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Yesterday a news report said that an Iranian scientist claims to have invented a 'time machine' that will allow one to 'travel' up to 8 years into the future to predict with 98% accuracy the future for any individual.

Does this machine truly work? If so, how does it work?

Popopo
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  • Oh no! He's invented [actuarialism](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actuary)! – Tacroy Apr 12 '13 at 16:22
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    Why the downvotes? – Tanmoy Apr 12 '13 at 16:36
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    My reading of that article is that it's not claiming that you can travel into the future but that you can predict the future for an individual (with 98% accuracy). [A quote from the inventor, Ali Razeghi](http://bit.ly/YLXUUW): "It will not take you into the future, it will bring the future to you." – Ladadadada Apr 12 '13 at 17:23
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    It's also short on *specific* claims. For instance, if I predict that everyone reading this will be alive in 8 years time and 98% of you survive for 8 years, that has satisfied the claims of the article. The phrase "98% accuracy" has no meaning without a specific claim. – Ladadadada Apr 12 '13 at 17:28
  • [Some people](http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/04/iran-time-machine/) are [already skeptical](http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/04/11/fake_fake_news_the_iranian_time_machine) (turn off Javascript to get past the paywall) and apparently the original article on the Fars News Agency website [has been deleted](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/04/11/what-time-machine-iranian-state-media-quietly-deletes-a-report-that-iran-had-built-one/). – Ladadadada Apr 12 '13 at 17:31
  • @Ladadadadadadada, if it so, as it is, I think we should delete the question, too. For the time being I downvote as NARQ. – Carlo Alterego Apr 12 '13 at 17:42
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    Reading comments by Ladadada on a question posted by Popopo is quite amusing – Dr. belisarius Apr 13 '13 at 02:16
  • @Ladadadada As an Iranian I advise you to ignore all news from Fars news! They are as notorious as Pinocchio in Italy in spreading lies and fake news but surely they are not as simple as him and are doing it on purpose! They follow extremist Islamic groups who follow the religious leader of Iran. – Persian Cat Apr 13 '13 at 10:53
  • Press news + Fars news = Fox news + yellow journalism – Persian Cat Apr 13 '13 at 10:59
  • It appears that [the original claim has been withdrawn](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/04/11/what-time-machine-iranian-state-media-quietly-deletes-a-report-that-iran-had-built-one/). – Oddthinking Apr 14 '13 at 03:02

1 Answers1

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Based on the links in the comments (particularly the Wired one), I'm saying "No".

  1. Iran has a history of publishing fake news stories on its state-run news website.
  2. Predicting chaotic systems such as the weather has a long history of scientific improvement and scientists have found that you need to feed a lot of data into your model and that the accuracy gets exponentially worse the further into the future you try to predict.
  3. There's no evidence of the device existing. There wasn't one supplied in the question or the article linked in the question and the original source article has been deleted.
  4. No specific, testable claims have been made, such as "Iran will have a new leader within two years".
Ladadadada
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    Ladadadadadadada, +1 for the first point, and there is another case [here](http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/13972/did-a-banned-treatise-claim-leonardo-da-vinci-converted-to-islam) – Carlo Alterego Apr 12 '13 at 17:46
  • [Welcome to Skeptics](http://meta.skeptics.stackexchange.com/q/1505)! Please [provide some references](http://meta.skeptics.stackexchange.com/q/5) to support your claims. – Larian LeQuella Apr 12 '13 at 17:56
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    It will be sunny in LA. Weather predictions are easy. – user1873 Apr 13 '13 at 17:09
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    I can 99% confidently predict that Iran will have a new leader within 2 years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_presidential_election,_2013. Also YOU - yes, YOU - will have an exciting event happen in the next half a year, and will take a trip and meet a pretty woman. – user5341 Apr 16 '13 at 20:45