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Originally posted by JustMike
I have no problem with the OP's plans to buy this device and test it to see if it works. It's his money and his choice, and doubtless some of us have spent that amount of money (and more) on something like a laptop, TV or whatever device.
Okay, so some of you may now say: "There is no comparison! We know that new laptops, TV's etc etc actually work and so we're not being conned if we buy them!"
I agree: they work. I don't agree that it's not a con when we buy them. The average laptop with its US-brand or European-brand company name on it is most likely made in China (even if not "assembled" there but somewhere else), which is frankly a bit of a con in itself. But what's really a con is the markup on these kinds of products. A TV that costs (say) $500 retail would come in at around $200-250 wholesale, and the wholesaler probably bought it for around $150-200 from the importer who got it into the US F.O.B. for maybe no more than 100 bucks per unit. So, go back to Hong Kong or wherever that TV went out from and it was likely delivered to port for about 60 bucks per unit if straight from the factory.
And that factory, after buying in its raw materials and parts and having all the tooling set up, and paying wages all down the line to its staff (who usually earn a disgusting pittance) -- that factory still makes a profit, producing five-hundred-dollar TVs for a net cost of around 30 bucks.
Okay, so what the heck has that to do with a time machine?
The common argument against this OP, an ATS member who is willing to spend his own money to check something out, is that he will be conned and ripped off and will be throwing away his money.
Fair enough, maybe he'll be conned and ripped off. But at least he is fully aware of the fact the he could well be conned and ripped off. We on the other hand -- all of us -- are being conned every damned day and being sold new goods that are deliberately designed to fail as soon as possible after the warranty runs out. Planned obsolescence: now there's a con if you want to talk about cons.
I say let the OP go for it. If it's a con he has something to sit on the mantelpiece and ponder over. That could lead anywhere, and maybe lead somewhere positive.
I once read a story about a guyt who was trying to build a time machine but he just couldn't figure one crucial piece to make it go. He told his (supportive) friends that he was giving up as he could never work it out. So his friends got together and hired a student of acting (I think) to visit the guy and pretend to be from the future. They fitted him out with slightly weird clothes, helped him set up some decent storylines -- and waited for a stormy night.
So, the young actor guy rolls up to the guy's house and rings the bell, and when said guy opens the door he says something like: "I am from the future but without your help, we may soon cease to exist!"
It goes from there... Long story (my apologies) short (breath sigh of relief), the guy gets convinced that as he did create the time machine that the young actor dude used to come back and visit him, then he must be able to work out the problem.
Month later, he figures it out...
The moral? Just the very act of searching for something, or seeking to create a new device of some kind, actually vastly imporves the chances of such a device eventually being made, or the thing sought after being found. Denying that such a thing is possible -- or simply that as all such other things have been cons, this one must therefore also be a con -- is not only counter-productive but is the antithesis of our spirit.
If you've read this far then you must either be very patient or perhaps bored. But yes, there is more:
There have been demands (or strong suggestions) in this thread that the OP should go back in time to a month ago and post a thread to prove that this time machine works.
If he does that, I hope you accept the possibility that the very act of doing so would either make this particular timeline different, or place the OP on another alternative time line in which he does get the machine to work. I'm not saying that this is what will happen, please note. I am saying that we need to accept the possibility. The only alternative is to argue for an existence where only one timeline exists and there are not and cannot be any other ones.
The problem is, that if there is only one time line then it leaves only two options: the OP goes back in time and writes a new thread to prove he went back, but in the here and now that thread does not exist, because if it did we wouldn't need to be asking for it right now! The other alternative (assumptive of the time machine working, I mean) is that the OP goes back in time and does his post to prove etc etc, then that creates a change in the time line and so we are not even discussing this issue in exactly this way. We are also not aware that there has been any change.
However, if there are alternative timelines then there can only be an infinite number of them. To limit their number to three or six or 122,888 or whatever would place a limit on the possible variations that devolve from every interaction of energy/space/mass etc every infinitissimally small fraction of a second.
Anyhow I'll leave it with you. OP: go for it and good luck. At least you're doing something.
Mike
edit on 27/12/10 by JustMike because: Left out a word. Yes, there are typos and some errors of syntax that I've now noticed but I feel poorly today so you may mentally correct them youselves.
Originally posted by DutchBigBoy
reply to post by SuperManny
So in other words you can see the timeline of others? Is it possible for you to see mine too? Maybe even surroundings of where I am living?
16) Behavior: You will not behave in an abusive, libelous, defamatory, hateful, intolerant, bigoted and/or racist manner, and will not harass, threaten, nor attack anyone.
Originally posted by darkbake
reply to post by Ravinski
I am getting the device in the mail tomorrow.