Proving a time traveler is real?

How would you be able to prove a time traveler is real? I'm trying to come up with a fool proof method and falling short.
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The problem that I never see anyone addressing is what the exact nature of time travel is (for the self-proclaimed traveller, at least). The idea of "okay, you go back in time and check X out, then return" is nice and all, but what if time travel is not a neat little tool that you can just do? Terminator-style TT would not let the traveller jump around like that. And anything that can be predicted with pinpoint accuracy is likely possible to deduce through other means (predicting weather phenomena or seismic activity, even sports statistics or market fluctuations. Some people do that for a living. Some are even good at it!). Not only that, but if the interviewer can ask the traveller *anything*, that requires the traveller to have brought knowledge of *literally everything* along! Even if you just go back a day, that's a big piece of mental luggage....I personally doubt that a universal test is even possible. It would take a close study at the traveller's claims of how TT work to design a test, and it would require something other than a "gotcha" mentality, since it would have to be fitted to the means that could rationally be expected from the traveller. And you would have to account for the idea that even a true, honest-to-Vishnu time traveller might still be a complete nut, who believes the Moon is made of goat's cheese and whales are soulless killers from the planet Nebiru.

In short, we'd need a true science of *dealing* with time travel, even long before the science of actual TT comes around...

 
...but why would someone "travel" from another time just so they could join an internet forum and manically declare they are real time travelers?

And is time travel, like, sexist? Looking back over the claims section, I'm not seeing any women (that I know of). Just what appears to be young guys with something to brag about.

Sorry if I'm not making sense here. I just think Logic™ and Reason™ in and of themselves discredit most so-called time travelers. That and the fact that most of them run for the hills the minute anyone asks them a question.

And this "I'm from 6000 years in the future and I've come to warn you" crap. Seriously? Anybody here want to travel 6000 years back in time and warn people about the future? No? Good luck if you do. What ever your native tongue is, it's a pretty good guess the people of 6000 years ago aren't going to understand your warnings.

I said this in another post. What the hell is with the lone wolf time traveler fetish? Do police work alone? Do firefighters work alone? Do soldiers work alone? Voluntarily going from Time A to Time B, for a mission, be it observation or whatever, would be impractical (bordering on idiocy) as a solo venture, or without some support system in place at site B.

IMO, time slips and other cases of distortion, unwilling travel, are waaay more interesting, just by virtue of not setting up that story-like narrative of the professional time traveler.

tl:dr :poop:

 
And is time travel, like, sexist? Looking back over the claims section, I'm not seeing any women (that I know of).
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Lyndzee Grummomd was a female time traveler claimant. And I believe that Zeshua was also a woman, but being a construct of Peter Novak not sure if Zeshua counts. I believe there may be more, but don't remember them.
Although the claimants can travel through time, they seem to be a bit lacking here and there ; like being astonished when proof is demanded by the members here. I would think reading what you're getting into before making a claim would be a good idea.

 
The problem that I never see anyone addressing is what the exact nature of time travel is (for the self-proclaimed traveller, at least). The idea of "okay, you go back in time and check X out, then return" is nice and all, but what if time travel is not a neat little tool that you can just do? Terminator-style TT would not let the traveller jump around like that. And anything that can be predicted with pinpoint accuracy is likely possible to deduce through other means (predicting weather phenomena or seismic activity, even sports statistics or market fluctuations. Some people do that for a living. Some are even good at it!). Not only that, but if the interviewer can ask the traveller *anything*, that requires the traveller to have brought knowledge of *literally everything* along! Even if you just go back a day, that's a big piece of mental luggage....I personally doubt that a universal test is even possible. It would take a close study at the traveller's claims of how TT work to design a test, and it would require something other than a "gotcha" mentality, since it would have to be fitted to the means that could rationally be expected from the traveller. And you would have to account for the idea that even a true, honest-to-Vishnu time traveller might still be a complete nut, who believes the Moon is made of goat's cheese and whales are soulless killers from the planet Nebiru.
In short, we'd need a true science of *dealing* with time travel, even long before the science of actual TT comes around...
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An insightful and balanced approach! Nice theory.

 
It would all depend on how precisely they could predict the point in time that they return to. It would be fairly trivial to memorize the lead stories from CNN, BBC and whatever other news channel for a week in advance if you knew the exact moment you were returning to. Even throw in a few overseas news channels. You could also just have a list of obituaries for the next week memorized.

 
Naturally, we would have made numerous great scientific advances between now and the moment if and when we achieve time travel. Such advancements would include finding solutions to exceedingly difficult mathematical problems that we have identified but have thus far been unable to solve: chiefly among them, the six as-of-yet unsolved Millennium Prize Problems. While we ourselves have not currently solved such problems, our modern day mathematicians would be able to verify the validity of a proposed solution. Having a time traveler present one or more such solutions would represent a greater level of "proof" of being a time traveler than predictions of future events or the presentation of future technology that could be faked (although such fraud eventually wouldn't hold up to vigorous scrutiny by modern day science).

 
It's quite difficult for me to be able to prove if someone is indeed a time traveller or a fake just by asking questions. Sure it can be one proof but maybe I would need a physical proof for me to be convinced. I would have to go with being able to physically travel through time with that person.

 
Just a thought: WHY would a time traveller prove he/she is a time traveller? I get that if they don't care at all, there is no need to come to a place like this. But when I travel (normal travel!), I just say "oh, me, I'm from Denmark", and nobody asks me for proof. If someone came to me and said "hi, I'm from the year 2294, could you tell me how this [whatever] works?", I don't know if I would even start asking for proof. If something dire was asked of me ("could you please hold this loudly ticking piece of unrecognizable machinery for me while I run the other way?"), I'd simply refuse to have anything to do with that person. The argument "don't worry, I am from the future" would be no better than "don't worry, I am from Canada" or "don't worry, I am an engineer". Proof of what the person is would not matter. So if someone says "I am from the future", I may not believe the person, but the first thing I would jump to would probably not be undeniable proof. I'd ask a lot of othe stuff first, just like I would of someone saying they were from a very foreign land or an unusual religious belief.

So what level of proof really makes sense to ask from a supposed time traveller before asking a lot of other stuff?

EDIT: Just dawned on me, does anyone in movies ever truly grill someone about being a time traveller? I don't think the issue ever really comes up (of thorough proof, that is) in either Back to the Future, The Terminator franchise, Dr Who, or any other such stories I can think of.

(I may be phrasing this poorly, it just fell into my way too open mind)

 
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