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Sticking with the theory that multiple worldlines DO exist, let me now show you how John Titor’s time travel device functions. I’ll first provide you with this link to some photos and diagrams of the machine. Next, I’ll quote John in his own words (from this forum archive). Finally, I’ll attempt to explain some of the more technical stuff as I best understand it. I have added links of my own to John’s words to give you some follow-up sources on the information presented.

Time travel is achieved by altering gravity. This concept is already proven by atomic clock experiments. The closer an observer is to a gravity source (high mass), the slower time passes for them. Traveling at high speeds mimics this effect which = the twin paradox of faster than light travel. However, this type of gravity manipulation is not sufficient to alter your world line.

The basic math to alter world lines exists right now. Tipler first described a working “time machine” through his theory of massive rotating spheres.

Certain types of black holes also exhibit the “time travel” abilities of Tipler cylinders. Kerr was one of the first to describe the dual event horizons of a rotating black hole. As with Tipler’s cylinders, it was possible to travel on a “time-like” trip through a Kerr black hole and end up in a different world line without being squished by the gravity of the singularity.

[Editor: Here are some links to stuff I’m not able to understand, but that relates to these ideas]
http://www.leonllo.freeservers.com/blackworm.html
http://www.astro.ku.dk/~cramer/RelViz/text/geom_web/node4.html

The mass and gravitational field of a microsingularity can then be manipulated by “injecting” electrons onto its surface. By rotating two electrified microsingularities at high speed, it is possible to create and modify a local gravity sinusoid that replicates the affects of a Kerr black hole.

[Editor: Here is a second quote from this forum archive]

The source of power for the C204 [Editor: The model number of the time travel device] that allows it to distort and manipulate gravity comes from two microsingularities that were created, captured and cleaned at a much larger and “circular” facility. The dual event horizons of each one and their mass is manipulated by injecting electrons onto the surface of their respective ergospheres. The electricity comes from batteries. The breakthrough that will allow for this technology will occur within a year or so when CERN brings their larger facility online.

Perhaps it would have been clearer to state that the math has been around since 1970. I would urge you to examine the properties of Kerr black holes and Tipler cylinders. An actual working prototype was first tested in 2034. On my worldline, time travel is not a public recreation but we are all aware that it exists. You may be disappointed to know that the ability to manipulate gravity is not the technical challenge that had to be overcome. Miniaturizing the clocks and sensors, creating clever ways to vent x-rays and creating a computer system dependable enough to calculate the changes required to the field were the main challenges. There are no missing pieces…just missing energy levels and a few very interesting subatomic particles.

One other technical piece of information regards the VGL system in the time travel device. The problem is this: Because the earth is rotating, and also moving around the sun, which is ITSELF moving etc., staying in the same place while traveling through time will most likely end up taking you to a location in outer space. The other issue involves materializing in the middle of a solid mass. The VGL system is an aspect of the time travel device which takes care of that. Here’s another quote where John Titor explains it.

The hard part of traveling through time is not the bending of gravity but the plotting of your course and holding to the basic “position” in your environment. This is done through a system called VGL (variable gravity lock). Basically, the unit takes a reading of the local gravity and samples it during the “trip” in pulses. If the gravity is too far off, the unit stops or reverses itself to the last sample period where the readings were correct. If there is some sort of failure, the unit shuts down and drops out to where ever you may be.

So, let’s try to make some of this make sense. First, Einstein theorized that gravity was not simply a force that was magically generated by large objects, but was rather a distortion of the space-time continuum created by mass itself. This idea is better explained here.

John Titor’s time travel device basically creates a specific type of gravitational field that warps space-time, and allows you to pass through to different worldlines. The gravitational field is created by two micro-singularities, which are like mini black holes. Black holes have been theorized for decades, and there are many observations of what are thought to be black holes in astronomy.

The idea behind a black hole is that when a star of sufficiently massive size uses up all of its hydrogen, it dies, and collapses in on itself under the weight of its own gravity. It is crushed down to a single point that shrinks beyond the size of subatomic particles, even though it has the same gravity of the star that created it. This infinitely small point then draws more matter into itself from the surrounding area, adding to its mass, and increasing its gravity. There is an area around the black hole called the event horizon, which is the distance from the singularity at which you’d have to be traveling at the speed of light in order to escape the gravitational pull of the black hole. Therefore everything that passes beyond the event horizon, including light, is drawn into the singularity forever.

Micro singularities are like black holes, but have much smaller mass, Their gravity is therefore much smaller than a singularity created by a collapsing star. I am not presently aware as to whether or not artificial micro singularities have been created, but I have come across articles about research into their possibility. According to John Titor, such singularities will be created in large particle accelerators, such as the one at CERN.

As you read above, his time travel machine is powered by two singularities which can be manipulated to produce the desired gravitational field required for travel between worldlines. If I understand it correctly, what are being manipulated are the rate of spin of the singularities, the mass of the singularities, and the electrical charge of the singularities (all with respect to each other), mainly by injecting them with electrons from a battery. Changing these variables adjusts the size, shape, and strength of the gravitational field, and allows you to control the variables involved in travel between worldlines.

John operates the device while sitting inside of a stationary car. The car and its contents (as well as a portion of the ground under the car that’s inside the gravitational field), are all transported together. Why a car, you ask? Well, John claims the device weighs about 500lbs (mostly the weight of the singularities, I assume), so you would not be able to hold onto it while in transit. Also, John claims that there is a gravitational pull toward the device equivalent to about 2Gs (twice the force of gravity on earth), so being seated and strapped into something would make transit a lot more comfortable.

As far as what the experience of time travel is like, I offer this final quote of a first-hand account from John Titor himself, taken from this forum:

The unit has a ramp up time after the destination coordinates are fed into the computers. An audible alarm and a small light start a short countdown at which point you should be secured in a seat. The gravity field generated by the unit overtakes you very quickly. You feel a tug toward the unit similar to rising quickly in an elevator and it continues to rise based on the power setting the unit is working under. At 100% power, the constant pull of gravity can be as high as 2 Gs or more depending on how close you are to the unit. There are no serious side effects but I try to avoid eating before a flight.

No bright flash of light is seen. Outside, the vehicle appears to accelerate as the light is bent around it. We have to wear sunglasses or close our eyes as this happens due to a short burst of ultraviolet radiation. Personally I think it looks like your driving under a rainbow. After that, it appears to fade to black and remains totally black until the unit is turned off. We are advised to keep the windows closed as a great deal of heat builds up outside the car. The gravity field also traps a small air pocket around the car that acts as your only O2 supply unless you bring compressed air with you. This pocket will only last for a short period and a carbon sensor tells us when it’s too dangerous. The C204 unit is accurate from 50 to 60 years a jump and travels at about 10 years an hour at 100% power.

You do hear a slight hum as the unit operates and when the power changes or the unit turns off. There is a great deal of electrical crackling noise from static electricity.

There you have it. A fairly detailed and, in my humble opinion, sophisticated model of how a time travel device could function. If this man is the perpetrator of a hoax, he went to an enormous amount of trouble to think through the physics of the device, design and photograph the device, and produce technical schematics for how it is assembled and operated.

Next: Time Travel 4 – The Credibility Question

Also in the Time Travel Series:
Time Travel 1 – The Story
Time Travel 2 – Worldlines

In order to understand how John Titor’s time travel device is supposed to function, one must first understand the model of reality that this device operates under.

According to John Titor, reality is actually composed of an infinite number of “worldlines”, – each one being different, depending on the choices made by people in the worldline. The idea is that all possibilities actually exist in different worldlines. For every choice that you, or anyone else, in all of history, could ever make, all of those choices have been realized somewhere. This eliminates the question of the grandfather paradox (i.e. What would happen if you went back in time and killed your grandfather before your parents, or you, were born? You would actually be killing your ancestor in a different worldline, and your own personal worldline would go on unchanged).

When John Titor came to our worldline, then, it was actually just a “parallel reality” that was occurring many years in the past, relative to his own worldline. His time travel machine had been constructed in such a way as to be able to travel to other worldlines with a minimum amount of “divergence” (that is, the smallest possible discrepancies between his history and the target worldline’s history), but the downside is that he could never return to his “actual” worldline again – only one that was 99.99999etc.% similar to his own, making the practical divergence negligible.

John himself stated that our worldline had only about a 1-2% divergence from his own history, and that it was similar enough for him to be convinced that the same major events (the civil war, nuclear bombing, etc.) would still happen as he had experienced them. The only discrepancies he mentioned were, of course, his presence in 2000-2001 (which never happened in his worldline), and a few other things he hinted at, such as the Y2K issue being a much bigger problem in his worldline. He even hinted that OUR experience of Y2K being negligible might have been due to influence from a traveler from another worldline.

As for real-life evidence of other worldlines or multiple-universe theory, I would encourage you to take a look at this video, which illustrates the famous Double-Slit Experiment. What is illustrated here is that matter (or the universe as we know it) is somehow “aware” of multiple possibilities, and in fact sometimes BEHAVES as if all possibilities were occurring right now. However, when there is an observer present, matter must “chose” a particular path. In the same way, all possibilities could exist in infinite (or near-infinite) worldlines, but we as observers (making choices) force reality to conform to a particular path of history. If I’m way off base here, feel free to correct me. A lot of this stuff is relatively new to me too! There is a wikipedia article on the Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (most of which I don’t fully understand) which some of you may find useful.

The implications of the possible existence of other worldlines are many. Here are some of the thoughts I’ve had, and which John Titor himself discussed in the various forums he participated in.

Would the existence of multiple worldlines mean the existence of multiple Gods, if you believe in Him? I personally believe that there would still be a single God, who interacts with the outcomes of all possibilities.

But multiple worldlines would also mean that there are multiple versions of myself, all who have made different moral choices. There could be some worldlines where I’m a serial rapist, and others where I’m the equivalent of Billy Graham. In fact, John Titor’s view of the universe would say that it’s inevitable that both of these possibilities exist, as well as every possibility in-between. Does that mean that I’m in any way morally responsible for these other versions of me? I don’t believe so. John Titor himself said that he believes that all he can do is make choices that he feels are morally responsible, and that he will be held accountable by God for what he himself has done in his own worldline, or in any worldline he visits. That works for me.

For the religious minded, there would also be large implications for doctrines such as predestination, and the existence of worldlines in which Christ was not born, or born at a different time. As a Christian, I would have to believe that Jesus would have to appear and accomplish his work of salvation in every possible worldline, unless there are worldlines where humanity is not fallen. Another intriguing thought…

In spite of what Titor claims about there being infinite worldlines with infinite possibilities, if I were to accept the concept of multiple worldlines, I would have to believe that there are not actually an infinite number of them, but rather a very large, incalculable, but still finite, number of worldlines in existence. My reason for thinking so is this: If multiple worldlines exist, would they not have to still possess the properties of physics displayed by the universe at large? And if this is the case, there are some very real limitations to the number of choices we can make as human beings. There can’t be a worldline where 2 plus 2 equals 5, for example. Neither can there be a worldline where I have the power to change styrofoam into gold by coughing on it.

Also, the possibilities of my genetic makeup would have to fall within the limitations of my parents’ available genetic material – otherwise, there would be no actual “me” to speak of. Those genetic limitations would limit the number of choices available to me in my lifetime. The number of choices available to me that would modify my personal history would be astronomical in any worldline, but they would be finite, and subject to my genetic and physical limitations.

Titor also claimed that in his time, there was a point of view being considered that memory itself is not actually an accessing of stored information in the brain, but rather the accessing of real events which are occurring in other worldlines at that time, either being done by your “counterpart” in that worldline, or even being done by someone else. This could explain how memories of events can be inaccurate in comparison to other means of information recording (video or audio recording, for example). This idea was postulated (in fiction) by C.S. Lewis in his posthumous work The Dark Tower. Personally, I’m not quite ready to entertain that idea yet.

As a final point, there is the notion of death, and the end of worldlines. Does the universe come to an end when all worldlines reach their point of termination? Or does each one terminate separately? Do each of my other-worldly counterparts have a separate soul that dies in turn? Or are each of us part of a single soul, which does not fully experience death until all of our counterparts are dead as well? If all worldlines started at a single, finite starting point, is there a single, finite ending point for all worldlines as well? And if so, when is it?

Big questions. But once again, this is all based on a hypothetical view of how reality is constructed. John stated that in his worldline, the answers to all of these questions haven’t been worked out yet. All he could say was that it was a view of reality that seemed to best fit the facts for how time travel happened. Will happen. You know what I mean.

What’s interesting to me is the fact that John discussed these issues, and had thought through them, with a surprising amount of detail, in an interesting and intelligent way. He had well-developed opinions that went beyond what one would expect of somebody who was trying to perpetrate a hoax. It’s just another example of how he built his credibility as a possible time traveler.

Next: Time Travel 3 – The Device

Also in the Time Travel Series:
Time Travel 1 – The Story.
Time Travel 4 – The Credibility Question

Last week, Larissa and I watched a short, but extremely thought-provoking documentary entitled Obsessed and Scientific. It was conceived and directed by Jay Cheel, who is a friend of my friend Doug Nagy, and who completed this film as his final project for a film course at Niagara College (where Larissa teaches ESL).

In the course of checking out some of the information presented in the film, I came across the story of a man who goes by the name of John Titor (a pseudonym), and who is mentioned in Obsessed and Scientific rather prominently. Ever since my discovery of the John Titor information, I have been spending almost every waking hour digging into this stuff on the internet, and contemplating the possible ramifications of what I have read.

Now, before I explain anything further, let me preface this WHOLE post by saying that I am not convinced of the validity of this story. But I also cannot say that I am wholly convinced that it is a hoax either. I am approaching this with an open, but healthily skeptical, mind. Having made this disclaimer, allow me to present you with what I have been reading:

Back in late 2000 and early 2001, an individual began posting on a few different internet forums, claiming to be a time traveler from the year 2036. He was, of course, greeted with the same amount of disbelief and skepticism that you yourself are experiencing as you read these words. However, the more he conversed with people, explaining the means he used to travel through time, the reason he was doing it, and offering some information about his past (our future), the more credible he seemed.

There were many reasons for his perceived credibility. His story was consistent and logical, and was open to verification at several points. In the 5 years that have passed since John Titor’s internet postings, nobody has been able to reliably and absolutely discount these points. He had a specific and well-developed cultural worldview which was consistent with the account of his personal history, but different than most individuals in our culture. He spoke with intelligence and humour, and treated all of the questions asked of him with respectful (and often detailed) answers. He posted photos, diagrams, descriptions, and operating information for the device which he used to travel through time, which nobody has been able to prove false or trace back to a known fabrication. And he seemed to predict certain events and political trends which can be perceived to have taken shape in the ways he described them.

In short, he offered a very believable scenario of one who has actually traveled through time. I would go so far as to say that if anyone ever HAS traveled through time, short of appearing in my living room, there would have been little more that they could have done to demonstrate their legitimacy than what John Titor said and did.

In this series of posts (of which I’m “predicting” there will be three), [Editor: I was wrong - There are four!] I’m going attempt to present to you, my loyal readers, a summary of the major pieces of information surrounding this individual and his claims. In this particular post, I’m going to outline the major events of the future that John Titor claims to be his past, and explain why he was sent through time in the first place. In my next post, I’ll explain the worldview under which John Titor operates, and examine some of the ramifications of this worldview that arise as a result of believing that time travel is possible. My third post on this topic will address the physics of how John’s time travel device operates, and give an account of the experience of time travel in John’s own words. My final post will deal with the question of the credibility (or lack thereof) of John Titor’s story, and give a list of links to other sources of relevant information on this topic.

John Titor claims to have been born in 1998, in the state of Florida. Sometime in late 2004 and early 2005, unrest began to develop in the United States, due to increasing restrictions placed on people’s freedoms in the name of civil security. Homes were being searched by the authorities, and people were often arrested and detained without warrant or due process. This led to an American civil war, which escalated gradually, but which nobody could ignore by 2008.

The war seemed to be between the average US citizens and the state or federal controlled military and policing agencies. Those who decided to flee government harassment moved to rural areas and participated in guerilla warfare attacks against their oppressors, while the urban areas became strongholds of strict government-enforced control.

The destabilization of the USA lead to other ambitious countries taking advantage of the situation, and attempting to expand their global power-bases. China invaded Australia, and the European Union sent an army marching east of Germany. Finally, in 2015, with the civil war still raging in the USA, Russia launched a nuclear attack on China, Europe, and the United States. The American targets were the major city areas, thus eliminating the oppressive government forces, and ending the civil war, albeit at the cost of millions of lives.

John Titor claims to have spent his teens in a militia unit in Florida, and says that both he and his parents survived the war. In the aftermath of the nuclear attack, the American infrastructure was in shambles, and rural communities were forced to provide their own living essentials (growing their own food, manufacturing their own products, etc.) This situation is still the norm in John Titor’s 2036. Many survivors of the nuclear attacks died of starvation, lack of drinkable water, and radiation effects. Few people are able to give birth to healthy children.

The United States of 2036 is organized a bit differently than it is now. The Constitution was amended to protect people’s liberties more, and while all of the territorial states are still intact, they have joined together with neighboring states to form 5 major American territories, each with a separate elected president. These 5 presidents make decisions together, and are elected on a rotating basis. By 2036, much of the American infrastructure has been rebuilt, although drinkable water is still a major concern. Bikes and horses are more common modes of transportation, and there is a public transit system of some sort which links major population centres.

John claims that stable time-travel devices were developed in 2034, and that their existence is not a secret to the people of his time. Not many have been produced, and in 2036, they are all owned by the military, although John said that he believes that there could be commercial time travel happening by 2045. The major components in the time travel device are a pair of small, artificially-created rotating singularities (or black holes) which generate a gravitational distortion field, which is (according to Einstein) a warping of space-time itself. But more on how the machine works in a later post…

John was part of a military team that is sent on various missions through time in order to assist the people of 2036. John himself was assigned to travel to 1975 and procure an IBM 5100 computer, in order to help debug some software issues in his own time. This computer, which was indeed developed in 1975, had the unique features of being both relatively portable, while also being able to translate between various programming languages which are no longer in use, except in old hardware systems that, for various reasons, have not been upgraded. John was selected for this mission because his grandfather was one of the developers at IBM who worked on this computer, and his familial connection with this developer would allow John to both establish his credibility as a time traveler, as well as to secure the help of his grandfather in modifying the computer to translate to UNIX (which has it’s own “Y2K”-type issue that will occur in 2038).

John stated that because of a promise that he made to his grandfather in 1975, he came forward in time to late 2000. John never stated the exact nature of that promise, but speculation online ranges from warning his parents of the impending civil and nuclear wars, to possibly collecting data that helped solve the Y2K crisis, which he could have given back to his grandfather in 1975. While spending time in 2000 and 2001, John stayed with his parents, where he met the past version of himself as a 3 year-old. While this fact alone may seem exceptionally implausible, especially given the fact that the adult John Titor had no memory of receiving a visit from his future self when HE was a child, it does indeed make sense when you understand the nature of how time travel works, according to how John explains it (which I will cover in my next post).

After making a series of internet posts and participating in several online discussion forums between November 2000 and March 2001, John left this time period to go back to 1975, and then forward to 2036. Since his departure, many people have attempted to find holes in his story or to search for clues as to who might be behind a hoax such as this. It’s important to note that John himself did not try to extort money, or seek to gain anything materially from his internet communications – He was only looking for interesting discussion and insights into the culture and beliefs of our time.

If you’d like to look deeper into the story of John Titor, as well as find links to the archives of the posts he made 5 years ago, a good starting place is http://johntitor.strategicbrains.com/. You can also find one of the archieves of the forum that John Titor posted to here.

Next: Time Travel 2 – Worldlines

Also in the Time Travel Series:
Time Travel 3 – The Device
Time Travel 4 – The Credibility Question

As a linguist, I believe that there are no real “rules” for language. There are only sets of evolving tendencies and commonly accepted speech-habits. Linguistics, as a field of study, does not strive to be prescriptive (that is, telling people how they should speak), but rather descriptive (that is, telling people how they do speak).

Yesterday, Larissa and I were talking about the “proper” way to pronounce often. When I was younger, I never pronounced the [t] in the middle of the word. But in my adult years, whether through a shift in our culture’s constantly evolving speech patterns, or maybe because there is a growing perception that pronouncing the [t] is a more “formal” or “refined” way of speaking, I have found myself more often than not pronouncing this word with the [t].

Larissa herself was a little confused as to whether or not the [t] should be pronounced, and couldn’t quite remember if she had been pronouncing the [t] her whole life, or just for the last few years. As a compromise, I decided to exercise my rights as a linguist and modify the pronunciation of often to a third form that we can all agree upon: offenton.

So now it is up to you, my loyal readers, to spread the use of this new word, and forever silence the questions of how to say often. I think if we use this new pronunciation offenton enough, it’ll really catch on.