Time Travel Mutual Fund

I just received this rather non-humorous letter from the folks over at the Time Travel Mutual Fund:

Hello Alex,
I see you have our site, The Time Travel Fund, listed in your museum
of hoaxes.(www.TimeTravelFund.com)
I am writing you to ask that you remove us from your site. We are not
a hoax; we are serious in what we are attempting to do. Your site
lists us as being a hoax as if it were a fact, not as simply being
your personal opinion.
While you are certainly entitled to your opinion, presenting it as a
fact and not an opinion is slander.



This raises a dilemma for me. I do, in fact, list the Time Travel Fund in my gallery of hoax websites, having assumed that the site was a kind of cute, tongue-in-cheek idea whose main purpose was to sell $10 certificates that people could hang on their wall as a joke, rather than really being in the business of fund management. But if they're perfectly serious about their time travel fund, then that makes it a kooky site, rather than a hoax site. Should I keep the site on the list? I'm not sure.

I'm inclined to keep it on there just to annoy them because I don't like their legalistic threat about me slandering them. But I think the best thing to do would be to keep their site in the list, but add a disclaimer noting that while I thought the Fund was a joke, the fund managers themselves seem to take their task very seriously.

Future/Time Websites

Posted on Thu Aug 19, 2004



Comments

:exclaim: I recently heard that it is not possible to travel back in time to a point before the first time machine was made, based on the time machine acting as a funnel, in a sense. The time machine would be a telephone into the future. Bits of information would be able to get through, but it is doubtful that objects will go through in our lifetime. As for another method of time travel, the DeLorian seems like a possibility. Still, this is a stupid website. There is a good chance that these people are con artists. For example, what percentage of the $10 will they put in the fund, 0.000001? Beware. :exclaim:
Posted by Mike  on  Fri Aug 20, 2004  at  12:18 AM
Were I you, I wouldn't worry about them much until they learn the difference between slander and libel, which would be an indication that they have actually talked to a real, live lawyer.
Posted by Terry Austin  on  Fri Aug 20, 2004  at  12:56 AM
leave the address in the list, just to anger them.
Posted by joe peacock  on  Fri Aug 20, 2004  at  02:57 AM
keep the site listed, if they ever do time travel then they can just go back and register your domian name before you get to.
Posted by jeremy  on  Fri Aug 20, 2004  at  08:15 AM
Can they retrieve people from Hell? That would be usefull. Just get them then stuff them in church. I bet they will even stay awake in church!
Posted by Vincent  on  Fri Aug 20, 2004  at  09:00 AM
Keep it listed. If they're serious in what they're doing, then they're a "scam" not a "hoax". Pfft.
Posted by Anonymous  on  Fri Aug 20, 2004  at  09:39 AM
List it! Anyway on the libel idea there is "Fair comment" defense - frankly your comment is fair.
Posted by Peter  on  Fri Aug 20, 2004  at  09:44 AM
(just for the record, I did not post that comment above. I found the site listed in my referrer logs, clicked, and saw that someone posted as me. Not that it really matters, it's a very innocuous comment and doesn't really make me look bad / good in any way, but still... kinda scary that someone would post something under my name)

But I do agree, just leave it up. It's a hoot.
Posted by the real joe peacock  on  Fri Aug 20, 2004  at  09:52 AM
Normally I would rate these guys right up there with Richard Hoagland in their understanding of science but they did invoke the Star Trek(TM)name so you know it has to be true.
Posted by Ron  on  Fri Aug 20, 2004  at  10:09 AM
But what if I want to go back in time?

I need to go back to High School, and correct all the mistakes I made that turned me into such an incredible loser that I feel the need to contribute to the time travel fund.
Posted by Coit  on  Fri Aug 20, 2004  at  11:36 AM
On one hand, since it makes them angry, I'm inclined to say you should remove it. On the other hand, this site is called "Museum of Hoaxes" but really it's the "Museum of Hoaxes and Most Peculiar Real Things," so maybe it should stay.
Posted by PlantPerson  on  Fri Aug 20, 2004  at  11:49 AM
Until the very second one of their customers actually gets pulled into the future, their business and site are a farce, whether they consider them to be or not. I say keep the link up as it is until they can prove that they are providing a legitamite service.
Posted by Jim North  on  Fri Aug 20, 2004  at  12:09 PM
Well i think you should really remove the site from the museum, i have read the timetravel site and i'm sure that they are for real. but i have to stop writing my mail now because its time for my medicine and the rest of my electro treatment.
bye bye now
Posted by Jeroen  on  Fri Aug 20, 2004  at  01:13 PM
Tell them that they can arrange to have someone in the future travel back in time to stop you posting the original article.

It'll only cost them a tenner, so it'll be cheaper than a lawyer, too.
Posted by AW  on  Fri Aug 20, 2004  at  01:26 PM
Well, whether they feel like they're truthful or not, they're not legal. If this in an investment, where's the prospectus? Where's the official disclaimers? I don't see ANY legitimatacy in this. They promise to put a "percentage" of your contribution into "the fund". How much? How do they propose to earn more than 5%? Someone should ask them if any of their clients have been snatched up by the futurians. If time travel exists at any time in our future, someone would've been picked up by now.
I agree that whether they believe in it or not, until they can prove the legitimacy of thier "fund" it should stay on the site as a hoax or scam.

I think I know how they're investing the money though. I bet they're buying up acreage on the moon. 😝
Posted by Mark  on  Fri Aug 20, 2004  at  04:39 PM
Also, John Symmes contacted me from beyond the grave and told me he was "extremely vexed" that you have Symzonia on this site.
Posted by ltr  on  Fri Aug 20, 2004  at  04:44 PM
AW gave a great answer! :lol:
I think you should list them as a hoax. If they were so foolish as to seek a legal remedy, it would be worth the trouble to see them try to explain their position to a judge.
Posted by Mark Brown  on  Fri Aug 20, 2004  at  08:47 PM
Maybe you should add a "Kooky" category and put them under that. 😊
Posted by Hannah1  on  Fri Aug 20, 2004  at  11:04 PM
]
"(just for the record, I did not post that comment above. I found the site listed in my referrer logs, clicked, and saw that someone posted as me. Not that it really matters, it's a very innocuous comment and doesn't really make me look bad / good in any way, but still... kinda scary that someone would post something under my name)

But I do agree, just leave it up. It's a hoot.
Posted by the real joe peacock on Fri Aug 20, 2004 at 06:52 AM"


my name happens to be Joe Peacock.
I linked to your website because i found it funny and thought you would like the publicity.
Sorry for any damage done.
Posted by joe peacock  on  Sat Aug 21, 2004  at  01:14 AM
I wouldn't be inclined to take seriously the opinion on legal matters of someone who calls a written opinion "slander".
Posted by Ray  on  Sat Aug 21, 2004  at  08:00 PM
HOAX!

And last time I checked, time travel was an opinion, not a fact also.
Posted by Drunk Stepdad  on  Sat Aug 21, 2004  at  11:23 PM
This thing tops the loch ness monster virgin ritual...
Posted by The Mexx  on  Sun Aug 22, 2004  at  01:25 AM
Keep the link, Alex. In the future you can always go back in time and delete it.
Posted by Larry  on  Sun Aug 22, 2004  at  05:30 PM
Keep it listed! But put in a disclaimer (with their letter), not to keep clean on the legal front but because their claim that they are for real is almost as funny as the site itself.
Posted by Paul in Prague  on  Mon Aug 23, 2004  at  08:47 AM
I agree that they are not legal. I'd start by reporting them to their state's attorney general's office for security fraud. That'll get an investigation launched. I'd guess that the reason that there hasn't already been an investigation is that everyone assumes it's fake. If they want to be real, they'll have to buck up to the law, which prosecutes people for that.
Posted by Bill B.  on  Mon Aug 23, 2004  at  03:59 PM
Yes, it seems to good to be true. But if I invest $2.50 at 1% for 2000 years, I'm a billionaire. It might be worth the $2.50.....
Posted by Paul Butler  on  Tue Aug 24, 2004  at  11:53 AM
Well, I don't know if they are a fake or not, but I joined and selected the 'International' option by mistake. The refunded me the extra dollar they charge for overseas shipping, without me asking.
That within itself says a lot about them.
In any case, it's a cool certificate, worth the $10 by itself. If they are for real, great! If not, then I'm only out ten bucks, and I still have the certificate hanging on my wall.
Posted by Stephen  on  Tue Aug 24, 2004  at  12:40 PM
There is an assumption that someone must be around running their company in 500 or 5,000 years. There won't be. You are buying a certificate and that's all. If they insist that they are serious, ask them why, if time travel seems a certainty in the future, we have not had any visitors from there.

In addition, there is a theory in Quantum mechanics called "Causality". Maybe they should read it. But, although their company is a hoax, it is not a fraud since they are not promising anything deliverable. It is like selling property on Venus.
Posted by TC  on  Tue Aug 24, 2004  at  12:52 PM
Quote: But, although their company is a hoax, it is not a fraud since they are not promising anything deliverable. It is like selling property on Venus.

The problem is that they are selling it as an investment. Selling investments is illegal without the proper licenses. If it were simply sold in the same manner as the "International Star Registry" it would be acceptable. They can't be real and really invest the money as they say without the proper licensing though.
Posted by Bill B.  on  Tue Aug 24, 2004  at  01:46 PM
That's just plain SCAM, and SCAMS are REAL, they're NOT HOAX!
Posted by mangkih  on  Wed Aug 25, 2004  at  12:01 PM
If their promise is kept, won't those of us who purchase the certificate immidiately disappear into the future? If certificate holders have not disappeared, it can only mean two things: time travel is not possible in the future, or your fund never made it into the future.

There is one born every minute.
Posted by Marty  on  Fri Aug 27, 2004  at  01:17 AM
They should be thanking you for the free exposure, not threatenting a lawsuit. They are complete morons.
Posted by thecrwth  on  Fri Aug 27, 2004  at  02:30 PM
what about inflation? wouldn't that hurt your time travel fund?
Posted by john  on  Fri Aug 27, 2004  at  10:21 PM
sounds as if they're trying to hoax you, again. keeping up the mystery and all. i wouldn't be concerned if i were you.
Posted by linda  on  Sun Sep 05, 2004  at  03:49 PM
Hello fellow commenters. I stumbled on to this page and after reading all the comments, I was curious enough to go and read what all the fuss was about.

So is the site a hoax? Like Alex, I have no proof either way? It's impossible to say with factual certainty. Yet I see that many of you are quite happy to do so.

Actually, what struck me as really tragic about all this was the poor logic some of you used to support your statements.

>If their promise is kept, won't those of us
>who purchase the certificate immidiately
>disappear into the future?

At least read the site before you critique it. That question is covered well.

>There is an assumption that someone must be
>around running their company in 500 or 5,000
>years. There won't be.

Huh? How could you know there won't be anyone around? (Hey, are you from the future?!)

Trusts and companies are separate legal entities that are perpetual.

>If they insist that they are serious, ask them
>why, if time travel seems a certainty in the
>future, we have not had any visitors from there.

They never say time travel is a certainty. In fact, I thought they were pretty clear that it is definitely uncertain. Again, at least read the site before you critique it.

Why haven't we had any vistors from the future? Why are you so definite we haven't?

>what about inflation? wouldn't that hurt your
>time travel fund?

Good question. Yes it would. Now go read the home page of the site for their answer.

Love to you all,
Jules
Posted by Julie T  on  Thu Sep 16, 2004  at  09:41 AM
Dear Jules,
I read the site. Did you? The Fund was allegedly set up with the premise "how would YOU like to visit, even live hundreds of years in the future?". If the suggestion is I get to visit the future after I am dead, the premise fails. It is quite clear that you have read the site but your alleged logic has failed you. Go on, put up the $10 and visit the future after you die. For me, I will obey the Prime Directive and not interfere with inferior intelligences.
Love you too.
Marty
Posted by Marty  on  Thu Sep 16, 2004  at  07:04 PM
Marty, Marty, Marty, tsk, tsk, tsk,

You're making this way too easy for me, but I'll assume you're not just trolling and take on the challenge.

>I read the site. Did you?

Yes, that's also what I said I did in my original message. (Hopefully that is all cleared up now.)

>If the suggestion is I get to visit the future
>after I am dead, the premise fails.

How does the premise fail? You just made this statement but you didn't support it with any facts or evidence. How did you arrive at this conclusion? It's certainly not self-evident.

If we're expected to believe that the premise fails just because you say so, then that's not very convincing.

>It is quite clear that you have read the
>site...

Hold on, if it's clear that I read the site, why did you question above whether I had read it or not?

>...but your alleged logic has failed you.

Again, are we expected to believe my logic is flawed just because you say so?

I'm more than happy to be corrected, but unless you quote a specific mistake in my logic and provide some good evidence of where it is wrong, then those words are just an unfounded opinion.

You, of course, have every right to an opinion about me, just as I have every right to ask you to substantiate that opinion.

>Go on, put up the $10 and visit the future
>after you die.

Firstly, as I said in my original message, I have no idea of whether the site is a hoax or not. Until more information is made available to me, I'm neutral on the whole matter. So why are you goading me in to doing so?

Secondly, whether I (or anyone) would invest in the fund or not has no relevance to my original claim that some of the previous commenters used questionable arguments to support their conclusions.

If someone had used the same type of poor rationalisations to claim that the site was _not_ a hoax, I'd be just as discouraged from believing them.

>Love you too.

Why thanks - I could just hug you right now. 😉
Jules
Posted by Julie T  on  Fri Sep 17, 2004  at  02:39 AM
Found the time travel site ages ago. A bit of a hoot but they are genuine I believe (misguided but genuine). The sad thing is I visted a time travel site forum and the people there are absolutely convinced. Constant comments like "whatever happened to 'x'?" John Titor has to be the most well known time traveller (google him) And dissapointment when speculation is proved wrong. It's tragic. (conspiracy theorist sites are good fun too)

A question however is WHY are 98% of these morons US citizens?
Posted by steve treloar  on  Sat Sep 25, 2004  at  09:26 PM
first of all steve, I have an answer to your question "WHY are 98% of these morons US citizens?"
....well, thats a hard one, but i've managed to come up with a conclusion...98% of these morons are US citizens because 98% of US citizens are morons...oh burn

-Anyways, now to the important stuff; i'd like to point out to at least 4 of you who say that they wont be able to retrieve you from the past after your dead, well dumba**ses, i'm sure they could retrieve you before you die(being in the future and all), which they clearly state on the website.

I'll be back to talk later, bluntly, A.Milton
Posted by Alex  on  Wed Apr 20, 2005  at  09:36 PM
I think you are all being a little harsh on these guys. They make it quite clear on the website that $1 will be invested in the fund, another $1 will be invested in a seperate fund for potential legal costs etc, and the remaining $8 goes to the (openly) profit making company that runs the site - although let's face it, huge profits are not likely. (and for those of you who think $1 is pittance, it is true that compound interest over a large amount of time is breathtaking - ask Motley Fool. They only need to beat inflation by a fraction to accumulate wealth over thousands of years).

What they are doing is funny, interesting and thought provoking. It raises interesting moral and philosophical questions. It is also not necessarily impossible (I loved the comment by Posted by Mike on Thu Aug 19, 2004 at 10:18 PM - he has recently heard that time travel is impossible back to before time travel is invented! Well, that's that then, Mike has heard!)

People who think this is rot should read a few books on quantum mechanics and even Einstein's theories, none of which rule time travel to be impossible. (Try: 'The Elegant Universe' & 'The Fabric of the Cosmos' by Brian Greene - a little more qualified on the subject than 'Mike'). (Or for those of you who have heard of Carl Sagan, see this interview with him: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/time/sagan.html).

I'm not saying time travel IS possible, just that it might be and there is nothing (NOTHING) in current theories to rule it impossible.

And the Time Travel Fund is open about where the money goes. Give them a break and let a little imagination and wonder into your souls!
Posted by DB  on  Wed Jun 01, 2005  at  09:22 PM
Ummm, it works.
Can't tell you how I know, but if you look hard enough for the Time Travel conventions that have had 1000s of people show up when the advertisments for them aren't done til the future... Heard about one on the CBC a month and a bit ago... The news article was the first mention of it outside of someones secure safe.
Amazing what can be accomplished.
Posted by Ender  on  Wed Jul 06, 2005  at  02:56 PM
Also if its a scam its a damn creative one. You really get 5$ back from Paypal for signing up too..
So for 5$ you can pay some very creative people. Whats wrong with that?
You all spend more on crap Hollywood DVDs that do nothing for you life beyond entertain you for 1.75 hours. Or More on cigarettes in 2 days if you smoke.
Its about as much as eating a McD's meal, and you get the cool "sci-fi" fan certificate.
Who paid for the Star Wars ep.s 1-3 even though they were all garbage... Good special effects, but bad acting and bad stories... But are the 3 movies worth what you've spent on them? That they were made out to be good is a bigger hoax than a creative site thats enjoyable to read.
I haven't signed up, I dont work for them, I just found the site enjoyable and find the people who feel they have to criticise everything they don't understand are morons.
Read up on the potentials for M-Theory, I'd start with the Elegant Universe Nova DVD and Book. Look into the hyper dimensional physics research too... Scientists are divided on this topic but enough think its more than possible...
My interest in the Time Travel Fund comes from my writing sci-fi stories, its a neat thing. I apprieciate the work they put into it.
I'm also going to sign up. Just for the fun of it and that it pisses off closed minded sorts like a bunch of the commenters on this site seem to be.
Posted by Ender  on  Wed Jul 06, 2005  at  03:07 PM
greetings, this is tim and tom. we are from the future, the year 2043. We have just travelled back to 2005 to visit some relatives, and are just saying hi, and that these guys are liers. They cannot travel back in time, only we can. Soon after we invented a time traval machine, we patented it, rendering the technology innacesable to them.

Cheers
Posted by Timtom  on  Mon Oct 31, 2005  at  05:14 PM
Here is my theory on time travel, and yes, I know I am posting over 1 year from the origional post.

I used to believe that time travel is impossible. There really is no way to send things through time. For example, where is the logic behind me going back in time, telling myself not to go back in time to tell myself not to go back... If this happened, then how would I go back in the first place. Therefore the entire universe would be trapped in an infinate loop, and would remain so even without me finding myself in the past, because even moving 1 partical in the past would change the flow of energy in the future.

So therefore, there in no way that time = 4D and is set before it happens, because then we would be able to change it, but how can you change a preset sequence? So time is not set, it is not even an object, and nothing that happens is recorded. Time is just something that humans feel but it is not really there. The only way that time travel could ever happen is if a computer simulation of the earth could calculate what the earth would be like if a certain thing happened, and then amazingly powerful machines would convert the earth into enrgy, and then convert it back into matter in the requested image. But I don't see how doing this could possibly bring back an entire person. The only way to do that would be to clone them (which is already illegal). Would you pay to be cloned? I say keep them on your site with no explanation. Lets see them trying explain to a judge the perose of this service and how it works. Well, I would have said that if only I could go back 1 year ago and post this message then -> Maybe I'll pay mt $10 with an order for them to make me find this page 1 year ago and post this message to see what happens..
Posted by Sids  on  Wed Nov 09, 2005  at  03:13 PM
Hi Sids,

>where is the logic behind me going back in
>time, telling myself not to go back in time to
>tell myself not to go back... If this happened,
>then how would I go back in the first place.

This assumes there's only a single time line.

Unless you can disprove multiple time lines and all the alternatives that have the same affect, this is just another one of the many unresolved paradoxes raised by the potential of time travel.

You make several other assumptions like this.
Posted by James  on  Fri Nov 11, 2005  at  05:48 PM
One thing I
Posted by Marshall  on  Thu Dec 29, 2005  at  01:53 PM
The location of time travel has no bearing on the possibility of time travel. According to current scientific knowledge, there is no way for backwards time travel to work, whether you go back to meet your uncle or somebody on the other side of the universe.
Posted by Charybdis  on  Thu Dec 29, 2005  at  02:20 PM
Hey I am a registered user on Time Travel Fund and it started off as simply a joke, a $10 donation to get a plaque, a nice conversation starter. But I have done a little bit of research and it just so happens to turn out that over 700 of the users have become missing persons. This makes me wonder, could this $10 joke really turn out to be true? If so my $10 was well spent and if not then who gives a shit its $10.
Posted by jeff  on  Sat Nov 25, 2006  at  03:24 PM
I think time traveling might be possible but according to most scientist it is more likely that humans wil be able to travel to the future than to go to back to the past.
Posted by karenmolina  on  Sun Dec 10, 2006  at  11:18 PM
another similar site, again not a hoax they say as they have donated monies to time-travel-research (more than time-travel-fund did).
Posted by lynn garner  on  Sat Jun 23, 2007  at  03:44 AM
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