Searching the Internet for evidence of time travelers
Robert J Nemiroff 1, 2 and Teresa Wilson1
1 Department of Physics, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI
49931
Email: [email protected]
Abstract. Time travel has captured the public imagination for much of the past century,
but little has been done to actually search for time travelers. Here, three implementations
of Internet searches for time travelers are described, all seeking a prescient mention of
information not previously available. 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. Given
practical verifiability concerns, only time travelers from the future were investigated. No
time travelers were discovered. Although these negative results do not disprove time
travel, given the great reach of the Internet, this search is perhaps the most
comprehensive to date.
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Types of Time Travelers
3. Searching for Prescient Content on the Internet
4. Searching for Prescient Search Queries
5. Requests for Time Travelers to Issue a Prescient Internet Communication
6. Summary and Conclusions
Acknowledgments
References