# Would you believe someone that told you they had traveled 5 years into the future? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 20, 2015, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-believe-someone-that-told-you-they-had-traveled-5-years-into-the-future/735260 "2015-10-20T18:11:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-believe-someone-that-told-you-they-had-traveled-5-years-into-the-future/735260/21 "2015-10-20T20:34:06Z")
No, I wouldn’t. In fact, if they seemed to truly believe it, I’d avoid them as being mentally imbalanced. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-believe-someone-that-told-you-they-had-traveled-5-years-into-the-future/735260/22 "2015-10-20T20:38:29Z")
I think it’s a trick question or a whoosh. This person is _insisting_ that he really traveled 5 years into the future? Of course he did. It just took him 5 years to do so. (What an inefficient process!) **TriPolar** got it in Post #2. It’s like my 7th grade science teacher, who told us with a perfectly straight face that in Texas, many mosquitoes weigh a pound! Yes, really. He worked really hard at convincing us of that, against great resistance from the class. Yes, it really is true. If you gather up sufficiently many mosquitoes in Texas and put them all on a scale, they really will weigh a pound! ---
**Author:** ![Abner\_Ravenwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@Abner\_Ravenwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abner_Ravenwood)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-believe-someone-that-told-you-they-had-traveled-5-years-into-the-future/735260/23 "2015-10-20T20:59:43Z")
I might be inclined to believe him if he was going on about the Freedom For Animals association on Second Avenue being the secret headquarters of the Army of the 12 Monkeys. ---
**Author:** ![Abner\_Ravenwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@Abner\_Ravenwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abner_Ravenwood)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-believe-someone-that-told-you-they-had-traveled-5-years-into-the-future/735260/24 "2015-10-20T21:02:20Z")
On a related note, Marty and Doc are scheduled to appear from 1985 some time tomorrow. > **[My Time Circuits](https://mytimecircuits.com/?src=oct212015)** > > Previously October212015.com, My Time Circuits allows you to have the Back to the Future Time Circuits in your pocket. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-believe-someone-that-told-you-they-had-traveled-5-years-into-the-future/735260/25 "2015-10-20T21:17:04Z")
If he was one of my friends, I would know if he had been around a few days ago, and if so, then he didn’t do any time skipping. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-believe-someone-that-told-you-they-had-traveled-5-years-into-the-future/735260/26 "2015-10-20T21:24:16Z")
The body replacement part doesn’t make sense. If they truly came here from the past and there truly is no going back, then that would mean that they’ve been missing for the past 5 years, so there would be no body here for them to replace. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-believe-someone-that-told-you-they-had-traveled-5-years-into-the-future/735260/27 "2015-10-20T21:59:07Z")
I convinced my neighbor’s wife that this happened to me. She’s fairly gullible. My wife told her the next day that I was joking. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-believe-someone-that-told-you-they-had-traveled-5-years-into-the-future/735260/28 "2015-10-25T21:49:16Z")
“OH yeah, if you’re from 5 years in the past then who was the president then?” Yeah, there’s nothing that would work here. If someone’s 5 years ago counterpart knew something, so would their today counterpart. Disproving it would be slightly easier if you manage to catch them messing up on knowing something from within those 5 years. ---
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-believe-someone-that-told-you-they-had-traveled-5-years-into-the-future/735260/29 "2015-10-25T22:34:31Z")
Yeah, don’t know how I could be convinced given the setup in the OP. I might or might not humor my friend, but I wouldn’t actually believe him. How about a different question: **could an apparent stranger convince you that his was actually your friend** , who’s been through a “Freaky Friday”-type body-swapping ordeal? Or will it always be more likely that it really is a stranger and your friend is playing an elaborate prank on you? ---
**Author:** ![guitario](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3d9bf3/32.png) [@guitario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guitario)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-believe-someone-that-told-you-they-had-traveled-5-years-into-the-future/735260/30 "2015-10-26T00:01:39Z")
One of my oldest childhood friends used to quite often tell me ‘how do you know I’m not some magic being from the future, or that I have special powers to do whatever I want?’… with a smirk of a smug git who was exactly the thing he jokingly claimed to be. Now, of course, my 13 year old self believed he was just being an idiot - but he’s the luckiest bastard I know, and would always beat me in everything, regardless of the game, the gulf in skill level (in my favour), and 20 odd years on… still seems one step ahead of the pack. Probably just the rambling of a mischievous teenager… probably. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-believe-someone-that-told-you-they-had-traveled-5-years-into-the-future/735260/31 "2015-10-26T01:46:53Z")
Since you appear to be describing mental-only time travel, I can’t think of any way you could possibly provide evidence. It would just basically be saying you restored your mind to an earlier state. Maybe if you had brain scans from before and right after the jump? But then you’d have to prove they were real. And Occam’s Razor would say they weren’t. ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-believe-someone-that-told-you-they-had-traveled-5-years-into-the-future/735260/32 "2015-10-26T04:33:23Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I could, in principle, be convinced, if presented with sufficient evidence, but I cannot think of any specific evidence which would be sufficient. Pretty much the same way I feel. I don’t know how you could really prove this beyond a doubt. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-believe-someone-that-told-you-they-had-traveled-5-years-into-the-future/735260.md?page=1)