If you were sent from the past, how would you prove it ?

Just a little (and maybe stupid) question I ask myself. It would be easy to prove that you come from the future, but how would you prove that you come from the past? Imagine that someone tells you that he came from the past through some kind of vortex while wandering in the woods, what would you ask of him in order for him to prove his claims? Or if you were that man from the past, what arguments could you possibly use to prove your time travel?

Let's imagine a man from 1650 western europe, or even from ancient egypt why not!

reply to post by gosseyn


Both of those are actually fairly easy - the language would be a giveaway. Language from ancient Egypt or from Western Europe in the 16 / 17 th Centuries was very different to the language used today.

I would tell them to try and give me a disease I have been vacinated for I just hope I didn't go so far back in time that I would be considered a witch, but I'm a white male so I think I would be ok LOL.

reply to post by gosseyn


dna and other testing to determine levels of specific radioactive isotopes (like how we can take a set of teeth found in the desert, and tell you when and where they lived)

Talk is cheap, pics or it didn't happen.

reply to post by gosseyn


1 would say look into this region of EA*RTH and you will see what I left there from the past.. LIKE A SHIP....

In this day and age, scepticism seems to be status quo amongst our fellow man.

ATSers would ask of the man from the future and the man from the past " Pic or it didn't happen ". The common man would dismiss it in favour of the superbowl. The scientist would demand facts. The priest would utter blasphemy. The medical world would commit you to the asylum. and the list goes on.

The need to prove anything to each other serves what purpose? Proving anything to anyone is purely ego driven. Proof confines us to a box of individual size based on individual beliefs.

If I have learned one thing it is this. You will never please (satisfy) everyone. It applies to any aspect of life from arts to discoveries. Nothing is fact to all and nothing is proof to everyone.

I would wish the man of the past and of the future good luck proving anything to everyone.

Tax records and other ledgers.

I would burn Condoleza Rice as a witch, not to prove i am from the past but just because she is one

But good question non the less..... Bit stumped for a answer

it's called reincarnation.

moreover, past, future and present exist simultaneously in the quantum state.

for instance: i am from everywhere, hi.

Originally posted by phishyblankwaters
dna and other testing to determine levels of specific radioactive isotopes (like how we can take a set of teeth found in the desert, and tell you when and where they lived)

Agreed. There will be no doubt as to whether the person is telling the truth.

Checking various isotopes will prove where the person lived, and DNA testing of fast changing introns can be checked to see if they match people living at that location at that time.

I would show them a photo of me with a newspaper showing the date from which I came, easy really!

I'd study his clothes. They may be made from ancient materials. I think his food preferences could give him away too. If he doesn't know what a cheeseburger and fries are then we have our answer.

Let me rephrases this without all the sci-fi connotation. What if you were born again or reborn again or reincarnated again as someone from the past? That's possible. How to prove it? You inherited emotions, feelings, or memories of the past ages. You begin to have a hard time to understand the current world you are living.

Depends on how far in the past I am from....

If I was from the recent past I could show my birth certificate, pictures, tax records etc...

If I was from a time before they had such records... I would bring artifacts...that can be dated to the time when I am from. Yet here they are...And they look brand new...

My dialect would be different. The way I dressed, my social interactions would be different even...Because what was socially acceptable than and now are two different things.

Just anything I can think of as evidence..

I think you would enjoy the "Doomsday Book" by Connie Willis. Besides being a fascinating read, it also shows how very hard it would be for a person to visit another time period and "blend in".

It was also in NPR's top 100 best sci-fi and fantasy novels of all time.

Probably a blood test.You would not have any medical chemistry and you might have ailments that have disappeared. Your clothing could be examined for its construction under a microscope to determine its weaving and compare it to known samples,perhaps some coins would be present.
Then some nice people would pick you up and that would be that.

reply to post by gosseyn


one is never from what exist, one is exclusively from individual freedom that confirm objective existence being true so free

that is how the more the ground is socially advanced the more individuality is the exclusive living fact, proving how living from the ground or from others is a lie, that get a form of existing only out of being forced to by lacking the min sense of free possible move, where living through others is a way of projecting its freedom to mean freely smthg

Id raygunn hiss asse for ruining my day. Timetravlerrss out to be a law against them.OOOOOPAS FORRGOT THEREE IS. oR SO I HAVE HEASRD.

Originally posted by Flavian
reply to post by gosseyn

 

Both of those are actually fairly easy - the language would be a giveaway. Language from ancient Egypt or from Western Europe in the 16 / 17 th Centuries was very different to the language used today.

COULD CHECK TO SEE IF THRY CAME BRFORE TOILRT PAPER.oRSKIDMARKS WOULD ABOUNDETH.

reply to post by gosseyn

Imagine that someone tells you that he came from the past through some kind of vortex while wandering in the woods, what would you ask of him in order for him to prove his claims? Or if you were that man from the past, what arguments could you possibly use to prove your time travel?

My guess is whatever the arguements - the result would be a mental clinic. Most logical development for people with weird clothes and speaking a weird dialect or a totally different language encountering any local.
By the way, is there a word to describe someone who is living in native time? Chronolocal?