On October 1, 2004, Marlin Pohlman filed a patent application for a gravity distortion time machine based on the schematics and descriptions provided by everyone’s favorite alleged time traveler, John Titor.

The patent, titled Method of gravity distortion and time displacement, described a “technical time displacement device,” which operated through the “modification of gravitational fields.” To form the patent, in his own words, Pohlman “reverse engineered” the information and diagrams that John Titor shared during his brief stint on various online forums from 2000-2001.

The application contains a rather lengthy description of various scientific ideas that would (he claims) allow the machine to work, including quite a lot on quintessence, a hypothetical form of dark energy. It’s all rather complicated, and I couldn’t tell you if any of it makes sense or not.

To further complicate things, when the patent application was published (and it is just an application, by the way, not an official patent), there was quite a lot of speculation on conspiracy message boards that Pohlman himself was, in fact, the perpetrator of the John Titor legend.

Pohlman dismissed those claims, and honestly there’s no reason to believe he was affiliated with the story in any way; he said he just wanted to contribute something “truly unique” in the form of the patent.

However, Pohlman’s own time travel escapades have been, let us say, put on hold.

I tell you, some of the theatrics and drama surrounding the John Titor story are more bizarre than the idea of time travel itself.