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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Titor
John Titor is the name used by a person or persons who posted on several bulletin boards during 2000 and 2001 claiming to be a time traveler from the year 2036. In these posts he made numerous ambiguous predictions about events in the near future, starting with events in 2004. He described a drastically changed future in which the United States had broken into five smaller regions, the environment and infrastructure had been devastated by a nuclear attack, and most other world powers had been destroyed.
Examination of Titor's 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'd predicted. This makes his claims unfalsifiable. At any rate the predictions have failed to come true in this time line.
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[14]) 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. Although Titor claimed that the 2004 Summer Olympics would be the last to be held, the successful 2006 Winter Olympics debunked 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. Titor himself stated that this feature was "discovered (or at least known after testing)" as late as 2036.
However, this capability was actually widely known in the industry, and commented on in depth in numerous publications, both about the 5100 and APL in general. References to this fact were also available on the Internet as early as 1999. 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.
Problems with the story:
An examination of the claims also suggests several problems with 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.
Numerous commenters have pointed out the broad similarities between the Titor story and Pat Frank's classic post-apocalyptic science fiction novel, Alas, Babylon. 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.
John simultaneously claims: "There are also no income taxes." and "Yes, we pay taxes. Sounds like you don't enjoy keeping track of your personal income taxes. I don't think anyone does."
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