Time travel machine: Strange and funny mistake
Sky world News / China is, as we know, fond of science fiction; the country is advancing seven leagues on the road to global technological domination and its central power is, it is no secret, very focused on censorship, control and manipulation of information.
The three phenomena can sometimes come together to give rise to strange fantasies, especially if they rub shoulders with the world of crazy business plans of mysterious start-ups, and the credulity of those who might wish to invest in them.
Thus the rumor explaining that the very serious Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IHEP) had partnered with a private firm, named Ruitai Technology Development Technology, to design and build a travel machine in the time.
Information began to circulate online at the same time as a dubious Powerpoint presentation, presenting a “Space-time Tunnel Generation Experimental Device” on which the very serious national institute was working, in collaboration with the said start-up.
"The device can twist space and time, control the flow of the latter, break the barrier of space and time, can be used for time travel, interstellar travel, lengthening of the lifespan, etc. ”, explains the document without laughing.
Who also says they need to raise 200 million dollars (164 million euros) to offer the world this wonderful machine, the future value of which is in the document estimated "conservatively" at 838.2 billion dollars (note the comma).
The invention, it is further clarified, was recognized and praised by the Nobel Prize winner in physics Gao Kun, member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and by researchers Li Jing, Zhao Guangheng or Niu Shuqiang. A pledge of seriousness. At least until a simple Internet search: no person by the name of Gao Kun has ever won a Nobel Prize, and Li Jing, Zhao Guangheng or Niu Shuqiang seem to exist only in a world parallel to ours. As for Ruitai Technology, it did not file its company statutes until the end of December 2020.
All this therefore looks very much like a vast hoax, at least, or even an outright scam attempt. R.D. Milne, the unknown Victorian father of science fiction But the information starting to circulate widely on Chinese networks, the Beijing Academy of Sciences issued an official statement to clarify that, no, it was not workingnot on a time machine, and that the information presented was "false propaganda".
Following the very serious institution, the boss of Ruitai Technology, a complete stranger by the name of Guo Weiwei, also denied the existence of such a collaboration, explaining that an external marketing firm had created the presentation by error , for fundraising purposes.
Funny mistake, and a funny excuse all the same.
Perhaps Weiwei had visited a future where his strange, slightly too visible scam had taken him straight to Chinese jails.
