Michael Hopcroft Posted August 22, 2003 Report Share Posted August 22, 2003 People always think of these super-dramatic things that they or their characters would do if they had access to time travel. Which leads me to ask what sounds like a personal question -- if you had access to time travel technology, what would YOU do with it? Personally, I'd use it for mundane little things which would hopefully not damage the timestream. If you can go back in time by a couple of hours, you'll never be late for work. And think of the boon for a game collector if you can go back to when your favorite game was in print and pick up a copy and carry it back to the present! I'd be tempted to go forward to hwen my favorite new movie comes out on DVD, but that would be cheating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightshade Posted August 22, 2003 Report Share Posted August 22, 2003 I'd want to witness some of the events that shaped our society of today. Really see what happened. I'd also love to see cultures in North America before the European invasion. That would really be cool. Nightshade Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Sarcastic Posted August 22, 2003 Report Share Posted August 22, 2003 I'd go and see Star Wars when it first came out in '78. Mainly because it wouldn't cause a huge paradox like killing your own grandfather or Adolf Hitler. Or killing Adolf Hitler with your own grandfather...or is it killing your own grandfather with Adolf Hitler...this is why I hate time travel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemming Posted August 22, 2003 Report Share Posted August 22, 2003 I'm a history nut. I'd want to go back and check out some of those times where we really don't know what happened. Though it really depends on the style of time travel. If we can go back and interact or if it's just observe. If I could go to the future, I'd want to get some decent medical care, get a few enhancements, fix up the body, etc... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bartman Posted August 22, 2003 Report Share Posted August 22, 2003 Honestly? I would move to Vegas and bet. But then I'm not really very heroic at heart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talon Posted August 22, 2003 Report Share Posted August 22, 2003 Originally posted by Darth Sarcastic I'd go and see Star Wars when it first came out in '78. OK, someone is wanting to travel back in time to do something that I did. I now feel Old. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCoy Posted August 22, 2003 Report Share Posted August 22, 2003 Humm, I'll need an inconspicous camcorder and photocopy machine, with honking mondo batteries. First stop, the library of Alexandria. Do you know they had entire rooms, plural, of the works of Homer? Today we have two epics. Sappho's work has not done much better. Then follow the Rabbi Jesus ben Joseph of Nazareth around, recording what he really said. Egypt, the Amara period through the reign of Ramses II. That's more than one lifetime's work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCoy Posted August 22, 2003 Report Share Posted August 22, 2003 Originally posted by Geoff Speare OK, someone is wanting to travel back in time to do something that I did. I now feel Old. How do you think I feel? I saw it with the man who is still my Partner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuk Posted August 22, 2003 Report Share Posted August 22, 2003 I'd travel back in time to see concerts that I was too young (or not on the right continent) to go to. While back in the late seventies and early eighties, I'd also put a bunch of money in an interest earning account (or maybe buy stock in something that's gone up a lot since then). This is assuming I can travel in space, too, of course, but usually time machines can do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bartman Posted August 22, 2003 Report Share Posted August 22, 2003 Originally posted by Chuk This is assuming I can travel in space, too, of course, but usually time machines can do that. Well I think that is a given. Otherwise moving even a minute back in time will result in you appearing in the raw vacume of space, the Earth having moved out of the way in its orbit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Citizen Keen Posted August 22, 2003 Report Share Posted August 22, 2003 I'd compromise. I'd go back in time, videotape Jesus and Homer and Virgil and Shakespeare... and come back and sell those videotapes to the highest bidder here. -cK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armitage Posted August 22, 2003 Report Share Posted August 22, 2003 Originally posted by Darth Sarcastic I'd go and see Star Wars when it first came out in '78. Similar to what I always wanted to do. Attend the world premier of Empire Strikes Back and shout "Luke, I'm your father" just before Vader says it. Heck, I've got a time machine. I'd do it at every ESB premier. And I'd probably do some low-impact historical looting. Now for auction: Mint condition Action Comics #1 and Batman #1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DigitalGolem Posted August 22, 2003 Report Share Posted August 22, 2003 My motives are entirely selfish! I'd travel into an idyllic age with advanced medicine in the distant future and steal the cure for these *&^%$#@! migraines. Without migraines, I would be truly invincible. (or at least a lot less grouchy....) DG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southern Cross Posted August 22, 2003 Report Share Posted August 22, 2003 TV Shows I'd go back in time and record all the lost episodes of Doctor Who.I'd also record the first three Quatermass series & The Crawling Eye ,plus the TV adaptation of The Day Of The Triffids. I'd also go to as many of the fifties and sixties horror & science fiction movies that I could. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Jogger Posted August 23, 2003 Report Share Posted August 23, 2003 I'd vote for the future. Go to 2050 or so. Get patched up with proven biomedical techniques. Pick up a cheap pocket computer that can outdo what my desktop can do and include a cheap heads up display. Shoot, just go to K-mart or Target in 2050, buy everything that's dirt cheap but incredible for early 21st century. Although I might get arrested if time machines become banned by 2034. In which case, I (the 2033 verison) might have to rescue myself (which will be the reason time travel will become banned). Which means when I get back, I'll have to ask myself (the 2033 verison) if he's going to stay in the future and give up time travel or if he's ready to live in the past. I'll also have to remember to buy cheap diamonds in 2050 (that will past as real and expensive with early 21st tech), go back to 1940 or so, bury them in my backyard and unbury them at the correct time. By the time they figure out my scam, time travel will be illegal and I will have proof that I dug them from backyard from the now rusty box that I bought in 1940. Obviously some time traveller from the future had bury them there and I couldn't possibly have known that they were fakes made in 2050. Confused yet? Well, since time travel is going to be banned in 2034, I'm going to have to buy all the parts that I can (but I'm rich because of the fake diamonds that I cashed out), probably around 2030 or a little before. When I say *I*, I mean the 2030 version of me. And he's going to be busy. Since he's the one that going to have to build a time machine that will be the first time machine that I get (in early 21st century). He's also going to have the build one for himself (to rescue me (himself?) in 2050). If that doesn't cause a horrible paradox, it will certainly lead to banning time travel in 2034. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Sarcastic Posted August 23, 2003 Report Share Posted August 23, 2003 Originally posted by Geoff Speare OK, someone is wanting to travel back in time to do something that I did. I now feel Old. Don't feel old, I did see Star Wars when it first came out in the theaters...I was just 8 at the time...not realizing what a whinner Luke was. Now I know better. Besides movies were cheaper back then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Anomaly Posted August 23, 2003 Report Share Posted August 23, 2003 Gee...there's so many things, though most of them would probably seem rather trivial. First, I'd like to satisfy my curiosity about a lot of things. The Roswell crash...sightings of the Loch Ness monster and Bigfoot...Amelia Erhart...and so on. A lot of 'legitimate' research, too: as someone already mentioned, the Library at Alexandria just for starters. I'd like to get my body rebuilt by tried & true biotech (no bionic replacements, thank you) to get rid of my bad joints, my diabetes, etc. I'm also real tempted by future tech that would be comonplace then but hi-tech now, though I'd be a bit worried about introducing anachronistic devices into the past. So that means at least one jog into the future. That's going to take money, though. So into the past for some gambling & investing, and maybe a lottery ticket or two. I'd have to take care not to let myself get too out of hand on that account, though (remember the first episode of Odyssey 5?). I'd have to take my time, plan, and spread things around a bit. Now I've got money, health, a comfortable standard of living for me & my loved ones, and my curiosity satisfied about a lot of stuff. Now comes the fun! There's lots of stuff I missed out on originally because I didn't find out about it/get into it early enough. Original Transformers. Magic: the Gathering back during Unlimited. The HERO/Champions system before v4. Those kinds of things. As someone else mentioned, recording all the lost episodes of Dr. Who. Those I *would* release to the world, not for the money (I've already got that) but for the adoration and notoriety in the Dr. Who fan community. I want to be famous, but just with the right people! I'd go back in time and buy a lifetime supply of those things I liked that have been discontinued: Sunshine Punch Kool-Aid, Tony's Pizza before they changed their pepperonis, Space-Food Sticks (gad, am I old!), the original Slime. As I said, things that no doubt seem rather trivial. In part that's because while I'm concerned about other people and civilization itself, I'd be afraid of truely world-changing actions (like offing Hitler before he got going, or saving Kennedy's life by finding & taking out the gunman before he shoots.) because I don't know what I'm doing! The other part is that if I made those kind of sweeping changes, I might find that friends and/or family members no longer existed, or no longer felt about me the way they do now. That would be a tragedy that I wouldn't want to face. I mean, what if I changed history in such a way that DOJ Games never formed, and we never got 5th Ed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemming Posted August 23, 2003 Report Share Posted August 23, 2003 Originally posted by Dr. Anomaly Space-Food Sticks (gad, am I old!), the original Slime. When my mom moved in 1991, I found some packages of space food sticks and in another area my bucket of slime. I opened one of the space food sticks. As far as I could tell, it was in the same condition as it was when it had been bought. I will have to say curiousity got the better of me and I tasted it. Tasted the same, but I decided not to risk swallowing it. The Slime on the other hand had hardened into a green cylinder of evil smells. It seemed to repel water so seeing if it was possible to turn it back to slime did not seem feasible. If you wish, you can find it in it's container somewhere in a landfill near Novato, California... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wcw43921 Posted August 24, 2003 Report Share Posted August 24, 2003 Originally posted by lemming The Slime on the other hand had hardened into a green cylinder of evil smells. It seemed to repel water so seeing if it was possible to turn it back to slime did not seem feasible. If you wish, you can find it in it's container somewhere in a landfill near Novato, California... You should have put it in the microwave and bombarded it with radiation. Who knows. . .it might have come to life. Isn't Science Fun?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbsousa Posted August 24, 2003 Report Share Posted August 24, 2003 I would meet my Freshman high school self, and give him $1000, and the following advice: When G__ tells you that the couple making out in the front seat is making her horny, go in for the kiss. When you meet S___, don't even bother to ask her out. be casually friendly with her, but you're not really interested in her. K__ will try to provoke you into a fight. Tell him that you will count to three, and if he doesn't walk away, you will beat the crap out of him. Then do it. (Warning: you might get the crap beaten out of you, but you will feel better about it ten years later...) Do your god-damned homework! Do it in high school, because it is easier than anything you will do later in life, Do it in your first college because you will be able to transfer all of your credits rather than flunking out. Do it at your Second College so you don't have to return 12 years later to get your degree. About the first and second college thing... Go to U___ for three semesters and transfer to C___. You will lose your virginity at U___, but you will make lifetime friends at C___ you will be offered a job at P___. Offer to consult for them part time instead. The magazine will not get made, the job will fall apart in three months, you will be back at your old job, and you will kick yourself when your boss laughs at your suggestion to rethink the project and publish the magazine on the "World Wide Web", because "Who goes to the Web to read stuff?" Start working out. You are 6' 2" and you will never be any thinner. Make it a habit, so I don't have to. Go to the record store, and start buying music. You are going to love the Smiths, the B-52's, REM, U2, and Joy Division. You are also going to like some older stuff, like Pink Floyd, David Bowie, and Elvis Costello. Learn to play guitar, and when you buy one with your first tax refund, treat it well. Take some singing lessons while you are at it. you like to sing, and a little bit of training will save you a few sore throats. Get yourself checked for sleep apnea. you will lose several years of sleep if you don't. Finally... This $1000 is a high school graduation present. put it in the bank now, and invest it in K___ when you graduate. When you are offered a job with K___ in 1997, sell it for $300,000. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Sarcastic Posted August 24, 2003 Report Share Posted August 24, 2003 Originally posted by dbsousa I would meet my Freshman high school self, and give him $1000, and the following advice... That's bad idea (with me anyways) because I probably would wind up accidentally (or maybe on purpose) killing my younger self (I annoy even myself sometimes)... Of course if I managed to not injure/kill my younger self, things would be the same becuase I don't listen to anyone else...why would my own advice be taken differently? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starblaze Posted August 25, 2003 Report Share Posted August 25, 2003 Originally posted by dbsousa I would meet my Freshman high school self, and give him $1000, and the following advice: When G__ tells you that the couple making out in the front seat is making her horny, go in for the kiss. When you meet S___, don't even bother to ask her out. be casually friendly with her, but you're not really interested in her. K__ will try to provoke you into a fight. Tell him that you will count to three, and if he doesn't walk away, you will beat the crap out of him. Then do it. (Warning: you might get the crap beaten out of you, but you will feel better about it ten years later...) Do your god-damned homework! Do it in high school, because it is easier than anything you will do later in life, Do it in your first college because you will be able to transfer all of your credits rather than flunking out. Do it at your Second College so you don't have to return 12 years later to get your degree. About the first and second college thing... Go to U___ for three semesters and transfer to C___. You will lose your virginity at U___, but you will make lifetime friends at C___ you will be offered a job at P___. Offer to consult for them part time instead. The magazine will not get made, the job will fall apart in three months, you will be back at your old job, and you will kick yourself when your boss laughs at your suggestion to rethink the project and publish the magazine on the "World Wide Web", because "Who goes to the Web to read stuff?" Start working out. You are 6' 2" and you will never be any thinner. Make it a habit, so I don't have to. Go to the record store, and start buying music. You are going to love the Smiths, the B-52's, REM, U2, and Joy Division. You are also going to like some older stuff, like Pink Floyd, David Bowie, and Elvis Costello. Learn to play guitar, and when you buy one with your first tax refund, treat it well. Take some singing lessons while you are at it. you like to sing, and a little bit of training will save you a few sore throats. Get yourself checked for sleep apnea. you will lose several years of sleep if you don't. Finally... This $1000 is a high school graduation present. put it in the bank now, and invest it in K___ when you graduate. When you are offered a job with K___ in 1997, sell it for $300,000. This reminds me of the movie Peggy Sue got Married. In a nutshell it is about a middle age woman who travels back in time to herself as a high school student. One scene had her in her algebra class taking a test. When the teacher catches her doodling all over the test he demands an explanation. Her reply "Mr ___ I know for fact that I will never use this". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuk Posted August 25, 2003 Report Share Posted August 25, 2003 Originally posted by Darth Sarcastic That's bad idea (with me anyways) because I probably would wind up accidentally (or maybe on purpose) killing my younger self (I annoy even myself sometimes Do you often accidentally kill people? Especially people who it's really, really important to your own personal survival that you don't kill? I think you'd get a bunch of points for that, probably as a Soc Lim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rayoman Posted August 26, 2003 Report Share Posted August 26, 2003 Invest in Microsoft. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koshka Posted August 29, 2003 Report Share Posted August 29, 2003 First off, check the library and see when Warren Buffett founded Berkshire Hathaway. Then run back and grab a few shares on initial release. When I get back home, look through all the old BH reports I now have sitting on a bookshelf and pick out some more stocks Warren picked before they got huge, repeat tactic. Now that I'm set for life monetarily, it's time for fun . I don't know if I'd trust myself in pre-WWII Germany (though since I'm a lousy shot, offing Hitler wouldn't be too probable anyway), but there's lots of other time periods that would be a blast to explore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.