What do you guys think about John Titor?

[candela]

Just curious. I guess this might be too vague of a question. I don't know much about physics or anything about the possibility of time travel myself. I just found the way he described the world after the "war" pretty interesting.

I wasn't sure if I should put this under entertainment or what. Heh.

For those of you who don't know, John Titor is a supposed time traveler who posted on a time travel forum a few years ago and started telling people about things that will happen to the world. You can read about him at this site, though it seems to only have the stuff that hasn't been proven fake(i.e. pictures of light being bent through a gravitational distortion unit or some crap, etc.): http://www.johntitor.com/

I think about the only thing he got right so far was when China was going to put a man into orbit. Oh, and he might be right about mad cow disease, but that's all I can think of. Of course, the real stuff should be starting at the end of this year.

[paladinoflunaria]

He talked about the AFE being hit by nuclear weapons in 2005. Is there an AFE right now? If not, he's bullshit because it will take more than a year-and-a-half for something like that to be established. He's just making predictions based on current statistics, and not all are based on statistics. If he really knew, he would elaborate.

[candela]

Isn't the AFE the government they set up after the war? In like 2015? And I also think the nuclear weapons were around 2008. I'll check later.

[Groty]

I was thoroughly engrossed with the John Titor legend. I probably read every post. It was fascinating!

My final conclusion is little more, let's say, of this world.

The writer, who has stayed anonymous, obviously put quite a bit of thought into the John Titor character. For all we know it could have been Stephen King or Tom Clancy. It was a very well developed back story. Imagine being able to interact with your favorite character from a TV show, movie, or book. Asking them questions, challenging them, or just chatting with them. That's what he did! I think the premise could actually become a viable business. Hire a bunch of young writers, college students or something, let them create the character and back story. Set up a subscription service to let people interact with them... And bam!

Interactive entertainment baby!

I'm gonna have to find a copywrite lawyer tomorrow...

[Arcael]

entertaining none the less

[Seraph]

Whether or not John Titor is for real, it's entertaining nonetheless.

Anyway, we're about to find out first-hand whether Titor's predictions are true or not. He said that "civil unrest" was beginning in 2004 (and I guess you could agree with him, but I'd say it's no worse than an average close-election year). But the real fun, according to Titor, begins after the election.

A lot of people don't buy it, because they think Titor is too vague with his predictions. I think, if it's true, his aim is to help people out on an individual basis without changing events, which could potentially endanger his very existence. He can't out-and-out say, "If you vote for so-and-so, he'll bring about a civil war," because he could influence votes, and change history. And he doesn't want that.

[Postblank]

I'm waiting for events to back up what he says. I'm skeptical, but not wholly dismissive.

[file cabinet]

I'm a skeptic

[HeyBooU]

Ah yes, I remember him. If he is right there will be a civil war in 2005. Coming right up.

[sme_bro]

After reading the posts(almost all im just about finished) and looking into it on the web I come away...mixed. there is NO way to to confirm what he says because he left very little specifics.
Also whether or not a cival war begins in the states he could have still been 'real'. Going by what he says we can conclude that up until the 1970s his world and ours had identical histories. He says that just by being there he created a whole new worldline. Hate to use a cliche but think of the butterfly effect. Just by being there and interacting with people he split the two worlds up and from there on we are similair but not the same. He also mentioned a reason for cming foward along the new worldline as a promise to his grandfather or something. Suppose in his world the Y2k altered society a bit. Even if it was a minor computer error it would still make the different versions of us have entirely different memories and pasts(assuming that he didnt accidently set us way of in the 70's) .
I live in New Zealand but we still had exelent coverage of the American elections and from what i recall they were very very close. Is it too hard to beleive that people who may have voted one way insted voted another due to having had different lives to what they would have known in titors world of Y2K etc. By voting for Bush again perhaps it has all been avoided?
Nonetheless this is an amazing story that will keep me pondering for awhile.

[Mr. Good Beats]

i heard about titor on coast to coast am and like everything on coast to coast i believed it right away. i did a little digging on ol johnny boy and came across a picture of his alleged time machine. it was a mess of wires and looked like a computer my dad used to use back in the day to write the newspaper on. if time travel is possible in titor's day, even if the first time machine looked as it did in the picture, wouldn't there be an abundance of spectacular time machines? an abundance because i read somewhere that it would draw people to when the first machine was made, and these people would probably have a little better machines as they would be from varying times in time, and i would think that technological advancements would cease when it came to time machines. maybe he was just a fugitive and had to use a machine he made from old computers like the one my dad used to leave as fast as possible.

but then would it even be possible to travel further back in time then when time travel became possible? i imagine there is already a thread relating to this that i haven't came acress yet.

[booyalab]

If you get past the exponentially increasing need for mass, light still doesn't travel in the same manner in which you perceive it. If you were somehow able to capture the light in a giant TV tube that goes into space or whatever, you wouldn't (as far as I know) be able to interact with the picture you see..you'd only be able to witness it.(edit: I know there's another time travel thread but I don't care)

[sme_bro]

Have to wonder if they would get the technology to the point where huge masses of stuff could be taken on any vehicle turned time machine. Then in a world where food and water was scarce they could just go way back and grab a bunch of stuff that they need and steal it away to his time again.
I enjoy humoring the story because it is a remarkable one..