John Titor is a pseudonym used on Time Travel Institute and other early internet boards between 2000 and 2001 by someone claiming to be an American military time traveler from 2036. Titor made numerous vague and specific predictions regarding catastrophic events in 2004 and beyond, including a nuclear war.
The TimeTravel_0 forum posts
The first messages appeared on these boards on November 2, 2000, under the name TimeTravel 0. The entries explored time travel in general, with the first being a “six components” explanation of what a time machine would require to work and responses to queries about how such a machine would work. Early messages were often brief. Due to flaws in the forum software, TimeTravel 0 started a second thread titled “Topics Limited to 11 Pages?”.
At the time, the person writing under the pseudonym had not yet introduced the name John Titor, introduced in January 2001 when TimeTravel 0 began posting at the Art Bell BBS Forums. Titor’s posts ended in late March 2001.
Around 2003, various websites reprinted Titor’s posts, rearranging them into narratives and timelines. Not all refer to the original dates provided, and not all are comprehensive or verbatim. TTI has taken care to display the posts just as they were written:
October 2000 IRC chat
John Titor made numerous vague and specific predictions regarding catastrophic events in 2004 and beyond, including a nuclear war. The late-night IRC chat logs are not so much about predicting the future but more about giving advice for people who want to survive it or avoid it through simple everyday actions such as staying with family or learning how to grow food.
These logs, which were submitted to the Anomalies Network by an unknown source, appear to reveal a late-night IRC conversation between Time Traveler John and numerous other people. During this talk, many questions are answered, and considerable proof is shown to indicate that John Titor did, in fact, travel across time. To this day, John’s actual identity is unclear, but these logs are universally acknowledged as legitimate by the urban legend community.
1998 Faxes to Art Bell
Titor may have appeared on the scene on July 29, 1998, when two faxes were sent to Art Bell, the host of the overnight talk show Coast to Coast AM. The faxes describe the discovery of time travel in 2034, as well as the devastation caused by the Y2K calamity.
Titor is absent until 2000, when someone with a similar background started posting here under the username TimeTravel 0 with a story similar to the faxes Bell got in 1998. The name John Titor is not used until January 27, 2001, when a man publishes on an Art Bell BBS Forums about his existence as a time traveler and invites questions:
What was John Titor’s story?
Titor claimed to be an American soldier from the year 2036, based in Tampa, Florida, in his internet comments. He was assigned to a federal time-travel experiment and sent back to 1975 to recover an IBM 5100 computer, which he claimed was needed to troubleshoot different legacy computer programs in 2036 — a probable reference to the UNIX year 2038 problem. The IBM 5100 supports the APL and BASIC programming languages.
Titor stated that he was chosen for this mission mainly because his paternal grandfather was closely involved with the manufacturing and programming of the 5100. In support of this, he disclosed previously unknown aspects of the 5100, leading to the presumption that the postings were the work of a computer scientist. Titor claimed to be on a layover in 2000 for “personal reasons,” such as collecting images lost in the (future) civil war and seeing his family, with whom he spoke frequently.
Titor also stated that he had been trying for a few months to warn anyone who would listen about the threat of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease spread through beef products, as well as the risk of civil war within the United States. When questioned about them by an internet subscriber, Titor also exhibited an interest in mysteries such as UFOs, which he claimed remained unsolved during his time. Titor proposed that UFOs and extraterrestrials could be time travelers from much further into the future than his own, with superior time machines.
On March 21, 2001, John Titor informed us that he would leave our time and return to 2036. John was never seen or heard from again after that. Speculation and study into who John Titor was and why he was on the internet continues today.
Pamela Moore
Pamela Moore communicated with John Titor more regularly and closely than any other poster. In addition to being a frequent poster in both the Time Travel Institute and Post to Post threads, she interacted with John via instant messenger (but never over the phone) and formed a profound friendship with him.
In addition, Pamela stated that John Titor gave her a “secret song” that could authenticate anyone who claimed to be John Titor. Most importantly, she claims that John Titor shipped her a piece of the IBM 5100 sticker label, with no return address but an Orlando postmark.
The C204
One of the first things he did was share images of his time machine and accompanying operating instructions. As the weeks passed, more individuals began to interrogate him about why he was here, the science of time travel, and his thoughts on our time. He also made posts on other forums, including the now-defunct Art Bell website. Those that spoke with John Titor were entertained, enraged, terrified, and even mocked.
In discussing his time machine multiple times, TItor defined it as a “stationary mass, temporal displacement unit powered by two top-spin, dual positive singularities,” producing a “typical off-set Tipler sinusoid”.
The first post was more explicit, stating that it included the following:
According to the posts, Titor had put the device in the back of a 1966 Chevrolet Corvette convertible. Later, posts also mention a 1987 vehicle with four-wheel drive.
John Titor's Predictions
Although Titor invoked the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, in which events from his timeline may change from those in ours, he also expressed confidence that the discrepancies would be modest. As a result, since 2001, his descriptions have been regarded as forecasts and contrasted to historical events.
The most recent of Titor’s prophecies were of an impending civil war in the United States over “order and rights.” He defined it as starting with social turmoil surrounding the presidential election in 2004. This civil war, which he described as “having a Waco-type event every month that slowly worsens,” will ignite by 2008 and be “very much at everyone’s doorstep.”
As a result of the conflict, the United States was divided into five zones, each with its own set of variables and military aims. According to Titor, this civil conflict will end in 2015 with a brief but fierce World War III.
Titor refers to the conversation as “N Day.” The cities of Washington, D.C., and Jacksonville, Florida are expressly listed as being affected. Following the war, Omaha, Nebraska, would become the new United States Capitol. Titor was evasive when it came to World War III’s precise motivations and causes. At one time, he described the conflict as being driven by “boundary disputes and overpopulation.” He also stated that the current confrontation between Arabs and Israel is not a cause but rather a prelude to a possible World War III.
Titor said that when he was 13 years old in 2011, he joined the Fighting Diamondbacks, a shotgun infantry unit in Florida, and served for at least four years. In previous posts, he characterized himself as fleeing the war.
Titor asserted that the “Everett–Wheeler quantum physics model,” often known as the many-worlds interpretation, was valid. Titor claims that his time travel resulted in creating a new timestream. As a result, his forecasts are unfalsifiable because believers can claim Titor’s postings prevented the events from occurring.
John Titor’s posts on the internet have created an urban legend that is still talked about today. His predictions of a coming civil war and World War III have captured the imagination of many people, who are still wondering if any of his prophecies will come true. Although some aspects of his story may be hard to believe, it is interesting to think about what could happen in the future.
The TimeTravel_0 forum posts
The first messages appeared on these boards on November 2, 2000, under the name TimeTravel 0. The entries explored time travel in general, with the first being a “six components” explanation of what a time machine would require to work and responses to queries about how such a machine would work. Early messages were often brief. Due to flaws in the forum software, TimeTravel 0 started a second thread titled “Topics Limited to 11 Pages?”.
At the time, the person writing under the pseudonym had not yet introduced the name John Titor, introduced in January 2001 when TimeTravel 0 began posting at the Art Bell BBS Forums. Titor’s posts ended in late March 2001.
Around 2003, various websites reprinted Titor’s posts, rearranging them into narratives and timelines. Not all refer to the original dates provided, and not all are comprehensive or verbatim. TTI has taken care to display the posts just as they were written:
- John Titor’s first post in “Time Travel Paradoxes!”
- “Topics Limited to 11 Pages?”
- John Titor’s forum profile
October 2000 IRC chat
John Titor made numerous vague and specific predictions regarding catastrophic events in 2004 and beyond, including a nuclear war. The late-night IRC chat logs are not so much about predicting the future but more about giving advice for people who want to survive it or avoid it through simple everyday actions such as staying with family or learning how to grow food.
These logs, which were submitted to the Anomalies Network by an unknown source, appear to reveal a late-night IRC conversation between Time Traveler John and numerous other people. During this talk, many questions are answered, and considerable proof is shown to indicate that John Titor did, in fact, travel across time. To this day, John’s actual identity is unclear, but these logs are universally acknowledged as legitimate by the urban legend community.
1998 Faxes to Art Bell
Titor may have appeared on the scene on July 29, 1998, when two faxes were sent to Art Bell, the host of the overnight talk show Coast to Coast AM. The faxes describe the discovery of time travel in 2034, as well as the devastation caused by the Y2K calamity.
Titor is absent until 2000, when someone with a similar background started posting here under the username TimeTravel 0 with a story similar to the faxes Bell got in 1998. The name John Titor is not used until January 27, 2001, when a man publishes on an Art Bell BBS Forums about his existence as a time traveler and invites questions:
What was John Titor’s story?
Titor claimed to be an American soldier from the year 2036, based in Tampa, Florida, in his internet comments. He was assigned to a federal time-travel experiment and sent back to 1975 to recover an IBM 5100 computer, which he claimed was needed to troubleshoot different legacy computer programs in 2036 — a probable reference to the UNIX year 2038 problem. The IBM 5100 supports the APL and BASIC programming languages.
Titor stated that he was chosen for this mission mainly because his paternal grandfather was closely involved with the manufacturing and programming of the 5100. In support of this, he disclosed previously unknown aspects of the 5100, leading to the presumption that the postings were the work of a computer scientist. Titor claimed to be on a layover in 2000 for “personal reasons,” such as collecting images lost in the (future) civil war and seeing his family, with whom he spoke frequently.
Titor also stated that he had been trying for a few months to warn anyone who would listen about the threat of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease spread through beef products, as well as the risk of civil war within the United States. When questioned about them by an internet subscriber, Titor also exhibited an interest in mysteries such as UFOs, which he claimed remained unsolved during his time. Titor proposed that UFOs and extraterrestrials could be time travelers from much further into the future than his own, with superior time machines.
On March 21, 2001, John Titor informed us that he would leave our time and return to 2036. John was never seen or heard from again after that. Speculation and study into who John Titor was and why he was on the internet continues today.
Pamela Moore
Pamela Moore communicated with John Titor more regularly and closely than any other poster. In addition to being a frequent poster in both the Time Travel Institute and Post to Post threads, she interacted with John via instant messenger (but never over the phone) and formed a profound friendship with him.
In addition, Pamela stated that John Titor gave her a “secret song” that could authenticate anyone who claimed to be John Titor. Most importantly, she claims that John Titor shipped her a piece of the IBM 5100 sticker label, with no return address but an Orlando postmark.
The C204
One of the first things he did was share images of his time machine and accompanying operating instructions. As the weeks passed, more individuals began to interrogate him about why he was here, the science of time travel, and his thoughts on our time. He also made posts on other forums, including the now-defunct Art Bell website. Those that spoke with John Titor were entertained, enraged, terrified, and even mocked.
In discussing his time machine multiple times, TItor defined it as a “stationary mass, temporal displacement unit powered by two top-spin, dual positive singularities,” producing a “typical off-set Tipler sinusoid”.
The first post was more explicit, stating that it included the following:
- Twin micro singularities housed in two magnetic housing units.
- An electron injection manifold to change the mass and gravity of micro singularities.
- Gravity sensors or a changeable gravity lock
- A cooling and X-ray venting system
- Four main cesium clocks.
- Three major computer units.
According to the posts, Titor had put the device in the back of a 1966 Chevrolet Corvette convertible. Later, posts also mention a 1987 vehicle with four-wheel drive.
John Titor's Predictions
Although Titor invoked the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, in which events from his timeline may change from those in ours, he also expressed confidence that the discrepancies would be modest. As a result, since 2001, his descriptions have been regarded as forecasts and contrasted to historical events.
The most recent of Titor’s prophecies were of an impending civil war in the United States over “order and rights.” He defined it as starting with social turmoil surrounding the presidential election in 2004. This civil war, which he described as “having a Waco-type event every month that slowly worsens,” will ignite by 2008 and be “very much at everyone’s doorstep.”
As a result of the conflict, the United States was divided into five zones, each with its own set of variables and military aims. According to Titor, this civil conflict will end in 2015 with a brief but fierce World War III.
Titor refers to the conversation as “N Day.” The cities of Washington, D.C., and Jacksonville, Florida are expressly listed as being affected. Following the war, Omaha, Nebraska, would become the new United States Capitol. Titor was evasive when it came to World War III’s precise motivations and causes. At one time, he described the conflict as being driven by “boundary disputes and overpopulation.” He also stated that the current confrontation between Arabs and Israel is not a cause but rather a prelude to a possible World War III.
Titor said that when he was 13 years old in 2011, he joined the Fighting Diamondbacks, a shotgun infantry unit in Florida, and served for at least four years. In previous posts, he characterized himself as fleeing the war.
Titor asserted that the “Everett–Wheeler quantum physics model,” often known as the many-worlds interpretation, was valid. Titor claims that his time travel resulted in creating a new timestream. As a result, his forecasts are unfalsifiable because believers can claim Titor’s postings prevented the events from occurring.
John Titor’s posts on the internet have created an urban legend that is still talked about today. His predictions of a coming civil war and World War III have captured the imagination of many people, who are still wondering if any of his prophecies will come true. Although some aspects of his story may be hard to believe, it is interesting to think about what could happen in the future.
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