How to get real proof for Time traveling
What would the best way of getting proof for a time machine be?
I have a couple of (non unique) suggestions!
Let's say a time traveler actually for some reason decided to come to this (or any other) forum to prove he had a working time machine, like John Titor claimed he had. Obviously the traveler doesn't want to say where he is or what his real name is since his time machine would be unique and priceless. If someone really believed him there would be a great risk people would try to steal his machine. Again, obviously he wouldn't want to meet anyone to prove himself. What we would have to do would be to ask him questions to have him prove himself over the internet, a fairly anonymous and safe place.
A common question from us would be if the person could send us pictures of his device or pictures from the future. Even if he did provide pictures there would be no actual way of telling if they were real. We would only be able to determine
1. that they were false or
2. that we could neither prove they were real or false.
Another question would be if he could predict something in the future and we would see if he was right after some time. The problem here is predictions will often be:
1. Obvious, like "There will be a war somewhere in the world"
2. Vague, like "There will be some Waco like events in the upcomming 5-7 years"
3. Probable, like "This really good team will defeat that really bad team in basketball next week"
4. Full of secrets, like "Something will happen in about 2 months but I can't tell you what, you never know who's listening, but you'll know what it is when it happens".
The problem is ofcourse all the "proof" we get is open for individual interpitation. What if a time traveler would actually use his machine to prove he had it:
Using E-mail
Set up a hotmail address. After a few days you will ask the time traveler to go back in time just a day or two and send you an E-mail. You will make sure he understand you want him to send you a mail from the past so you have it in your inbox before you give him the address in the present. (Even if the timelines would differ according to Titors explanation, it would be safe to assume they differed little enough to be practically identical if he just went back a couple of days, right?(See some numbers further down)).
Using telephone
It would be a procedure very similar to the E-mail method. You would have him call you before you give him your number.
I'm aware all this causes a paradox and problem with Titors timeline differences. Lets assume Titors explanation was true about how his timeline and this timeline differed about 2%
Lets do some simple calculations with that number just for fun:
2034 --> 2000 = 2%
That would mean 1% difference in timelines would be reached if you traveled 17 years back or forward in time, right?
1 year ~ 0.06%
1 month ~ 0.005%
1 week ~ 0.001%
1 day ~ 0.0002%
1 hour ~ 0.000007%
? hour ~ 0.0000035%
The difference for an hour or a day is so small the E-mail or phonecall would probably get to you.
What if Titor went back 30 minutes in time after writing down your phone number and called you. And it worked!
Now, what if, after you get the phone number decide not to give him your number at all. In fact you ram a sledgehammer into you computer, lock yourself in your room and swallow the key so he can never ever get your phone number. Would him calling you on your timeline be that 0.0000035% or just an impossibility?
Aaaaaaanyway, if you figure out more ways for a real time traveler to prove that he infact is a time traveler please go ahead and fill out this thread with them!
(In my opinion photos and predictions arent any good, unless the predictions are of a certain type, something noone could predict - perhaps an actor getting killed in a car accident in India.)
Lets come up with better ways to get real proof!
What would the best way of getting proof for a time machine be?
I have a couple of (non unique) suggestions!
Let's say a time traveler actually for some reason decided to come to this (or any other) forum to prove he had a working time machine, like John Titor claimed he had. Obviously the traveler doesn't want to say where he is or what his real name is since his time machine would be unique and priceless. If someone really believed him there would be a great risk people would try to steal his machine. Again, obviously he wouldn't want to meet anyone to prove himself. What we would have to do would be to ask him questions to have him prove himself over the internet, a fairly anonymous and safe place.
A common question from us would be if the person could send us pictures of his device or pictures from the future. Even if he did provide pictures there would be no actual way of telling if they were real. We would only be able to determine
1. that they were false or
2. that we could neither prove they were real or false.
Another question would be if he could predict something in the future and we would see if he was right after some time. The problem here is predictions will often be:
1. Obvious, like "There will be a war somewhere in the world"
2. Vague, like "There will be some Waco like events in the upcomming 5-7 years"
3. Probable, like "This really good team will defeat that really bad team in basketball next week"
4. Full of secrets, like "Something will happen in about 2 months but I can't tell you what, you never know who's listening, but you'll know what it is when it happens".
The problem is ofcourse all the "proof" we get is open for individual interpitation. What if a time traveler would actually use his machine to prove he had it:
Using E-mail
Set up a hotmail address. After a few days you will ask the time traveler to go back in time just a day or two and send you an E-mail. You will make sure he understand you want him to send you a mail from the past so you have it in your inbox before you give him the address in the present. (Even if the timelines would differ according to Titors explanation, it would be safe to assume they differed little enough to be practically identical if he just went back a couple of days, right?(See some numbers further down)).
Using telephone
It would be a procedure very similar to the E-mail method. You would have him call you before you give him your number.
I'm aware all this causes a paradox and problem with Titors timeline differences. Lets assume Titors explanation was true about how his timeline and this timeline differed about 2%
Lets do some simple calculations with that number just for fun:
2034 --> 2000 = 2%
That would mean 1% difference in timelines would be reached if you traveled 17 years back or forward in time, right?
1 year ~ 0.06%
1 month ~ 0.005%
1 week ~ 0.001%
1 day ~ 0.0002%
1 hour ~ 0.000007%
? hour ~ 0.0000035%
The difference for an hour or a day is so small the E-mail or phonecall would probably get to you.
What if Titor went back 30 minutes in time after writing down your phone number and called you. And it worked!
Now, what if, after you get the phone number decide not to give him your number at all. In fact you ram a sledgehammer into you computer, lock yourself in your room and swallow the key so he can never ever get your phone number. Would him calling you on your timeline be that 0.0000035% or just an impossibility?
Aaaaaaanyway, if you figure out more ways for a real time traveler to prove that he infact is a time traveler please go ahead and fill out this thread with them!
(In my opinion photos and predictions arent any good, unless the predictions are of a certain type, something noone could predict - perhaps an actor getting killed in a car accident in India.)
Lets come up with better ways to get real proof!
I'm not sure how that is similar to asking someone to actually use the time machine they claim to have in order to prove themselves 
