Archive for the ‘Time Travel’ Category

Who Needs A Deloreon? Time Travel In Your Brain Instead

Thursday, December 23rd, 2010

Want to visit the real or imagined past and future without having a pack of wild Lybians trying to shoot you with a GD bazooka? Scientists have found evidence that you can travel through time where you comically meets a horny, teenage version of your mom using only your brain:

Researchers have found evidence for “chronesthesia,” which is the brain’s ability to be aware of the past and future, and to mentally travel in subjective time. They found that activity in different brain regions is related to chronesthetic states when a person thinks about the same content during the past, present, or future.

Heavy, Doc.

[PhysOrg via Kurzweil]

Chaplin’s Time Traveler Explained

Monday, November 8th, 2010

Following up on our story from last week about the supposed time travler in the Charlie Chaplin film “The Circus.” According to this video from Discovery it was most likely a hearing aid that was popular at the time. Of course, that could just be what the ‘man’ wants us to think…

Video Proof Of Time Traveller In 1928 Talking On Cell Phone

Wednesday, October 27th, 2010

This is a clip from “The Circus” a 1928 film by Charlie Chaplin. It shows what looks to be a passerby clutching something to their ear, as one would a cell phone. This has led a few to believe this is proof that a time traveller who has made their way to past with future technology.

But of course, there was no cell phone infrastructure built in 1928 rendering any cellular device useless, leading to only one logical conclusion. The time traveller was obviously using some kind of super awesome communications tech isn’t even conceivable by us now.

Thanks to WT reader Darren Sefran for the tip.

[MSNBC]

Michael J. Fox Goes Back to ‘Back to the Future’

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

From the Too Cool Not To Share file, first the first time in decades Michael J. Fox has returned to his most beloved role as Marty McFly for this promo for the 2010 Spike TV Scream Awards, which will feature a 25th Anniversary Back to the Future cast reunion. The promo is an obvious homage to the original teaser trailer for the film. Here’s hoping the reunion is as awesome as it appears.  Get ready to go back in time!

Finally, A Fool-Proof Time Travel Strategy!

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

It’s way smarter than me, but a pack of MIT numberheads got together and figured out how to utilize quantum mechanics to circumvent the dreaded “grandfather paradox” of time travel a.k.a. the travel doing something stupid that causes him to never exist. Huey Lewis is down wid it.

[arxiv via Technology Review]

A Brief History Of Insane, Murdering Alleged Time Travelers

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

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Why is it that time travelers always so sloppy?

Whenever you hear of someone in the news evoking the time travel defense, it’s always for bad stuff like accidental deaths, murders or elaborate plots to kill someone who eventually ruins the planet. Or something.

Is it too much to ask for a man to come forward or backward in time and just mind their business? Take notes, talk to the natives, enjoy our flavored iced coffees and GTFO.

Then again, maybe only the sloppy time travelers are the ones who get caught merc-ing random civilians with bizarre tales like the one below. At that point the blame really lies on the supervisor that sent them back in the first place. Now all we have to do is invent a time machine so we can subpoena him for his clear negligence.

Towards the end of July 2009, New Zealander Mark Paul Warren, 26, was found not guilty, by reason of insanity, of killing two people in 2007 by driving dangerously near Auckland airport at Mangere. Warren, who had no licence, had been travell­ing at 166km/h when he smashed into another car; passengers in both cars died, while Warren and the other driver spent months in hosp­ital. After he told police that he had been in a time machine and needed to exceed 100km/h to become invisible, he was committed to a facility in Hamilton specialising in treating acute mental illness.

Read the whole story for a few more real life time traveller stories. And if you are reading this and are in fact from another spot on our time line, seriously, try the iced coffees. They are de-lish.

[Fortean Times]

Understanding Human’s Innate Time Travel Ability

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

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We travel back and forth through time. We are time travelers. So much so we don’t even realize it. Nor do we realize that we are slightly leaning awkwardly while remembering the past or pondering the future.

The ability to mentally meander through time by remembering the past or imagining the future sets humans apart from many other species, helping us to learn from what came before and plan for what lies ahead. However, remarkably little is known about how such mental time travel works.

Past research showed that our perceptions of time are tightly linked with space. For instance, pondering the future makes us lean forward, while recalling the past makes us lean back, experimental psychologist Lynden Miles of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and his colleagues found.

Now Miles and his collaborators have discovered another interesting feat of the mind: Thinking about moving forward prompted speculation about the future, while imagining moving backward triggered reflections on the past.

This explains why downhill skiers are so good at remembering who’s birthdays are coming up.

[Live Science]