Proving you're from the future

[Stiletto]

Imagine you built a time machine today and decided to take a one way trip ten years into the past. What sort of possessions or knowledge would you bring that would successfully prove to your friends and family that you are in fact a resident of 2007 and not a crazy person from 1997?

Let’s assume three conditions here:

1.) Your time machine will vanish or be destroyed after your arrival, dismissing this as useful evidence.

2.) Any printed material you bring from the future will be dismissed as a “fakeâ€

[Mega.EXE]

I would bring a Nintendo DS XP

[rocklobster]

I'd be very careful about telling the outcome of a future event. If it's something that's not quite earth-shattering, I'd probably spill the beans. But if it's something like preventing Abraham Lincoln from being murdered, that'd probably be kept under wraps. As much as I admire the man.

[Radical Dreamer]

You always come up with the most original thread topics. XD

Anyways, my first plan would be to bring hi(gher)-tech things with me, such as a small cell phone (remember cell phones in the 90's? XD), game systems, USB flash drives, etc. That would be followed by the "future-telling" technique (after reading up on big events in '97 that I don't remember first, of course, since I was only 7 then XD). If either of those failed, though, I'd have no idea what else to try. XD

[Azier the Swordsman]

It seems I read the topic wrong earlier.

*ahem*

Just bring a PS3. And a Wii.

[ShiroiHikari]

I'd bring my lappy. They can't argue with that. Or I'd bring a camera phone.

[Mega.EXE]

It seems I read the topic wrong earlier.

*ahem*

Just bring a PS3. And a Wii.

I basicly said that by bringing a Nintendo DS

[Ashley]

The thing with technology is that theoretically they could just say you bought it in Japan, since they are ahead of us technologically.

Still, if you could get away with it, I would say technology's the best route. Otherwise I'd definitely go for fortune telling, or even investments. Who would pass up the chance to invest in google? XD

[Stiletto]

Just bring a PS3. And a Wii.

Hmm. I've been thinking about the technology part of bringing posessions and wanted to know if any of you agree:

Seeing that the scenario is set up for a ten year difference, would it be possible that wowing them with such gadgets might backfire?

One could say that you're rich enough to afford these advanced "prototypes" of things that could possibly exist in the past (but not easily available to consumers).

[FarmGirl]

If I had to, it would be DNA and birth certificate accompanied by the location of the ten year old who posessed the matching strand... though that hardly seems wise.

[Puritan]

Election results, for one, along with the results of number of sports events, records of weather phenomena, and precise fluctuations of the stock market. Accurately predicting the exact results of EVERY election, sports event, strange weather event, and the stock market without foreknowledge is so incredibly unlikely as to be impossible. Give it a couple months, and you won't simply be believed, people will be BEGGING for your information so they can capitalize on it. (This would also be a great way to make yourself a multi-billionaire if you played your cards right). Of course, once you started to play with history things would change...but you simply have to take advantage of things quickly.

[Tenshi no Ai]

Just bring a PS3. And a Wii.

I think they might be freaked out at the idea of a PS2 around that time :/ I mean, that was the year when FFVII JUST came out^^

[uc pseudonym]

Puritan mentioned my primary idea: a page with stock market numbers one week in advance would seem fairly convincing.

However, this begs the question of why I want to prove I'm from the future, much less go to the past at all. Though I can't imagine many scenarios where I would want this, I think that whatever they would be in most I wouldn't want to attract that kind of attention.

[Stiletto]

Yeah, this is pretty much all theoretical. If anything, the challenge lies in figuring out the things you need bring with you as solid proof - especially in a time that isn't too different from today (say in comparison to traveling to the early 1900's or further back).

It's kind of like putting yourself in the movie K-Pax and wondering if it's possible to prove if Kevin Spacey's character was really an extraterrestrial.

[Eaglestrike]

Has no one seen Back to the Future? Bring a sports almanac. Also, I'd get some lottery numbers so I could make some money.

Then I'd let myself know how to not get injured while training for senior year XC...lol

[Kaligraphic]

I wouldn't try to prove it. I'd just quietly use horse racing/lottery results, stock market data, and the like, accompanied by ten years of economic history to quietly build a fortune until people started to notice. Then, once I'd become a trusted barometer of the stock market, I'd pull all out, crashing indexes and damaging the market.

[ashfire]

I would say things I would bring with me would be many of the modern items used in the fire service today. The cameras we use to see through smoke, the type of fire coats, pants and boots we use now. Breathing equipment. Everything changes quicky as time goes on and improvements come about.

[Tommy]

Imagine the comparison from the character models in video games we see today as opposed to the melted legos in FF7. XD

[mitsuki lover]

I think the original idea was that printed matter would disappear so a sports almanac or almanac of any kind wouldn't work.Also given the possible fluidity of
time it is likely that your presence in the past could change the future so what you
knew might not end up the way it was when you left.For example the Yankees might actually win the '01 World Series or Gore might be elected President because of your trip into the past.Or Enterprise might actually turn out to be a much better show and last 7 instead of 5 years.

[Azier the Swordsman]

I would bring Final Fantasy XIII with me and make the just emerging FFVII fanboys weep in a display of sheer graphical awesomeness in a way that Aeris never could.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

For example the Yankees might actually win the '01 World Series or Gore might be elected President because of your trip into the past.Or Enterprise might actually turn out to be a much better show and last 7 instead of 5 years.

That only applies if you take time travel at face value.

[mitsuki lover]

I thought we were taking time travel at face value here.This whole entire thread is about the question of how you would prove you were from the future if you could time travel back to 1997.
My point about the future being flexible comes from watching the Sci Fi series 7 Days.Remember in that whenver the main character went back a week it always not only reset events but also changed the outcome so that a entirely different time line was created.
In the pilot episode he has to learn this lesson the hard way when after fixing the
past he bets on the same NBA game(I think it was Nuggets vs.Sonics)but this time
looses(in the original time line the Sonics lost but in the new time line they won!)
Of course this has only to do with the future,the past would probably an entirely different story as it has already happened and so nothing can been done to alter it.
However the future not having occured yet can be changed.
From the perspective of someone living in 1997,2007 has not yet occured so it is still possible to change events.
Now the real question is what would happen to the time traveler once he or she
reached 1997?Since we know that two copies of the same person cannot co-exist in the same time zone then that would mean he or she might cease to exist and a new version of them would then go forward and live an entirely or mostly entirely different version of their life.

[Fish and Chips]

Honestly, it doesn't matter how I'd prove myself to myself, because I won't. If the future Fish was going to time travel back to meet the current Chips, I'd have done so already, and as he clearly hasn't (haven't run into any oddly familiar faces trying to explain string theory). I'm guessing the space-time continum is simply too precious and risky a thing to worry over giving my younger self a noogie.

[Stiletto]

Yes, the hypothetical situation was only meant to be taken face value. In fact, I almost considered putting this in the goof off, but decided it would be best to have some (maybe semi) serious thoughts on the subject.

[Fish and Chips]

You don't want me to get started "Seriously" on Time Travel. No, really.

[Etoh*the*Greato]

Read this book last year called the Time Traveller's Wife. The main character Henry had this similar problem with people he knew. See, Henry had a disease that would cause him to kind of jump back and forth in time at random, though usually he would appear around places or people that he knew. His solution was the ole "Such and such has/will happened," thing. I think I'd definitely rely on that. And I'd keep my associations in the past to family and close friends.

[[GMOD]Vedicardi]

I'd kill my younger self, then he would be dead and I would dissappear. =D

Oh, wait a second...

[Etoh*the*Greato]

Somehow, I don't think you've thought your cunning plan all the way through...

[carneman]

yay, a paradox!!!
about the technology idea, what if the gadgets you brought back with you were reverse engineered, thus causing technology to skip 10 years?

[Etoh*the*Greato]

1.21 gigawatts?!