NationStates Jolt Archive

Hey there forumers! I have a question for everyone that isn't already being asked! If you had a time machine, but you could only had enough plutonium for a trip back in time and then back to our time, what event in history would you go back in time and change?(I personally would go kick Al Gore's father in the balls. An Impotent Truth, if you catch my drift)

None....

I believe in Murphys law...there isnt anything so bad that cant get worse...

besides I dont want to live in any place with out two things:

1) Internet

2) Sewage

I would get a bunch of money printed from 1970's and go back to invest in something called 'microsoft'

Hey there forumers! I have a question for everyone that isn't already being asked! If you had a time machine, but you could only had enough plutonium for a trip back in time and then back to our time, what event in history would you go back in time and change?(I personally would go kick Al Gore's father in the balls. An Impotent Truth, if you catch my drift)
Simple. I'd bring the plans for said time machine back in time for my past self to build it with. I would, of course, bring several respected scientists back with me to demonstrate its success. That'd win the nobel prize, no problem.

I'd make sure St. Paul's mother had a miscarriage.

THis got me thinking.... maybe I could go back in time...kill baby Jesus...

then become myself the savior of humanity and create a really stupid religion center around myself and chocolate!!!!

:D

I would go back to medieval England, formulate a rebellion among the masses, introduce new technology, start the protestant church, and finally not returning to become the president of the New Republic of England!

Chads... need I say more?

Chads... need I say more?

.....yes?

Stop Butterfly Effect from being made. Not because it was that bad or anything, but for irony's sake.

Stop that goddamn asteroid. Sure, humans will never evolve, but that's the price you pay to get to have dinosaurs.

Stop Butterfly Effect from being made. Not because it was that bad or anything, but for irony's sake.
Genius. :D

Although, the irony would be lost in the act of doing so. Curiously, also somewhat ironic.

Genius. :D

Although, the irony would be lost in the act of doing so. Curiously, also somewhat ironic.

Somewhat?

I have a love-hate relationship with irony.

I would eat that bit of Chinese food that I left in the fridge sometime before it went bad.

The OP is wrong. The only thing that is so bad it can't be made worse is communism. I'd go back and have Marx eat lead paint chips.

Stop Butterfly Effect from being made. Not because it was that bad or anything, but for irony's sake.

I'm going to go back and punch H.G. Wells until he promises to make a better name for time machines than time machines.

I'm going to go back and punch H.G. Wells until he promises to make a better name for time machines than time machines.

While you're at it, punch him for writing such a mediocre story as War of the Worlds that allowed for such a god-awful Tom Cruise movie to be made.

Chads... need I say more?

.....yes?

Chads, those little hanging pieces of paper that got Dubbya elected president... or better yet I can travel even further back and shoot the bastard that invented the voting booth. Checks on paper are so much easier to understand.

You could always just punch Tom Cruise instead.

How about killling the freak that invented scientology? :sniper:

While you're at it, punch him for writing such a mediocre story as War of the Worlds that allowed for such a god-awful Tom Cruise movie to be made.

You could always just punch Tom Cruise instead.

You could always just punch Tom Cruise instead.

But then he'll eat my brain with his psychic OT8 powers that allow him to transcend space and time.

While you're at it, punch him for writing such a mediocre story as War of the Worlds that allowed for such a god-awful Tom Cruise movie to be made.

But then he'll eat my brain with his psychic OT8 powers that allow him to transcend space and time.

Hmmm, now that you mention the good Mr. Cruise, maybe I could pay a visit to L. Ron back when he was just a writer. Not to stop him from creating scientology, but to influence it to make it more hilarious. Something like clothes being very bad for your body thetans or something.

Hmmm, now that you mention the good Mr. Cruise, maybe I could pay a visit to L. Ron back when he was just a writer. Not to stop him from creating scientology, but to influence it to make it more hilarious. Something like clothes being very bad for your body thetans or something.

Niccole Kidman is a scientologist right?

:fluffle:

I'm not entirely sure that COS could get any more hilarious. I mean, really: thetans...Teegeak...Xenu.

I'd go back and stop me from posting on this thread. *nod*

Niccole Kidman is a scientologist right?

:fluffle:
I believe so, yes :)
I'm not entirely sure that COS could get any more hilarious. I mean, really: thetans...Teegeak...Xenu.

I suspect several people have already done this.

I suspect several people have already done this.

That would explain a lot, wouldn't it?

That would explain a lot, wouldn't it?

Maybe I'll bring a Guy Fawkes mask. Make it some kind of holy relic.

Maybe I'll bring a Guy Fawkes mask. Make it some kind of holy relic.

Hmm...it had to come from somewhere, didn't it?

1 Go back to the 70s
2 Buy stock in Apple, Microsoft etc
3 Come back here
4 Make a sandwich
5 ??????????
6 PROFIT!!!

Hmm...it had to come from somewhere, didn't it?

Though, V for Vendetta would probably have starred Tom Cruise.

Though, V for Vendetta would probably have starred Tom Cruise.

I wouldn't have disliked it any more.

This reminds me of a story I read once(or maybe it was a Twilight Zone episode) about how this outifit runs these tourist trips into the past, but they have a very specific path that you have to stay on. On one of these trips, this guy gets scared by a dinosaur or a caveman or something and runs off the path and squashes an ant or a butterfly or something and when they get back, everything is changed for the worse.

Moral of the story:Things happened like they did for a reason, so don't monkey with stuff, lest you make it worse.

Take time machine, go back to 1985. Fit time machine inside DeLorean. Ponder how life imitates art...

That's a story by Ray Bradbury, Heinleinites. If I recall correctly it's "The Sound of Thunder" or something similar.

And the way to save the most people for the least effort is probably to kill off Hitler or Stalin. Out of the two, Stalin killed more people but without Stalin Hitler would probably have conquered Russia. One can hope that without Hitler's charismatic oratory the Nazi party wouldn't get so far.

That's a story by Ray Bradbury, Heinleinites. If I recall correctly it's "The Sound of Thunder" or something similar.

And the way to save the most people for the least effort is probably to kill off Hitler or Stalin. Out of the two, Stalin killed more people but without Stalin Hitler would probably have conquered Russia. One can hope that without Hitler's charismatic oratory the Nazi party wouldn't get so far.

You don't need to kill Hitler, just let his nazi friends know that he's there to spy on them.

Take time machine, go back to 1985. Fit time machine inside DeLorean. Ponder how life imitates art...

You know there are plans to re-release DeLoreans, right?

I'd go back to May of 2002 when me and my ex broke up, and stop it. I'd tell her that if she drumps me, she'll regret it, and end up being financially tied to a man who will go no where and is content living at home with daddy.

You know there are plans to re-release DeLoreans, right?
I predict many people getting clocked at 88mph
I'd go back to May of 2002 when me and my ex broke up, and stop it. I'd tell her that if she drumps me, she'll regret it, and end up being financially tied to a man who will go no where and is content living at home with daddy.

She'll think you're crazy and dump you anyway. Or have you put into a mental institution, then dump you.

I know where I can buy a DeLorean. The owner says it needs a new transmission. I'll steal it and install my new Chronological Transmission Device instead. Yeah, that should work. Then I'll go back and show how all cool time mchines belong in DeLoreans and inspire the best part of Back to the Future.

Take time machine, go back to 1985. Fit time machine inside DeLorean. Ponder how life imitates art...

*edit* Oh, look, I just did that. Aren't you glad I didn't let them use the AMC Gremlin they were gonna use before I showed up?

She'll think you're crazy and dump you anyway. Or have you put into a mental institution, then dump you.

I will bring video tape evidence *nod*

Back to the beginning of time and beg God not to create the Creation.

I will bring video tape evidence *nod*

That could work.

Back to the beginning of time and beg God not to create the Creation.

Wouldn't god have already started creation at the beginning of time? Further, being omniscient, wouldn't god already be aware that you were going to do this? With that in mind, our current existence suggests that your begging was in vain.

I will bring video tape evidence *nod*

Generally speaking, ex's aren't worth the trouble.


Just ask Michelle.






Ask her about "no-contact orders".

That could work.

I will also bring back bill statement to prove that she'll be paying all the bills that they "Share". (They don't actually share, she pays for it all).

I will also bring back bill statement to prove that she'll be paying all the bills that they "Share". (They don't actually share, she pays for it all).

And who wouldn't want to go out with a time traveller?

Palm Beach county, 2000, with non-butterfly ballots? Bush v. Gore with five tranquilizer darts? 9/10/01 with a copy of the 9/11 commision report? Authorization of the Iraq War with the Iraq study group report? Ohio 2004 with non-Diebold voting machines? 1939 with some balls for Chamberlain? 1918 with some common sense for Verseilles? 1990s with money to buy stock in Google, Microsoft, etc? 2006 to invest in gold and oil? The Super Bowl with a winning touchdown for the Patriots? Florida/Michagin decision in 2008 with a soapbox? New Hampshire primary with 10-15% more votes for Obama?

If EA/Westwood taught us anything through Red Alert and Red Alert 2, it is that messing with the timeline would never be a good idea!

One Point Twenty-One Jiggawatts!

I figure I'd go back in time and make a killing off of the dot-com bubble. Of course, there's that whole risk of accidentally meeting myself in the process but as long as I don't do anything too stupid I should be alright. Besides, not like my 11 or 12-year-old self would recognize me anyways.

I would get a bunch of money printed from 1970's and go back to invest in something called 'microsoft'
I'd also never myself a note to move that stock to Apple right before the iPod was introduced.

I believe Apple's stock has grown at a better rate than Apple's during this period.

One Point Twenty-One Jiggawatts!

How could I have been so stupid is the line that follows or is a paraphrase of the line that follows..

I'm too drunk to remember if I got that right :p

You don't need to kill Hitler, just let his nazi friends know that he's there to spy on them.

Or photoshop some pictures of Hitler having sex with some taboo person/place/thing and spread them around Germany.

Or get that art school in Austria to accept him.

Killing is so.... dull.

Or photoshop some pictures of Hitler having sex with some taboo person/place/thing and spread them around Germany.

Or get that art school in Austria to accept him.

Killing is so.... dull.

I think Robot chicken has one of the best representations of the time machine (dicks/heroes with time machines)

I figure I'd go back in time and make a killing off of the dot-com bubble. Of course, there's that whole risk of accidentally meeting myself in the process but as long as I don't do anything too stupid I should be alright. Besides, not like my 11 or 12-year-old self would recognize me anyways.If only you could. That bubble's burst put allot of people off the sciences and engineering.

However, I doubt you could. Business management sees all the potential for money in the industry, but lack the knowledge of it to properly capitalize off it.

I'd also never myself a note to move that stock to Apple right before the iPod was introduced.

I believe Apple's stock has grown at a better rate than Apple's during this period.


????

????What do ya mean ?????

As an aside, i just voted Han shot first as if I did have a time machine, thats the one thing i'd tell lucas not to change.. as well as telling him to write out that idiot Jar Jar and cancel the Noooooo at the enbd of episode 3.. (bingo.. legitimate version of films 1 through 6 :p)

I wouldn't change anything, the chances are too great that I would make things worse.

If only you could. That bubble's burst put allot of people off the sciences and engineering.

However, I doubt you could. Business management sees all the potential for money in the industry, but lack the knowledge of it to properly capitalize off it.

Yeah, you really have to look at the amount of wealth wiped out to really appreciate it. Something like $5 trillion in tech companies alone, not to mention all of the retirement funds and layoffs...of course, it has recovered over time, but there were so many losses it's really amazing and troubling to watch it happen from a post-bubble perspective.

Yeah, you really have to look at the amount of wealth wiped out to really appreciate it. Something like $5 trillion in tech companies alone, not to mention all of the retirement funds and layoffs...of course, it has recovered over time, but there were so many losses it's really amazing and troubling to watch it happen from a post-bubble perspective.From stats I heard a year ago, Sweden was the only country no reach the level of new P.Eng. per year it had before the bubble burst. I think the trends are similar to for (computer) science graduates as well. Unfortunately, I just don't see the cycle stopping for a good while. I do think that the industry is going to bubble again, and of course burst again.

The OP is wrong. The only thing that is so bad it can't be made worse is communism. I'd go back and have Marx eat lead paint chips.

Ehh, total anarchy is worse than communism.

Hey there forumers! I have a question for everyone that isn't already being asked! If you had a time machine, but you could only had enough plutonium for a trip back in time and then back to our time, what event in history would you go back in time and change?(I personally would go kick Al Gore's father in the balls. An Impotent Truth, if you catch my drift)

For one thing, it's Platternite, not plutonium, you ignorant boob.

For another, it would probably be pointless. As much as I love movies like Back to the Future, odds are nothing I do in the past could affect this timeline. Either it would diverge into a new universe, or I would be unable to affect the past at all.

Either way, it would be pointless.

Go back and see if the 10 commandments were really given to humans by god. If and When, as I expect, I see Moses chipping them out himself and giggling like a maniac that the fools will believe him, I will kill him, and then destroy any and all copies of the Petateuch, and kill most of the literate members of that group just to make sure.

I have nothing specifically against the Jews, I just think the world would be better without Monotheism in it, and I think that is the only surefire way. The deaths would sadden me, but I'm a big picture kind of guy, and would look at the long term benefit.

Get on board the Mayflower and turn them into atheists...or if I am in an evil mood communists.

i'd go back and interfere with the other time traveler who was responsible for the rise of the roman empire. even further back if i had to. so much of what is totally wrong with today's world began right there.

=^^=
.../\...

This reminds me of a story I read once(or maybe it was a Twilight Zone episode) about how this outifit runs these tourist trips into the past, but they have a very specific path that you have to stay on. On one of these trips, this guy gets scared by a dinosaur or a caveman or something and runs off the path and squashes an ant or a butterfly or something and when they get back, everything is changed for the worse.

Moral of the story:Things happened like they did for a reason, so don't monkey with stuff, lest you make it worse.

Technically the air you displace and change the composition of purely by being in the past would be enough to seriously mess up the future.

I would get only a minute back into the past, to be able to look at my going to the past and smile proudly. Then i would use the rest of the fuel to get back there again and look at myself looking at myself and smile proudly once more.

Go back and see if the 10 commandments were really given to humans by god. If and When, as I expect, I see Moses chipping them out himself and giggling like a maniac that the fools will believe him, I will kill him, and then destroy any and all copies of the Petateuch, and kill most of the literate members of that group just to make sure.

I have nothing specifically against the Jews, I just think the world would be better without Monotheism in it, and I think that is the only surefire way. The deaths would sadden me, but I'm a big picture kind of guy, and would look at the long term benefit.

Monotheism didn't have much to do with the Jews so much as the Christians. Admittedly the Jews kept making a huge ruckus for the Romans when they occupied Judea, but that's kind of beside the point, as it was the Christians that started the practice of true monotheism.

I would get only a minute back into te past, to be able to look at my going to the past and smile proudly. Then i would use the rest of the fuel to get back there again and look at myself looking at myself and smile proudly once more.

I see what you did there.

Go to future get super advanced technology from my descendants.

Take over the world leave instructions to give advanced technology to me with my descendants.

Alas, i have been attempting to convert my wardrobe into a time machine for over 3 years now (originally i attempted to use my shed but it got cold in winter...). I can attest that time travel is possible but changing the past alas is not.

Many a time i have arrived at the scene of a great historic event only to have the universe freak out and panic at the thought of a paradox. For example, 1 year into my experiment i managed to go back in time and beat Hitler to death with a basket of fruit only to have the universe dissovle around me as it dealed with my entire future being altered and consequently my existance.

Needless to say i wasn't happy.

From what i have gathered the universe was caught in limbo for around 3 relative weeks as i repeated the same futile attemept over and over again without realising it as the universe reset itself to the point before i went back in time. I was only made a ware of this by an increasing sense of deja-vu made possible by my heightened sense in a time of particular constipation....

And so the universe was inadvertently saved by the kebab which i had eaten for lunch that very day. All hail the benevolant donar-kebab!!!!

I'd go back to May of 2002 when me and my ex broke up, and stop it. I'd tell her that if she drumps me, she'll regret it, and end up being financially tied to a man who will go no where and is content living at home with daddy.

dude it doesn't matter how many of you go back to the past, you cant save soemone who doesn't want to be saved. I know it sucks, I fought so hard to save my Ex from becoming a druggie. but no matter what I tried no matter what I said it was all thrown in my face, even if it was just a suggestion to go to an AA meeting.
I still beat myself up over that failure. Even if it was inevitable.

I honestly do not know where I would go, or what I would do if I could go back in time, but here are my top ten in three separate categories

Category A - For the Benefit of Mankind

1) Assassinate Hitler
2) Assassinate Stalin
3) Assassinate Mao
4) Ensure that Bob Kennedy does not get shot in 1968
5) Ensure that Alfred Marshall drives John Maynard Keynes away
6) Get supplies through to Russia during World War I
7) Convince Clinton to invade Afghanistan in 1998
8) Get Hoover to veto the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act
9) Take all Portugese documents before the 1755 Earthquake
10) Take all documents from the Library of Alexandria, circa 100AD

Category B - Just for fun to see what might have happened

1) Convince Edward VIII that marrying Wallis Simpson is a bad idea
2) Let Franklin Roosevelt die of polio
3) Let Ronald Reagan die from the assassins bullet
4) Keep India united in 1947
5) Prevent the atomic bombs from being dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
6) Ensure that the Gallipoli Campaign is successful
7) Get America to back Chiang Kai-Shek after World War II
8) Get America to stay in Vietnam
9) Convince Western Australia not to vote in favour of the Commonwealth
10) Make the assassins bullet miss in Sarajevo

Category C - For my own benefit and amusement

1) Go back and "sleep" with some famous women (Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, Marie Antoinette, et cetera)
2) Go back to 1929, 1987 and 2001 and short all stocks just before the crashes (and make a fortune)
3) Go back to the mid 19th century, and buy Johannesburg (gold) and Kimberley (diamonds)
4) Buy Long Island not long after the Dutch have bought Manhattan
5) Purchase internet stocks in the early 1990s and sell them in January 2000
6) Buy large tracts of land near Tokyo and sell in 1989

I cannot be bothered thinking of more, so I still have four left in Category C.

THis got me thinking.... maybe I could go back in time...kill baby Jesus...

then become myself the savior of humanity and create a really stupid religion center around myself and chocolate!!!!

:D

Nah, that won't work.
Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKJonM0fM54)

AHA!!! I've got it!!

I will go back in time and seek out the worlds first bank which is STILL around today! Then i will deposit 1p into it and when i arrive back in the future i'll be a millionaire!!!!!!!!!!111

AHA!!! I've got it!!

I will go back in time and seek out the worlds first bank which is STILL around today! Then i will deposit 1p into it and when i arrive back in the future i'll be a millionaire!!!!!!!!!!111

Yeah, but did you see what happened to Phillip J. Fry's massive bank account?

Han, did indeed, shoot first.

Niccole Kidman is a scientologist right?

:fluffle:

Nope, Roman Catholic.

I'd go back and stop me from posting on this thread. *nod*

I hurt my head trying to think about that.

To OP, i'd go back in time and get another of the same machine as insurance, so if i did do anything wrong i could revert back to the current timeline.

Then i'd go back and Destroy the Roman empire before it was fully in control of Europe.

I honestly do not know where I would go, or what I would do if I could go back in time, but here are my top ten in three separate categories

Category A - For the Benefit of Mankind

1) Assassinate Hitler
2) Assassinate Stalin
3) Assassinate Mao
4) Ensure that Bob Kennedy does not get shot in 1968
5) Ensure that Alfred Marshall drives John Maynard Keynes away
6) Get supplies through to Russia during World War I
7) Convince Clinton to invade Afghanistan in 1998
8) Get Hoover to veto the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act
9) Take all Portugese documents before the 1755 Earthquake
10) Take all documents from the Library of Alexandria, circa 100AD

You could get away with maybe the last one and one other, but certainly not the full list. I also find it hard to believe assassinating these figures would be the way to go. Surely finding Hitler a decent art school, for example, or at least some bloody anger management classes would work out much better than simply killing the man as an adult.

Category B - Just for fun to see what might have happened

1) Convince Edward VIII that marrying Wallis Simpson is a bad idea
2) Let Franklin Roosevelt die of polio
3) Let Ronald Reagan die from the assassins bullet
4) Keep India united in 1947
5) Prevent the atomic bombs from being dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
6) Ensure that the Gallipoli Campaign is successful
7) Get America to back Chiang Kai-Shek after World War II
8) Get America to stay in Vietnam
9) Convince Western Australia not to vote in favour of the Commonwealth
10) Make the assassins bullet miss in Sarajevo


I fail to see how this stuff would be for fun, and you'd be making the world a much more dangerous place if you did either four, seven, or eight, especially with four.

I would give the Mongols AK-47's, tanks, and artillery and have them go at it.

time travel presents all sorts of dilemas, you cant just blindly go back to 1938 and kill hitler, you have to consider the ramifications of this action and the chacnes of a paradox are exceptionally high, i think time travel would be a disasterous invention, human beings are far too corrpt for it too work, we would all be dead within minuetes of its invention!

I hurt my head trying to think about that.

To OP, i'd go back in time and get another of the same machine as insurance, so if i did do anything wrong i could revert back to the current timeline.

Then i'd go back and Destroy the Roman empire before it was fully in control of Europe.

Wouldn't that do horrible things to the infrastructure of roads and trade routes that the Roman Empire established during its occupancy?

More importantly, a fantastic way to do this: Settle that old debate of which would win between an modern tank with an infinite supply of ammunition and fuel and the entire Roman army.

I'd look up Tolstoy and tell him that 'War, what is it good for?' is indeed a better title and he should stick with it.

I'd go back in time and kill Sarah Connor. Barring that, I'd try to take out her son. Or, if I couldn't do that, I'd take out all his friends.

I'd throw myself a surprise 60th birthday party, with every iteration of myself from every previous year invited. My oldest self would probably die from the nostalga.

Since my time-travel beliefs are currently leaning towards the idea of Stable Time loops and Predestination paradoxes, I wouldn't really care what I did in the past.

See the way I figure it, if I crush an ant then it doesn't matter because if I'm in the past NOW, then I've already been there thousands of years ago, when it was now. Therefore, anything I do, I've already done (because it's the past and the past has already happened), and it's vitally important that I do whatever I do, because if I didn't, I wouldn't have done it and I'd have done the different thing instead.

I'd go back to around 1256 AD and convince Hulagu Khan that the Abbasids aren't worth the trouble.

You could get away with maybe the last one and one other, but certainly not the full list. I also find it hard to believe assassinating these figures would be the way to go. Surely finding Hitler a decent art school, for example, or at least some bloody anger management classes would work out much better than simply killing the man as an adult.

The problem is that we would still be leaving the door open. With a dead Hitler, Stalin and Mao, we know that there should be no problem

I fail to see how this stuff would be for fun, and you'd be making the world a much more dangerous place if you did either four, seven, or eight, especially with four.

What I mean by fun is that I would purely do it for the sake of what if scenarios. What would have happened had Edward stayed on the throne (would England have had a constitutional crisis had war with Germany still occurred?); what would have happened had Roosevelt not been there (would America have ended up with no New Deal? how about World War II?); what would have happened had the Gallipoli Campaign been won (would the Russian Revolution occurred? how long would World War I have lasted?) - basically, it is for no purpose but to see what might have been.

The problem is that we would still be leaving the door open. With a dead Hitler, Stalin and Mao, we know that there should be no problem

Like hell we do. We'd know that there was no problem for them. But now that there's a vacuum to be filled...

Wouldn't that do horrible things to the infrastructure of roads and trade routes that the Roman Empire established during its occupancy?

More importantly, a fantastic way to do this: Settle that old debate of which would win between an modern tank with an infinite supply of ammunition and fuel and the entire Roman army.

Nah, i'm sure someone else would get around to building them, and it would reduce the power and chances of christianity ever existing.

I thought of that, but i realised once the roman army got used to the tank it would win, the Tank would eventually run out of fuel and ammunition, but i'm sure it would massacre a few thousand men in the process, then i guess they'd make a religion out of the monster sent from the Gods, and have a new religion, Tank being it's God. With Rocket Launcher as it's twin.

Since my time-travel beliefs are currently leaning towards the idea of Stable Time loops and Predestination paradoxes, I wouldn't really care what I did in the past.

See the way I figure it, if I crush an ant then it doesn't matter because if I'm in the past NOW, then I've already been there thousands of years ago, when it was now. Therefore, anything I do, I've already done (because it's the past and the past has already happened), and it's vitally important that I do whatever I do, because if I didn't, I wouldn't have done it and I'd have done the different thing instead.

I reckon you get different timelines, so even if you did go back in time you'd affect a different kind of world. What's a predestination paradox?

What he's saying is that there is one, unchange timeline. Whatever change you might try to enact by time travel has already happened, and is unchageable. If you tried to go back in time to kill your grandfather so that you wouldn't exist, you might find out after you killed him, he's actually not your grandpa, or otherwise, some freaky thing would happen preventing you from killing him, like you'd shoot yourself on accident, and the reason you would be unable to kill him is because you already exist, therefore in this single timeline, he did not and cannot die.

I'd change an awful lot, but only in my life.

If I had a Time Machine, I'd tell Cain to also kill Adam and Eve.

What he's saying is that there is one, unchange timeline. Whatever change you might try to enact by time travel has already happened, and is unchageable. If you tried to go back in time to kill your grandfather so that you wouldn't exist, you might find out after you killed him, he's actually not your grandpa, or otherwise, some freaky thing would happen preventing you from killing him, like you'd shoot yourself on accident, and the reason you would be unable to kill him is because you already exist, therefore in this single timeline, he did not and cannot die.

oh right, so that means that the future would be predetermined wouldn't it?
doesn't make much sense to me but i can understand why someone might think that, considering the apparent causality of the universe it makes sense to think everything happens stays happened.
But if i put time travel into that then it doesn't really work, i mean what would happen if i went back in time and destroyed the time machine in its early stages?
Besides the idea of self changes all the time so you could shoot yourself in the past because it is a different version of yourself, in the same way a few minutes ago i hadn't read your message a few years ago i'm a completely different person, so it would be like killing another random person, quite possible.

oh right, so that means that the future would be predetermined wouldn't it?

Sort of. Only your actions in the past are predetermined since they've already happened from the perspective of the future/present.

For instance see: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Red Vs Blue episodes(s) 50-52, etc.

I thought of that, but i realised once the roman army got used to the tank it would win, the Tank would eventually run out of fuel and ammunition, but i'm sure it would massacre a few thousand men in the process, then i guess they'd make a religion out of the monster sent from the Gods, and have a new religion, Tank being it's God. With Rocket Launcher as it's twin.

More importantly, a fantastic way to do this: Settle that old debate of which would win between an modern tank with an infinite supply of ammunition and fuel and the entire Roman army.

Of course it would run out of fuel and ammo...but that's not the point of the thought experiment.


Also, I'm surprised no one has said this yet:

Do the nasty in the pasty.

Invest in a plutonium mine and build an entire civilization up from the ground centered around the mine and mining the plutonium. Then have some sort of prophet predict my return in 2008. This way, as soon as I get back, they are waiting with more plutonium. (assuming the civilization has not crumbled or died of radiation sickness)

Of course it would run out of fuel and ammo...but that's not the point of the thought experiment.


Also, I'm surprised no one has said this yet:

Do the nasty in the pasty.

ah sorry i read that as the roman army having an infinite supply of fuel and ammo (i guessed you meant fuel as in food).

in that case, i think the roman army would still win, they could get it stuck in a hole in the ground, then burn it.
or swarm it with endless legions.
God those legions were scary.

Oh, I forgot to define the Predestination Paradox.

Quoth the Wiki
A predestination paradox, also called either a causal loop, or a causality loop and (less frequently) either a closed loop or closed time loop, is a paradox of time travel that is often used as a convention in science fiction. It exists when a time traveller is caught in a loop of events that "predestines" him or her to travel back in time. Because of the possibility of influencing the past while time travelling, one way of explaining why history does not change is by saying that whatever has happened was meant to happen. A time traveller attempting to alter the past in this model, intentionally or not, would only be fulfilling his role in creating history as we know it, not changing it. It is very closely related to the ontological paradox and usually occurs at the same time.

If I had a time-machine, I would go back to being 21 years and carefree as a college student.

Invest in a plutonium mine
That would be a waste of money, there is not one atom of plutonium in the whole earth.

Oh, I forgot to define the Predestination Paradox.
Calling it a "predestination paradox" doesn't really phrase the behaviour right. It's not that you can't choose to do anything different - it's more that History has already moved in such a way that your free choice is reflected in its structure. There is a "you-shaped hole" in history in time-travel, such that whatever you do is what has always been done. You could choose to act differently, but given that you did do what you did, History accommodated you appropriately, and what we're seeing is the consequence of that accommodation.

Calling it a "predestination paradox" doesn't really phrase the behaviour right. It's not that you can't choose to do anything different - it's more that History has already moved in such a way that your free choice is reflected in its structure. There is a "you-shaped hole" in history in time-travel, such that whatever you do is what has always been done. You could choose to act differently, but given that you did do what you did, History accommodated you appropriately, and what we're seeing is the consequence of that accommodation.

IE: You can't undo what you've already done, because you already did it, even you won't choose to do it until later.

Or:
Anything that happens, happens.
Anything that, in happening, causes something else to happen, causes something else to happen.
Anything that, in happening, causes itself to happen again, happens again.
It doesn't necessarily do it in chronological order, though.

If i could go back in time i would let hitler win sept take his place and RULE THE WORLD!:sniper:

Calling it a "predestination paradox" doesn't really phrase the behaviour right. It's not that you can't choose to do anything different - it's more that History has already moved in such a way that your free choice is reflected in its structure. There is a "you-shaped hole" in history in time-travel, such that whatever you do is what has always been done. You could choose to act differently, but given that you did do what you did, History accommodated you appropriately, and what we're seeing is the consequence of that accommodation.

Hey, I didn't name it. But yeah, that's pretty much it.

i would give cherokees ak-47s. Then i would watch as european settlers will be slaughtered by indians wielding assault rifles. :mp5: :D
Seriously that would be fucking cool!