Ever since HG Wells popularised the concept of time travel in the late nineteenth century, humankind has been fascinated with the idea of travelling through time and space – going back into the past, far into the future, or visiting from another world. In the intervening century, thousands of people have claimed to be time travellers in one form or another, but every now and again, one or two stand out from the noise. The story of Valiant Thor, who claimed to have come from Venus to share advanced technology and preach messages of peace is one. The story of John Titor, the time traveller from the future, is another.
So who was this person who predicted future world events on early internet forums? Did John Titor, as he called himself, really come from the future? Was he sent back to retrieve a 1970s IBM computer that held the key to rebuilding America’s infrastructure after a brutal civil war? Or was it a giant hoax perpetrated by two brothers from Florida?
This is the astonishing story of John Titor, a time traveller from the future who stopped off in the year 2000 to say hello to his mum.
The Origin of the Story of John Titor
John Titor suddenly appeared on the Time Travel Institute forum (Credit: Patamaporn Umnahanant via Getty Images)
The sudden appearance of TimeTravel_0 on the online Time Travel Institute forum in November 2000 had the internet buzzing with a heady mix of intrigue, scepticism and questions about who he was.
He presented himself, in his ‘worldline’, as a time traveller from the year 2036. He explained that he was a soldier stationed in Tampa, Florida, and was on a mission to retrieve an IBM 5100 computer from the year 1975 located in Rochester, Minnesota. This computer, he claimed, was needed in his time to fix legacy software problems related to a looming Unix system error expected in 2038.
His first post described the mechanics of his time machine, installed in either a 1966 or 1967 Chevrolet Corvette, and later in a 1987 four-wheel drive pick-up truck, and detailed its six main components of what he called the C204 Gravity Distortion Unit made by General Electric –
- Two magnetic housing units for the dual micro singularities
- An electron injection manifold to alter mass and gravity of the micro singularities
- A cooling and X-ray venting system
- Gravity sensors, or a variable gravity lock (VGL)
- Four main caesium clocks
- Three main computer units
The early posts invited forum members to ask him questions about time travel, future events, and his experiences. He described a bleak, dystopian future and a world rife with disorder, chaos, corruption and war. This open invitation sparked a flurry of curiosity and scepticism, leading to extensive discussions and debates. John Titor – whoever he is, or was – was an active participant, engaging with users with detailed responses.
The IBM 5100 Computer
A 1970s computer, similar to the IBM 5100 (Credit: Becart via Getty Images)
Much of the bizarre tale of John the time traveller seems to centre around one of the earliest portable computers, called the IBM 5100, a far cry from today’s super-powerful laptops.
The reason he required this particular model was its unique ability to emulate and debug code written in older programming languages, specifically APL and BASIC. According to Titor, these capabilities were crucial for solving a critical problem in his time, related to the Unix Year 2038 problem – a bug that would cause UNIX-based systems to fail.
The Unix 2038 Problem
Put simply, the problem is related to how computers keep track of time. Some computers use a 32-bit system to count seconds since 1st January 1970 (known as the Unix epoch). The maximum number these systems can count up to is 2,147,483,647 seconds, and this ends at exactly 03.14:07 on 19th January 2038.
When the clocks tick one second over, they’ll reset, thinking it’s actually 13th December 1901 and the ensuing chaos would apparently be catastrophic. The IBM 5100, according to John Titor, possessed secret functions that weren’t publicly documented, which allowed it to interface with and debug mainframe computers. This information was allegedly known only to a select group of IBM engineers and was not common public knowledge at the time of his postings. By retrieving the IBM 5100, Titor’s team would use it to fix legacy computer systems that were still in use in 2036.
John Titor’s Grandfather
In one of his posts between November 2000 and March 2001, he claimed that he was selected for this mission because his paternal grandfather was one of the few IBM engineers who knew about the computer’s secret functions. It’s also thought that some of the forum posts contained information that would only have been known to 1970s IBM employees, suggesting the originator may have had a background in computer science or engineering.
Thanks to grandfather Titor, John had a familial link that provided him access to the computer and at the same time, added a personal dimension to the story that has captivated everyone from scientists to conspiracy theorists for over two decades.
The Predictions of John Titor
The predictions of Nostradamus remain the subject of debate (Credit: Joaquin Ossorio-Castillo via Getty Images)
As well as explaining the mechanics of time travel and even going so far as posting images of his time machine on the internet, John Titor the time traveller incarnate made a series of predictions concerning future events as well as claims of a more scientific nature. Like those of Nostradamus, these predictions are open to interpretation, and some are plain wrong, but they nevertheless foretold a grim future.
To add an extra layer of confusion, John Titor invoked the Many Worlds Interpretation (MWI) of quantum mechanics, which in a nutshell says there’s an infinite number of parallel universes, and whenever an event has multiple possible outcomes, the universe splits into parallel versions of itself to accommodate every possible outcome. Using this narrative, Titor was able to introduce wiggle-room to his predictions, using the idea that ‘even though these events happened in my universe, they may not have happened in yours.’
The Second American Civil War
Was time travel 'invented' at CERN? (Credit: SlobodanMiljevic via Getty Images)
Titor, known as TimeTravel_0, predicted that a civil war would erupt in the United States in 2005, stemming from civil unrest related to a presidential election. The war would escalate, eventually dividing the USA into five regions.
The end of the conflict would culminate in a brief but devastating global nuclear war in 2015 resulting in the deaths of millions of people. The capital city of the USA would move to Omaha, Nebraska.
In the post-war society, Titor suggested that survivors would rebuild with a focus on decentralised communities and agrarian lifestyles – he claimed in one post that he lived on a farm in Florida.
Other Predictions
Other claims suggested that the human form of Mad Cow Disease, known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, or CJD, would become more prevalent and warned about the importance of safe food practices. He also stated the Olympic Games would be cancelled due to the civil war, and that time travel technology was invented at CERN in Switzerland.
The Outcome
While his tales of doom and gloom captured the imagination of many on early internet forums and message boards, his predictions were usually wildly inaccurate, and have largely not materialised, leading most people to view the entire John Titor story as nothing more than an elaborate work of fiction rather than a genuine account from a time traveller.
So Who Was John Titor?
Who was John Titor? (Credit: Rui Almeida Fotografia via Getty Images)
Over the years, several theories have attempted to explain the true identity of John the time traveller. The most prominent theory is that John Titor was the creation of a Florida entertainment lawyer and his brother, a computer scientist. However, there’s no conclusive evidence linking them directly to the postings, and they’ve neither confirmed nor denied involvement, leaving this theory unproven.
Another theory suggests that Titor’s character was a form of online storytelling or performance art by an individual or group. The detailed storylines that invited audience participation may have been crafted to engage the online community in a form of interactive fiction, as a sort of early test of group-think on the internet.
Lastly, there’s a small group of enthusiasts who hold onto the possibility, however remote, that John Titor, aka TimeTravel_0, was indeed a genuine time traveller from the year 2036, citing as evidence the technical details he provided – such as the supposed undocumented features of the IBM 5100 and the specification and schematics of his time machine.
The Legacy of John Titor
Was John Titor a time traveller startioned in Tampa? We may never know... (Credit: Aerial_Views via Getty Images)
His final post, cryptic, looked as though it may have been intended for a single recipient, or simply sage advice to all: ‘Bring a gas can with you when your car dies on the side of the road’. It was posted in March 2001, just four months after the first.
He posted that he was stopping off in Florida in the year 2000 to collect old family photographs and to catch up with relatives, and then he had to go back to Tampa to travel back (or forward) to the same point in 2036. He was never heard from again.
Whether John Titor was real – is real, or is still to be real – his story has left a lasting imprint on internet folklore and sparked an array of intrigue, debate, and scepticism.
Perhaps, some argue, that was the whole point of the exercise.
