Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the need for the traveler to experience the intervening period (at least not at the normal rate). Any technological device – whether fictional or hypothetical – that would be used to achieve time travel is commonly known as a time machine.
Although time travel has been a common plot device in science fiction since the late 19th century, and the theories of special and general relativity allow methods for forms of one-way travel into the future via time dilation, it is currently unknown whether the laws of physics would allow time travel into the past. Such backward time travel would have the potential to introduce paradoxes related to causality, and a variety of hypotheses have been proposed to resolve them, as discussed in the sections Paradoxes and Rules of time travel below.
Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA (born 8 January 1942) is a British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author. His key scientific works to date have included providing, with Roger Penrose, theorems regarding gravitational singularities in the framework of general relativity, and the theoretical prediction that black holes should emit radiation, which is today known as Hawking radiation (or sometimes as Bekenstein–Hawking radiation).
He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and in 2009 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. Hawking was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge between 1979 and 2009. Subsequently, he became research director at the university's Centre for Theoretical Cosmology.
Hawking has a motor neurone disease related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a condition that has progressed over the years. He is now almost completely paralysed and communicates through a speech generating device. He has been married twice and has three children. Hawking has achieved success with works of popular science in which he discusses his own theories and cosmology in general; these include A Brief History of Time, which stayed on the British Sunday Times best-sellers list for a record-breaking 237 weeks.
John Titor is the name used on several bulletin boards during 2000 and 2001 by a poster claiming to be a time traveler from the year 2036. In these posts he made numerous predictions (a number of them vague, some quite specific) about events in the near future, starting with events in 2004. However, as of 2012, these events appear not to have taken place; 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.
To date, the story has been retold on numerous web sites, in a book, and in a play. He has also been discussed occasionally on the radio show Coast to Coast AM. In this respect, the Titor story may be unique in terms of broad appeal from an originally limited medium, an Internet discussion board.
The first post appeared on the Time Travel Institute forums on November 2, 2000, under the name TimeTravel_0. At the time the posts had nothing to do with future events and the name "John Titor" was not being used. Instead, the posts discussed time travel in general, the first one being the "six parts" description of what a time machine would need to have to work (see below) and responses to questions about how such a machine would work. Early messages tended to be short.
Time travel will be the death of man
Only the devil fools with the best laid plans
The best laid plans best left unplanned
Time travel will be the death of man
Whats done is done
So you must see
You can't bring back
Whats already been
Technology's tempting the public eye
Do you wanna know why when who and why
We're cloaked in indicision
Consealed by lies
I wanna know why we're really alive
Well you might say we got no proof
There's one thing I know
Is that I'm younger than you
And I can see through your eyes
And I can see through your lies
hypocrisy is your only disguise
Better tell us why we're really alive
Time travel will be the death of man
Only the devil fools with the best laid plans
The best laid plans best left unplanned
Time travel will be the death of man
In my darkest day
I thought this through
A change in the weather
Could be made by you
And all the information
You're holding back
Is it hidden in the water
That runs from my tap
When few had the proof
That Jesus Christ
Was no more of a man than you or I
Would you tell the people?
Would you try to deceive?
For fear of undermining
Their religious belief
Well there's a war going on!
It's obvious one!
It's between magic and medecine
Time travel will be the death of man
Only the devil fools with the best laid plans
The best laid plans best left unplanned
Time travel will be the death of man
Nothing is real
I know this 'cause I made a deal
With the devil
He told me that I was just wasting my time
On the moon
So I flew to the sun
Lost track of my soul on the run
Suffering twelfth degree burns
I learned that the sun was no fun.
So I went back to Earth.
Tripped and fell
in the glorified dirt
Honestly, Gravity sees me as a liability.
So I held my breath.
'Til my soul left my body for dead.
I'll rip through the clouds to
talk with the man in the sky.
I said...
Take this for what it is.
I think you're
A tad pit prejudice
Against
The ones like us that are searching for the answers.
He said...
Kid, you don't know sh-t.
You should go back home and live
In that quiet little town you left behind.
I'm comin' home.
Don't you cry (Don't you cry.)
Im comin' home
Just in time (Just in time.)
I am a fake
A constant go-getter of fate
I lost track of time
I carried my mind on a plate
I seasoned it well
With acid and MDMA
Then I howled at the moon
'till the sun burned out both of my eyes.
So I checked my pulse
Standing there white as a ghost
I lacked a complexion and stabbed my reflection twelve times
So I held my breath....
'Til my soul left my body for dead.
I'll rip through the clouds to
talk with the man in the sky.
I said...
Take this for what it is.
I think you're
A tad pit prejudice
Against
The ones like us that are searching for the answers.
He said...
Kid, you don't know sh-t.
You should go back home and live
In that quiet little town you left behind.
I'm comin' home.
Don't you cry (Don't you cry.)
Im comin' home
Just in time (Just in time.)
I don't know what I've been told
I will sell my soul to rock and roll
I don't know where to go
I have lost control, oh no
I don't know what I've been told
I will sell my soul to rock and roll
I don't know where to go
I have lost control, oh no
I don't know what I've been told
I will sell my soul to rock and roll
I don't know where to go
I have lost control, oh no
I don't know what I've been told
I will sell my soul to rock and roll
I don't know where to go
Time travel will be the death of man
Only the devil fools with the best laid plans
The best laid plans best left unplanned
Time travel will be the death of man
Whats done is done
So you must see
You can't bring back
Whats already been
Technology's tempting the public eye
Do you wanna know why when who and why
We're cloaked in indicision
Consealed by lies
I wanna know why we're really alive
Well you might say we got no proof
There's one thing I know
Is that I'm younger than you
And I can see through your eyes
And I can see through your lies
hypocrisy is your only disguise
Better tell us why we're really alive
Time travel will be the death of man
Only the devil fools with the best laid plans
The best laid plans best left unplanned
Time travel will be the death of man
In my darkest day
I doubt it's true
A change in the weather
Could be made by you
And all the information
You're holding back
Is it written in the water
That ????? not my type
When few had the proof
That jesus christ
Was no more of a man than you or I
Whould you tell the people
Would you try to deceive
For fear on undermining
Their religious belief
Well there's a war going on
???obvious one???
??????? magic medecin
Time travel will be the death of man
Only the devil fools with the best laid plans
The best laid plans best left unplanned
Time travel will be the death of man
(Song goes into reggae mode.... vaguely "inspired" by Bob Marley's Get Up Stand Up)
Never give up the fight!
Afraid of asking where were going
Can't hang on to this moment anymore
I felt you along the way, couldn't breathe till it was over
Now it's all inside my head
If I could go back in time
I can make things right
If I knew what it is I'd find
I'd be alright for now
There's no point left in asking
Can't think with all this anger anymore
Now you're right beneath my feet, but still within my reach
And these stupid thoughts keep running through my head
If I could go back in time
I can make things right
If I knew what it is I'd find
I'd be alright for now
And I'd be someone else
And I'd be someone else
I'd be someone else
Forever