John Titor | The Most Famous Time Traveler

John Titor is the most famous time traveler. He faxed Art Bell on the Coast to Coast AM radio show in 1999 and posted on bulletin boards in 2001 and 2001, claiming to be an American military time traveler from 2036. He claimed to be on a mission to retrieve an antique computer from 1975, an IBM 5100 computer. This computer would help resolve the Year 2038 Problem, a looming digital catastrophe similar to Y2K.

Titor made countless predictions, including nuclear disaster and collapsing governments. While inconsistencies, failed predictions, and private investigators have found evidence this was a hoax perpetrated by one or more actors, many still believe John Titor was a time traveler who prevented numerous catastrophes.

The name "John Titor" was introduced in January 2001 on the Art Bell Post to Post forums. He retained the name until he stopped posting in March 2001. In his posts, Titor claimed to be an American soldier from 2036, based in Tampa, Florida. He was assigned to a governmental time-travel project, and sent back to 1975 to retrieve an IBM 5100 computer, which he said was needed to debug various legacy computer programs in 2036. The IBM 5100 runs the APL and BASIC programming languages.

Titor said he had been selected for this mission specifically, given that his paternal grandfather was directly involved with the assembly and programming of the 5100. In support of this, he described unpublicized features of the 5100, leading to assumptions that a computer scientist was behind the postings. Titor claimed to be on a stopover in the year 2000 for "personal reasons", to collect pictures lost in the (future) civil war and to visit his family, of whom he spoke often.

Titor also said he had been, for a few months, trying to alert anyone that would listen about the threat of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease spread through beef products and about the possibility of Civil War within the United States. When questioned about them by an online subscriber, Titor also expressed an interest in mysteries such as UFOs, which he claimed remained unexplained in his time. Titor suggested that UFOs and extraterrestrials might be travelers from much further into the future than his own time, with superior time machines, a theory that partially aligns with the writings of Jacque Vallee and John Keel.

Although Titor was only active for a short period of time, many characters became involved in the story. Pamela Moore was a frequent contact with Titor on and off the message boards. She was one of the few who came to know him well, and she even received contact as recent as 2016. Joseph Matheny, the creator of the Ong's Hat ARG, claims to have helped architect the John Titor story as part of a multimedia experiment online. Many speculate that Larry Haber and Morey Haber are two confidence men who originated and perpetuated the Titor story as a hoax. Even worse, lesser conmen like Dan Lee Stern Sr., who claimed to be John Titor 2, have been exposed for their attempted grift under the John Titor's name.

Regardless of who or what he was, Titor impacted the lives of many people in the few short years he was active, and he sparked a long-lasting Internet mystery, one that is still talked about to this day.

#timetravel #johntitor

0:00 – Introduction
1:27 – Origin
7:39 – The Forum
12:50 – The Cast
13:20 – Pamela Moore
16:00 – Joseph Matheny
17:20 – Larry Haber
18:02 – Morey Haber
18:22 – John Razimus
19:12 – John Titor 2
20:14 – The Last of John Titor

[Frightful_Lag]

This man was clearly a fan of George Orwell, or simply wanted to create his own little world of fiction

[lightguys]

Legitimately confused why you haven't blown up. 10/10 content. Please do not stop creating.

[bwoodblu]

I just finished Steins Gate and had no idea it was based on a real story. Very interesting

[sbtribute]

I did security for our local hydro office in 1999 and I was constantly asked by family, friends and local business' if our power would still be on Jan 1 2000. I assured them we were fine. Dec 31 about 11:55pm I'm standing in front of the building with the guard from the previous shift; we do the countdown and at the stroke of midnight the sign in front of the building goes out... We exchange concerned looks... 30 seconds later it comes back on and we did a sigh of relief and chuckled. 😅

[goatpillowhat]

after just finding your channel and watching a few videos before this PERFECT one, i can hands down say you are one of the most underrated youtube channels i have ever seen. you vary on your topics and go into depth with each one of them, i’ll be showing my friends and if you see this comment man keep up the great work, beautifully done🙏🏼

[fratercontenduntocculta]

The full Coast to Coast series is now on YouTube! I listen to it in my car for nostalgia's sake. Heard it a few weeks ago, but I already know you have great production skills and love this channel!

[metalitcomesfromhell]

I hate that i missed the glory of Coast to Coast AM. I just imagine being on a long drive at 3AM, half delirious and flipping through boring AM channels to find the absolutely insanity of these time traveler tales.

[realGTFOH]

Its funny how his 2038 technology looks old af even for 2023 standards😂

[MummyBrown]

Excellent video! I’m pretty sure that Art Bell’s show was great theater more often than we’d like to admit. That doesn’t stop my love and devotion to his legacy, it makes me nostalgic for the magic of stories like this and the “what if” feelings stories like this have on the soul. This story is the adult version on Santa Claus to me and I love it.

Thank you so much for the entertainment 😊

[joshuapeter-manickam]

This whole thing feels like a great ARG that was ahead of it’s time

[TheBestTodo]

A real mind bender. Professional grade content here. Really impressed with your channel, hoping you’ll get boosted to more eyes soon!

[xXGTPWNEDXx]

The amount of logical holes in john story is staggering. But cool ARG I guess.

[YouDontKnowMebro]

John Titor could have just mentioned 9/11 real quick just sayin..

[danielhicks]

That was excellent to man I remember this in real time when it happened way back when.

[Cupcakes]

Found your channel through the I-70 video and I’ve been binging ever since. Surprised you haven’t blown hun yet, I’ll be subbing and sharing. Have a good one man, keep up the good work

[emaleagreaves]

I’ve watched many videos on this John Titor phenomenon/“hype”. You’ve done the best in your video in my humblest opinion. Kudos dude for real!

[efsupercell]

These videos are so well done. Thank you for keeping the subjects unique and not feeling like another wanna-be spooky channel

[sailingaeolus]

Ironic that youtube is playing this video, because one of Titor's predictions was that mainstream news and media would be a thing of the past and individuals would produce the replacement content on the internet. While he did not mention any particular platform (like youtube), he certainly nailed it right on this point. And I recall back in the early 2000s how ridiculous it sounded that the big three (ABC, NBC, CBS) would be replaced by individual content over the internet. In fact, they are now referred to ABC, NBC and CBS as the "legacy media". That was unthinkable in 2001.

[Marcey_omNovell]

5 star video, very underrated channel. Keep up the good work. Xoxo

[courtney]

The callousness torwards people in need is a heart breaking reality of this society. You never know what will happen when you interact with strangers. Is it worth risking your safety for someone you don't know? Even if John was not a time traveler, the sentements in his final letter ring hauntingly true. Perhaps if we focused more on helping our fellow man we could avoid an existential threat like the one John claims to be trying to prevent.