Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with timetravel

Know any good read-only time travel stories?

bjork24 — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:47:11 -0800

Can you recommend any good stories/books that deal with unobtrusive time travel tourism? Tourists from the future going back in time to view historical events, or catch a glimpse at a historical person, but not interacting or interfering in any way, shape, or form... read-only time travel, if you will.

What's changed in 11 years of this American life?

stuck on an island — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 09:31:32 -0800

Time Travel Filter: I grew up in the USA but have been away since 1998. What have I missed? Remember when America's biggest presidential headache was a certain White House intern's blue Gap dress? I left the US that year for university abroad. For complicated reasons I won't go into here, I have remained outside the US ever since, and have been back only two or three times for short (less than a week) visits.

Cast your mind back to 1998. How has everyday life in the US changed? Assume I know broadly about the major changes (the rise of the TSA and gas prices) and those that have affected other countries too (recession, LOLspeak). How much does it cost to send a letter? Do grocery stores still ask "paper or plastic"? How's life in the workplace? What menaces threaten our children? And someone on MeFi mentioned that free refills are no longer standard in restaurants. Dear God, America, say it ain't so.

This book, it vibrates

rokusan — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 08:21:39 -0800

Another forgotten book from childhood. Time travel/survival. Dinosaurs. And yes, it vibrates. Help? A "young adult" book I read when I was ten or eleven, I think. At least I think it was a YA title. Maybe it was just cheesy. It was handed down from someone else, too, so it could have been published anywhere from the sixties through the mid-eighties, I guess.

Science fiction, pretty cliche setup: A scientist invents a time machine and his children (a boy and a girl, I think) become trapped in the prehistoric past, fighting dinosaurs and learning to find food/shelter and so on.

The main detail I can remember is that the machine itself was large and took up an entire room in the scientist's lab. It was some kind of large ?metal ring that vibrated until it became invisible/intangible, and then the travelers would step through it. Stepping "into the ring(s)" was the moment of no return. It may have turned into a circular rainbow. Or maybe I am imagining that part.

The only parts of the actual plot I remember is that there are multiple "trips", as someone (the father?) makes a second journey back to rescue someone else. The machine also becomes broken (explodes?) at some point, "stranding" people in the past.

It's definitely not "A Wrinkle in Time", but the infuriating thing for me is that whenever I hear the title of L'Engle's book, I think of this story instead. It would help me tell them apart if I could remember the name of this one. No clue on the author.

Are these wisps of half-memory enough for anyone to recognize?

I might recognize a title, and I'd almost certainly recognize a synopsis.

Tell me the name of this 80s time travel story, please!

Monster_Zero — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:33:07 -0800

Want to help remember a book title? 'Course ya do! It's from the 80s and, if I remember correctly, involves some kids that discover a new game at the local arcade. There's a pilot's helmet on top of the machine, and when they try it on and attempt the game they find they can travel through time. I believe the cover was a picture of the machine and the helmet. At one point they use it to break into a research facility or something, but before that I think they go back too far and it's still being built (leading to some fretting about jumping forward in time and ending up halfway through a wall or floor). I know somebody out there can field this one!

Time traveling as a tactical move?

np312 — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 13:03:53 -0800

Looking for science fiction movies/TV shows in which a military force (consisting of aliens or humans, good or evil) has tactically used time travel as a means to win a war. To be specific, I’m not interested in individuals going backward or forward in time to kill one tactically important person, so the “Terminator” movies are out. The two ideas I’m really interested in are

1. An entire army (human or alien) traveling through time in a surprise attack on an unsuspecting civilization or

2. Individuals sent on a mission to the future, in order to return with a LOT of superior technology, such as better guns, better spaceships, better armor, etc which allows them to easily vanquish their foes in the past. Not just one really cool gun.

I’m sure this device has been used in sci fi films/shows many times before, but for some reason I'm drawing a blank. Thanks for your help!

Let's Say You've Gone Back in Time

Orange Pamplemousse — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 09:16:13 -0800

What knowledge would a time traveler find most useful in uplifting an ancient civilization or establishing personal wealth? I came across this poster a few hours ago, which details what a time traveler in the vein of a Connecticut yankee or archaeologist would find useful.

The list interests me, but I know that the chemistry information at least is incomplete (ie. Knowing some isoform of C20H26O2 is a birth control is meaningless, but bauxite isn't described). Pasteurization and waterwheel -> electricity are examples of the list's strengths.

So, what snippets of scientific information would be good additions to this list? Anything that would improve the ancient society or the traveler's place in it is fair game, provided it can be applied with the tools on hand, or is readily available from simpler knowledge (nuclear fission is out of reach and e=mc^2 useless).

For the purposes of this question, assume the traveler arrives sometime around 200BC in the Mediterranean, with no tools or books. Knowledge of the particular political climate isn't important, I'm more interested in the technology.

Name this children's book.

Tin Man — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:55:13 -0800

What is the name of this children's novel that includes time travel, Ben Franklin, some kids and a professor, and two versions of the same character, one of which is from several days in the future? I'm dying to track down this novel I read as a kid. If I remember correctly, a few kids/teenagers and a professor were in a house where Benjamin Frankling used to live, and they went back in time and met him. There was a character named (I think) Joe, and there was also a character nicknamed Joe Thursday (or something like that), because before going back in time the characters traveled a few days into the future and picked up future Joe. The time machine was either a secret compartment in the house or maybe an elevator.

I feel like this book was part of a running series, something along the lines of the Three Investigators, but I'm not sure.

Roll Call: Who's come unstuck in time?

Ambrosia Voyeur — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 10:16:06 -0800

Help with my homework filter!! I want to compile a list of time travelers from literature, television and cinema. I am looking for a couple specific attributes. I want to know a few things about the time traveler:

1. Who are they? Gender, age, situation in native historical setting?
2. What is their mode of conveyance or displacement in time? Is it used deliberately?
3. What goals are met by their time travel?
4. Do they die? Are they dead already?

So, for example, Hermione Granger is a girl at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry in Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban, whose time travel device is a magic "time turner," inscribed with the words “my use and value unto you are gauged by what you have to do” and “I mark the hours every one nor have I yet outrun the sun.” The device is worn around the neck like a necklace, and turned, one ring within another, and a tiny hourglass at the center, to travel back in time only, at one hour per turn. She uses it to take additional classes to excel in her studies, and also, later, to solve a mystery.

What is striped timeline time travel?

es_de_bah — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:53:06 -0800

What is the "striped time line" theory of time travel? My coworker keeps talking about it and can't quite catch it. It is apparently explored in one of the Dragonball series, but I can't find anything about it online. This is, of course, flabbergasting because, well, Anime + time travel /= Google paydirt?!?!?! Anyone got the skinny? I like to think of myself as pretty geek-friendly (ok, so I'm a geek), and I like time travel logistics problems, but I don't know what the hell my co-worker is talking about.

A child stuck in time

NoraReed — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 20:06:05 -0800

Young adult novel filter: A child visits a place (house? castle? other world?) and gets stuck in time there. Eventually he goes back and visits his parents, who are horrified that he has stayed the same age. If I remember correctly, every day there is a year in the real world (but it could've been every week there is a year or something like that). When he goes back, his parents think it is some kind of sick joke (since they have aged many years and he appears the same age).

I read it around 6th grade, I think, so it should be around that level.

Help me identify this artsy time travely movie.

JonnyRotten — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 12:24:21 -0800

I am looking for a movie I saw clips from back around 2000 or so. It is a movie about time travel. I think someone from the future is coming back to kill or kidnap a scientist. The distinct part is, the visual style. I remember it being still pictures with transitions between them, with the actors talking. Sometime like 1 picture ever 1-2 seconds.

Which Movie: Dead girl putting a letter in a pocket

esilenna — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 14:29:04 -0800

Which-Movie-Filter: A movie about a girl who travels in time, and is possibly dead. Mr. esilenna is going nuts over not remembering the title of a movie he claims we saw together, but which I have absolutely no recollection of.

The only thing he remembers is something about a girl traveling back in time to put a letter in the jacket pocket of her lover/bf. In the scene, we are made to believe it's the present-time girl who does this, but she comes back from the future. Also we don't see her put the letter in the pocket, merely that she is fondling the jacket itself. At the end, there might be something about her being dead, and a ghost and "something"...?

Not much I know, but does this ring any bells? I suggested The Jacket (although it doesn't fit his description), but he insists it's not that.

What is this tv programme I watched as a child?

badmoonrising — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:29:08 -0800

[Irritating-mystery filter] Of magical elevators, murder mysteries, Kenwood mixers and time travel: please help me identify this tv programme I watched once as a child! O Noble MeFites, please help me with something that has been irritating me for years and years. I remember watching an episode of a tv programme many years ago, and for some reason random details have stayed in my mind. I have no idea why - I don't remember being particularly struck by the programme at the time. I can't remember if it was any good. It might be something incredibly obvious. Every now and again I try googling, but have never had any luck tracking down the name of the programme.

I'm 99.9% sure that I watched this with a babysitter, which makes it at least ten years old, very probably more. It was shown in the evening, or at night, (although probably not after midnight). I'm English, so it was definitely shown in the UK, although the series wasn't necessarily English. I think I was scared watching it, as a young child, although the babysitter probably wouldn't have let me watch it if it had been anything too horrific.

There was some form of time travel involved, possibly in a lift (elevator). The main characters were trying to solve or prevent a murder.

I remember that a female character visited a restaurant kitchen, and didn't want to give her real name so pretended to be called Miss/Mrs/Ms Kenwood, after glancing round the kitchen frantically and seeing a Kenwood kitchen mixer. I have a vague feeling she later got into trouble with her boss/colleague for this - I think she wasn't supposed to have gone to the restaurant. This may have been because they were worried about creating a time paradox.

At another point, Character A asked Character B if he/she had taken some medication with the words "have you taken it/them?". I think it was medication that A had tampered with. When later questioned about this, after B's death, A claimed he/she had been talking about Character B taking some letters to the postbox. The detective-type characters then debated about this, deciding it was strange grammar to use and rather suspicious.

Well, that's as much as I can remember. I realise these are all very minor details, and this is probably completely unsolvable, but thanks in advance for any light that can be shed!

Time travel with an iPhone

griffey — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:00:01 -0800

How do I deal with new iPhone calendaring weirdness? Bonus difficulty: live in one timezone, work in another. I'm having not so much fun figuring out how to deal with my Exchange calendaring issues on my new iPhone 3G. I'm syncing using an Exchange server, but here's the issue: I live in Central Time, but work in Eastern. The server is in eastern time, while my phone roams from one to the other as I go to and from work.

Here's what I've been able to see so far:

Create an event for 1pm on my iPhone while in Central time: event stays at 1pm even when I cross the timeline on the phone, but shows up for 2pm on Outlook on my computer.

Create an event for 1pm on my Outlook PC while at work in Eastern Time: syncs to my iPhone (which is ALSO IN EASTERN TIME) at 12pm (noon).

It's like my phone is permanently on Central time, and my computer is obviously on Eastern, and everything is crossing wires as they sync. The phone is currently set to automatically set time/date, but I tried setting it manually to Eastern and it didn't change anything.

I didn't have this problem with my last phone (windows mobile), so I'm sure it's the iPhone trying to fix things for me...but how the heck to I stop this behavior?

Everything else (email and contacts) are syncing beautifully. The phone, in every other respect, is marvelous and wonderful.

Creative solutions welcome!

1930s Hawaii address, where is it?

zippy — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:08:25 -0800

How do I find the modern geographical location of an old Hawaii address that no longer exists? I'm looking for the present day location of a Hawaiian address that appears in the 1930 census.

The address is 2483 East Manor Road, Honolulu, Honolulu, Hawaii Territory.

How do I find the geographical location of this address, and possibly the address of the building today, if it exists?

Mein Sci-Fi Kampf

pedmands — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:10:09 -0800

There was a post (I believe on Boing Boing) a few months ago about a sci-fi short story in the form of an internet message board. The message board was for a group of time travelers, and the new members were always being scolded for going back in time and killing Hitler (this was against the rules, as without Hitler we wouldn't have many technologies, etc etc). I have Google strings that I've tried inside... time travel sci-fi story message board
Hitler sci-fi short story
hitler sci-fi story message

ad infinitum...

I've tried the various strings in Google, on Boing Boing, and on MetaFilter to no avail. Anyone out there have this story?

What's the time-travel canon?

scarylarry — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 02:10:13 -0800

I'm trying to make an expansive and widely-varied reading list of time-travel books and stories. Suggestions? I realize that asking for a list of science-fiction stories about time-travel is a little like asking for a list of pop songs about love, but I'm interested in compiling a reading list of the very best and/or most eccentric or idiosyncratic works in the sub-genre.

I tend not to read sci-fi, so feel free to assume that I'm unfamiliar with works that might seem obvious to a connoisseur. Off the top of my head, I've read Wells's Time-Machine, Orson Scott Card's Pastwatch, that horrible Michael Crichton book, and that's it. Everything else is fair game.

I'm not looking for movies or TV shows, but graphic novel suggestions would be totally welcome. I'm looking for work that is either exemplary of the genre or quirky because it comes at the genre in an unpredictable way.

Thanks so much!

Help me find a short story about time travellers killing Kennedys.

joannemerriam — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 17:24:05 -0800

Kennedy assassination time traveller short story - anybody know who wrote it or what it was called? I read a short story several decades ago with the premise that the Kennedy assassinations were carried out by time travellers from a future where America was an oppressive dictatorship led by future Kennedys. They couldn't get near their own leaders, so they figured out a way to kill their grandparents.

I think it was published in Asimov's, sometime in the '80s. I have no idea who authored it or what the title might have been. Does anybody here remember this story too?

Simple puzzles that require time travel to solve?

TimeTravelSpeed — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 13:13:35 -0800

Can you think of time-travel puzzle rooms for my D&D mini-campaign? (2 other categories of puzzles I'd like are described inside) Let's say player A has a magical hourglass which is labeled "Past" on the bottom, and "Future" on the top. When sand falls "into the past", she goes back in time. Turned horizontal, to the present, and turned the other way, the future. I provide the amount of sand in each room, and that controls the distance and duration of her travel. (For example, "30 seconds of sand" would mean she goes back 30 seconds, and can remain in that timeline for 30 seconds before returning) Additional notes: 1) her physical location is preserved over the "time jumps", 2) when she goes back in time there will be two of her, 2.1) if she jumps back in the same physical location she was in, she'll just appear next to her clone from the past -- no overlap, and 3) the sand disappears when she exits a room.

I would like simple and interesting puzzles that require this ability. An example might be that she enters a room whose floor begins to raise slowly toward a ceiling of spikes. The solution is to go forward in time 30 seconds so that the floor has now raised over head, revealing the room underneath the raising floor with the lever that stops it. Also, don't worry too much about time paradoxes -- the players are much more interested in simplicity and coolness-factor than ones that are consistent with physical laws :P

The two other players also have special abilities. One can turn into a titan or tiny creature at will. The other can shift gravity toward any wall or ceiling. Puzzles of this type would be great too. I would be VERY grateful to anyone who can come up with a puzzle that requires ALL THREE abilities cooperatively in a clever way.

Please be as outlandish as you like. The rooms are the creation of a trickster god, so the setting allows for pretty much anything. If you have any questions, please ask. Thanks!

Help me identify this book.

goatdog — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 19:45:03 -0800

Help me identify this young adult book about time travel of a sort. It's about a girl who goes to her cousin's birthday part in Philly, gets caught smoking pot and sent home in disgrace. On the train she hits her head and goes back in time to when her mother was her age. She finds out that her mom was even more of a troublemaker than she is, and in the process gains some sympathy for her mom. Read sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

When something bad happens to Doctor Who, why doesn't he just go back in time and fix it?

ranglin — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 18:53:08 -0800

DoctorWhoFilter: When something bad happens to the doctor, why doesn't he just go back in time and fix it? He doesn't seem to have a problem with fiddling with time, so why not? Just finished watching the end of the second season of the revised Doctor Who. It was a great episode but it got me thinking... When bad things happen (or an episode doesn't go his way), why doesn't the doctor just use the TARDIS to go back in time and try again?

SPOLIERS: The thought that made it come into my head was when Rose was falling towards the void, and I thought "Well, if she goes in, he can just go back and catch her next time"... Now, in that case Pete caught her anyway, but I can think of many other times, even just from this season, where it would seem to make sense for the Doctor to go back and fix things... (ie. why not take Elton back and rescue the "real" Ursula before she was absorbed, rather than giving him a paver; why not go back and rescue some of the people that died in "Satan's Pit", or stop Toby from infecting the ood so the base wouldn't blow up?)

I know the final answer is "because it wouldn't make good TV", but I'm wondering if, in the many years Doctor Who has been on, whether they've addressed this issue?

Any Doctor fans out there who can provide some insight, or even non-doctor fans who have a theory? :)

(PS. I know this is an odd AskMe question, but I can't get anywhere with google and I figured Christmas is a good time for silly questions!)

This could be a long-shot even for AskMe

sambosambo — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 07:01:49 -0800

In middle school I read a story about time-travel. Can you help me identify it based on these inaccurate and erratic details? What I remember: a boy moves to a new town with his mother and her abusive boyfriend. Exploring the attic (or the woods nearby) of his new home, he finds a door that is able to transport him a set number of years into the future or the past depending on which direction he enters--which he does to escape his family troubles. His mother is eventually killed by the boyfriend/step-dad, which causes him to retreat to the past and wait for the chance to prevent her death--which he ultimately fails.

A few inaccurate and erratic details:

Title may be something along the lines of "The 50 Year door"

I think the author had a short one-word name like "Avi" and it may be only one story in a compilation rather than a whole novel, but nothing I searched by that author seemed to match.

The story is premised by saying that the author is merely relaying a story he found in a briefcase which may or may not be true.

At a couple points, he has run-ins with his future/past self whom we learn he is unable to see.

He meets and falls in love with a girl with whom he shares the secret of the door as they grow older together.

Like Army of Darkness, but more realistic

OpinioNate — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 17:02:07 -0800

Help me find a specific type of time travel novel. I like to measure my knowledge of technology by how well I could describe a thing to people living in the past. Say I was transported 300 years into the past - would I be able explain powered flight? How about germs or penicillin? I'm really keen to find books that describe this specific scenario: Someone from the present is transported into the past, taking with him or her the benefits of our age.

Outlander is a pretty good example, but Gabaldon is too romance-y for me. Any ideas?

Stories about sending signals to the past

clockworkjoe — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 12:21:11 -0800

Is there any time travel fiction based on the idea of only sending signals/information into the past? I'm interested in the idea presented in John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness film. Several of the characters receive a subconscious signal from the future to warn them of the end of the world. What else has been done with this idea of time travel?

Name that time travel movie!

null terminated — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 12:47:38 -0800

What time travel movie is this? I saw a movie between 1985-1990 (on VHS) having to do with time travel to the past. The only part I remember is when the boy, who has traveled back in time, gets in trouble for using money that appears to be counterfeit he's using present-day money in the past). Any idea what movie this is?