Be there, aloha!
The Time Traveler Convention - May 7, 2005 at MIT
I got a note about this earlier today via the Interesting People mailing list & forwarded to several friends because it amused me to no end. Lo and behold, by this evening, the event had grown to a full-sized net-meme and was reviewed on NPR's Evening Edition.
I gotta admit, it's a brilliant idea, just waiting (dare I say it?) for the right time.
I suggest we all make a date to go to the convention in, say, 2010 -- that way we'll be sure we've all figured out how to time-travel to the past by then. If we do that, however, be sure to either go in disguise or not go this year, or you may run into yourself and the universe will implode.
Remember, in 2010, go to May 7, 2005. Mark this in your calendar!
Be there -- aloha!
The Time Traveler Convention
May 7, 2005, 10:00pm EDT (08 May 2005 02:00:00 UTC)
East Campus Courtyard, MIT
42:21:36.025°N, 71:05:16.332°W
(42.360007,-071.087870 in decimal degrees)
What is it?
Technically, you would only need one time traveler convention. Time travelers from all eras could meet at a specific place at a specific time, and they could make as many repeat visits as they wanted. We are hosting the first and only Time Traveler Convention at MIT in one week, and WE NEED YOUR HELP!
...
Great idea, I'd love to help! What should I do?
Write the details down on a piece of acid-free paper, and slip them into obscure books in academic libraries! Carve them into a clay tablet! If you write for a newspaper, insert a few details about the convention! Tell your friends, so that word of the convention will be preserved in our oral history! A note: Time travel is a hard problem, and it may not be invented until long after MIT has faded into oblivion. Thus, we ask that you include the latitude/longitude information when you publicize the convention.
You can also make an absolute commitment to publicize the convention afterwards. In that case, bring a time capsule or whatever it may be to the party, and then bury it afterwards.
Can't the time travelers just hear about it from the attendees, and travel back in time to attend?
Yes, they can! In fact, we think this will happen, and the small number of adventurous time travelers who do attend will go back to their "home times" and tell all their friends to come, causing the convention to become a Woodstock-like event that defines humanity forever.
Unfortunately, we of the present (2005) don't have time travel, and so we only have one chance at observing the convention. If the time travelers don't leave us their secrets, we won't be able to go back in time and see our convention in all its glory unless it is publicized in advance.
(full text here.)
I got a note about this earlier today via the Interesting People mailing list & forwarded to several friends because it amused me to no end. Lo and behold, by this evening, the event had grown to a full-sized net-meme and was reviewed on NPR's Evening Edition.
I gotta admit, it's a brilliant idea, just waiting (dare I say it?) for the right time.
I suggest we all make a date to go to the convention in, say, 2010 -- that way we'll be sure we've all figured out how to time-travel to the past by then. If we do that, however, be sure to either go in disguise or not go this year, or you may run into yourself and the universe will implode.
Remember, in 2010, go to May 7, 2005. Mark this in your calendar!
Be there -- aloha!
The Time Traveler Convention
May 7, 2005, 10:00pm EDT (08 May 2005 02:00:00 UTC)
East Campus Courtyard, MIT
42:21:36.025°N, 71:05:16.332°W
(42.360007,-071.087870 in decimal degrees)
What is it?
Technically, you would only need one time traveler convention. Time travelers from all eras could meet at a specific place at a specific time, and they could make as many repeat visits as they wanted. We are hosting the first and only Time Traveler Convention at MIT in one week, and WE NEED YOUR HELP!
...
Great idea, I'd love to help! What should I do?
Write the details down on a piece of acid-free paper, and slip them into obscure books in academic libraries! Carve them into a clay tablet! If you write for a newspaper, insert a few details about the convention! Tell your friends, so that word of the convention will be preserved in our oral history! A note: Time travel is a hard problem, and it may not be invented until long after MIT has faded into oblivion. Thus, we ask that you include the latitude/longitude information when you publicize the convention.
You can also make an absolute commitment to publicize the convention afterwards. In that case, bring a time capsule or whatever it may be to the party, and then bury it afterwards.
Can't the time travelers just hear about it from the attendees, and travel back in time to attend?
Yes, they can! In fact, we think this will happen, and the small number of adventurous time travelers who do attend will go back to their "home times" and tell all their friends to come, causing the convention to become a Woodstock-like event that defines humanity forever.
Unfortunately, we of the present (2005) don't have time travel, and so we only have one chance at observing the convention. If the time travelers don't leave us their secrets, we won't be able to go back in time and see our convention in all its glory unless it is publicized in advance.
(full text here.)