Update

Anybody else notice something odd this morning? When I booted my browser the NWS page was down, and I'm getting a lot of future-dated spam in my inboxes. Plus, for some reason, I've already got a "Welcome Back" message in my UMD box when school doesn't start until the 24th.

Also, it seems a lot more people are interested in Nomic than I expected – I've got 15 new comment notification emails overnight, it seems. I'll get right back to you! Don't worry!

Edit: For some reason, the web form is trying to future-date this post a week. I'm correcting it now.

My computer sees the future!

This is impossible. This is absurd.

Those comment notifications weren't about the Nomic game. Well, weren't all about the Nomic game.

They're from the future. And the weirdest part is, there's my comments in there too. It's like ... it's exactly like I sat down to my computer one week from now, opened it up, and started surfing. The first fifty results on my friends page only run back to the 25th. All my webcomics have a whole extra week of updates. (Except No Rest for the Wicked, and now that I look, there's comments on the tagboard from the 26th. Oh, and Magellan, but he had a hurt wrist or something, no surprise there.) And my email has messages for a whole week in advance. Even my journal has a couple updates.

Dude, if I'd known this would happen, I'd have blogged some lottery results.

...

I'll be right back. I think I have an appointment with Google.

Edit: Crud. They took down the numbers. Curse you, Maryland Lottery, for being so on the ball!

(P.S. I'm going to go ahead and forward-date these to the 27th. They may as well be easy to find.)

Edit mk. 2: Wow, were there a lot of posts on the 20th.

Possibilities

Okay, I've been thinking this out, and there's really only four ways this could be happening.

1. I'm no longer connected with reality. Could be insanity, could be brain-in-a-vat, Cartesian demon, whatever. Really nothing I can do, if so – I guess I should avoid trying to go places, cook, etc., just in case. Other than that, I'll just dismiss this one.

2. It's a hoax. Preposterous, but it's more likely than any of these other things.

3. It's the 27th, and whatever erased all the memories of the last week and put everyone back in their places somehow missed all the computers. Impossible, but fits the observations perfectly – better than 2, certainly, and probably better than 1.

4. It's the 20th, and somehow my computer is seeing the future. There's the time-travel paradox is the main problem with this one – especially since the posts from the 20th aren't the ones I made. I suppose you could postulate an alternative universe, though, and that would also fit the observations perfectly.

Now, the question is: how do I tell which one it is?

2, I'll know pretty soon. A hoax this huge will fall apart fast, and make a big splash. Then we'll laugh at the clever little hackers, reset our clocks, and go back to life as before.

Wait. My watch says the 27th. This is inconsistent with it being hackers. We'll shelve 2 for the moment.

As for the difference between 3 and 4, all I can imagine is astronomy. If it's the 27th, the sun, moon, and stars should be in the wrong place. Moon is easiest – a week is a quarter of a lunar month. According to this site, the moon would be waxing gibbous on the 27th, and therefore would be waxing crescent on the 20th.

...aw, man – I think I'll have to go outside for this one. Further reports after observations.

"And whatever remains, however improbable..."

No moon near the sun. It's the 27th. And it's impossible.

What do I mean? I mean that there's no way that we can lose a week, and no-one notice. The weather site went down – no-one noticed, my parents didn't even mention it. The moon's in the wrong place, and no-one is screaming about it. Are you going to believe that ten million horoscopists are just ignoring the incorrect constellations? There aren't even confused posts on my friend's list.

There's only one explanation. I have to go back to Number 1. This is not real.

I saw the movie, The Thirteenth Floor. And that's the only way it can work – if there's only a small world, and a shell to fake the rest. But they got the wrong date.

If I'm right, the shell can't be very big. If I choose a random place far enough away, maybe it'll prove it.