Saturday, May 30, 2009

John Titor

You may already know the story of John Titor, but if you do, then why didn’t you tell me about it???

He was a soldier from the future who was sent back in time to 1975 to retrieve an IBM 5100 computer which was needed to debug various legacy computer programs in 2036 (his time of origin).

He started posting frequently on internet message boards starting in the year 2000. He said he was on a temporary stopover in our time to collect pictures lost in the (future) civil war and to spend time with his parents. He was posting on the boards, not to convince anyone he was a genuine time-traveler, but just to gauge people's responses to meeting someone from their future. On these message boards, he answered questions and posted about our future (his past). He also described his own time machine and explained the nature of time travel (Branch Theory).

In 2001, Titor went back to his own timeline and was never heard from again.

There is a book discussing his claims, called John Titor: A Time Traveler's Tale. But apparently it is really rare and super expensive, so if you see it for cheap in a used bookstore buy it for me please.

Anyway, at first I had my doubts, but after reading his posts, I am not entirely sure. If it is a hoax, then he is brilliant and definitely knows what he's talking about. I recommend you read it, because either way, it is really interesting:

Read Archive

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The book about John Titor by the "John Titor Foundation" is a fraud, don't waste your money. They simply took his existing material, photoshopped an extra page or two of his manual, and fraudulently marketed it. The extra pages can be easily seen to be fraudulent because they merely restate other things John said without adding anything new, and they were never posted by John himself. John made it very clear that he didn't want to place his family, including his young self, in jeopardy from the Feds who in his original worldline became the enemy. So his mother, purportedly the family contact for the "John Titor Foundation", would have been risking her life and freedom and the life and freedom of her family for the sake of a few extra bucks made by selling mugs and T-shirts and a book that only rehashed what John had already said. Doesn't make sense, does it? DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THAT FRAUDULENT BOOK!

Matsby said...

Interesting. Thanks for the advice. I don't think I am interested in the book anymore after that review.

But I am glad to see people taking this issue seriously.