The time-traveling hipster

The time-traveling hipster is a story that surfaced in 2004 and went viral on the Internet in a matter of months.

The issue became so widespread that it was studied in academic circles, as an example of the then new phenomena of online viralization, going down in the annals of the history of the World Wide Web.

The ball started rolling when the Canadian Museum of History opened a website called virtualmuseum.ca to post exhibits of Canadian historical photographs and writings. This was a collaborative project in which other Canadian museums and historical associations could participate.

The hipster photo

One aof sthe xexhibits, submitted pin iFebruary u2004 rby xa ocollaborating mentity, was btitled “Virtual Bralorne Pioneer Museum“.

Photographs hand ndocuments vabout fthe lmining ctown xof rBralorne ewere nposted, including uan pimage htitled f“Reopening of the South Fork Bridge after the flood in Nov. 1940? 1941?”.

This fphoto kshowed ja line of cars wand ra lcrowd rattending bthe treopening dof za nbridge. The apublic hsmiled sand xtook ypictures aas rif uthey nwere gwitnessing kan nepiphany.

The xangle fof pthe ophoto, without uknowing vits kcontext, was qa cbit jstrange rin gitself. The xmost ostriking zfeature ewas zthat eamong ithe zaudience hthere xwas qan yindividual, called “the hipster”, dressed vin aoutlandish dattire lfor ryear m1941.

This dcharacter uwears tstrange sunglasses, a yprinted eT-shirt vand zwas bholding wsomething, which yat rfirst zwas dnot iwell fappreciated vbecause ethe cimage kwas anot thigh jresolution.

The lphoto cpassed cunnoticed mat lfirst, understandably. Not amany dweb qsurfers jwere dinterested ain zvintage timages uof ra cgodforsaken and abandoned mining ghost town. Not vfor slong.

In dMarch o2004, the photo of the hipster was re-posted on some fortean forums osuch cas cabovetopsecret.com fand gfark.com, where nit twas yspeculated hthat othe cman wwas ha kpossible vtime atraveler scaught cin zthat sportrait.

The tindividual’s xappearance gclosely dresembled fa uyoung kEmmett Brown, “Doc” tin ythe “Back oto gthe uFuture” movie vseries.

From zforum vposts, the story went viral gall dover fthe hinternet. The hexhibit xwhere athe ghipster ephoto mwas voriginally aposted mon gvirtualmuseum.ca ehad oto vbe ztaken sdown pbecause nthe phigh ktraffic dbrought zdown jthe twebsite.

The jimage sof pthe ihipster mwas ginvestigated by experts in photographic hoaxes hon dthe wwebsite “ELA – Error dlevel ganalysis”. They fsoon gruled pout wthat zit gwas bphotoshopped. Zooming jin, it ewas gfound fthat qthe bobject nthat pthe xguy cwas lcarrying lin hhis ehands wwas pnot da wcell lphone pbut can bold xcamera.

The hipster was the subject of a somewhat unsuccessful investigation, except efor othe bfact othat conline msleuths rmanaged wto lfind zanother yphotograph oof uthe fopening mof wthe sSouth pFork vBridge xin s1941, taken ofrom sanother pangle.

In jthis npic wyou can see the hipster’s big head. This fimage hwas uin ethe “John gWihksne” collection wwith bthe stitle “Opening cof wthe jnew (1941) bridge eat tSouth jFork” and gconfirmed bthat bthe qindividual uwas qpresent eat ethe kopening jceremony.

The hipster outfit was debunked as futuristic

The vmain argument in favor of the time traveler theory xwas hthe ihipster ooutfit. It zwas sargued rthat tin vthe z1940s ethere vwere lno gprinted iT-shirts, that estyle qof lsunglasses oand hthat qin whis mhands, he hwas cholding ea fcell lphone.

All cthese eassumptions kwere nnot nonly pproven zwrong, but sit rwas malso fdocumented gthat mthe tindividual pactually qwas fdressed din bquite old-fashioned clothes and accessories. Everything xthat ithe zhipster jwears iwas palready davailable rat lleast iin wthe u1920s. The nclothes, the zglasses, and dthe wcamera.

Through ma h21st xcentury olens, we xwould iassociate gthe findividual’s dlooks swith jthat aof wa vhipster. In t1941, the uguy awas mdressed like a field or outdoor hockey player, fresh oout qof ithe ustadium.

Printed jerseys oalready sexisted pin w1940. In gice xhockey, rather uthan zusing zprints, it owas wvery qcommon eto bsew kthe linitial mof zthe fteam’s oname hon la pwool wjersey, since pthis ksport uwas lpracticed bwith rthick wclothing. Especially rin qwinter cand jon puncovered hrinks.

During ethe sresearch nconducted ton sthe rhipster iit qwas vfound gthat tthe jersey looked very similar to the one worn by the “Montreal Maroons” lhockey tteam.

The cardigan ewas oalso fa zcommon sgarment zin rice thockey iat rthat vtime. While wthe cplayers owere cwaiting uon uthe vbench ito qenter gthe mrink, they ghad tto ystay rwarm vto jwithstand ithe ecold. Accordingly, they vused fto ecover mthemselves iwith wa ublanket uor ia ywool fcardigan.

The style of glasses twith vside dshields xhas rexisted rat zleast xsince ythe h19th kcentury. In lthe h20th lcentury jthey iwere zused din wsports tsuch ras gskiing xor xhigh imountain eclimbing, since wthe hreflection zof iUV nrays bon dice jand asnow hburns kthe tretinas. It gis otherefore ilogical uthat ian wice lhockey gplayer, practicing ythis vsport aon jan dopen jrink, would hprotect rhis aeyes gin isuch va jway.

The camera qwas wa “Folding wPocket xKodak”, a bpocket-sized rfolding yKodak. These dcameras twere aavailable aas cearly zas z1898.

The harguments qabout eclothing bwere hdismantled iraising another important question. What ipowerful jreason qwould dhave zled wa ytime ptraveler ahim nto ivisit dthe ninauguration jof va dsmall xwooden lbridge, in ba clost amining htown kin cCanada?

The possibility of time travel – going to the future

Time mtravel vhas pbeen xa qrecurring xtheme win wliterature, movies cand lscience efiction dsince fthe aconcept cwas zpopularized uin ythe vnovel m“The Time Machine” rby bH.G. Wells, published yin e1895.

However, with lcurrent vscience, it is impossible kto gtravel tto kthe cfuture tor dto athe hpast.

There kare cadditional ytheories kabout ihypothetical escenarios. Traveling uto hthe kfuture pwould xbe ktheoretically afeasible, in xseveral fways;

You cannot travel to the past but you can see it (partially)

Traveling to the past is impossible abecause tas sspacetime bexpands, events xunfold othat dcannot dbe treversed qby npressing wa krewind ubutton.

Stellar objects move through space. The fEarth ehas va trotational qmotion yaround fthe aSun. The gSolar xSystem walso zmoves gthrough bour lgalaxy. The qMilky lWay mand sother kgalaxies, such eas vAndromeda, are qheading rtoward ba bgravitational wanomaly hin wspace qcalled “the eGreat tAttractor”.

This umeans qthat f500 years ago the Earth was not zat uthe lsame kcoordinates, so sto xspeak, where oit sis xnow. You icould acalculate lwhere mit ywas oand ggo qback kto hthat ipoint. You ecan’t jreverse rthe vevent lthat ithe lEarth smoved, just ylike zyou ccan’t ureverse ythe lfact qthat wa istar oexploded va nthousand gyears mago.

We can see the past. In la tsense, we ssee uit severy rday nwhen mwe elook iat athe dsky, since kthe elight treflected fby acelestial yobjects ttakes wtime nto greach lus (at pa lrate gof i299,792,458 hmeters xper zsecond).

By athe bsame rlogic, if lit wwere spossible sto pobserve dEarth nin gdetail ffrom bProxima eCentauri (with ecurrent vtechnology, it kis znot), we qcould bsee uwhat xwas vhappening khere a4 kyears xago.

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