Time travel has always been one of pop culture’s favorite ideas. We’ve seen heroes jump through decades to save the world, rewrite history, or prevent disasters. And then there are some who actually claim to have done it.
Keep reading to know more.
According to one bizarre conspiracy theory, a masked man said he had traveled more than a century into the future as part of a CIA experiment and returned with some extraordinary predictions.
His claims included futuristic cities, intelligent extraterrestrial life, World War 3, and even a future where ordinary people could travel through time.
Needless to say, the internet had questions.
A Masked Man Claimed He Was Part Of A CIA Time-Travel Experiment
The video was uploaded to the conspiracy-focused YouTube channel ApexTV in November 2017.
The man appeared wearing an oversized suit and an eerie latex mask. At first, he refused to reveal his identity, but he was later identified as Alexander Smith.
Smith claimed that he had participated in secret CIA time-travel experiments during the 1980s.
According to his story, he was sent to the year 2118 to observe what the world would look like more than a century into the future.
He then supposedly returned with information that he believed could help humanity prepare for what was coming.
He Claimed The Year 2118 Would Look Like Something Out Of A Sci-Fi Movie
Smith described a world filled with technology that would sound futuristic to people living in 2017.
He claimed artificial intelligence had become deeply integrated into everyday life, while flying vehicles and advanced robotics were commonplace.
But his biggest claim may have been even harder to believe.
Smith said humanity would eventually make contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life and claimed governments would publicly acknowledge the existence of aliens in 2028.
He also predicted that commercial time travel would eventually become available to ordinary people.
So, according to his story, the technology might not remain a secret forever.
The Time Traveler Also Warned That World War 3 Was Coming
Not all of Smith’s alleged predictions were quite so exciting.
He claimed a Third World War would eventually break out, potentially beginning with tensions between the United States and North Korea.
According to his account, a conflict could initially remain relatively small before spreading to Russia and escalating into a much larger global confrontation.
Yet Smith claimed the devastating conflict would have one unexpected consequenc; it would bring humanity closer together.
He suggested people would begin looking beyond national borders and develop a greater appreciation for one another.
The Biggest Problem With Time Travelers? Proving They’re Actually From The Future
Of course, there’s a rather obvious problem with stories like Smith’s.
Where’s the proof? He certainly wasn’t the first person to claim knowledge of the future.
One of the most famous examples is John Titor, an alleged American military serviceman who supposedly traveled back from 2036 to retrieve an IBM 5100 computer.
The story became an infamous piece of internet lore, but, like Smith’s claims, it has never been established as genuine.
And there’s a major scientific problem with the idea that people could routinely travel backward through time.
As physicist Stephen Hawking famously asked, “Where are the tourists from the future?”
If time travelers could freely visit the past, you might expect at least one of them to have shown up by now.
Apparently, some people weren’t willing to wait around for that to happen.
In 1982, a group calling themselves the Krononauts reportedly even organized a party to welcome visitors from the future.
However, nobody showed up.
Science Says Time Travel Isn’t Quite As Simple As Hollywood Makes It Look
That doesn’t mean the concept of time travel has nothing to do with real science.
For example, when astronomers observe distant galaxies, they are effectively looking into the past because light takes time to travel across the universe.
Scientists have also explored theoretical ideas involving wormholes, which could potentially act as shortcuts through spacetime under certain conditions.
The catch? No traversable wormhole has ever been discovered, and there’s currently no demonstrated way to use one as a time machine.
Then there are the mind-bending problems that would come with changing the past.
Changing The Past Could Create A Massive Paradox
Imagine someone traveled back in time and prevented a major event from happening.
If that event was the reason they traveled back in the first place, then stopping it would mean they never had a reason to travel back. There could also be consequences for the people actually living through the present.
If traveling through time became as ordinary as getting on a plane, our relationship with the present itself could change dramatically.
People Were More Entertained Than Convinced By The Masked Man’s Story
Whether Alexander Smith was genuinely convinced he had visited the year 2118 or was simply creating an elaborate internet story, there’s no credible evidence proving his claims.
But that hasn’t stopped his video from becoming part of the vast world of online conspiracy theories.
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