John Titor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
John "Boomer" Titor is the name of a purported time traveller from the year 2036. He posted on several Internet bulletin boards during 2000/2001.
Although strong debate still rages about the veracity of both him and his story, it's of course extremely likely that John Titor was a hoax, and nobody should swallow this story uncritically before it is known whether or not its initial predictions (civil war in America by 2004 or 2005) have come true. If the story is a fraud it may have been inspired by Pat Frank's nuclear holocaust novel, Alas, Babylon. However, it's agreed by most that it's an entertaining and very elaborately constructed story, largely because the Titor story was literate, and reasonably consistent throughout. Most provocative is that it is accompanied by a well-described theory of how exactly Titor manages to travel in time that is consistent with known concepts of time travel and black hole mechanics. Theory was supported by pictorial evidence, including schematics and photographs of his "time distortion gravity displacement" machine, as well as a photograph of it in use showing laser light being bent by the time displacement outside the 'vertical safe distance' of the time traveling vehicle.
Titor himself claimed to be a serving soldier who was recruited to a governmental time travel project. He was sent back to 1975 to retrieve an IBM 5100 computer which he claimed was needed to overcome a Unix bug - Unix-based machines would no longer function after 2038 (he claimed to be from 2036) (this is a known actual bug related to the 32-bit nature of the Unix clock).
He arrived in 2000 at his own volition. Although he never stated his reason (only saying they were "personal", it's agreed by many commentators that this was to see the Y2K bug play out. He left in March 2001 to return to his own time.
He claimed his time machine - a "C206 time displacement" machine - was created by General Electric. He transported it in a standard motor vehicle and the car also served as his vessel whilst travelling through time (it remained stationary throughout with the engine off). He claimed that the public is fully aware of time travel in his time period, although the extreme skeptics of his day don't believe it exists.
Titor's references to his past effectively describe World War III taking place. This culminates in nuclear war in 2015 in which nearly three billion people are killed, largely within major world cities. He says the first inkling of this will become apparent in 2004/5 around the time of U.S. presidential election, 2004.
The war effectively starts as a civil war in the United States which rapidly spreads to the rest of the world. Continuing Muslim/Jewish tensions are still a problem at that time but are not the cause of America's civil war, which is brought on by increasingly intrusive police state tactics more or less resembling the massacres at Waco and Ruby Ridge. The civil war sees those in the cities fighting those in rural areas (Titor fought on the rural forces, joining a "shotgun militia" when he was 13).
The civil war is effectively ended by Russia when it drops nuclear bombs on most major US cities, eliminating the federal government and thereby securing a 'victory' for the rural forces. Most major urban areas in the world are also hit by nuclear weapons in tit-for-tat retaliation. Europe, Africa and Australia are particularly badly hit in this regard and, Titor claims, are decimated as billions of people die.
Life in Titor's time sees people attempting to recover from the war and making progress. There are five US states (the seat of government is in Nebraska), and lots of local communities which form tight-knit groups where people help each other. Technology allows an Internet-like system and there's rapid rail transport between major cities.
However, water must still be filtered or distilled to remove radioactive particles and life is still harsh, with people expected to work in the fields to produce locally-grown food for part of their day.
Titor's writings were formed from discussions he had with members on the following websites:
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http://www.anomalies.net
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http://www.timetravelinstitute.com
* the old 'Art Bell' site which included a discussion forum which no longer exists
Typically Titor answered questions put by other users of the site. He posted pictures including blueprints of the time machine, a picture of the machine in use (including light being bent from a laserpointer), pictures of the machine itself in situ in his vehicle, and a representation of the badge insignia of his army unit. There is also apparently video footage of his time machine disappearing but this has never surfaced online.
External links
The links contain his postings plus discussions and analysis on the veracity of his claims:
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http://www.johntitor.com
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http://johntitor.strategicbrains.com/
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http://www.anomalies.net/cgi-bin/bbs/ul ... =forum&f=9 
ops: 
, das Problem lösst sich ja sowieso bald, denn: