Tempus Edax Rerum is a Latin phrase which translates to “time devours all things.”
Tangentially related to the alleged time traveler John Titor, the first known appearance of the phrase in relation to him occurred on November 19, 2009 in a YouTube video titled “John Titor Letter 177 tempus edax rerum” by user lryhaber.
The video’s description references a website registered on April 22, 2009, www.johntitorfoundation.com, which also contains the phrase: “177 Tempus Edax Rerum – Good Luck, John.” It also displays a table containing dates and alleged amounts of worldline divergence.
In the video, a text-to-speech narrator claims that John Titor was only one of multiple time travelers using the moniker John Titor. The narrator claims that when he arrived to 1999, he found that another Titor was already there. Together, they worked out a way to return to their original respective worldlines. This involved traveling to other nearby points in time and measuring the divergence.
“As I write this now,” states the video, “the date is March 22, 2009 and the divergence is 1.941.”
To communicate with each other during this process, they left information in the form of the original faxes to Art Bell and posts online. The video claims the divergence numbers and other forum messages are “sign posts” to “other Johns” who may be lost and looking for their way back home.
“Every time someone posts about John Titor after 2001, they will become more permanent and easier for me, or the other John, to find. If the other John, or even another John ever arrives in your future, trying to get home, he will now see the numbers he needs in the posts. If he were to hear this message, he will know what to do.”
The veracity of the video remains in question, as it only claims to be related to the original person calling himself John Titor in 1998 and later 2000-2001. The video also claims that its contents were written on March 22, 2009. It’s impossible to know whether or not the video has any true relation to the original John Titor.
NOTE ON JOHN TITOR INSIGNIA: It’s unclear whether or not the phrase appeared on the original logo John Titor shared in 2000-2001. The insignia appears at the aforementioned foundation website with 177 inside and “Tempus Edax Rerum” below. However, JohnTitor.com shares the original uploaded image, which contains neither.
Other notes:
- The YouTube user name lryhaber may be a reference to Larry Haber, the Florida lawyer who represented John Titor’s alleged family in this worldline. The video in question was allegedly shared by John Titor’s mother.
- The phrase itself was originally used in Latin by Ovid: “Time, devourer of all things.”
- There’s a possible connection to the visual novel Steins;Gate, which first released on October 15, 2009 – some kind of viral marketing?
