Inside Darren

In order to understand how John Titor’s time travel device is supposed to function, one must first understand the model of reality that this device operates under.

According to John Titor, reality is actually composed of an infinite number of “worldlines”, - each one being different, depending on the choices made by people in the worldline. The idea is that all possibilities actually exist in different worldlines. For every choice that you, or anyone else, in all of history, could ever make, all of those choices have been realized somewhere. This eliminates the question of the grandfather paradox (i.e. What would happen if you went back in time and killed your grandfather before your parents, or you, were born? You would actually be killing your ancestor in a different worldline, and your own personal worldline would go on unchanged).

When John Titor came to our worldline, then, it was actually just a “parallel reality” that was occurring many years in the past, relative to his own worldline. His time travel machine had been constructed in such a way as to be able to travel to other worldlines with a minimum amount of “divergence” (that is, the smallest possible discrepancies between his history and the target worldline’s history), but the downside is that he could never return to his “actual” worldline again - only one that was 99.99999etc.% similar to his own, making the practical divergence negligible.

John himself stated that our worldline had only about a 1-2% divergence from his own history, and that it was similar enough for him to be convinced that the same major events (the civil war, nuclear bombing, etc.) would still happen as he had experienced them. The only discrepancies he mentioned were, of course, his presence in 2000-2001 (which never happened in his worldline), and a few other things he hinted at, such as the Y2K issue being a much bigger problem in his worldline. He even hinted that OUR experience of Y2K being negligible might have been due to influence from a traveler from another worldline.

As for real-life evidence of other worldlines or multiple-universe theory, I would encourage you to take a look at this video, which illustrates the famous Double-Slit Experiment. What is illustrated here is that matter (or the universe as we know it) is somehow “aware” of multiple possibilities, and in fact sometimes BEHAVES as if all possibilities were occurring right now. However, when there is an observer present, matter must “chose” a particular path. In the same way, all possibilities could exist in infinite (or near-infinite) worldlines, but we as observers (making choices) force reality to conform to a particular path of history. If I’m way off base here, feel free to correct me. A lot of this stuff is relatively new to me too! There is a wikipedia article on the Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (most of which I don’t fully understand) which some of you may find useful.

The implications of the possible existence of other worldlines are many. Here are some of the thoughts I’ve had, and which John Titor himself discussed in the various forums he participated in.

Would the existence of multiple worldlines mean the existence of multiple Gods, if you believe in Him? I personally believe that there would still be a single God, who interacts with the outcomes of all possibilities.

But multiple worldlines would also mean that there are multiple versions of myself, all who have made different moral choices. There could be some worldlines where I’m a serial rapist, and others where I’m the equivalent of Billy Graham. In fact, John Titor’s view of the universe would say that it’s inevitable that both of these possibilities exist, as well as every possibility in-between. Does that mean that I’m in any way morally responsible for these other versions of me? I don’t believe so. John Titor himself said that he believes that all he can do is make choices that he feels are morally responsible, and that he will be held accountable by God for what he himself has done in his own worldline, or in any worldline he visits. That works for me.

For the religious minded, there would also be large implications for doctrines such as predestination, and the existence of worldlines in which Christ was not born, or born at a different time. As a Christian, I would have to believe that Jesus would have to appear and accomplish his work of salvation in every possible worldline, unless there are worldlines where humanity is not fallen. Another intriguing thought…

In spite of what Titor claims about there being infinite worldlines with infinite possibilities, if I were to accept the concept of multiple worldlines, I would have to believe that there are not actually an infinite number of them, but rather a very large, incalculable, but still finite, number of worldlines in existence. My reason for thinking so is this: If multiple worldlines exist, would they not have to still possess the properties of physics displayed by the universe at large? And if this is the case, there are some very real limitations to the number of choices we can make as human beings. There can’t be a worldline where 2 plus 2 equals 5, for example. Neither can there be a worldline where I have the power to change styrofoam into gold by coughing on it.

Also, the possibilities of my genetic makeup would have to fall within the limitations of my parents’ available genetic material - otherwise, there would be no actual “me” to speak of. Those genetic limitations would limit the number of choices available to me in my lifetime. The number of choices available to me that would modify my personal history would be astronomical in any worldline, but they would be finite, and subject to my genetic and physical limitations.

Titor also claimed that in his time, there was a point of view being considered that memory itself is not actually an accessing of stored information in the brain, but rather the accessing of real events which are occurring in other worldlines at that time, either being done by your “counterpart” in that worldline, or even being done by someone else. This could explain how memories of events can be inaccurate in comparison to other means of information recording (video or audio recording, for example). This idea was postulated (in fiction) by C.S. Lewis in his posthumous work The Dark Tower. Personally, I’m not quite ready to entertain that idea yet.

As a final point, there is the notion of death, and the end of worldlines. Does the universe come to an end when all worldlines reach their point of termination? Or does each one terminate separately? Do each of my other-worldly counterparts have a separate soul that dies in turn? Or are each of us part of a single soul, which does not fully experience death until all of our counterparts are dead as well? If all worldlines started at a single, finite starting point, is there a single, finite ending point for all worldlines as well? And if so, when is it?

Big questions. But once again, this is all based on a hypothetical view of how reality is constructed. John stated that in his worldline, the answers to all of these questions haven’t been worked out yet. All he could say was that it was a view of reality that seemed to best fit the facts for how time travel happened. Will happen. You know what I mean.

What’s interesting to me is the fact that John discussed these issues, and had thought through them, with a surprising amount of detail, in an interesting and intelligent way. He had well-developed opinions that went beyond what one would expect of somebody who was trying to perpetrate a hoax. It’s just another example of how he built his credibility as a possible time traveler.

Next: Time Travel 3 - The Device

Also in the Time Travel Series:
Time Travel 1 - The Story.
Time Travel 4 - The Credibility Question