You have a time machine. What do you do with it?

[IrezumiKiss]

A time travel question from Twitter back in July that I found interesting. Parameters are different than the OP but this person went for specific choices that would totally flip the flow of history and a few power balances.

 

[FGB]

Go back to 1950 and buy stock in several oil companies in my name and address.

Go to Dallas in 1963 with my handy cam and see what actual happened and who was where from a location not to be filmed...

 

[MNGuy]

I would not like to physically go back in time. Aside from disease, I would have to travel to an English speaking area. I would have to eat the food available, which could be a gastric adventure. Also, I might get killed for my odd clothing, mannerisms, language, or anything else I take forgranted in my present. Plus while back in time, I would continue to age. In addition to worrying about changing history.

Instead, I would rather discover an alien base, set up by alien historians/anthropoligists, that recorded Earth's history. Instead I just plop into a Lazy Boy chair, strap on a VR helmet, that stimulates my brain so it seem like I'm actually in the past. But it just plays the past to my brain, at incredible speed. So I could actually hang out in Jerusalem for all of Holy Week, and see what really happened, being able to 'rewind' events to watch them again, 'leap' from Herrod's palace to Pilate's palace in an instant, I would just be an observer, and do it all in a few minutes.

To me, it seems like I'm physically in the past. The universal translator allows me to understand what ancient Egyptians are saying. So I can clearly hear Khat say, 'Shit, that foreman Rames wants to mount two blocks on the pyramid today. I told him that's what his mom said.'

 

[ManlyUsername]

I'd go back starting around high school and take a shot at all the girls I was convinced I never had a shot with so never talked to.

 

[Cubantripod]

Nothing. I've been through some bad stuff, but I like where I am at. the past shaped me for this moment.

 

[Champakian]

"A Sound of Thunder," Ray Bradbury.

You win a prize. Unlike the Nobel, you get nothing with it other than satisfaction.

I wonder if Charlie ever got his?

 

[rockcasbah]

That’s easy; I’d revisit my high school girlfriend.

As the fountainhead of my first and most memorable orgasms on land, sea and air , i would love to re-experience it all again from my present perspective with her 18 year old-ness.

Groundhog Day meets Lolita sort of thing.

 

[Not Normal]

At the Village Vanguard.

THIS.

I will die happy afterwards, if that's the price.

but if we're living in the new timeline, I will take advantage of what I know will happen to city real estate in the subsequent years. And also go see as many new upcoming shows at CBGB's as I can.

I actually played CBGB, the night before Thanksgiving 1996. There were 4-5 people there, sadly.

I'd go back starting around high school and take a shot at all the girls I was convinced I never had a shot with so never talked to.

HA.

 

[pecksniff]

I'd go back starting around high school and take a shot at all the girls I was convinced I never had a shot with so never talked to.

Well, the machine can't take you backwards along your own personal timeline. So, you're not a teenager, you're just a grownup creep stalking high-school girls. This does not end well.

 

[Champakian]

*chuckle*


You just ruined a lot of people's day...

 

[JohnnySavage]

I'd rather go forward in time. But since the machine wasn't designed properly, I suppose I'd like to see the pyramids when they were new and shiny.

The past is shit though for a man like me who enjoys his comforts.

 

[ManlyUsername]

Well, the machine can't take you backwards along your own personal timeline. So, you're not a teenager, you're just a grownup creep stalking high-school girls. This does not end well.

Doh! Well maybe I'll meet Chris Hansen before he was famous!