If you could time-travel which period would you go to?

If you could time-travel which period would you go to?

  • The past

    Votes: 18 42.9%

  • The future

    Votes: 13 31.0%

  • I'll just stay here

    Votes: 11 26.2%
  • Total voters
    42
Myrthos

Myrthos

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Just imagine that you get this time-travel device that you could use only once, which means it is a one-way trip. What time period would you go to?
Also tell us why and what exact period of time it is going to be.
 
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If it's a one-way trip, that severely limits the options for me. I'd be wary of of going to the future, because I'm not entirely convinced there's going to be one. :p And for the past, I don't fancy going back to a time of no antibiotics, and when dentistry involved a bottle of gin and a pair of pliers.
 
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I would go to the future, but not too far… maybe 200-300 years? I would love to visit the places I know, to see how they've changed, and see how far have we gone into exploring the universe and actually colonising other planets. Also it would be likely that by then humans have already developed some way to upload your consciousness into virtual networks and remove your need to have a physical body to exist, so I could live forever in the virtual world of my choice!
 
Past is not an option, the antibiotics example alone as given by Ripper shows that.

To the future I wouldn't want to go without my family because my loved ones are more important for me than the possible adventures there. I would also not go with my family because I don't know if the specific time and place we would land in would be better or worse than our current status.

So I vote for "Just stay here."

Might be different, if returning was possible.
 
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The past, but not very far back. 10 years or so...enough to become a billionaire with the knowledge I have of the stock market.

Sounds selfish, but I'd use a lot of that to help others. My greatest contribution would be warning my fellow gamers not to purchase Cyberpunk 2077 at release.
 
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Yeah, I might go back a little further, to my parents generation. I wouldn't mind living through the 60s to the 90s. Maybe it's just me, but I feel we're in a rather stagnant era at the moment.

I think the idea of having knowledge of future events raises an interesting question - if we could go back in time, how deterministic would the universe be? That's to say, if I don't impact anything, would things play out the same way again, or would the dice be rolled again at every branching possibility?
 
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This is a really hard question. Given my age then going back in the past would be stupid - I doubt I would survive very long. Going to the future may mean that they have techniques which would either repair my body or other alternatives exist. Though I would be a man out of time the future historians may be interested in my knowledge and experiences. But since the rules don't seem to let you take family … Perhaps the best thing would be to stay put and make the best of the situation now.

PS on a non-rational basis - back to the Dark Ages and Knights of Old.
 
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I'm not sure how awesome the Dark Ages would be...

 
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I wouldn't go at all, as I would also be saying goodbye to my wife and children. That said, the future is not an option for me, there certainly will be new viruses that people in the future might have resistance for but I have not. Besides I don't think the future looks very bright.
If I didn't have what I have now, the past would be an option, but not too far away. 100 years ago or more religion played a too big role for me to be comfortable with, besides going back too far would mean I wouldn't be able to understand people as spoken languages would already be very different from what they are now.

So, I'll probably would just go back to the 80s and meet my current wife and marry her as my first and only wife. I'm sure that would have some impact on what is called future at that time.
 
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Heck yeah all the way back to the Roman Times. With my knowledge and new tech from now I would rule the empire. Bring on the modern Pax Romana. Just kidding really.

Sadly I'm reminded of an old movie called Time-Cop all of a sudden.:p
 
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Couchpotato said:
Heck yeah all the way back to the Roman Times. With my knowledge and new tech from now I would rule the empire. Bring on the modern Pax Romana.
Click to expand...

CouchCaligula!
 
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It would be really weird to be in Rome during that time period since the average male was only about 5' 2".

I'd definitely go back about 30-40 years and play the stock market and make sporting bets. So, the question becomes, does my age regress? If not, I'd have to avoid meeting my family in person, since I look like a clone of my dad :)
 
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I would travel back in time, but I'd need an additional caveat: I'd have to go back at my full physical prowess, preferably at about age twenty. I would choose to live during the war of the roses time period, circa 1460, in service of Lancaster. And yes, I'm quite aware of how things ended for them. =p.

I'd also want to take my katana with me, along with several fencing foils!
 
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JDR13 said:
Nah.. women would probably be throwing themselves at you. ;)

Makes you wonder how they managed to conquer half the world.
Click to expand...
Advanced civilizations always conquer the less advanced. It helps when 80% of the world was stuck in tribalism. When the conquered became civilized they revolted.

Then came the hated Dark Age which regressed humanity for hundreds of years.
 
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If I consider the appropriate time period aside of the question, whether I really want to live there (for the latter see my earlier post) I have several ideas:

Go back to the 1920ies and shoot Hitler…

Go back to the time in south America shortly before Cortez and hand some automated rifles to the natives…

The same in north America shortly before the Pilgrim fathers arrive (of course you would have to explain to the natives that the Europeans will inevitably steal their land, otherwise they might not use the rifles and only try to chase them away, which would be too friendly for their own good, because those bastards would come back later in greater numbers )…

In particular the last action would prevent many problems the world has today (it would create other similar ones of course but it would be worth a try).
 
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Recently read ‘Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England’ which looked at life in England throughout the 1400s. Sounds incredibly intriguing ... but since the population of England in 1500 was 50% lower than in 1400 due to multiple plagues ... no thanks! :D

I think the Victorian period - ~1880 - 1910-ish - would be interesting. The problem with any of these things is permanence of the trip. Would love to visit ... but live there?
 
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For the greater good I would go back 40 years or so and try to stop global warming before it become so serious as it is today. I'd bring some cool tech from the present to make sure people did not think I was an idiot when talking about global warming...

If it was just for my own pleasure, I would for sure go into the future, but not too far since there might not be such a future, maybe 50 years or so. I would love to see where we are in terms of technology at that time!

JDR13 said:
The past, but not very far back. 10 years or so…enough to become a billionaire with the knowledge I have of the stock market.

Sounds selfish, but I'd use a lot of that to help others. My greatest contribution would be warning my fellow gamers not to purchase Cyberpunk 2077 at release.
Click to expand...

Haha, that is quite smart, but I guess you'd probably end up in a paradox that, because you know something about the stock market you'd also affect it so it might not go the way you planned, and if you warn enough people about the CP2077 release CD project might delay the release? :D
 
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