Pono Lorosa
| Pono Lorosa | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | May 7th, 2004 |
| Information | |
| Full name | Pono Lorosa |
| Alias | PLorosa19 |
| Nickname | PL176089432 |
| Occupation | Alleged time traveler |
| Nationality |  Garetolian |
Pono Lorosa was the pseudonym used on multiple online chat boards in 2004 by a user that claimed to be a time traveller from the year 2031. In May of that year, Lorosa started a 4chan thread on the subject of time travel and whether it was possible. In January of 2005, Lorosa was revealed to be the subject of an elaborate hoax, perpetrated by an Ule'eka architect in a claimed fit of boredom. After the hoax was revealed, all accounts registered with the name Pono Lorosa had been deactivated and had their posts deleted.
Posts
On May 7th, 2004, Lorosa started a thread on 4chan to serve as a debating ground for whether time travel was possible. In his title post, he argued it was able to be achieved using a "collection of telemagnetically coordinated axion chambers." The thread was taken down after only a few days. In a second thread, Lorosa warned of a future war between the United States and its allies and India and Myanmar, in which a purported 16 million people die. This thread gained minor online attention before it was taken down a week later. On June 6th, Lorosa created a question and answer thread on Yahoo! Groups. In those posts, he claimed to be a time traveller from the year 2031, sent back in time to 2004 for reasons he claimed were in order to prevent a global-scale nuclear armageddon in 2014. In his mission, he claimed to have been instructed to gather a Hewlett-Packard OfficeJet 3830 to print a "classified message" to his superiors. Also within the posts, he described the ways in which time travel was possible, including his prior statements on 4chan, but also adding that it was only possible with the correct lighting, stating that "lightbulbs more powerful than 25 watts would cause the axion chambers to overheat and no longer be charged." In respose to being asked what exactly an axion chamber was, he said it was similar to antimatter, "yet less explosive." In another post, Lorosa revealed his birthdate to have been September 29th, 2001, indicated by the claim that on his 20th birthday, he joined a local militia outside of Las Cruces, known as the "Boys of the West", or BOWs for short. There, he learned how to operate military equipment such as gatling guns and sniper rifles. In 2029, he claimed to have been recruited in a US-government sponsored time travel programme known as "Operation Zephyr". After several minor threads on other minor boards, he took a 5-month stint from online boards. Lorosa returned to 4chan in October making several posts warning of the aforementioned nuclear armageddon, which were taken down later that same day. On December 9th, he posted a final message on Yahoo! Groups announcing his departure, claiming that his "8-month time diffusal countdown" had begun. On January 16th, it was revealed by a private investigator that Lorosa's IP address had been linked to the home of Michael Polomo, an Ule'eka architect.
Aftermath
When it was revealed that Lorosa's existence and claims were falsified, all accounts with the name were removed. When asked about the account, Polomo claimed he had created the hoax out of pure boredom, though these claims have been called into question.