How to prove the existence of time travel

Posted by on September 22, 2005

Being a sci-fi buff, I have watched a lot of episodes of Star Trek and other shows where people have traveled either forward, or backward, in time. This of course is rather interesting when you think of the possibilities. I am always fascinated to read interesting time travel stories, and how the results of time travel can be both good and bad. So here, for your own enjoyment, is my own method of proving time travel. It requires very little, and could probably be done in your own home.

Ok, for starters, let?s see what we need.

2 sheets of paper & a pencil
1 ziplock bag
1 steel or heavy wooden box (that won?t deteriorate over time)
A chosen location (either by major landmark, or use of gps coordinates)

The premise of this method is that you send a message to the future, telling them to send you a message back. You have to think in four dimensions for this to make sense. The basic idea works like this: You place a message to the future in a sealed box, bury it in the ground, and wait. The box at some point in the future (say 200 years) is recovered by someone. They read the message which tells them to take the blank sheet of paper, and write a message on it, travel back in time to 6 hours after you buried the box (200 years in the past to them), dig up the box, open it up, replace one of the sheets of paper with their message, and re-bury the box. They return to the future. You return to the burial site the next day, dig up the box, open it, and discover a message from the future. Sound simple enough? Let?s examine what I said you need to make this work.

Two sheets of paper & a pencil. One sheet of paper will contain the actual message to the future. You could hand write this, but I would recommend typing it out instead. It may be harder for someone in the future to read your writing. The pencil is used in conjunction with the second sheet of paper. They can use these to actually write out a message for you. We cannot assume that things like pens, paper, and pencils, will exist in the future. I mean, even in Star Trek, you never see them write with a pen do you? Keep it in mind.

The ziplock bag. Both sheets of paper should remain inside the ziplock bag, sealed. This is merely an extra form of protection from damage to the paper. Plastic should be able to keep water out.

Steel or wooden box. This will be the conduit for your message. This box must be sturdy enough to weather time. A hard, steel box would be preferred as wood may rot, but if you find a really good wooden box, it may serve the purpose. You want to make sure that this box can be sealed shut so that it is waterproof. Even though you have your message in the ziplock bag, it?s better to be safe. The box should be easy to open, but sealed to the best of your ability. Do not place locks, or anything like that on it unless you are extremely paranoid. Remember, they won?t have a key, so they?d have to break it open anyway and when they travel into the past, they?ll break the locks there as well.

A chosen location. This is perhaps the hardest thing to find or choose. The fact is, you must find a place that you can successfully hide/bury the box so that it will not be found for a long time. You also do not want it to be discovered prematurely. We really have no idea how long in the future it will be before time travel is possible, but you should choose a very specific location that can be identified by someone with no knowledge of our time. The usage of GPS coordinates would allow you to give more detailed specifics however, you could include a map of the local area, and a specific spot to where you buried it. The location is key because even if in the future, it?s totally different, this person must travel back in time, and find the spot where you buried it, and recover the box, so that they can place their message. I would recommend some wooded area that seems to be out of town or in the middle of nowhere, but at some time in the future, could become populated. Remember, the person who travels back in time to give you your message needs to find the box where you buried it. Make sure the directions and information you give are very specific. Any idiot should be able to follow those directions.

Your message to the future should contain some very specific information. For starters, indicate who you are, by full name, the exact date and time of which you wrote the letter, the exact date and time of when you will bury the box, and other details about why you are sending this message. You may want to include photographs, and other details, but make sure that the focus of your message is on getting something back from the future. You should make sure that they are told that if time travel in fact exists in their time, they are to return to the date given on the paper, dig up the box, and place their message in the box, and re-bury it. Inform them that you will return the following day to dig up the box and get your message. Make sure they know when you are going to bury the box so that if they return to that time, they don?t run into you. This may be a concern for future time travelers.

With regards to what you want to know about the future, don?t ask specifics. In fact, if you are doing this for the purposes of finding out if time travel is actually real, simply ask for one thing: The date in which your box is discovered. This is harmless information. By simply providing the date, you inform the person from the past that their message was received, and that time travel exists, somewhere in the future. It would have very little effect on the past. Now, because there are several theories about time travel, it is hard to say what the effects of learning something about the future would be. For example, if you travel back in time, kill your mother then you would never be born. But if that was the case, you could never have traveled back in time to kill your mother and therefore you would be alive. This is known as the grandfather paradox. One solution to this is that by killing your mother, you created an alternate timeline, of which you were never born (as seen in Back to the Future, part II). You still exist in your own timeline, but in the timeline of everyone else, you never exist. If this ?alternate timeline? theory is actually what happens in time travel, then asking for details about the future would have no affect on the time traveler?s future. Regardless, if you are planning to ask for specific details, don?t expect much. I think its pretty safe to say that time travelers will likely not want to divulge much about the future to people in the past. What you choose to ask for is your choice, but just ask for something simple, like the date the box was discovered.

If you have been following this closely, you would have discovered one minor flaw in this idea. If you dig up the box the day after you buried it to get your message, then how could the box be received in the future? I have a solution to this as well. One very important element about this is that after you retrieve the message from the future, you need to bury the box, again. Remember, this entire thing is based on the box being buried for a long time. If you don?t put the box back in the ground, there?s no possible way for you to receive a message from the future. This of course assumes that the ?alternate timeline? theory is not correct. Make sure the box is buried, and then you can walk away.

How?s that for a real world theory about proving time travel? I have not had the chance to try this myself, but if you really wanted to go at this hardcore, I would do about 10 boxes in 10 different locations, maybe even different cities. Harder to manage mind you, but I think it would increase the chances of success.

Good luck! If you use this method, and it works, let me know!

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