John Titor

John Titor is the name used on several bulletin boards during 2000 and 2001 of a poster claiming to be a time traveler from the year 2036. In these posts he made numerous predictions (a number of them vague, some quite specific) about events in the near future, starting with events in 2004

Outline

In his alleged online postings, Titor claimed to be an American soldier from the year 2036, based in Tampa in Hillsborough County, Florida who was assigned to a governmental time travel project. He had been sent back to 1975 to retrieve an IBM 5100 computer which he said was needed to "debug" various legacy computer programs in 2036; a reference to the UNIX 2038 timeout error. The 5100 runs the APL, and BASIC programming languages. Titor had been selected for this mission specifically due to the fact his paternal grandfather was directly involved with the building and programming of the 5100.

Titor claimed to be on a stopover in the year 2000 for "personal reasons," to collect pictures lost in the civil war, and was visiting his family; Titor spoke of his family often. Titor also said he had been, for a few months, trying to alert anyone that would listen about the threat of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease spread through beef products, and about the possibility of civil war in the United States. Titor also had expressed an interest in unexplained mysteries when questioned about it by an online poster, such as UFOs (which in his time were still as yet unexplained). Titor suggested that UFOs and alien visitors may well be time travelers from much further into the future than his own time, and with much more accurate time machines than his own.


Time machine

Titor described the time machine on several occasions. In an early post, he described it as a "stationary mass, temporal displacement unit powered by two top-spin, dual positive singularities", producing a "standard off-set Tipler sinusoid". The earliest post was more explicit, saying it contained:
Two magnetic housing units for the dual micro singularities
An electron injection manifold to alter mass and gravity micro singularities
A cooling and X-ray venting system
Gravity sensors, or a variable gravity lock
Four main caesium clocks
Three main computer units

According to the posts, the device was installed in the rear of a 1967 Chevrolet Corvette convertible, and later moved to a 1987 four-wheel drive truck.




Further, Titor claimed that the "Everett-Wheeler model of quantum physics" was correct. This model, better known as the many-worlds interpretation, posits that every possible outcome of a quantum decision actually occurs in a separate "universe". Titor stated that this was the reason the grandfather paradox would not occur; following the logic of the argument, Titor would be killing someone else's grandfather in another timeline, not his own.

...The grandfather paradox is impossible. In fact, all paradox is impossible. The Everett-Wheeler-Graham or multiple world theory is correct. All possible quantum states, events, possibilities and outcomes are real, eventual and occurring. The chances of everything happening someplace at sometime in the superverse is 100%.

Predictions

The most immediate of Titor's predictions was of an upcoming civil war in the United States having to do with "order and rights". He described it as beginning in 2004
with civil unrest surrounding the presidential election. This civil conflict that he characterizes as "having a Waco type event every month that steadily gets worse" will be "pretty much at everyone's doorstep" erupts by 2008.

Titor claimed that as a 13-year old, in 2011, he fought with the "Fighting Diamondbacks", a shotgun infantry unit of Florida, for at least four years. However, in other posts he describes himself as hiding from the war. As a result of the war the United States splits into five regions based on various factors and differing military objectives. This civil war, according to Titor, will then end in 2015 with a brief, but intense, World War III:

In 2015, Russia launches a nuclear strike against the major cities in the United States (which is the "other side" of the civil war from my perspective), China and Europe. The United States counter attacks. The US cities are destroyed along with the AFE (American Federal Empire)...thus we (in the country) won. The European Union and China were also destroyed.

Titor refers to the exchange as "N Day". Washington, D.C. and Jacksonville are specifically mentioned as being hit. After the war, Omaha, Nebraska is the nation's new capital city.

Titor is vague as to the exact motivations and causes for World War III. At one point he characterized hostilities as being led by "border clashes and overpopulation" but also points to the present conflict between Arabs and Jews as a harbinger of World War III:

Real disruptions in world events begin with the destabilization of the West as a result of degrading US foreign policy and consistency. ... The Jewish population in Israel is not prepared for a true offensive war. They are prepared for the ultimate defense. Wavering western support for Israel is what gives Israel's neighbors the confidence to attack. The last resort for a defensive Israel and its offensive Arab neighbors is to use weapons of mass destruction. In the grand scheme of things, the war in the Middle East is a part of what's to come, not the cause.


Examination of the claims


Predictive failures

The posts were met with skepticism when they were being posted, but it was impossible to prove beforehand that they would not happen. Titor claimed the many-worlds interpretation of quantum physics was correct, effectively meaning that his travel was from a parallel universe and things could occur differently than he had predicted. This makes his claims unfalsifiable. The predictions have failed to come true in any case.

One of Titor's earliest claims was that CERN would discover the basis for time travel some time around 2001. This event did not occur. An article about miniature black holes being created by CERN (a recurring theme, also ascribed to Fermilab and Brookhaven at various times) was taken by some to be evidence of this claim, but these events did not occur either. Civil war did not break out after the 2004 presidential elections.

A particularly obvious example involves the Olympics, which Titor claimed "As a result of the many conflicts, no, there were no official Olympics after 2004."The successful 2006 Winter Olympics debunk this claim.


Problems with the technology

The image of the laser pointer's beam being "bent" has the obvious problem that objects around the beam are not bent. For instance, the framing of the window visible in the background should be distorted if there was a large gravity gradient in the area, but it is not. Some have speculated the "beam" is an optical fiber.

Titor claimed that he was sent back to obtain an IBM 5100 because it could translate several types of computer code. According to IBM engineer Bob Dubke, Titor's statements regarding the IBM 5100's little-known ability to emulate and debug mainframe systems were correct. Supporters state that this information was not publicly available in 2000 or 2001 when Titor made his declaration. and Titor himself stated that this feature was "discovered (or at least known after testing)" as late as 2036.

However, this emulation capability of was widely known in the industry, and commented on in depth in numerous publications, both about the 5100 and programmable microcode in general.[21] References to this fact were also available on the Internet as early as 1999, predating Titor's posts. This is a fairly obscure bit of trivia, however, which suggests whoever was making the posts was familiar with the machine, or had an interest in retrocomputing.
"Apparently, APL was a difficult task for IBM to accomplish with an interpreter in the 5100, so instead they wrote an emulation program so that the S/360 mainframe version of APL could be run instead -- The 5100 is like a desktop IBM S/360 mainframe computer which only runs APL."


Problems with the story

Numerous commenters have pointed out the broad similarities between the Titor story and Pat Frank's classic post-apocalyptic science fiction novel, Alas, Babylon.[23] Alas, Babylon takes place in a small town in Florida just before and after a nuclear war, and describes the struggle to survive as a family in the aftermath. In the book, the protagonist lives in the mythical town of "Fort Repose", while Titor claimed to live in the "Fort", formerly the University of Florida (UF). After the war, family takes on an increasingly important role in Babylon, and the family "adopts" a teenaged boy; the same occurs in Titor's story. In both stories, Omaha becomes the capital. In both stories, Tampa, Florida is not attacked; this is a telling issue because after Babylon was written, in 1980 Tampa became the headquarters for the United States Rapid Deployment Forces (later United States Central Command), a high-priority target.

An examination of the claims also suggests several inconsistencies within the story. For instance, in some posts Titor claims that money is widely used and people still have credit cards despite his statement that centralized banking no longer exists. In another post he speculated that today's dollar would be usable in his time, but this would be after the reorganization of the federal government according to his own history, potentially making the currency worthless.[24] In most cases he claims to have been given his basic education at UF, but in another post claims to be home schooled.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Titor

Why didnt this fag register on crossfire instead of a random site, what a noob.

is this shit true?

to summarise:

John titor claims he is a person from they year 2036, he works in the army, and the army built a timemachine to travel to they year 2000 to get an IBM 5100 because it could translate several types of computer code. According to IBM engineer Bob Dubke, Titor's statements regarding the IBM 5100's little-known ability to emulate and debug mainframe systems were correct. and since hes from the future, he can tell us what will happen and stuff....