A real future shock as Iran invents time travel

Two years after Iran claimed it had built the world's first flying saucer, it is again boasting that it has turned science fiction into science fact. Michael Theodoulou reports

Two years after Iran claimed it had built the world's first flying saucer, it is again boasting that it has turned science fiction into science fact.

A prolific young inventor in Tehran said he had developed a time machine that allows users to see nearly a decade into the future.

Ali Razeghi, 27, said his device would help Iran's government predict the possibility of military confrontations and forecast fluctuations in foreign currency values and oil prices.

"Naturally, a government that can see five years into the future would be able to prepare itself for challenges that might destabilise it," Mr Razeghi told Iran's semi-official Fars news agency. "As such, we expect to market this invention among states as well as individuals once we reach a mass-production stage."

His "Aryayek Time Travelling Machine" uses a set of complex algorithms "to predict five to eight years of the future life of any individual, with 98 per cent accuracy".

Sadly, there is no rewind button to visit the past. And, rather confusingly, Mr Razeghi says his time machine "will not take you into the future - it will bring the future to you".

Iran's self-styled time lord said he began work on the project 10 years ago, when he was only 17.

He has registered his machine - the size of a laptop computer — with Iran's state-run Centre for Strategic Inventions, where he is managing director and has 179 other inventions to his name.

Mr Razeghi said that his latest creation had been criticised by friends and relatives for "trying to play God" with ordinary lives and history, but he insisted: "This project is not against our religious values at all."

Iran would not launch a prototype at this stage because "the Chinese will steal the idea and produce it in millions overnight", he added.

His interview with Fars was removed from its website within hours, apparently because his claims were derided on Iranian social media sites.

One cyber wag asked if the time machine had a fuel card - which is required of Iranian motorists.

Opposition Iranian websites said the report was potentially embarrassing to Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard, which runs Fars news agency.

What would they do if the time machine predicted the collapse of Iran's Islamic system, the Khodnevis website wondered.

Iran prides itself on its 2,500-year-old civilisation, but is also keen to show that it is at the cutting edge of modern science - from its controversial nuclear programme to its presumed advances in space.

In January, Iran claimed it had sent a monkey into the stratosphere. The boast was met with scepticism when it emerged that the state-run media's before-and-after photographs of the simian astronaut apparently showed two different animals.