of Christ.

Shortly thereafter, the apparatus was dismantled, as it carried a potential threat: the ability to look into any event of the past could seriously undermine the current power of both political and religious structures. In addition, Brune argues, the chronovisor could be set to capture the thoughts of any person, and in unscrupulous hands this would lead to the establishment of a worldwide dictatorship.

Nevertheless, no convincing evidence of the existence of the chronovisor has been presented to the general public. The text of the "Fiesta" was recognized as a stylization composed by Ernetti himself, photographs of Jesus Christ, allegedly taken with the help of the device, turned out to be a fake, and not the most skillful - they looked very much like a sculpture by wood carver Lorenzo Valera, and the very principle of operation of the device, which allows both to see the events of the past on TV was described in the work of science fiction writer Thomas Sherred "Attempt" in 1947.

Marcello Pellegrino Ernetti

Photograph of Jesus Christ

Today we're going to delve into the internet legend of John Titor, who is said to have come from the future and made a stop in the year 2000 to post a few posts on the forums. This, my friends, is the beginning and the end of the story. However, we are skeptical and would like to know more. Something can be learned from rumors and legends, even in the complete absence of connection with history. The very existence of the legend is a question, and the weaker the evidence, the greater the temptation to dismiss it. This is irresponsible, and we will turn our attention to the time traveler John Titor.

The first acquaintance with the general public, in 1998, John Titor owes several messages on the radio "From Coast to Coast", which broadcast programs about paranormal phenomena. Posing as a time traveler from the year 2036, he warned of a global computer system failure at midnight on December 31, 1999, which would cause famine, frost and military conflict. The next time John Titor appeared was in 2000, on a forum called The Time Travel Institute. His nickname was TimeTravel_0. Under the same name, on the forum "From coast to coast", a prediction was posted about the beginning of the civil war in the United States in 2004, which would break the country into 5 regions and result in the Third World War, continuing until 2015. Among the predictions of John Titor is the Large Hadron Collider, built by that time. So the time traveler's prediction was that the LHC would give rise to small black holes. All, without exception, the predictions of John Titor did not come true.

According to John Titor, he arrived on a military mission and was sent to 1975 from 2036. The main task was to breathe life into the IBM 5100 computer, one of the early portable computers with a 5 inch black and white CRT screen. The time traveler claimed that there was a need to translate the ancestral code. Further, in the course of moving through the years, he decided to stop for a few years in 1998. John Titor made his movements in a car with a built-in time machine. It should be noted that this way of traveling is not new, the film "Back to the Future" in 1985 is well known to the public. It cannot be ruled out that the prankster chose this old-fashioned way of time travel, wanting to prank the forum visitors.

Since John Titor remained active on the forum even after the arrival of the year 2000, which showed the price of his prophecies, he had to explain the theory of parallel universes. What happened in one universe by 2036, according to John Titor, will not necessarily happen in a parallel one. Thus, events that happened by 2036 in his universe will not necessarily happen in ours. This is called a special condition. An unverifiable force majeure claim grants immunity to all time traveler claims.

Now the skeptic can discover the reason why John Titor became famous in internet forums. Anyone can easily register and tell whatever they want. You can pretend to be Mickey Mouse, Napoleon or a time traveler from the future. People also sometimes seize the initiative, and there is no guarantee that only one person writes on behalf of John Titor. Likewise, there is no guarantee that calls and faxes on the radio are not sent by stupid pranksters. This happens several times a day.

John Titor differs from anonymous posts in his predictions of the future, which are easily verifiable over time. All predictions turned out to be fake, that is, exactly what you would expect from a random talker.

Why did the story of John Titor become famous? Why does it exist?

The joker has managed to gain notoriety as a time traveler thanks to the development of the Internet and the Coast to Coast radio station, which is very friendly to such fictions and unverified facts. Nowadays, the density of information on the Internet is much higher, and there are more “time travelers” and other pranksters. Now it's much harder to get John Titor's fame.

At the same time, note that popular stories on the Internet appear almost daily. Breaking through to the top today is much more difficult than back in 1998, but inventions that won the fame lottery appear regularly. If we weren't talking about John Titor, we'd be talking about something else. Our time traveler is popular because he became one of those who became popular.

The story of John Titor has elements that work in any legend. The possibility of time travel attracts any of us. The author, like others, would like to experience it. We really want time travel to be possible.

Another element is distrust of the government: Civil War, martial law, struggle for respect for freedoms and democracy. Since the conspiracy theory has been alive, many would like to witness these events. There seems to be a connection between conspiracy theorists and Internet forum users. Therefore, John Titor represents many of the popular opinions.

To top it off, he has a time machine built into a sports car. Who wouldn't like this?

According to the author, connoisseurs interesting stories time traveler John Titor must not like it. The author was asked many questions about this traveler, which forced him to study the materials. Surprise knew no bounds when it turned out how insignificant the information was. Some people believe in John Titor. The majority, who are familiar with Internet pranks, simply scoff at the time traveler. Reflecting on whether the story deserves the article, the author was not worried about its veracity. It would be more interesting to understand how we determine whether a paranormal activity is worth attention.

Strictly speaking, nothing should be rejected without close scrutiny. On the other hand, we are busy people and there is no time for a detailed examination of everything that surrounds us. A line should be drawn between the worthy and the unworthy. The author believes that the story of John Titor's time travel is beyond an imaginary line.

One of the pleasures of exploration is discovery. If someone posts stupid messages on the forums, maintaining them for years, it does not add value and veracity to the posted information. There is no room for discovery here, unlike many other legends that grew up on real events.

Enthusiasts of John Titor tried to come from the other side. In 2008, Italian TV planned a show looking for the real John Titor, the one who goes by that name. Very quickly they realized that it would be a boring show and switched to another topic.

The author avoids this path and, when choosing a topic, recommends rejecting stories beyond common sense, when, by all indications, we are dealing with a fantasy or a hoax. There are so many interesting and interesting things around us. Time travel? Jon Titor joke? Don't waste your time.

Translation Vladimir Maksimenko 2014