Sun 23 Dec 2007
It’s an oldie but a goodie. You can go forward or backward in time just once for a set amount of time. Say one week. What point in time, past or future, would you travel to?
*Please ignore stuff like the possibility of dying at certain points in time, the grandfather paradox, etc.
Posted by autarky9 answers so far!
I would pick a year between, let’s say, 1967 and 1977. I am completely fascinated by that period in history.
I’d love to drive down the familiar streets of my city during that time, to see what was the same, and what was different. Driving in a period car, listening to one of the local radio stations.
Stopping at Kentucky Fried Chicken to see if it really DOES taste different now than it did then.
Only one year? Okay… I’d travel back to ancient Rome, 55 BC. Obviously I’d wander around the city, taking in the life, eating the food, all those kinds of tourist things. Assuming that having the technology for time travel means that I could be taught perfect conversational, late-republican Latin, I’d go hunt down the Neoteroi, I bet they knew how to party.
One week back, win the lottery, invest in stocks, have a much better week. Simple answer for this one.
If all that sort of thing was forbidden, I would travel 50 years to the future. I would either have a new found hope for humanity or come back home and prepare my daughter for the horrors she would soon encounter.
I personally don’t think I could resist going into the future, like kickstart said. If I could do it as many times as I wanted, or at least multiple times, I’d like to go to the past and see stuff like the founding of Rome and the American revolution and whatnot. If only once, there’s something about knowing the future that I don’t think I could pass up.
Actually, I’d like to go back to 2006. “Why just a year ago?” you might ask. I’d like to see if I could observe myself in the period of time leading up to Dec. 19th, when I had a cardiac arrest. It was determined to be due to unspecified causes, i.e., they couldn’t ‘find’ a reason. I’d just like to see what might have been different than the ‘me’ of the current state of functioning. I’m assuming that in addition to being able to move to another year, I could also do something like be invisible, more the able to do what I’d like to do.
By the way, I consider myself back to ‘normal’ (whatever that word means.)
I did discover a much stronger community that I was a part of, that I knew of at the time.
I’d like to go back to the early 1900’s and party with the folks from the whole Dada movement. In Paris.
I didn’t know this until I started reading more about it, but I might have a chance to meet my husband’s grandfather. That would be cool, because he died a year after I was born. He sounds like someone I’d want to party with.
If I can’t disrupt the space-time continuum, then fuck your time machine.
I concur with autarky & kickstart — if it’s a one-time shot, the future is too tempting to pass up.
I’d want to go to the Aztec empire, say, around 1518. I would tell them that ther is this bunch of white guys who are going to show up, and no matter what it seems like and no matter what they say, they are not who you think they are! Don’t give them anything, don’t let them into your temples, for gods sake don’t show them how much gold you have. Poison dart their asses and leave them for dead. For reals.
The future for sure. I’d love to spend some time with my great, great grandchildren. Make sure they are doing well and see whatever happened to all these pictures and albums that I take such great pains to create!! After that, ancient Egypt.