The Krononaut Moon Experiments
advancing community time travel research 2.0
This article was published on Medium.com on October 30, 2023.
Special thanks to Claire Kelly and her publication, Write Under theMoon.
All are invited — past and future — to participate in lunar observations on the evening of Monday, March 25, 2024. The night will see a full moon with a penumbral lunar eclipse. It is also the night of the Krononaut Moon, with the annual anticipated arrival of Visitors From the Future(s), or a signal from them, as requested by our present-day experimenters.
There is not yet an agreed-upon word for one of these inter-dimensional overtures to time traveler — when folks (in the present time) send out a message to recipients (in a distant future time) asking them to beam down for a friendly meet-up. Over the years, several phrases have been used, like “landing party” and “reception”. The basic logic holds that if and when time machines ever become a reality (or wormholes, quantum entanglements, CTCs — closed timelike curves) or whatever the technology will be, then the time travelers, or Krononauts, could set a destination to a time in their remote past when ancient peoples (who would be us) are waiting to welcome them. The landing coordinates would be conveyed through historical accounts and from invitations sent to them from their friends back here on Earth, 21st-c. For example, this piece for Medium.com, and your reading of it, is a link in a long chain of communications. It is a “letter to our future selves”, a veritable message in a bottle.
According to Wikipedia’s Time Travel page:
Several experiments have been carried out to try to entice future humans, who might invent time travel technology, to come back and demonstrate it to people of the present time.
You may have heard about one of these experiments.
- On June 28, 2009, acclaimed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking (1942–2018), at Cambridge, UK, poured a glass of champagne while waiting for what he called “tourists from the future” to show up. He dubbed the occasion, a “Reception for Time Travelers”. As legend has it, he sent out no invitations until the day after it was over. Then he announced, sadly, that nobody had come to his party. A short video was made reimagining the professor’s old clock at the stroke of midnight.
Prof. Hawking’s tongue-in-cheek “reception” was actually the fourth of the known such time travel experiments, devised with varying parts philosophical inquiry, citizen science, and conceptual art. (If other historical documentation exists out there, please let us know.) The four events occurred between the years 1982 and 2009, on three continents. Each of them was a one-shot, independent affair. Today, the Krononaut Moon community is working toward upping these numbers — and possibilities for successful contact in coming years — by organizing yearly research collaborations around the night of the full moon in March (or occasionally in April).
The other known time traveler get-togethers, in reverse chronological order (fittingly) are:
- On May 7, 2005, a “Time Traveler Convention” was held on the campus of MIT, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US.
- Earlier that same year, on March 31, 2005, a group at Forrest Place in Perth, Australia, threw a party for “Inhabitants of the Future”.
- You’ll have to go back still further into the past, another two decades to March 9, 1982, to meet a group in Baltimore, Maryland, US, identifying itself as the Krononauts, who organized a gathering for Visitors From the Futures. The festivities were written up in the New York Times by reporter Benjamin Franklin (for real) who was there that night. The gathering took place under March’s full moon, or that year’s Krononaut Moon.
I know all of this because I was developing the Baltimore Krononautic experiments (also spelled Chrononautic) back in the 1970s, over 40 years ago. Our group was the first of its kind and we still see a big future in community time travel research. A few months ago, I was interviewed for “The Last Archive”, a history podcast founded by Jill Lepore. In episode s4.e6., titled “The Krononauts”, writer Ben Naddaff-Hafrey takes a critical look at contemporary perceptions of time and time travel. It’s a fun and provocative listen, available on Pushkin.fm.
- A segment of the podcast follows Naddaff-Hafrey conducting his own micro-time-travel experiment, on March 24, 2023, on a bench in front of the Dedham Public Library in Massachusetts, US. This would become the fifth known such effort, globally, and shows that it only takes a party of one.
After the dust had settled on these far-flung landing sites, organizers of the events all reported that they had no evidence showing that time travelers had been there. (Some have speculated that the memories of the experiencers had been erased.) Still, an excellent adventure was had by all. So after a few disappointments, does this spell the end for the community time travel experiments? Or is it time for a rethink and a relaunch — a 2.0?
Deep thinkers of theoretical constructs like multiple universes argue that time travelers would be reluctant to show up at any public “landing party” (even at a public library) for a number of good reasons. There are complex ethical questions around disrupting history — what are collectively known as “the paradoxes”. Then there’s the risk of putting each other in danger.
Experimental designs need to evolve. The initial version-1.0 trials were all singular, self-contained events with a small organizing team. We could just as easily build multiple events (like every year) in multiple environments, with diverse innovators and projects, leading to new ideas. Members of the Krononaut Moon community will calculate the date each year, allowing technologists, poets and artists to respond to the occasion. Do we think it’s better to be watching the skies from a radio telescope on a mountaintop, or a pinhole camera in the backyard — or both? Who can know what conditions are favorable to invitees who are centuries away? Obviously, more inventive options will create more opportunities for meaningful connections.
The Krononaut Moon is an annual event, a “celebration of time, timelessness & time travel”, recurring under the full moon nearest to the March Equinox (Vernal in the Northern Hemisphere and Autumnal in the Southern). In 2024, it comes around on March 25, with a penumbral lunar eclipse. The following year’s observances will take place on March 14, 2025, including a total lunar eclipse. More dates can be found on our website. You are encouraged to enjoy the celestial phenomena in any way that you like, wherever you like, and with whomever you like — maybe even a friend from another dimension. Please keep things peaceful for all, and share lots of photos. The Krononaut Moon is our one night of the year dedicated to time travel.
In an age of artificial intelligence and virtual reality, the Krononaut Moon can be an authentic, immersive outing for families, colleagues, and friends (old and new). You can commune with nature, the stars, and with your past and future selves. You can have yourself a truly cosmic experience.
More information on the Krononaut Moon experiments can be found in our first Medium.com article from August 13, 2023, and on our website www.KronoMoon.org, currently in development. We are also on Mastodon and other channels. We hope to see you soon, online and under the Moon!
written by Richard Tryzno Ellsberry
special thanks to Claire Kelly at Write Under the Moon