The concept of time travel has fascinated researchers and science fiction enthusiasts for decades, and renowned physicist Stephen Hawking conducted an intriguing experiment on this topic.
Although the concept remains theoretical, it has inspired captivating experiments and rigorous studies.
Stephen Hawking’s Experiment: An Unanswered Invitation
Numerous studies have been conducted to find evidence of time travel (Illustration: SP).
On June 28, 2009, the famous British physicist Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) hosted a special evening at the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom).
For the occasion, he prepared a room filled with colorful balloons, festive decorations, and ordered several cases of champagne.
After everything was ready, the physicist patiently awaited the arrival of his guests. However, after hours passed with no one showing up, he left the party he had organized in disappointment.
The reason for this absence was tied to Hawking’s unique idea: he sent out the invitations after the party had already taken place.
The invitation read: “You are cordially invited to a party for time travelers”, along with the exact time and date of the event and the GPS location of the past event.
To ensure that the invitation reached a wide audience, Stephen Hawking disseminated the information through various media outlets so it would be widely known.
The aim of Stephen Hawking’s experiment was to test a fascinating hypothesis: If time travelers exist, they would be able to return to the past to attend the party, even if the invitation was sent after the event.
The physicist used this idea to explore whether time travel is feasible or to demonstrate whether modern physical principles would allow for such a temporal adventure.
However, despite this clever approach, no guests appeared at the party.
The results suggested that time travel has yet to be discovered, or that time travelers have no reason to attend such a party.
Evidence on the Internet
A group of physicists conducted a rigorous investigation aimed at detecting potential signs of time travelers on the Internet.
Their approach was based on the idea that knowledge or information about future events might appear online before it becomes known to the public.
They specifically targeted pivotal events, hypothesizing that if time travelers visited our era, they might leave traces of their presence on the Internet.
Time travel remains a mystery to this day (Illustration: SP).
The research team selected two significant events for their experiment: the discovery of Comet ISON (C/2012 S1) in 2012 and the election of Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope Francis in 2013.
These events were extensively reported and discussed in the media, providing reference points for detecting any early mentions of them.
For this study, the team used various modern media platforms such as Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and Google search trends.
The primary goal was to help the research team discover any discussions or mentions of these events before they were officially announced.
The idea was that if time travelers were present, they might have left clues on these platforms, revealing previously unpublished information.
However, once again, the scientists found no evidence of these terms being used on the Internet prior to the mentioned events.
Calling for Time Traveler Intervention
At the same time, the research team attempted a similar approach to Stephen Hawking’s experiment by directly appealing to time travelers.
They created a specific hashtag on social media X (Twitter): “#ICannotChangeThePast2”, aiming to determine whether time travelers were willing to express themselves or interact with our era through modern communication means.
Despite these efforts, the scientists were unable to gather any convincing evidence of time travel. The results indicated that no tweets or emails were sent in advance about future events before the information was made public.
The researchers proposed several plausible explanations for this lack of evidence. First, if time travelers do exist, they might intentionally choose to remain hidden to avoid paradoxes or to preserve the timeline.
Another hypothesis is that time travelers might not leave lasting traces of their presence due to physical or technological limitations that remain unknown.
