NationStates Jolt Archive

Where would you go and what would you do?

For this excercise we'll assume that when you travel BACK in time, you travel to a parallel universe. This way we avoid annoying paradoxes.
(i.e. You go back in time and kill your grandfather. But if you were never conceived, how could you go back in time to do it? :headbang: )

let it sit and collect dust. i hate screwing things up, and i think a time machine would do a wonderful job of screwing things up.

let it sit and collect dust. i hate screwing things up, and i think a time machine would do a wonderful job of screwing things up.

You wouldn't have to screw anything up. You're in a parallel universe.

Where would you go and what would you do?

For this excercise we'll assume that when you travel BACK in time, you travel to a parallel universe. This way we avoid annoying paradoxes.
(i.e. You go back in time and kill your grandfather. But if you were never conceived, how could you go back in time to do it? :headbang: )
If you did build a time machine ( and it appears this may, in fact be possible! ), simply travelling back in time would probably not influence history sufficiently to create an alternate universe. It would depend upon how "pure" an observer you could be. If you did kill your own grandfather on a date prior to the date your father was concieved, it's unlikely you would simply cease to exist. You would most probably "return" to a future where "you" had not even existed prior to your arrival in that alternate future. :)

Yes, but wouldn't it still screw things up for the bizzaro Adrian Barbeau-bot?

If you did build a time machine ( and it appears this may, in fact be possible! ), simply travelling back in time would probably not influence history sufficiently to create an alternate universe. It would depend upon how "pure" an observer you could be. If you did kill your own grandfather on a date prior to the date your father was concieved, it's unlikely you would simply cease to exist. You would most probably "return" to a future where "you" had not even existed prior to your arrival in that alternate future. :)
time paradoxes fill me with indescribable and fiery rage. please stop.

I think that temporal causality loops are worse than paradoxes. It would SUCK if we were trapped inside one.

The Revolutionary War in America - 18th century or so. I'd love to meet the founding fathers. =)

I think that temporal causality loops are worse than paradoxes. It would SUCK if we were trapped inside one.

You mean like Groundhog Day? That might be fun for a little while...

The Revolutionary War in America - 18th century or so. I'd love to meet the founding fathers. =)

I'd shy away from the past in America, considering I might get lynched or enslaved or that kind of thing due to the color of my skin, but anyways I'd want to go to the future and see advances in technology.

You mean like Groundhog Day? That might be fun for a little while...

Yes, but do you have any idea how long Billy Murray was trapped inside? According to the script he was trapped inside for 5,000 years and knew every event at every part of town. Imagine all the knoweledge you could gain in 5,000 years. He appeared to be unaffected by the loop so you could probably work out and train and be the strongest and most healthy human being alive.

Is it a parallel universe when you go forward, too?

if i could go back in time i would invent the computer, or patent the lightbulb, or beat newton to the concept of gravity or...

I think I'd go into the future and find out how to digitalize thought. Then I'd acquire all the information I could, and travel back to myself in the past. I'd upload the information and repeat until I knew enough to shame every one of the people in this forum. :D

You wouldn't have to screw anything up. You're in a parallel universe.

doesnt mean your parrallel universe isnt screwed up even more then the original. like butterfly effect, only, with a better actor.

Is it a parallel universe when you go forward, too?

Sure, why not? I don't think it would matter much, anyway.

Is it a parallel universe when you go forward, too?
Probably not. The "future" would be the future of whatever universe you had been born into, most probably. :)

time paradoxes fill me with indescribable and fiery rage. please stop.
Those weren't "paradoxical," they were "anit-paradoxical." :D

Those weren't "paradoxical," they were "anit-paradoxical." :D
it's still infinitely annoying.

it's still infinitely annoying.
[ throws apples at New Sancrosanctia! ] :D

I'd go pick up Beeth-oven and So-crates and lure Ghengis Khan with a Twinkie and play poker with Billy the Kid and...

I'd want to meet Julius Caesar.

I'd get rich with betting-fraud :D

[ throws apples at New Sancrosanctia! ] :D
touche, pappy. touche.

Kansas City sometime in the 30s to see the cutting session between Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins.

I'd go back to the early 80s and buy me some stock in IBM, Microsoft and hmmm, whatever companies are booming today. Then i'd sell it when I come back.

Take my mother's spice rack and go to medieval or roman times, sell those spices and make a profit.

Yes, but do you have any idea how long Billy Murray was trapped inside? According to the script he was trapped inside for 5,000 years and knew every event at every part of town. Imagine all the knoweledge you could gain in 5,000 years. He appeared to be unaffected by the loop so you could probably work out and train and be the strongest and most healthy human being alive.
i thought it was 10 years.

id like to go see the dinosaurs. i dont care exactly what ones or at what time, as long as i can avoid being eaten. maybe apatosaurus or triceratops.

Get into the money market, or futures, or stocks, then.

That, and find out if God (the Judeo-Christian/Muslim one) exists or not.

Where would you go and what would you do?
I'd probably start doing historical investigations in various places. Probably using spy satellites and monitoring from an orbital station painted black. Of course, I could only do this up until radio communications were invented; otherwise the inventor might hear the comm noise from my satellites.

For this excercise we'll assume that when you travel BACK in time, you travel to a parallel universe. This way we avoid annoying paradoxes.
(i.e. You go back in time and kill your grandfather. But if you were never conceived, how could you go back in time to do it? :headbang: )
Simple. History changes over and over again like an electrical NOT gate connected to itself.

--The Democratic States of Cogitation

Somewhere I read about the contemporary thinking about time travel, and a couple of basic ideas seem to be agreed upon. If you CAN get past manufacturing it, arranging exotic matter in strange geometries, you could never go back to the time before the time before the machine was built. All kinds of crap from the future would probably start coming out of it, possibly your future self, your children, etc. That's when the paradoxes start.

All that Pseudoscience aside, I'm going to San Francisco, 1967...

I'm going to San Francisco, 1967...

ahhhh, haight-ashbury.... anyway, i'd go to san francisco around that time aswell. my father was in san francisco around that time and went to loads of concerts... lucky bastard....

Where would you go and what would you do?

For this excercise we'll assume that when you travel BACK in time, you travel to a parallel universe. This way we avoid annoying paradoxes.
(i.e. You go back in time and kill your grandfather. But if you were never conceived, how could you go back in time to do it? :headbang: )
I'd go back in time and shoot Abraham to death. That way at least the parallel world would be spared Christianity, Islam, and all the crap that went along with those religions.

I'd go back in time and shoot Abraham to death.

he was shot- by john wilkes booth

he was shot- by john wilkes booth
Damn, got me there. I'll have to rethink this thing.

I'd go back in time and give the Romans the gift of candy.

I'd go back in time to answer this thread until I get it right.

I'm back...I said, I'd go back in time to answer this thread until I get it right.

Go back in time. Buy up lots of shares in Microsoft. Come forward again. Sell the shares. Get ludicrously rich. Repeat.

Also go forward. Steal stuff. Come back. Patent it. Get kudicrously rich.

Go back in time. Capture dinosaurs. Come back. Sell dinosaurs for research and food. Get ludicrously rich.

Go back in time. Take photos and videos of major events. Interview people. Come back. Sell unique accounts. Get ludicrously rich.

Go back in time to Yucatan Peninsula. Meet Aztecs and claim to be Quetzalcoatl. Accept generous gifts of gold, jewels etc. Come back. Sell stuff. Get ludicrously rich.

DANG! I can't get to that parrallel universe. I'll try again...

I give up...

Where would you go and what would you do?

For this excercise we'll assume that when you travel BACK in time, you travel to a parallel universe. This way we avoid annoying paradoxes.
(i.e. You go back in time and kill your grandfather. But if you were never conceived, how could you go back in time to do it? :headbang: )

Time machine to-do list...

1. Blow Hitler's brains out with a .44 magnum in 1920
2. Blow Stalin's brains out with a .44 Magnum in 1903
3. Blow Lenin's brains out before he can overthrow the "White Russian" revolution.
4. Blow Fred Engels and Karl Marx away, before they can finish Das Kapital and the Communist Manifesto.
5. Blow LBJ's head off in the 1940's.
6. Kill Lee Harvey Oswald while he was a corporal contemplating defection.
8. Napalm the Confederate capital in Richmond in 1864.
9. Enroll U.S. Grant in Alcoholics Anonymous before he's elected, so that he's on-the-ball to prevent Teapot Dome.
10. Kill Nathan Bedford Forrest before he founds the KKK.
11. invent Nuclear power in the Coal and Steam age.
12. give Teddy Roosevelt an M-14, design specs, and the modern powder formulations to make the ammo effective, so that the U.S. has a defined tech advantage in the Spanish-American war.
13. Stop the Lincoln assassination.

DANG! I can't get to that parrallel universe. I'll try again...

If you went back in time, you'd be putting the post inside the parallel universe... not ours. Therefore, even if you did go back in time and posted in the parallel universe's version of this thread, none of us would know. We'd just all assume you're a lunatic. But don't feel bad, lunatics are cool.

If you went back in time, you'd be putting the post inside the parallel universe... not ours. Therefore, even if you did go back in time and posted in the parallel universe's version of this thread, none of us would know. We'd just all assume you're a lunatic. But don't feel bad, lunatics are cool.


:D

If you went back in time, you'd be putting the post inside the parallel universe... not ours. Therefore, even if you did go back in time and posted in the parallel universe's version of this thread, none of us would know. We'd just all assume you're a lunatic. But don't feel bad, lunatics are cool.

Unless he originally came from a parallel universe, and our universe is the one his time machine brought him to. :eek:
If so, history could change pretty drastically any time now....

If I had a chance to go back in time, I would go back to the night my fiance was shot and take that gun off of him before he even came in the house.

:(

That would have prevented a lot of grief and pain from happening.

I'd go back to the time of the Roman republic, give them the knowledge of the steam engine and it's applications....then come back to today and find out what kind of technological developments have occured since then!