Time Traveler John Titor is one of the most prominent figures said to have traveled not only through space, but time as well and brought us a vision of a possible alternate future; of course his being here changed our current time line’s image of what it may be like. But what did he describe when he spoke of the future? Was it technologically advanced? An apocalyptic wasteland? The answer may shock you.
John Titor first appeared in 1998 with faxes sent to the office of Art Bell, a late night radio talk show host. The faxes contained information of a coming disaster related to Y2K. Fortunately for us, but unfortunately for Titor’s story Y2K never happened; at least not in the way he claimed it would. But then there were other incredible claims that seemed to confirm Titor’s story, including information about the IBM 5100 computer system, which could link to larger systems in a way that could diffuse the coming data problem in 2038. But what did Titor tell of the future he came from?
Titor explained that in the future there is a nuclear war between Russia and the United States that effectively “ends” society as we know it, but rather than living in a post apocalyptic hell-scape the actual end of society is quite different. The new society that springs up after the wars is more community and family oriented with the acquisition of goods no longer the focus and many cities more or less wiped out. Titor made the claim in both forum posts and chat rooms that over three billion people would be wiped out during the world war that followed several coming disasters.
Titor describes industry and power production as being very localized with most people growing their own food or contributing to small farms and subsequently appreciating the consumption of it more. International food trade is far less important in the greater scheme of things. The world, destabilized by the limited nuclear exchange, the massive amounts of fallout, and the progression of creutzfeld jakob disease throughout the populace (mad cow) will largely be making a major comeback from the disasters said by Titor to begin sometime around 2015. Titor’s claims about technology’s advances are in line with approximately what is around today with few additions aside from time travel. A large portion of what has stifled technological progress is the coming war, but other advances have been made in military circles.
So is Titor’s claim more than a simple guess about the future? Is it possible this man actually came back in time from the future to gather up the objects he needs and warn us about his future? It’s possible his very presence in his time line has caused a change in our current time line to ensure the world events he spoke of never take place. What would life be like if it were more simple and localized? And what does the fact that his prediction caught on so much tell us of the fears we feel as a society?