Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Researchers scour Internet for evidence of time travel
Electronic Products ^ | 01/07/2014 | Jeffrey Bausch

Posted on 01/13/2014 10:33:13 AM PST by null and void

Duo use three pronged approach to see if anyone has successfully made the leap forward in time

Researchers from the Department of Physics at Michigan Technological University have concluded a study in which they scoured the far reaches of the Internet for evidence of time travel.

“Searching the Internet for evidence of time travelers” was submitted on December 26 on ArXiv by authors Robert Nemiroff, professor of physics, and Teresa Wilson, a PhD candidate. They stated that the modern universality of the Internet lends itself to in-depth analysis methods to search for time travelers, and that the study they conducted is by and large the most comprehensive to date.

For those out there who believe time travel to be a dismissible concept, the authors argue that it "stands on firm scientific footing. Special Relativity has clear sub-luminal solutions that correspond with time travel to the future. A famous theoretical example is the twin paradox. Such future time travel has been experimentally verified, for example, using a pair of clocks one of which was taken on an airplane. The flying clock recorded a relative time delay of order 10-7 seconds, in comparison to the more stationary clock."

Nemiroff and Wilson’s approach started with a hunt for information about anyone who might’ve jumped forward in time; this, as opposed to focusing on those who had traveled to the past.

Their reasoning: individuals who traveled to the past would not be able to leave any evidence of their presence on what would’ve been an otherwise not-yet-developed Internet.

Specifically, in looking for the forward-leaping individual(s), Nemiroff and Wilson searched for blog posts, tweets, and search results that were posted ahead of any major occurrences actually taking place.

"The first search covered prescient content placed on the Internet, highlighted by a comprehensive search for specific terms in tweets on Twitter. The second search examined prescient inquiries submitted to a search engine, highlighted by a comprehensive search for specific search terms submitted to a popular astronomy web site. The third search involved a request for a direct Internet communication, either by email or tweet, pre-dating to the time of the inquiry,” the authors explained.

The result of their efforts: no time travelers were discovered.

"Unfortunately, as of this writing, no prescient tweets or emails were received," they stated. Nemiroff and Wilson aren’t deterred by their results, though. "Although the negative results reported here may indicate that time travelers from the future are not among us and cannot communicate with us over the modern day Internet, they are by no means proof."

One reason they suggest is that it may be physically impossible for them to leave remnants of their stay in the past, and it may be physically impossible for us to find such information, violating "some yet-unknown law of physics, possibly similar to the Chronology Protection Conjecture."

They also suggested that the time travelers may not want to be found, and that they’re good at covering up any evidence they created.

A third reason: maybe the time travelers didn’t leave the specific event tags that the authors searched for. "Finally, our searches were not comprehensive, so that even if time travelers left the exact event tags searched for here, we might have missed them due to human error, oversight, incompleteness of Internet catalogs and searches, or inaccurate content time tags."


TOPICS: Computers/Internet; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: timetravel
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-35 next last
Forward only?

Pre-internet traveler comes to "now" and promptly starts tweeting about events that haven't yet happened?

I think I see a flaw in the reasoning...

1 posted on 01/13/2014 10:33:13 AM PST by null and void
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: null and void

This article was already posted next Tuesday.


2 posted on 01/13/2014 10:35:47 AM PST by SampleMan (Feral Humans are the refuse of socialism.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SampleMan

LOL!!


3 posted on 01/13/2014 10:36:34 AM PST by TomServo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: null and void

They should try looking at the way back machine.


4 posted on 01/13/2014 10:37:10 AM PST by logitech (It is time.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: null and void

They should go to the big foot searchers and get their help. Maybe do a series of reality tv specials. But give the sask-kooks searchers a chance to find him/her/it.


5 posted on 01/13/2014 10:38:27 AM PST by laweeks
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: null and void

I’ve long known there isn’t any such thing as time travel for the simple reason that I didn’t notice strangers discretely watching me when I was growing up.


6 posted on 01/13/2014 10:38:29 AM PST by Steely Tom (If the Constitution can be a living document, I guess a corporation can be a person.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: null and void
"The result of their efforts: no time travelers were discovered."

I am shocked. Dismayed. Gobsmacked even. /s
As Dr. Arthur C. Clarke once said: "You can't travel into the past. It's already gone. And, you can't travel into the future because it hasn't happened yet."
7 posted on 01/13/2014 10:38:37 AM PST by PowderMonkey (WILL WORK FOR AMMO)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: null and void
RE “Searching the Internet for evidence of time travelers” was submitted on December 26 on ArXiv by authors Robert Nemiroff, professor of physics, and Teresa Wilson, a PhD candidate. They stated that the modern universality of the Internet lends itself to in-depth analysis methods to search for time travelers, and that the study they conducted is by and large the most comprehensive to date. “

The secrets of time travel were discovered in the 1960s by Irwin Allen.


8 posted on 01/13/2014 10:40:14 AM PST by sickoflibs (Obama : 'If you like your Doctor you can keep him, PERIOD! Don't believe the GOPs warnings')
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: null and void

Of course there is always this utube video purportedly showing a woman using a cell phone in a 1938 movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKkde5GAWb8

Interesting part begins at 50 seconds


9 posted on 01/13/2014 10:40:27 AM PST by Balding_Eagle (Over production, one of the top 5 worries for the American Farmer every year.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Steely Tom

It was done with gnat-sized drones.


10 posted on 01/13/2014 10:42:07 AM PST by null and void (It is as if they all had one head. Too bad they don't all have one neck.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: null and void

11 posted on 01/13/2014 10:42:42 AM PST by sickoflibs (Obama : 'If you like your Doctor you can keep him, PERIOD! Don't believe the GOPs warnings')
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: null and void
It was done with gnat-sized drones.

Oh. That's why the Flit aftershave didn't work. Another mystery solved.

12 posted on 01/13/2014 10:45:46 AM PST by Steely Tom (If the Constitution can be a living document, I guess a corporation can be a person.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: null and void

If you take the premise that it is not possible to travel back to a time before the time travel machine was built....then there can be no evidence until someone actually does it. The the internet will be flooded with all sorts of evidence.


13 posted on 01/13/2014 10:46:02 AM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts ("The further a society drifts from truth the more it will hate those who speak it." - George Orwell)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: null and void

Our founding fathers were time travelers. They accurately knew how people would be acting today and warned us about it. We were to stupid to listen.
I found the travelers and didn’t spend hundres of thousands of dollars and years to do it.


14 posted on 01/13/2014 10:46:17 AM PST by DeWalt (Times are more like they used to be than they are today.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: null and void
To: null and void

There is no time travel. You'll just annoy the future by trying to find it.

2 posted on Monday, July 20, 2020 10:35:41 PM by (Whatevere you pasties do, don't repeal the 22nd amendment. Seriously. It turned out, er will turn out very badly)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies | Report Abuse]


15 posted on 01/13/2014 10:49:05 AM PST by KarlInOhio (Republican amnesty supporters don't care whether their own homes are called mansions or haciendas.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: null and void

It’s true!

I tried logging into the Obamacare website and was transported back to Russia in 1917.


16 posted on 01/13/2014 10:51:15 AM PST by oldbill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: oldbill

It is true!

I was googling “amnesty” and up came a page with a New York Times headline for November 2014: “Democrats Win Landslide Victories, Take Over House and Gain 7 Senate Seats”


17 posted on 01/13/2014 11:01:00 AM PST by oldbill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: null and void

I tried to go to the town of Morrow but since it’s an overnight trip I kept going to the town of Day.


18 posted on 01/13/2014 11:02:53 AM PST by count-your-change (you don't have to be brilliant, not being stupid is enough)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sickoflibs

Coolest-looking set EVAH.


19 posted on 01/13/2014 11:13:19 AM PST by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: null and void

20 posted on 01/13/2014 11:15:09 AM PST by JRios1968 (I'm guttery and trashy, with a hint of lemon. - Laz)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-35 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson