I don't believe that people in the future could alter the past, because that would create paradoxes -- unless you believe some of the parallel-universe theories that say that an alteration of the past would simply spawn a new universe, and the old univese would not be affected.

Presuming that people could hypothetically travel back in time (a far-fetched idea, that), how would they find that web-page? Seems sort of obscure.

To respond to Saf's previous question, "how would they find that web-page?" -- if the web page became famous, e.g. it was reported on in the NY Times, then a person 50 years from know conceivably would know about it.

Okay, our future visitor DOES find the page. How is s/he going to know either the password of your messageboard account or the password for the hosting account that the creator of this messageboard uses to make changes to the site as a whole? One must have one of these to put text into an HTML page that doesn't have a textbox form.

I point this out only to make a note of the fact that just because your hypothetical futurians have (or will have) the ability to travel back in time would not necessarily mean that they would automatically also have the ability to hack into webservers and change HTML pages stored on them.

Perhaps these futurian friends would have some sort of astounding techno-psionic interfacing ability that would allow them to change the contents of a web page just by thinking about doing it--the result of which would be that the entire World Wide Web would become an enormous Wiki.

Hi, in response to "Demitria Monde Thraam", if an advanced being from the future has technology so advanced that they can shape the past or travel to the past, certainly they could alter a web page. Well, that's my guess.

Also, maybe the advanced being traveled back in time and talked to Dr. Cliff Pickover 30 years from now and asked him the password.

How long is your hosting contract?

That's what I thought.

I just gotta ask -- if they can travel back to any point in time, why wait for their response. The response should be there by the time you post the page.

This cannot work, due to the precept of "mallum-absurdum fractalcalicum re-pie." The future entities caused you to create this experiment in the first place, with no inntention of answering it. If they answered from the future, they could somehow alter the future they live in, by having altered the present we live in that will lead up to; and help to create their future world. Of course by them choosing not to answer, shows that they cannot participate in our present, (their past,) they can only observe it. In this case, you thought up the experiment yourself, and the future people did not prod you into it. Of course with the intersection of alternate realities, both theories could be true. In this case, they caused you to think up the experiment yourself, and this is in fact, the answer you are seeking.

Can you outfit your web page with an alarm that would let you know if future technologists added words to your page?

I do believe that, in the future, humankind will develop fantastic technology. If they could send a message back in time, what would attract them to this page? You have to have a newspaper write about this page to make it famous, so that future beings will know about it.

I noticed a faint flickering in the field in which you want the future creatures to type. Stare at it a while. You'll see something too. Could that be some kind of sign?

OK, the morse code thingie says,

"This is a secret message from Cliff Pickover. Who among you will be the first to read its true meaning? Do you enjoy the RealityCarnival?"

So what is my prize? Dr. Who's phone booth?

Edited by author 10-14-2003 02:14 PM
The simple fact about time is this: it does not exist. There is only one moment in time, here in the lower worlds that we can ever experience and that is "NOW". Therefore, we are living in eternity already. Atlantis is exploding right now. Custer is having his last stand right now. The Chinese or the Koreans are discovering North America first right now.(No way was it Columbus, thats out and out hogwash, heck the Vikings were here way before Columbus) Our sun is going nova right now. We are all self realized, God/Spirit realized souls right NOW. Thus, we are all in our respective heavens/Higher Planes right NOW. Ever Evolving Higher and Higher Spiritualy, RIGHT NOW. So take this a step farther, if we are there now, that means we can go to a certain level / one of the Higher Planes and view the akashic records of each and every single incarnation we ever had. So, in a certain way he is right, we can travel in time, you just need the proper body to do it with. My suggestion would be to use the Soul Body so you can forget that gold or silver cord thingy that gets in the way.

How would we know for sure that your test is not influenced by some hacker? Let's also do the test with an audio file, so we can hear what the future travelers offer us.