John Titor

John Titor's military insignia.

John Titor is the name used by the person or persons claiming to be a time traveler from the year 2036 who posted on several time-travel–related bulletin boards during 2000/2001. In these posts he made numerous ambiguous predictions about events in the near future, starting with events in 2004.

Whether John Titor was a hoax or not has been a topic of controversy on web-based paranormal discussion boards and has never been proven or disproven. He has also been discussed occasionally on the radio show Coast to Coast AM.

Titor's Claims

Most of the electronic bulletin board posts made by "John Titor" no longer exist. Titor posts appeared at Time Travel Institute, Anomalies Net, and Time Travel Portal, among other places. Darby @ Anomalies Network has copied the Titor-related threads from these bulletin boards. Titor made his first post there as "TimeTravel_0". More recently the story has been collected into a number of more "narrative" web sites.

Origins

When asked if John Titor was his real name, he responded that John Titor is a real name.

In his online postings, Titor claimed to be an American soldier from the year 2036, based in Tampa, Florida in Hillsborough County, who was assigned to a governmental time travel project. He was supposedly sent back to the year of 1975 to retrieve an IBM 5100 computer which he claimed was needed to "debug" various legacy computer programs in 2036. UNIX will, according to him, have a timeout error in 2038. The 5100 has the ability to easily translate between the old IBM code, 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', which may have involved warning his family of impending disasters; Titor spoke of his family often. Titor also claimed he had been, for a few months, trying to alert anyone that would listen about the threat of CJD spread through beef products and about the possibility of civil war in the United States that would begin with rising civil unrest in the year 2004. However Titor did state that all-out civil war would not occur until 2008.

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.

Predictions

The postings also described various future events between 2004 and 2037, including World War III (predicted for 2015) followed by two decades of recovery.

One such entry cited escalating 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."

Along with this report of World War III's approach, another notable claim was that of a civil war in America, which was slated to begin in 2004, around the time of the presidential election, and would escalate until 2008 which, according to Titor, is "a general date by which time everyone will realize the world they thought they were living in was over." Another claim was that 2004 would be the last year in which the Olympic Games would occur.

These are taken from John Titor's original statements and summarized.

• The 2004 Olympics, will be the last held. All others will be cancelled due to rising global tensions.
• In the United States, civil unrest will begin mounting in 2004/2005. The people of the countryside avoid open conflict with the federal police and national guard, whilst the people of the cities abandon civil liberties willingly under the guise of national security.
• A Second American Civil War, lasting from 2005 to 2015, will manifest itself in a violent division between the large cities/urban areas against the countryside/rural areas. As a 13-year old, in 2011, Titor himself fought with the "Fighting Diamondbacks", a shotgun infantry of Florida, for at least four years. However, the ferocity of the civil war meant that Titor spent most of this time in hiding instead. Titor personally saw many die horrific deaths. Still, he had killed, yet he never shot anyone "that wasn't trying to kill him".
• The Second American Civil War has a knock-on effect which destablises all Western Civilization, both in economics and politics. This in turn assists the escalation of global conflict.
• When asked if there is about significance to the year 2012 (as equated with the ancient Mayan calendar which ends and then restarts in 2012), Titor confirmed this. An event similar to the "parting of the Red Sea" will occur in this year, although exactly what Titor meant by this is deliberately obscure as he didn't want to "spoil the surprise" (Titor claimed he was a Christian, to whom religion was greatly significant, throughout his postings).
• World War III breaks out in 2015; a gradual global political escalation that was ended by Russia bombing American, European, and Chinese cities.
  • Sometime before this point (referred to as "N-Day"), China forcefully annexes Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.
  • Australia successfully repels a Chinese invasion.
  • Russia declares war on at least three other world powers; these include the United States, the European Union and China. However it is not made clear whether this was in response to some form of aggression, nor is clear at what point all four powers enter the war except that China is one of the primary aggressors.
  • Titor was somewhere near Jacksonville in Florida when a Russian nuclear warhead fell on it. Soon after a "loved one" contracted brain cancer, a direct result of the nuclear fallout, and Titor expressed his regret at "not acting soon enough".
  • Chemical and biological weapons are used, and some "non-lethal" weapons turn out to be quite lethal.
  • The political and economic structure of the European Union is utterly destroyed in the bombardment, as is also the case in China.
  • Almost all major US cities are destroyed (although the only cities specifically named as being ruined are the capital Washington DC, and Jacksonville, Florida). The only city stated as surviving is Omaha, Nebraska.
  • By the end of the war, almost 3 billion people are dead.
• Post-war
  • Communities of survivors gather and grow around universities, renamed to "Forts" due to the prescence of army garrisons that are placed there to protect the populations.
  • The United States splits into five regions based on various factors and differing military objectives.
  • The US Constitution is changed by a Constitutional Convention.
    • A President is elected for each of the five major areas of the US on a rotating schedule.
    • The powers of the union government are more defined and reside at the county and state level.
    • The Vice President is elected separately.
    • The US Capital is in Omaha, Nebraska.
• Life in 2036:
  • Society
    • Military service plays a large part in day-to-day life.
    • Capital punishment is still implemented.
    • Communities have returned to a family/community centred state.
    • Spanish becomes more common in Texas.
  • Economy
    • US exports have restarted by 2036. The main trader with the US is their old enemy, Russia.
  • Religion and Beliefs
    • Religion is far more personal and plays a major part in day-to-day life.
    • The Ten Commandments have been restored to the "10" that God gave Moses.
    • Sabbatarianism, or worship on Saturday, is a common practice.
  • Technology
    • Wireless internet is ubiquitous.
    • Television and telephony are delivered via the Web.
    • Books and other hard media are now distributed online and printed from local hubs.
    • Electric power is generated on a local level with vast improvments in hydrogen and solar power production
  • Environment
    • The environment is heavily affected by radiation. The lack of safe drinkable water is the biggest environmental issue.
    • Global warming has had little effect. Temperature is about a few degrees cooler world wide.
  • Health
    • The birth rate is much lower, due to a high number of birth defects and stillbirths.
    • Mad Cow disease, or vCJD in humans, is a devastating public health problem. Titor stated that even in the year 2000, he would not eat processed meat.
    • A cure for AIDS had not been found, although large progress in the areas of curing cancer had taken place.

Titor's Time Machine

According to Titor's posts, the basic components of his time machine included:

• Magnetic housing units for dual microsignularities.
• Electron injection manifold to alter mass and gravity of microsingularities.
• Cooling and x-ray venting system
• Gravity sensors (VGL system)
• Main clocks (4 cesium units)
• Main computer units (3)

Evidence of Hoaxing

An examination of the claims suggests several problems with the story.

For instance, he claims that money is widely used and they still have credit cards. In another post he speculated that today's money would be usable in his time, but this would be after the reorganization of the federal government according to his own history, which would make the money worthless.

The images posted by Titor are likewise problematic. 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 shows no distortion, which would not be the case if there was a large gravity gradient in the area. Some have speculated the "beam" is a fiber optic.

Titor claimed that he was sent back to obtain an IBM 5100 because it could translate several types of computer code as well as execute some functions that IBM never informed the public about. Supporters have implied that this capability was a "secret" that was not known in 2000/1 when the posts were being made. 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.

Other predictions have simply proven not to be true. For instance, he stated that the Olympics Games would end with the 2004 Olympics, but this proved contrary to subsequent real-world events as the 2006 Winter Olympics were successfully held, though some people argue that he was only talking about the Summer Games.

In light of such predictive failings supporters have speculated, ex post facto, that the history relayed by Titor could have referred to one possible course for the future, suggesting that humans may have since created an alternate future by going about things differently. On the other hand, any statement can be supported by this idea; therefore this is precisely the sort of unfalsifiable claim that Karl Popper noted when he developed his thoughts on falsifiability; when faced with evidence that contradicts a claim, that claim is simply modified or removed outright to fix the problem. There is no limit to the modifications that could be carried out, thereby rendering it impossible to state that the facts disagree with the claims. In May 2007, Seattle-based dentist and time travel expert Dr. Bruce Goldberg, on Coast to Coast AM with George Noory, brought up that Titor never tipped the world off regarding September, 11 2001.

Some have stated that Titor has been proved a hoax due to the fact that a Second American Civil War never broke out in 2004–2005. Titor claimed that these years would see the rise of great civil unrest (whether this has occurred is debatable in itself), and that actual civil war would not break out until 2008. Titor also claimed that "Waco"-like events (referring to the Waco Siege in 1993) would become commonplace. In earlier posts John Titor is almost unambiguously suggesting that physical violence would begin in 2005

At least one amateur author has claimed John Titor was a marketing hoax for a failed novel.

Supporters' evidence

Some who advocate Titor's predictions have believe:

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. It has been stated that this information was not publicly available when Titor made his declaration.

The 2004 Summer Olympics, held in Athens, Greece, will be the last held according to Titor, who predicted that there would be "no official Olympics after 2004". All others will be cancelled due to rising global tensions. If correct, this means that the projected 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China and the 2012 Summer Olympics planned for London, England, will not take place, and would mean that John Titor was referring only to the Summer Olympics, since the 2006 Winter Olympics were successfully held in Turin, Italy. Titor never specified whether he meant the Summer Olympics or the Winter Olympics, or both, using only the word Olympics, however, the Olympics starting and finishing in Athens by chance would probably be sufficiently serendipitous for many to quote this about the games, casually ignoring the Winter Olympics.

This from John Titor's post dated Feb 25th 2001 at 8:00 am "None of the things I have said will be a surprise. They were set in motion ten, twenty, even thirty years ago. Are you really surprised to find out that Iraq has nukes now or is that just BS to whip everyone up into accepting the next war?"

This made 6 months prior to 9-11 attacks, the war on terror or the US invading Iraq.

In other media

• In 2003, the John Titor Foundation published a book, John Titor: A Time Traveler's Tale, discussing his claims (ISBN 1-59196-436-9).
• In 2004, Cyburbia Productions presented Time Traveler Zero Zero, a stage performance based on the Titor story.
• In 2005, Figure 26 Films produced the film Obsessed & Scientific, which touches upon time travel and includes the story of John Titor.
• TimeTravel_0, a short film about Titor.
• [1] timetravel_0 a documentry investigation of the John Titor story

External links

• The original forum posts
• The original forum where John Titor posted
• Interviews with Oliver Williams
• John Titor - Time Traveler - collection of all forum posts by John Titor
• John Titor, Fake Time Traveller - Argues that the prediction of an American Civil War in 2004 has been proven to be false.
• John Titor: a Time Traveller From The Year 2036? BBC
• Obessed & Scientific - Documentary about time travel and John Titor
• Internet Archive WebCrawler's page 1 of the thread "I am from 2036" by John Titor Backup page made on April 13, 2001 by a WebCrawler. Retrieved May 20, 2007.
• Page 2 archive of "I am from 2036" April 13, 2001. Retrieved May 20, 2007.
• Page 3 archive of "I am from 2036" April 13, 2001. Retrieved May 20, 2007.
• Page 4 archive of "I am from 2036" April 13, 2001. Retrieved May 20, 2007.
• Page 5 archive of "I am from 2036" April 13, 2001. Retrieved May 20, 2007.
• Last page archive of "I am from 2036" April 13, 2001. Retrieved May 20, 2007.
• Pictures from John Titor archived April 13th, 2001 by WebCrawler Retrieved May 20, 2007.
• Original Thread by TimeTravel_0 (John Titor) Jan. 26th, 2001. Retrieve at any time, link shown May 20, 2007.