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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
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To: martin_fierro

Irwin Allen was really good with those flashing lights and reel to reel magnetic tapes.

And the electronics had to burn up with lots of sparks and smoke at least once per episode.

They always to manage to transfer Doug and Tony out just in the nick of time, at the end of each show.


21 posted on 01/13/2014 11:20:13 AM PST by sickoflibs (Obama : 'If you like your Doctor you can keep him, PERIOD! Don't believe the GOPs warnings')
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To: martin_fierro

The panels with the flashing lights - or at least those on the extreme right of the frame - are from the ANFSQ-7 computer used in the SAGE system.

As the USAF switched to a transistorized of that computer, the vacuum-tube powered units became surplus.

The training center for the programmers who worked on the system was in Santa Monica, which probably had something to do with why the old equipment showed up on movie sets.

The relatively big TV monitor with the Lissajous figure was not part of the Q-7. Neither were the vertical tape drives, although they were used in vast numbers by various military programs of that time.


22 posted on 01/13/2014 11:21:34 AM PST by Steely Tom (If the Constitution can be a living document, I guess a corporation can be a person.)
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To: sickoflibs; Steely Tom

Ol' Irwin Allen came up with some of the coolest-looking tech on 60s TV. Hands-down.

23 posted on 01/13/2014 11:41:50 AM PST by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: null and void

Did my tax dollars pay for this ‘study?’

How about looking for evidence of Facebook in Shakespeare’s writings? Or Twitter in W.B.Yeats’ writings?
makes as much sense.

Or maybe the Bible contains references to Healthcare.gov.

Ridiculous.

The “future” does not exist. It’s a convenient way of saying “what is going to happen.” You can’t “go” to the future, except by waiting patiently, along with everyone else in the world, for the future to come.


24 posted on 01/13/2014 11:42:53 AM PST by I want the USA back (Media: completely irresponsible traitors. Complicit in the destruction of our country.)
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To: martin_fierro
Ol' Irwin Allen came up with some of the coolest-looking tech on 60s TV. Hands-down.

It's almost like he knew that AutoCAD and SolidWorks were coming in the future.

25 posted on 01/13/2014 11:44:57 AM PST by Steely Tom (If the Constitution can be a living document, I guess a corporation can be a person.)
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To: null and void

I stopped to look at a guy that looked a lot like me thus avoiding an out of control vehicle. Chance?


26 posted on 01/13/2014 12:18:09 PM PST by Mike Darancette (Do The Math)
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To: Mike Darancette
You will KNOW the answer to that question presently...
27 posted on 01/13/2014 12:30:55 PM PST by null and void (It is as if they all had one head. Too bad they don't all have one neck.)
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To: I want the USA back
Or maybe the Bible contains references to Healthcare.gov.

That no man, rich or poor, free or bond, shall buy or sell save he that hath the mark...

28 posted on 01/13/2014 12:32:37 PM PST by null and void (It is as if they all had one head. Too bad they don't all have one neck.)
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To: null and void

Wow, I did it!!


29 posted on 01/13/2014 12:33:51 PM PST by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: SampleMan

I read this article a month ago...


30 posted on 01/13/2014 1:11:10 PM PST by expatguy (Donate to "An American Expat in SE Asia" By Paypal)
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To: null and void

They should be looking for English Blue Police Call Boxes, they’ll find them in all sorts of strange places.


31 posted on 01/13/2014 1:19:22 PM PST by Springman (Rest In Peace YaYa123, Bahbah, and Just Lori.)
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To: expatguy
I read this article a month ago...

I read it before the Internet even existed.

32 posted on 01/13/2014 1:21:07 PM PST by SampleMan (Feral Humans are the refuse of socialism.)
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To: expatguy
I read this article a month ago...

I first read it two weeks from now.

33 posted on 01/13/2014 1:46:59 PM PST by Mike Darancette (Do The Math)
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To: null and void

I’m going to see if I can go back in time about an hour and a half and post something further up the thread.


34 posted on 01/13/2014 1:59:20 PM PST by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: dead

Lol..


35 posted on 01/14/2014 5:45:24 PM PST by GWfan
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