If I wanted to gain access to places in 2023 without too much trouble, I'd don a hard-hat, reflective vest, and a clipboard. However, what is the equivalent attire for 1880's London? 500's Mesoamerica? 300's Rome? Please answer fast as my rift is opening.
In most of human history there has been wider differentiation between the classes than there has been in the past 30 years or so, and as such there is unlikely to be just one uniform that allows authoritative access to every where, in most cases you will want a number of costumes suited to what you are attempting to do.
In 1880s London prepare an upper class costume as already suggested, a copper's outfit - this will also allow you to bear a formidable truncheon, it is nice to have access to weaponry when getting access to places when someone discovers you have gained access to said places.
Not sure about 1800's London, but for those earlier dates, the typical community you'd be visiting was small enough that everyone knows of most members, so you'd be discovered no matter the outfit, if enough people saw your face.
The tip from 'bryanrasmussen is good - dressing as a priest is probably the safest bet; alternatively, as a soldier (in Rome) - the few people who had recognizable uniforms and were commonly traveling outsiders.
John Titor said he arrived in a 1967 Corvette that he brought with him from 2036. I do not think he said it was a 2036 Corvette. If he planned to travel to the early 1970's, that makes sense.
Not that I am any sort of expert on the subject, but the way I understand it is:
1. If you have a fossil you can carbon date it based on the amount of C14, which is an isotope of carbon, and is present in relatively stable amounts in living organisms. That's because a living organism takes carbon from its environment and then incorporates it in itself and C14 is continuously generated in the environment because of the radiation from the sun. As the organism dies, the intake stops, so then you can determine its age based on the half life of the C14 and the amount of it still remaining in the remains. Long story short: it cannot be accurate.
2. You can only measure this in remains of dead organisms. Maybe in leather, if the car had some, otherwise I don't think you could easily carbon date a car :)
If there's even a diode worth of band-gap technology in there: yes, ageing would be demonstrably different in a device that lived a couple of decades longer. The crystal lattice is not set in stone and atoms move around.
There are imperfections from the factory in every car. Welds were done by hand in 1976. Repairs were done by hand. I wonder what improbable similarities the 2 cars could have.
I told a buddy about this and he replied in some ways I found interesting, so I have attempted to the best of my abilities to replicate his response herein:
Long, exaggerated sigh for effect...OK, Titor is a totally reasonable time traveler for someone employed by the U.S Army, that is to say he is not especially creative. The Army values people who can think inside the box, and this guy can.
If this is what you do for time traveling you might as well go see a movie, and not a very good one either.
If you have a quick layover somewhere, make it interesting - I recently wrote the guide to 10 concerts you should see if you are a time traveler https://medium.com/p/8d2ead8cb643
Maybe there is a favorite food that you can no longer get? My guilty pleasure was 7-11 Nachos from the 80s when you could pile it up high enough to survive all day on one box, as long as you didn't care overmuch about what it did to your insides
https://medium.com/luminasticity/a-stopover-for-nachos-8aed8...
These may not be best practices, but they are enjoyable practices, and someone able to access all of time and space that doesn't attempt to enjoy themselves has definitely something a bit wrong in the head - just saying. Lucky this guy found someone to order him around in his life.
This was republished in violation of the Time Travel Ban of 1954, which was later repealed in 1942 and reinstated in 1941. The ban remains in effect until 2066 and finally legalized in 2051 with restrictions of no travel before 2025 due to the "intervention leading to the Temporal Event of 2015".
Avoid paradoxes is likely the one thing even someone trying to change the past needs / wants to accomplish.
It'd be nice if some tiny pool of government resources (everywhere) were set aside in 'untraceable' ways that only someone from many years later could use, by which time any untapped resources would be rolled into a new investment area or returned to the general fund.
The non time traveler version would be completely off the books spy operations, so plausibly someone might rarely need that for non-time traveler reasons and thus hide any time travelers.
Readit News
In 1880s London prepare an upper class costume as already suggested, a copper's outfit - this will also allow you to bear a formidable truncheon, it is nice to have access to weaponry when getting access to places when someone discovers you have gained access to said places.
The tip from 'bryanrasmussen is good - dressing as a priest is probably the safest bet; alternatively, as a soldier (in Rome) - the few people who had recognizable uniforms and were commonly traveling outsiders.
Either a top-hat and a suitably wealthy attitude, or dress like a washerwoman who has come to scrub the floors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aSdFrPnlRg
My personal advice: Don't get in that time machine and travel back! Not if you are on any sort of meds.
[0] e.g. https://www.gocomics.com/tomthedancingbug/2010/11/12
If you shed MSRA you could make all the drugs of the 20th century ineffective killing billions.
Here is a bit about it. I can not confirm any of what they are saying: https://www.reddit.com/r/JohnTitor/comments/yago4w/john_tito...
1. If you have a fossil you can carbon date it based on the amount of C14, which is an isotope of carbon, and is present in relatively stable amounts in living organisms. That's because a living organism takes carbon from its environment and then incorporates it in itself and C14 is continuously generated in the environment because of the radiation from the sun. As the organism dies, the intake stops, so then you can determine its age based on the half life of the C14 and the amount of it still remaining in the remains. Long story short: it cannot be accurate.
2. You can only measure this in remains of dead organisms. Maybe in leather, if the car had some, otherwise I don't think you could easily carbon date a car :)
https://meridian.allenpress.com/rct/article-abstract/50/4/81...
We are unlikely to ever get a resolution, but...
There are imperfections from the factory in every car. Welds were done by hand in 1976. Repairs were done by hand. I wonder what improbable similarities the 2 cars could have.
Best Practices for Time Travelers (2003) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13051116 - Nov 2016 (76 comments)
Thank you for your writing, Maciej. It’s so good.
Long, exaggerated sigh for effect...OK, Titor is a totally reasonable time traveler for someone employed by the U.S Army, that is to say he is not especially creative. The Army values people who can think inside the box, and this guy can.
If this is what you do for time traveling you might as well go see a movie, and not a very good one either.
If you have a quick layover somewhere, make it interesting - I recently wrote the guide to 10 concerts you should see if you are a time traveler https://medium.com/p/8d2ead8cb643
or maybe you might just like to go get high with the quality drugs of yesteryear? https://medium.com/luminasticity/using-time-travel-to-score-...
Maybe there is a favorite food that you can no longer get? My guilty pleasure was 7-11 Nachos from the 80s when you could pile it up high enough to survive all day on one box, as long as you didn't care overmuch about what it did to your insides https://medium.com/luminasticity/a-stopover-for-nachos-8aed8...
Or indulge in some revenge on your worst enemies after they're gone and can't get even https://medium.com/luminasticity/money-making-opportunities-...
These may not be best practices, but they are enjoyable practices, and someone able to access all of time and space that doesn't attempt to enjoy themselves has definitely something a bit wrong in the head - just saying. Lucky this guy found someone to order him around in his life.
It'd be nice if some tiny pool of government resources (everywhere) were set aside in 'untraceable' ways that only someone from many years later could use, by which time any untapped resources would be rolled into a new investment area or returned to the general fund.
The non time traveler version would be completely off the books spy operations, so plausibly someone might rarely need that for non-time traveler reasons and thus hide any time travelers.
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