Debate Time travelers posting online: Are they all fake?

Phoenix

Active Member
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631
A statement by Einstein that he believes all people who posted online as Time Travelers are fakers becomes a debate about gravity. Equally amusing to me is that I was able to follow where Einstein was coming from in his position on gravity. Not that I don't follow what the people trying to teach him otherwise were coming from.

I guess my comment would be to Einstein. Your reasoning on the burden of proof is similar to other people's misunderstanding of inertia. If you gave it thought I am sure you will be able to see why a fake 20 dollar bill does not prove all 20 dollar bills are fake.

I do wonder what your motive for the debate on time travelers was. You seem fairly assured on your position. I can see why you chose not to accept any of the counter claims that were presented to you (not to discredit the reasons that the others had as reasons to believe as they do).

So I suppose I will leave with the question. What did you hope to find from the debate? Or was there something you wished would happen from having it?
 

Einstein

Temporal Engineer
Messages
5,363
A statement by Einstein that he believes all people who posted online as Time Travelers are fakers becomes a debate about gravity. Equally amusing to me is that I was able to follow where Einstein was coming from in his position on gravity. Not that I don't follow what the people trying to teach him otherwise were coming from.

I guess my comment would be to Einstein. Your reasoning on the burden of proof is similar to other people's misunderstanding of inertia. If you gave it thought I am sure you will be able to see why a fake 20 dollar bill does not prove all 20 dollar bills are fake.

I do wonder what your motive for the debate on time travelers was. You seem fairly assured on your position. I can see why you chose not to accept any of the counter claims that were presented to you (not to discredit the reasons that the others had as reasons to believe as they do).

So I suppose I will leave with the question. What did you hope to find from the debate? Or was there something you wished would happen from having it?

My whole point for the arguments presented was to use verifiable facts rather than beliefs. You can see how successful I was. Belief does seem to be stronger than fact.
 

Phoenix

Active Member
Messages
631
A statement by Einstein that he believes all people who posted online as Time Travelers are fakers becomes a debate about gravity. Equally amusing to me is that I was able to follow where Einstein was coming from in his position on gravity. Not that I don't follow what the people trying to teach him otherwise were coming from.

I guess my comment would be to Einstein. Your reasoning on the burden of proof is similar to other people's misunderstanding of inertia. If you gave it thought I am sure you will be able to see why a fake 20 dollar bill does not prove all 20 dollar bills are fake.

I do wonder what your motive for the debate on time travelers was. You seem fairly assured on your position. I can see why you chose not to accept any of the counter claims that were presented to you (not to discredit the reasons that the others had as reasons to believe as they do).

So I suppose I will leave with the question. What did you hope to find from the debate? Or was there something you wished would happen from having it?

My whole point for the arguments presented was to use verifiable facts rather than beliefs. You can see how successful I was. Belief does seem to be stronger than fact.
Do you believe it is possible to construct such a proof?

I now completely see what you are going for. Your remark seems to me like the ironic punch line to the thread. Thank you for answering my question.
 

Einstein

Temporal Engineer
Messages
5,363
I would construct any proof from existing facts. No facts, no proof. It is a fact that no time traveler to date has provided any proof to give veracity to their claims. But it seems proofs are valueless in a world full of believers.
 

Phoenix

Active Member
Messages
631
I would construct any proof from existing facts. No facts, no proof. It is a fact that no time traveler to date has provided any proof to give veracity to their claims. But it seems proofs are valueless in a world full of believers.
I hope you don't mind me continuing the discussion.

It is clear to me that you would have the proof constructed of facts. My question was if you believed it was possible to construct such a proof. Perhaps I can better ask it another way. What facts would support an online time traveler? (I would put the words, "for you", but that is implied.)
 

Einstein

Temporal Engineer
Messages
5,363
A time traveler has access to a time machine. So how hard would it be to jump 24 hours into the future, grab tomorrows headline and come back with it? Lottery numbers, sports events, deaths, etc. A time traveler should have no problem speedily verifying his claim. Yet none do.

So that would be my requirement for proof. Divulge some unpredictable but verifiable events that will happen in the next 24 hours.
 

Phoenix

Active Member
Messages
631
A time traveler has access to a time machine. So how hard would it be to jump 24 hours into the future, grab tomorrows headline and come back with it? Lottery numbers, sports events, deaths, etc. A time traveler should have no problem speedily verifying his claim. Yet none do.

So that would be my requirement for proof. Divulge some unpredictable but verifiable events that will happen in the next 24 hours.
I do believe you now fairly answered my question. The facts you would look for would be in a 24 hour window that are "unpredictable but verifiable", the example you give is Lottery numbers, but headlines would also qualify for you. It seems like the downloads dot com proof would also qualify for you. It was a mean of proof made at the time I was on the time travel forum before. The time traveler would come back with the most popular downloads from downloads dot com that would happen the next day.

So question to you. Would a prediction of an earthquake that came to pass qualify as one of these verifiable facts?
 

Einstein

Temporal Engineer
Messages
5,363
A time traveler has access to a time machine. So how hard would it be to jump 24 hours into the future, grab tomorrows headline and come back with it? Lottery numbers, sports events, deaths, etc. A time traveler should have no problem speedily verifying his claim. Yet none do.

So that would be my requirement for proof. Divulge some unpredictable but verifiable events that will happen in the next 24 hours.
I do believe you now fairly answered my question. The facts you would look for would be in a 24 hour window that are "unpredictable but verifiable", the example you give is Lottery numbers, but headlines would also qualify for you. It seems like the downloads dot com proof would also qualify for you. It was a mean of proof made at the time I was on the time travel forum before. The time traveler would come back with the most popular downloads from downloads dot com that would happen the next day.

So question to you. Would a prediction of an earthquake that came to pass qualify as one of these verifiable facts?

Nope. The earth has over one million earthquakes a year. Those aren't predictions. They are statistical fact. And the thing I notice with all earthquake predictions is that the prediction is given for a window of time and a general location. I could predict that there will be an earthquake off the coast of south America today and get it right.

No one ever predicts where and when with precision. And please be aware that some sites have a post edit function which earthquake predictors have been known to abuse.
 

Phoenix

Active Member
Messages
631
A time traveler has access to a time machine. So how hard would it be to jump 24 hours into the future, grab tomorrows headline and come back with it? Lottery numbers, sports events, deaths, etc. A time traveler should have no problem speedily verifying his claim. Yet none do.

So that would be my requirement for proof. Divulge some unpredictable but verifiable events that will happen in the next 24 hours.
I do believe you now fairly answered my question. The facts you would look for would be in a 24 hour window that are "unpredictable but verifiable", the example you give is Lottery numbers, but headlines would also qualify for you. It seems like the downloads dot com proof would also qualify for you. It was a mean of proof made at the time I was on the time travel forum before. The time traveler would come back with the most popular downloads from downloads dot com that would happen the next day.

So question to you. Would a prediction of an earthquake that came to pass qualify as one of these verifiable facts?

Nope. The earth has over one million earthquakes a year. Those aren't predictions. They are statistical fact. And the thing I notice with all earthquake predictions is that the prediction is given for a window of time and a general location. I could predict that there will be an earthquake off the coast of south America today and get it right.

No one ever predicts where and when with precision. And please be aware that some sites have a post edit function which earthquake predictors have been known to abuse.
Good, there was a "time traveler" in the past who made his claim by using such an earthquake prediction. He used some science site that predicted earthquakes gave a location and magnitude as an educated gamble, and the earth quake happened. He was a real pain in my side and I convinced another member to come up with proof he was not who he claimed to be. That member was able to find him in a chat where he was not in character.

It was difficult to convince the member to discredit the TT since no one took that TT very seriously. The main trait of Time Travel character was acting far less intelligent than he was.
 

Phoenix

Active Member
Messages
631
Something else occurred to me in regards to the post edit function. That can also be used to post exact lotto numbers and headlines. So are those still the facts that support claims of being a time traveler for you?
 

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