En un curioso experimento, Robert Nemiroff y Teresa Wilson de la Michigan Technological University han rastreado la red buscando pistas sobre viajeros en el tiempo. Aunque tanto el principio del estudio como sus resultados puedan parecer banales, su método ha servido para demostrar las posibilidades de internet para detectar fenómenos emergentes y, de paso, desmontar algunas leyendas urbanas sobre los viajes en el tiempo.
El estudio se basa en lo que sus autores denominan conocimiento clarividente o precognición. Si se encontrara alguna mención en internet a algo antes de que la gente supiera de su existencia, esto podría ser una pista de que existen los viajeros temporales. Ese algo debía de cumplir tres condiciones para ser utilizado como marcador temporal: (1) Haber recibido su nombre en el periodo en el que realizaron la búsqueda (entre enero de 2006 y septiembre de 2013); (2) ser un vocablo unívoco, que no se prestara a confusión con otros fenómenos y (3) referirse a algo relevante en el futuro y con visos de quedar grabado en los libros de historia.
Eligieron el descubrimiento del cometa ISON (incidentalmente Nemiroff es el corresponsable de la web de la NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day) descubierto el 21 de septiembre de 2012 y al Papa Francisco, nombre elegido por Jorge Mario Bergoglio el 16 de marzo de 2013, pues es la primera vez que un jefe de la iglesia católica se llama así.
Los investigadores realizaron una búsqueda exhaustiva de menciones al cometa ISON y al papa Francisco antes de que ambos fueran nombrados. Ni en Google ni Bing encontraron referencia a ambos sucesos anterior a sus nombramientos. Facebook, fue rechazado pues las fechas son manipulables. Twitter, que estampa la fecha a cada mensaje, tampoco dio resultados positivos salvo una mención en un blog de contenido especulativo.
Trataron también de provocar a los posibles viajeros. Como hiciera Hawking, los invitaron a dejarse ver. Para ello, en agosto pasado crearon una serie de tuits con dos hashtags diferentes, #ICanChangeThePast2 y #ICannotChangeThePast2. Los autores dejaron el correo de uno de ellos al final de cada tuit para ver si alguien les respondía, pero igual que Hawking, aún siguen esperando.
“En nuestra limitada búsqueda, no encontramos nada”, dice Nemiroff en una nota de su universidad. “Realmente no pensaba que lo haríamos. Pero no sabemos de nadie que haya intentado una búsqueda como esta. Internet es esencialmente una enorme base de datos y creo que si los viajeros en el tiempo estuvieran aquí, habrían manifestado su existencia por otro medio, quizá publicando los números de la lotería antes de que salieran”, añade
Stephen Hawking held a party at his house near the University of Cambridge on June 28, 2009. Despite his presence and the snack-loaded tables, nobody went to the meeting. And they did not because Hawking sent invitations once finished the party. His mind had devised this curious experiment to see if time travels were possible. "I've been waiting a long time, but no one came," he said in an interview. Still others physicists have been searching for of time travelers, but they have not found them neither in Google nor Facebook nor Twitter.
In a curious experiment, Robert Nemiroff and Teresa Wilson of Michigan Tech University U.S. have surfed the web looking for clues about time travelers. Although both the basis of the study and its results may seem trivial, the method has shown the potential of the Internet to detect emergent phenomena and, incidentally, remove some urban legends about time travels.
The study is based on what the authors called clairvoyant knowledge or precognition. If you in internet a mention to something before people knew of its existence, this could be a clue about the existence of time travelers. That something must meet three conditions to be used as a time marker: (1) Have been named in the period in which they performed the search ( from January 2006 to September 2013) , (2) to be a unique term , which did not lend itself to confusion with other phenomena , and (3) to refer to something relevant in the future and recorded in the history books .
They chose the discovery of Comet ISON (incidentally Nemiroff is one of the webmasters of the NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day ) discovered on September 21, 2012 and Pope Francisco, a name chosen by Jorge Mario Bergoglio on March 16, 2013 , because it is the first time a head of the Catholic church is so named .
The researchers conducted an exhaustive search of the terms Comet ISON and Pope Francisco before both were appointed. No references to these events prior to their appointment were found neither in Google nor in Bing. Facebook was not used because the dates can be easily manipulated. Twitter, marking each message with the date, also gave negative results except for a mention in a speculative blog.
They also tried to provoke to the potential time travelers. As Hawking did before, they invited them to be seen. In August 2013 created a series of tweets with two different hashtags, #ICanChangeThePast2 and #ICannotChangeThePast2. . The authors left the e-mail address at the end of each tweet to see if anyone answered them, but like Hawking, they are still waiting.
"In our limited search we found nothing" Nemiroff says. "I really did not think we would. But we do not know of anyone who has tried a search like this. Internet is essentially a huge database and I think that if the time travelers were here, they would manifest its existence, perhaps by publishing the winner lottery numbers before a raffle”
Tomado de /Taken from Materia
Resumen de la publicación/Abstract of the paper
Searching the Internet for evidence of time travelers
Robert J. Nemiroff, Teresa Wilson
arXiv.org > physics > arXiv:1312.7128
Abstract
Time travel has captured the public imagination for much of the past century, but little has been done to actually search for time travelers. Here, three implementations of Internet searches for time travelers are described, all seeking a prescient mention of information not previously available. The first search covered prescient content placed on the Internet, highlighted by a comprehensive search for specific terms in tweets on Twitter. The second search examined prescient inquiries submitted to a search engine, highlighted by a comprehensive search for specific search terms submitted to a popular astronomy web site. The third search involved a request for a direct Internet communication, either by email or tweet, pre-dating to the time of the inquiry. Given practical verifiability concerns, only time travelers from the future were investigated. No time travelers were discovered. Although these negative results do not disprove time travel, given the great reach of the Internet, this search is perhaps the most comprehensive to date.
