3d ago

There is an Assassin after you and you will almost certainly die within the next 7 days if the timeline remains unchanged. Your phone can now send messages back in time; How do you save yourself?

Rules:

The messages can go as far back as the beginning of the 7 day period (the moment you found out about your assassin is after you)
You can only send the messages if you have cell signal (maybe don't hide in the woods, you assassin might be there, and you don't get a do-over 🙃)
Your phone is immune to damage and malware (although spyware and keyloggers can still be on there, but they can't affect the system, just on "read only" mode). Auto-updates are now disabled by default
If assassin got your phone, they could send false messages to trick your past self. (Don't lose your phone!)
At the end of 7 days, the Assassin will just drop dead due to time travel limitations, time travelers cannot survive longer than 7 days in the past (yes, the assassin is a time traveler 😉)

[P.S: El Psy Congroo]

54 comments

I don't lol

I'd rather just make it easier for the assassin to get me and end the bullshit on day 1.

I don't.

I'll try to send text to the very beginning of the seven-day period, sending each message on two-hour intervals sent to the point in time one second after the last message.
Let's assume that the seven-day period starts on 2025-05-12 08:00:00.
The first message will be sent two hours after the seven day period starts, and every two hours thereafter. This first message will be sent on 2025-05-12 10:00:00 and will include:
the timespace-stamp of when and where the message is sent. the time part of this would be written in way that only I can encode and decipher.
all the rules as I understand it so far
what I've done from the the start of the seven-day period.
something only I know that will convince myself that I indeed sent the message from the future
The messages will be sent to the time one second after the previous message was sent. Hence, continuing the example, the next message would be sent on 2025-05-12 12:00:00 to 2025-05-12 08:00:02, and so on.
The messages will follow the same format as the first one:
timespace-stamp (when and where I sent the message from), the time portion written in the same code as the first one.
any updates to my knowledge of the rules
where I've been and what I did since the last message
something only I know, and will reassure myself that the message is indeed from me
If for some reason I am unable to send any messages (for example, I have been asleep, or out of network coverage area) when I should (two hours have passed since the last message), I will send a message immediately when I'm able. This message will be sent to the time one second after the last sent message. So continuing the example, if the last message was sent on 2025-05-12 22:00:00, to 2025-05-12 08:00:07, and I'm asleep until 2025-05-13 09:00:00, I will immediately send a message to 2025-05-12 08:00:08.
With this, assuming I survive for seven days (exactly) and stay awake the entire time, I will receive the last message before 2025-05-12 08:01:24. The timestamps of the last message will also give me a good indication if I survived the seven days, or how long I survived. If I continue receiving messages past that, maybe my future self messed up, or there's something more going on, or my future self just decided it's a good idea to just continue. Nevertheless, I have advance notice of what happens to me.
Of course I will try not to lose my phone. With advance notice, I will try to stay as safe as possible without deviating much from the timeline. Also, I will try to figure out what's going on, but only up to the point that I can keep myself safe.

I roll to seduce the assassin. If that fails, I'll barrel roll instead

Every hour send a message back to the start of the 7 day period + 1 second for each elapsed hour "still alive at
<current time>
" At the first one hour mark send a message to three minutes after the start of the period. 168 hours in a week, texts with survival status will be done a bit before the three minute mark of constant messages. This message describes the situation. Now I have insight into when the assassin will get me, to an hour. Don't change my behavior until the hour span leading up to the last still alive message, go nuts traveling randomly during that time until the number of still alive text messages changes After surviving for a week send a final message back in time to the very start "your phone is trying to kill you"

I don't.

Wouldn't this depend on why the assassin is after me?
- Dear Past Self -
  Do not piss off the nice assassin fellow that lives down the lane.
  Sincerely
  Future Se-
  
  My past self: uuugh, another weird phone scam block
- Maybe for a reason you have yet to experience in the future.
  Perhaps a future leader?
  Pehaps a future criminal?
  Who knows 🤷‍♂️

But how does that help? If I send past me a message, can past me change anything? What happens to the me that sent the message if past me receives it and changes stuff? Seems like you're creating a classic time travel paradox.
- Or every message you send puts yourself in the position you're now

"Oh, a text from future me? Let's see what it says..."
"FM: Ninja assassins are after you. You know what you must do."
shuts off phone nods solemnly "Set myself on fire."

Nice try assassin! As if I would reveal my plans.
- NOOOO! My evil plans are foiled! 😭

What time travel rules? See: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TemporalMutability
Going with “overwriting the timeline,”
buy yourself an hour to live on the first day, should be easy enough
make fat cash with options trading in minutes
buy hella security
repeat until the seven days have passed
I would also rig a “dead man’s switch” on my phone in case the assassin ever does get me, to reset things (by telling my past self of my current situation, so they can avoid it).
- What time travel rules?
  Steins;Gate Rules, but without Reading Steiner

I wouldn't warn myself because I don't want to get caught in a groundhog day, butter fly effect scenario.
- I mean, you could just give your self a limit.
  Add a "Iteration 1" to the first message, and the 2nd iteration of you should append the message with "Iteration 2" and so on...
  If you still get warned of death in Iteration 500, then maybe then you can give up.
  At least try to survive for a few timelines.
  
  I would've created 500 alternative timelines by then, and in all of them my peers would have to live through my death. It sounds selfish to put that burden on them for the chance of creating one timeline where we maybe live happy, instead of just accepting my fate and leave only one family behind.
  I might tell myself that it's really important to live the next seven days if they were my last.
  Playing with time doesnt sound wise to me.

Is this question inspired by the steins;gate anime/VN ?
- "Um... 😅"
  whispers into phone
  "The agents of the (Lemmy) organization have found me, I must prepare to make the ultimate sacrifice. El Psy Congroo"
  yeets metal upa out the window
  
  It's Metaru Upa lol
- See PS in the post.
  
  oh yeah

Step one: I clone my phone allowing two phones to contact my past self.
Step two: "Lose" one phone, after turning on find my friend on the lost phone.
Step three: Send past self false information while keeping constant tab on the assassin who believes they have an edge.
Step four: Hit the assassin before they hit me.

"I found the assassin. She's a 5'10” blonde, 120lbs, with a pixie cut. She's staying at the Royal Stag. You know what to do."
- I don't know what to do.
  
  Make the assassin not a risk.
  Now that I've gendered her as "her", I'm stuck. Any attempt at humor is going to come off as misogynistic.

First of all, if it's my number sending messages back in time to myself, I could easily convince myself it's me by sending a list of my passwords back in time.
Second, tell myself that I'm screwed no matter what because there's no way I could defeat a professional assassin (assuming it's professional), especially one from the future, and to probably just hang myself or some other form of suicide in order to mock the assassin by not letting them get the kill.
- Turns out you were the assassin all along and sending yourself messages to prompt pre-emptive suicide was your method.

You left out the most important part. What's my motive to survive?
- Please I need to know too
  
  Actually, just forget the scenario entirely, and just solve this one please.

I might be reading this wrong but I'm not convinced it helps. My read of this is basically we get 1 free go at surviving and can send messages back to the start point for the second go to try and survive.
You could keep a running commentary of what you're doing and where you're going which would give you a little bit of notice of where and when you die but unless you can time loop and continually adjust the plan until you find something that works I don't see how knowing 1 point of failure is enough to keep you alive.
Maybe someone smarter than me has a better idea though, or I've got the prompt wrong.
- No, you get to send unlimited number of messages, but the furthest back is at the beginning of this 7 days. You could send it to day 2, day 3, or even exactly at 12:34 on day 4.
  
  OK, but what happens to current me if it sends a message that leads past me on a course that will not lead to it's current state?
  Does it create multiple time lines? Might that lead to a near infinite amount of messages received at the beginning of the period?
  
  But then that's me sending a message to past me and the messages can only go as far back as today, so that's like me writing a message right now and then reading it right now.
  So I need to be able to meet with the assassin and somehow send a message with location and date so that past me can avoid it. Repeat until the 7 days end.
  I guess I'm also not smart enough. Sigh.. Past self, I tried, but I don't understand the rules, so we're dead now.

Id get the the hashes of the next few hundred blocks of Bitcoin and send back in time, my past self could use that to pre-mine tons of Bitcoin, with each block reward being ~3 BTC and the price arround 90k each, I could sell all that for millions and millions of dollars
with all that money I'd just hire another assassin or something to kill the first guy. or just invest in a ton of security, body guards and stuff
edit: actually on second thought I could use almost any financial mechanism to get tons of cash, this is just the first one that came to me
- Lotto is picked every wed/sat for Powerball. Bam tons of cash, hire bodyguards or buy stupid expensive panic room.
  
  yeah thats basically my idea but wayyy simpler lol

Assuming you can change the future, you can send a message with your location history every x minutes to your 1-day (or more) ago self. You will have to encode it (and I guess this should be done outside the phone) in a way that the assassin can't spoof a message. You'll have to figure out that encoding as soon as you find out about the assassin since that's your message travel limit anyway. When you start receiving messages you follow that location history and then stop following it when you stop receiving them because something went wrong there. Eventually some instance of you might make it 7 days.

Do I have any information at all about the assassin? Sending back the only info I know, "there is an assassin", won't help much, will it?
The problem is that I can't wait for the assassin to make a move in order to learn about them. It'd be a lot easier if I was trying to prevent someone else's death, but I can't send a message after my own death, can I?
I see you're going for a Steins;Gate reference but this is a significantly harder scenario.
- The problem is that I can’t wait for the assassin to make a move in order to learn about them. It’d be a lot easier if I was trying to prevent someone else’s death, but I can’t send a message after my own death, can I?
  Quickly program your phone to record a video and send a MMS to yourself if it detects you death.
  You set up your phone at a vantage point pointed at you, and just go on live tv, make a scene, wait for the assassin to come. Then they come and kill you, and your phone captures their image, and sends it to your past self. Now you got a face to research.
  What's that? The assassin wore a mask? NOOOOO! 🙃➰️💀
  
  But I don't even know when and where the assassin is coming, do I?

Send myself the history of all stock movement within the past week, make sure my past self uses it to become multimillionaire in the first day using leverage trades. An assasin could likely kill me if I'm anywhere public, so I need to get myself arrested without being seen. Fastest way I can think is that call the emergency hotline, tell them I've shot multiple people and come pick me up, in which will dispatch the officers immediately and I can safely stay in jail for a week throughout the confusion.
- If your booked in Florida they will put your mugshot in the paper (and now they know where you are). Sunshine laws make it seem like all crime in that state is comitted by one very dedicated couple (Florida Man/Florida Woman) with access to a cartoonish amount of vehicles, drugs, and oversized agressive reptiles.

I'm leaving my phone somewhere very far away from my actual location. Check and mate, assassin.

If someone with access to time travel is hunting me, the last thing I want is a device known to be associated with me speaking to every cell tower I’m near, time breaking qualities or not. I leave my phone at home and spend only cash as I take a random bus tour of the country.

How did that banana become green?!

This is similar to the premise of a great game called Shadow of Destiny. Highly recommend it for adventure games fans.

I don't. I'll share this technology, preferably with trustworthy competent people. At last, I'll probably figure out how that decision lead to my assassination.

Date Time Location - killed by
<method>
Should be enough info for me to avoid, and just keep doing that until the 7 days is up

54 comments