john titor

[21stcenturyrome]

this is a link to an alleged time traveller story. now, i don't believe in time travel, but i don't rule anything out.

regardless of whether or not it's "factual", the document in question is very interesting to read, and "john" raises a number of excellent points, even from a conservative view i think. if you read his posts, keep in mind they were written in 2000 and early 2001.

www.johntitor.com (http://www.johntitor.com)

[Timberwolf]

The guy sounds like a nutcase...but a very interesting nutcase, to be sure.

[21stcenturyrome]

then it is agreed.

[DoctorDoom]

It's assuredly fascinating. The guy was brilliant. Of course, there a fine line between genius and insanity.

The one thing that time travel tales always neglect is the fact that temporal displacement also involves spatial displacement.

Earth's orbital velocity is a mean of 29.8 km/s. Ergo a trip back in time one hour would mean that the point of appearance would be about 66,660 miles from the planet, which wouldn't be there for another hour.

That's only orbital velocity. The solar system is moving in the direction of Vega at about 43,200 MPH. The "Milky Way" galaxy is rotating at about 490,000 MPH at our distance from the center. The galaxy is moving toward the M31 Andromeda galaxy in the Local Group at about 180,000 MPH. And the Local Group is moving in the direction of Virgo at 540,000 MPH.

In one hour, there's a shitload of motion. A successful time-trip would require compensation for the combined effects of all those separate motions. Going back in time a year would put us out of the solar system. What would 36 years do?

[21stcenturyrome]

"***The one thing that time travel tales always neglect is the fact that temporal displacement also involves spatial displacement"***

john does give an account of how that problem is dealt with. in fair detail, i might add. keep reading!

[DoctorDoom]

It takes more than "fair detail" to account for it. Such computations are impossible unless all speeds and directions are precisely known, and they are all plugged into a complex vector calculation. If any one of them is off by the smallest amount...

"John" is, IMO, a quite talented science-fiction author.

[Faithful_Servant]

It sounded pretty good, but the guy needs to work on his continuity. There were a couple of post where he gave conflicting answers, such as when he was asked about his favorite kind of music. But it was pretty well thought out and entertaining.

The whole idea of time travel affecting the past and changing the future never made much sense to me. You can't go back into the past and kill your grandfather because it didn't happen that way in the first place. One of the best SciFi shorts I ever read was based on this idea. The main character kept rying to go back in time and prevent the assasination of a major political figure. Everything he tried to do back-fired and when he had tried a dozen or so times and the person was killed by a .38 caliber meteorite, he finally gave up.

[21stcenturyrome]

there is such a thing as fate.

[Wyatt_Junker]

Fate is overrated. I strangle fate everyday for a living, right after bitch slapping it in the face.

[Rink]

[ QUOTE ]
"There is no fate but what we make for ourselves"

[/ QUOTE ]

Quote from: 'Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines'

[DoctorDoom]

Here are some famous (and not so famous) folks speaking of fate.

Mary Kay Ash
Most people live and die with their music still unplayed. They never dare to try.

William Ernest Henley
I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.

Les Brown
Just because fate doesn't deal you the right cards, it doesn't mean you should give up. It just means you have to play the cards you get to their maximum potential.

Jose Ferrer
A man, when he wishes, is the master of his fate.

Johann Friedrich Von Schiller
He cannot complain of a hard sentence, who is made master of his own fate.

Heraclitus
Man's character is his fate.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul.

Amy Tan
If you can't change your fate, change your attitude.

Richard Hovey
I do not know beneath what sky nor on what seas shall be thy fate; I only know it shall be high, I only know it shall be great.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Whatever limits us we call fate.

Benjamin Disraeli
We make our fortunes and we call them fate.

Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
There is but one philosophy and its name is fortitude! To bear is to conquer our fate.

Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
Chance happens to all, but to turn chance to account is the gift of few.

Virgil
Wherever the fates lead us let us follow.

William Shakespeare
Men at sometime are the masters of their fate.

Seneca
Fate leads the willing, and drags along the reluctant.

[Belisarius]

I've heard of this before too. There are some people on Anomalies.net who tore his story up pretty well, but even now there is still a possibility that he was the real deal. He did a great job, it is really hard to do something like this, and the story went unscathed until someone released a book about it(gave the hoax away pretty much), and things started falling together. It gives me the idea to use internet forums to gather intelligence, it worked pretty well in revealing this hoax.