- Are time travelers really real?
- Let's talk about that. ♪ (theme music) ♪ - Good Mythical Morning!
- Today is October 21st, 2015, the infamous destination day
for Marty McFly and Doc Brown in - Back to the Future Part II.
- Mm! Now, that movie was released in 1989, so
their 26-year leap into the future is now - our present.
- Whoa! And they delivered on a number of
predictions including hoverboards, thumb print payment, drone cameras,
video calling, and the wild popularity of - PewDiePie.
- Oh ho! That's not true. So, in the spirit of Marty McFly, the
DeLorean, and the Flux Capacitor, we're gonna be talking about some real
life time travelers! Now, you may remember last year we did an episode called
"4 Cases of Time Travel." - I do.
- Well, it turns out there are so many amazing cases and claims about time travel
that that's not enough to cover it! So we did a little boopity-boop-boop-
badoop-boop-boop research and we got - some more for you.
- Lemme hit you with this...open cockpit - biplane pilot from 1935,
- Wow, that's a mouthful. Sir Robert Victor Goddard, a pilot for the
British Royal Air Force. When you got "Sir" in front of your name and you say
you've traveled in time, listen. - Listen to that guy.
- 'Cause that means he's like a knight, right? He's been knighted.
If you're a "Sir," right? Well, he was flying during the day,
and it was a round trip flight. - Yep, the best.
- And he's going to Edinburgh and he looks down on his way and he sees the
abandoned airfield in Drem, Scotland. - You've heard of it.
- There it is, yeah. Everybody has. Nothing out of the ordinary here, you
know? Dilapidated tarmac, four hangars in disrepair, pastures with some cows... but
then, on his way back on the round trip, coming back through, he encounters some
problems. He enters a downward spiral, almost dies, okay? But then he recovers
and he finds himself flying in these strange yellow clouds,
and then the clouds-- You sure they weren't yellow puddles
on the inside of the cockpit? (chuckles) Could've been. And the clouds
part and he looks down and lo and behold, there is the same Drem Airfield
in Scotland, but now-- - (dramatically) In the future!
- It's totally operational and renovated. It looks good as new. There are four
planes down there painted yellow. Now, we all know that back then the RAF
planes were not painted yellow. - Oh yeah. Who would've thought of that?
- There was one monoplane down there which was unlike anything in the Royal Air
Force in 1935. The mechanics' overalls... you know, they were all working and
bustling down there-- they were all wearing blue overalls. You know they don't
wear blue overalls back then! - This guy's got good vision.
- They wear what? What color do they - wear back then, Rhett?
- I dunno. - (whispers) Brown.
- Brown! Brown! That's right. Made it safely back,
tells his friends, they don't believe him. And then, four years later, 1939, guess
what happened. They did reopen Drem Airfield, and what color did they
paint the training planes? - Yellow.
- Yellow! And they had one monoplane called "The Magister" just like the one he
witnessed, was added to the fleet. And the mechanics' overalls were
changed to what color, Rhett? - Blue.
- Blue! Was he on the planning committee
for the new Air Force base? - (laughs)
- I mean, there's a way to confirm that your prediction comes true, just be on
the board of directors. Do you know that - he wasn't?
- I don't know. - And maybe he just has insight--
- He was a "Sir." into aviation fashion. I mean, I could
totally see that going from brown to blue. - He wrote a book!
- Seems innovative. In 1975, called "The Flight Towards
Reality." That's good enough for me. I'm gonna read that! Okay, so that's
his story. I've got another story. - A little more recent.
- Top that. Andrew Basiago. This guy's a lawyer with
five degrees. He's also a writer and a member of Mensa. He also happens
to be the first child to teleport! - Okay.
- Through time. - Smart lawyer.
- Okay. This guy has gone on Coast to Coast AM, this AM radio
show that's absolutely amazing. And they don't just let
anyone on that show. - No, they don't.
- (Rhett and crew laugh) And he's told this entire story,
so these are some tidbits from the story. - Okay.
- So, he claims that back in 1968 when he was a boy, he was part of something called
"Project Pegasus," which is a supposed classified exploration of time travel
and teleportation project sanctioned - by the US government.
- So they would send kids on time travel - excursions?
- Yeah! Yeah, because, you know, I guess the time machines are small.
You gotta put youngsters in there. 140 of 'em supposedly involved in this.
He claims, among a number of things, to have gone back to 1 million BC to
check out the dinosaurs, where he was almost eaten alive. Either he was
misquoted or... 1 million BC is not far enough for the dinosaurs. You gotta go--
remember, like 65 million years is when - they went extinct, so...
- Well, he was a kid. - Maybe he got his math mixed up.
- Maybe. He went to 2045 to pick up some microfilm.
That's in the future. Can't wait to see what that is! Microfilm. He's also said
that he traveled back and forth to Mars as part of the military's plan to
establish an American presence on the Red Planet, and, for one of those
trips, he was accompanied by none other than President Barack Obama, who, at
that time, was going by the name - "Barry Sotoro."
- And going through puberty? I mean, what are these, middle
schoolers traveling around Mars? I think it said that Barack was a teenager
at the time, which 1968... doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but... okay,
anyway. As if that wasn't believable, he says that because of his good
performance in these duties, - Okay.
- he was given the opportunity on November 19, 1863, to go back and see
Lincoln deliver the Gettysburg Address. And there's photographic
evidence, everybody! - Bring it on!
- Here's the photo. This is what Andrew says, quote, "I am the boy standing in
the center of the image looking to his right. My shoes were lost in the transit
through the Quantum Plenum that took me from the plasma confinement chamber.
A cobbler--" that's a shoemaker, not a peach cobbler that you would enjoy--
"by the name of John Lawrence Burns furnished me with a pair of men's street
shoes and a Union winter parka. In this image, you can see how oversized the shoes
were. When I walked over to this location and stood in this manner to detract
attention from my shoes--" This is how I always stand when I wanna detract
attention from my big shoes. - (Link laughs)
- (Rhett) I just kinda look to the right and point both of 'em
in the same direction. - (laughs)
- "Lincoln had not yet arrived and I only stood in this position for several minutes
before the quantum field effect produced by the plasma confinement chamber ended
and I found myself back in the Time Lab in New Jersey!" So he didn't get to see the
Gettysburg Address! What a bummer! - But he got some sweet new kicks!
- Yeah he did. - (crew laughs)
- A little oversized, but you know, you can just stand sideways
and nobody'll notice. - So the proof is right there!
- So, this is photographic evidence. - Proof is in the shoes.
- And this guy's made quite a stir - on the radio circuit, Link!
- Has he, now? He has. So there's that.
You got another one? Well, is there any other pictures of
the shoes? Because I'm really into that. Nope, but I could do, like,
a CSI zoom-in on 'em though. On November 2nd, in the year 2000, a user
by the name of "Timetravel_0" began a thread on the Time Travel Institute
Forum's web site and claimed that he was - from the year 2036.
- Mmhm. And he was like, "I'll answer
any questions you got." - (laughs) Here I am at the forum.
- I'm a time traveler and here are my - office hours. Um, so--
- This is the place to go if you come back from the future, though.
The Time Travel Institute forums. - Right.
- I mean... don't go to the press. Quickly, some of the things you gather
are: he was an American soldier from the year 2036 based in Hillsboro County,
Florida, and his name was John Titor. He started traveling in time as part of
an undercover secret government project where he had to return to the year 1975
and retrieve an IBM 5100 computer - Of course!
- and bring it back to 2036. But instead of just going back to the future, he
stopped in the year 2000 for, quote-- Hold on. Why was he getting a computer
from 1975 to solve a problem in the future? To debug the Unix Year
2038 problem, which is-- - Oh! Oh, okay. Continue.
- (Rhett and crew laugh) - It's like Y2K but in 2038.
- Yeah, gotta have those 1975 computers. Instead of going back to the future, he
stopped in the year 2000 for, quote, - "some personal reasons."
- That was a good year! As he's answering all these questions in
the forum, he's giving all types of details. You can read all this stuff.
It's really fascinating. He explained time travel, he said he travels using a
Displacement Unit that was made by General Electric. He's very forthright.
He scanned user manuals. - He had a brand integration in his story.
- (laughs) - GE!
- (both laugh) Yeah. And he showed pictures of equipment
and he had taken those photos with - Polaroid cameras.
- Yeah. He's into retro stuff. - (laughs)
- He goes back to 1975, he only takes - Polaroids... I like this guy.
- So, the situation is, you know, if in 2036, this guy was in the military,
then, if you look at the range of time, - well, right now in 2015--
- He's alive right now. 'Cause they're not gonna send, like, an 18-year-old
on this mission. Well, if they did, he could be about to be
born, or he could be in grade school. - No, Link, he's alive.
- Most likely. You can't be but at least 30 years old to
go on a mission like this, so 30 years old in 2036, he's like 9 years old
right now. This is a 9-year-old! John! - And he's going to be a time traveler.
- Well, we should have him on the show. - Right. Or his mom. Or both.
- Or both! You can both come. If you don't travel by yourself,
come with your mom. I don't care. Now, his mom went on Coast to Coast
and, speaking through a lawyer, because she actually wouldn't talk, the lawyer
was trying to support her case of being John's mother, and that didn't really
amount to much. But I think we can get to the bottom of it, especially,
John, if you reach out to us. Bring your Polaroids, bring your mom, and
bring a 1975 computer. We've got a NASCAR - computer we can trade.
- John predicted that a world war in 2015 - would kill 3 billion people, so...
- Oh, there's still some time left. There's some other predictions I can
go through in Good Mythical More, but for now, I'm pretty excited
about the cases for time travel! - (laughs)
- Let us know what you think in the - comments.
- Thanks for liking and commenting and - subscribing.
- You know what time it is. - Hi, I'm Avery.
- Hi, I'm Shea. - Hi, I'm Sophie.
- Hi, I'm Liv. Hi, I'm Ava, and it's my birthday. (all) And it's time to spin the
Wheel of Mythicality! Woooooo! Today is the last day that you can get
the hoverboard shirt! You have to act - (both) now!
- to get that shirt, people! - (Rhett) RhettandLink.com/store.
- Click through to Good Mythical More. We are gonna play Guess that
Celebrity Time Traveler Game. (high pitched) Ooh, it's gonna be so fun! Rhett's got some pictures
of celebrities in the past. (Rhett) Unisong about beepers. - ♪ (both) Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep ♪
- ♪ What's that sound... ♪ - ♪ coming from my pocket ♪
- (both) ♪ it's a beeper ♪ ♪ (both) Beep, beep, beep! What's that
sound coming from my belt loop? ♪ - ♪ It's my beeper! Beep, beep, beep ♪
- ♪ Let me take you to the future ♪ - ♪ But not really ♪
- (crew laughs) - ♪ (both) Take me to the future ♪
- ♪ Gonna meet John Teeter ♪ - (laughs)
- Titor. I said "Teeter." [Captioned by Caitrin:
GMM Captioning Team]
Woo another lab member and Mythical Beast!! Wazzup!! El psy kongroo