Von Holfstadt Institute for Temporal Commutation

For the consideration of budget and convenience we have decided to host one single Christmas/Holiday Party until further notice. It will be held December 17th, 2037 at 7pm. All persons wishing to celebrate (in any year) are directed to that date. It will be held in our future/new/historic headquarters at 2323 Echelon Way.

Professor Eriksson has taken it upon himself to create an alternate timeline in which he wields supreme power. We sincerely apologize to all those who are affected.

The Von Holfstadt Institute will host our annual reunion, attend when you like. It will be held December 4th, 1952 at 7:30pm.

We are progressing under the conceptual construct that one cannot alter past events. The paradox being that any person would necessarily alter a timeline, even with the most stringent efforts to remain a passive observer. To account for this paradox, it is our operational belief that one creates an alternate timeline with each and every alteration to "your history". Because an event is locked in our own history, no changes will manifest in our own experiential timeline. When one returns to their "point of departure", they, by definition, return to their own timeline.
Think of it in terms of the classic thought experiment of "what happens if you kill your own grandfather."? You would be able to kill him, but his death would manifest only in an alternate timeline. Upon return to your own point of departure, your grandfather will have existed as he always had. In the alternative timeline he would be dead, murdered, and you would cease to exist in that timeline; you will remain on your own native timeline, shifting, seemingly instantaneously, with no memory of the events involving your grandfather nor experience any of the attendant repercussions.

One well regarded theory is that time happens all at once. We may be unique in that we experience time in a linear sequence. Imagine that time is like a roller coaster track. Imagine experiencing everything on that ride at the same time. We, however, follow the track and experience the ride a bit at a time.

As an experimental validation of whether it is possible to alter the past I will attempt to make a small historical change. You will know if I was successful if the U.S. begins using Fahrenheit as the measurement for temperature.

*We now understand that our perception that we utilize the Fahrenheit scale rather then Celsius dates back to our adoption of said scale with no collective memory of ever using Celsius.

Our collective memory is of the Farheneit scale because we are on that timeline.

The "me" that returned to my point of departure will experience no change in his timeline and will continue using the Celsius scale.

July 10th, Happy Birthday Nikola Tesla.

We have perfected forward time travel; that is, into the future. Unfortunately, we've made little progress on the rate at which we can move through time. It is currently at a rate of 1 hour per hour.

The institute is now accepting papers on the topic of the best ways to maintain temporal integrity. Please submit your paper by March 31st, 2020.