# Whom from history do you suspect was a Time Traveler? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 5, 2011, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323 "2011-02-05T23:28:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/61 "2011-02-09T14:54:16Z")
> [@EvilTOJ](#): > > Maybe in his timeline DC power was the only way to electrify devices. By going back in time, he changed history in that he galvanized Edison to work on AC. The DC timeline from whence he came no longer will exist. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/62 "2011-02-09T15:00:38Z")
Another vot for **Benjamin Franklin**. Although I’m not sure if he was from the future or if he was just several thousand years old. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/63 "2011-02-09T15:37:02Z")
Another vote for Leonardo and Hero of Alexandria, also Archimedes. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/64 "2011-02-09T16:05:13Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > Another vot for **Benjamin Franklin**. > > Although I’m not sure if he was from the future or if he was just several thousand years old. There can be only one. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/65 "2011-02-09T16:53:13Z")
I’m pretty sure Tesla is from an alternate universe, not the future. Or if he is a time traveler, he’s from 10,000 years from now and has no way to recreate their technology in Victorian times. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/66 "2011-02-10T08:32:23Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > ..Must .. get …back to work… can’t take entire day to write steampunk time-traveller to ancient Greece story… > > Curse you **Martini**! All part of the service. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![mittu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@mittu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mittu)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/67 "2011-02-10T11:54:50Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > Newton had a lot of time for alchemy, which I don’t really see in a man from the future, but again, maybe that was cover. Or maybe he knows it _is_ possible but struggled to recreate the required circumstances using ‘ancient’ technology. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/68 "2011-02-10T13:31:48Z")
> [@EvilTOJ](#): > > Maybe in his timeline DC power was the only way to electrify devices. That makes sense. All of his handheld devices operated on DC Battery power. The hot dog cart guy who accidentally stumbled into the high-energy [del]magic[/del]physics experiment had no idea how AC power worked, just that his iPhone could no longer charge. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/69 "2011-02-11T01:47:53Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Steve Jobs. The problem being that I’ve met people who knew him as a child. They were his teachers. He was quite bright, and a full fledged jerk even as a child. Teachers don’t like to call their little students assholes for some reason. What age range? I went to the same high school (Homestead High in Cupertino CA) as both him and Woz… I wonder if we know some of the same people? ---
**Author:** ![67java89](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/aeb1de/32.png) [@67java89](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/67java89)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/70 "2011-02-12T03:09:54Z")
I suspect Gene Rodenberry ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/71 "2011-02-12T03:39:00Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > This gave me an interesting mental image of a reasonably well-rounded and educated person from the modern era suddenly finding themselves in Victorian London and trying to explain to some Very Worthy & Reputable Institution Of Science And Learning that (for example) one of the ways they can fight Cholera is to keep the sewerage away from the drinking water, and to boil (or otherwise purify) water before drinking it Brings to mind Empedocles; stories about his efforts to combat disease via water purification came down to us, but a lot of his writings were lost, which is why we’ve largely just got Aristotle’s collected mockeries of the guy’s weird teachings – light takes time to travel, matter is made up of tiny particles under the sway of attractive and repulsive forces, it’s mere chance rather than godly design powering evolution by survival of the fittest – all interspersed with mention of how the dude would go on and on about the benefits of a vegetarian diet, or his equally matter-of-fact belief that we’re living in a cyclical universe that periodically comes back together into a ball only to explode outward and re-scatter, and so on. ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/72 "2011-02-12T05:14:32Z")
Buckminster Fuller. In some ways, you’d think he was thinking of “The Jetsons” cartoon family, in others he was dead on target but may not have known it. I found him quite fascinating while in school. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/73 "2011-02-12T05:42:36Z")
> [@Eats\_Crayons](#): > > Buckminster Fuller. In some ways, you’d think he was thinking of “The Jetsons” cartoon family, in others he was dead on target but may not have known it. I found him quite fascinating while in school. Yeah, he was one of my faves as well. The Optimism! of the early sixties! ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/74 "2011-02-12T05:53:21Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Yeah, he was one of my faves as well. The Optimism! of the early sixties! Half the time I thinking: “What a kooky dude” the other half I thught: “The hell? Did he have someone broadcasting back from the future?” There was a naive brilliance about some of his assumptions… yet remarkable naivety that went with it too, like a kid who is confident that one day the world really will be like Star Trek. In Toronto a few years ago, they had an industrial design exhibit at the ROM that included some Dymaxion designs. I found them positively charming! ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/75 "2011-02-12T06:12:18Z")
> [@67java89](#): > > I suspect Gene Rodenberry I hope Gene Roddenberry was from the future. But I think it was [Rasputin.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Rasputin) ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/76 "2011-02-12T06:40:55Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > But I think it was [Rasputin.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Rasputin) If the future produced _him_, I don’t want to go there. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/77 "2011-02-12T12:34:47Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Brings to mind Empedocles; stories about his efforts to combat disease via water purification came down to us, but a lot of his writings were lost, which is why we’ve largely just got Aristotle’s collected mockeries of the guy’s weird teachings – light takes time to travel, matter is made up of tiny particles under the sway of attractive and repulsive forces, it’s mere chance rather than godly design powering evolution by survival of the fittest – all interspersed with mention of how the dude would go on and on about the benefits of a vegetarian diet, or his equally matter-of-fact belief that we’re living in a cyclical universe that periodically comes back together into a ball only to explode outward and re-scatter, and so on. I could buy this one, with a healthy dose of mistranslation in the interval. “No, the light streams into your eyes, not from your eyes! Dammit. I wish I’d studied more Greek and less Hanseatic wool routes.” ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/78 "2011-02-12T16:11:26Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > I don’t know any Edison stories that have him sinking a ton of resources into something that unreservedly was not worth it. He had an idea to mold buildings wholesale out of concrete. It failed miserably. The middle school I went to was one of the ones he built. It was impossible to keep warm and very difficult to maintain when it was damaged. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323/79 "2011-02-12T17:02:00Z")
Whoever it was who carved the stone in Egypt (Rosetta something). If I were to travel back in time, that’s just about all I’d do. Of course, I’d probably wind up burying the complete dictionary of Tocharian B somewhere in Southern Indiana, just to mess with everyone. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whom-from-history-do-you-suspect-was-a-time-traveler/570323.md?page=3)