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Given Time Travel, Where & When Would You Want To Travel?

Expand the idea a bit.

If you could go back to some point in time, and, at that point have all memory of your present life removed and then start again from that point, would you ?

Essentially start again from that point. Following a different route and taking your chance that things would be better.

We could assume that your present life carried on in some alternate reality. But you would not be aware of it any more.

Would you wish to do it ?
 
I can tell you where I wouldn't go .. my place of conception ..

We were on a family holiday on a Spanish island when I was a younger adult .. Dad was driving, Mum in the front passenger seat and then she suddenly pointed out of the car window to a remote and crumbling derelict villa over looking a small picturesque ocean bay. Then she said that's where you were conceived .. in that building with a big smile on her face ..

I'm glad I exist because of this and for them that they got their freak on and everything at the time in that small building but I wouldn't go back to '72 to watch it.
 
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Sometime during Gobleki Tepes active period, to solve the mystery as to why it was abandoned.
"Everytime we tried to hold a ceremony, some blasted pale man would show and start mooning us. We had to move everything, it was embaressing."
 
Morning, I would love to see who the Ripper was, JFK etc, but the one thing that gives me second thoughts, is if you do go back in time to see those events, won't you somehow change your own timeline in someway? For instance, you go back to your own"timeline" but the place you live or work at may change subltely. That reminds me of a American Sci-Fi series that only aired one or two episodes and was taken off air as it was too near the truth? I think it was on one of those YouTube conspiracy videos( I am a sucker for them, got me more interested in Fortean phenomena!!!).
 
Shadowsot said:
Sometime during Gobleki Tepes active period, to solve the mystery as to why it was abandoned.
"Everytime we tried to hold a ceremony, some blasted pale man would show and start mooning us. We had to move everything, it was embaressing."
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lol. yeah thats the era i'd like. just at the start of the neolithic, when people started figuring out long term planting, and building and herding.

and i'd shake them and say 'don't do it!'.

but i'd also like instant recall to my time in an emergency and universal translator and vaccinations and all that.
 
Lord Lucan said:
London 1888. I'd like to know who the Ripper was, or wasn't.
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An obsessed time traveller, who set out to solve the Ripper murders and discovered that they aren't happening according to the records, starts to commit murders to fit the historical record. They rationalize it by saying these women were meant to die here and now (or then and there, it's a matter of viewpoint).

And back on topic Shakespeare's London, and Egypt during the New Kingdom. I think I'd avoid Palestine around 30 to 33 AD, not that I don't want to know, but whatever you reported from that period about a certain itinerant holy man would spark off several religious wars in the present day.
 
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INT21 said:
Expand the idea a bit.

If you could go back to some point in time, and, at that point have all memory of your present life removed and then start again from that point, would you ?

Essentially start again from that point. Following a different route and taking your chance that things would be better.

We could assume that your present life carried on in some alternate reality. But you would not be aware of it any more.

Would you wish to do it ?
Click to expand...

Yes. In an instant. April 1992.
 
This subject has come up in conversation many times over the decades, so I've had the opportunity to think about it repeatedly and refine my thoughts about what I'd do if given the ability to time travel.

For at least 25 - 30 years now I've been settled on my #1 priority and answer, which involves more of a mission than a personal lark or examination of a particular event or era.

I'd go back to copy or save the contents of the lost libraries and / or written records in antiquity, even if it meant using force or mass thievery.

The #1 target would be the great library at Alexandria (which might involve multiple trips to different times). The #2 target would be the collected corpus of Mayan codices. There are all too many candidates for target #3 and beyond.
 
EnolaGaia said:
I'd go back to copy or save the contents of the lost libraries and / or written records in antiquity, even if it meant using force or mass thievery.

The #1 target would be the great library at Alexandria (which might involve multiple trips to different times). The #2 target would be the collected corpus of Mayan codices. There are all too many candidates for target #3 and beyond.
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The Rongorongo tablets from Easter Island would be a candidate for me.
 
I can think of a lot of missions like the one the Enola describes, but if we're talking about mere historical sightseeing, I'd probably wander along to the Athenian Agora and listen to Socrates.

I might have to work on my Greek first (learn the whole language, that is).
 
Siege of Troy
Siege of Jericho
Siege of Cathage

from a safe distance with a telephoto lens.
 
Yes, I think wherever I went, I'd want a good pair of binoculars at least.
 
I'd go to Oak Island on the day that whatever it is/they are was/ were being hidden. I'd also be at the book store depository in Deeley Plaza or to Bluff Creek to see if Bigfoot was a hoax or not. All of these scenarios would rely on me being invisible though.
 
However, there is the possibility of doing harm to yourselves even if you are only watching an early event without any form pf possibility that you will cause a change.

Let us say (being irreverent) that you decided to check on the Virgin Birth.

and you followed Mary around for a few week until it became clear she was pregnant.

But you also notice that when Joseph was not around there was some handsome young chap who came to visit, and they did a bit of rumbling under the blanket.

So now you know that God had nothing to do with it (did Joseph actually check she was still a virgin after she announced her pregnancy ?). But it was just a ploy to stop herself being stoned to death for infidelity.

What could you do with this bit of information ?

Nothing.

Sure, you could write a book on the subject. But who would believe you ?

And it may not be such a good idea to go on tour advertising it.

I'm sure this logic would apply to many things. So you would really be doing it for your own satisfaction.

Knowing the truth but being unable to get others to believe you is one hell of a burden.

INT21.
 
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INT21 said:
You warmed up the paper, if I remember correctly.

However, there is the possibility of doing harm to yourselves even if you are only watching an early event without any form pf possibility that you will cause a change.

Let us say (being irreverent) that you decided to check on the Virgin Birth.

and you followed Mary around for a few week until it became clear she was pregnant.

But you also notice that when Joseph was not around there was some handsome young chap who came to visit, and they did a bit of rumbling under the blanket.

So now you know that God had nothing to do with it (did Joseph actually check she was still a virgin after she announced her pregnancy ?). But it was just a ploy to stop herself being stoned to death for infidelity.

What could you do with this bit of information ?

Nothing.

Sure, you could write a book on the subject. But who would believe you ?

And it may not be such a good idea to go on tour advertising it.

I'm sure this logic would apply to many things. So you would really be doing it for your own satisfaction.

Knowing the truth but being unable to get others to believe you is one hell of a burden.

INT21.
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Michael Moorcock's novel Behold the Man has something similar to this happen. It's a really good book, too and well worth a read.
 
INT21 said:
Expand the idea a bit.

If you could go back to some point in time, and, at that point have all memory of your present life removed and then start again from that point, would you ?

Essentially start again from that point. Following a different route and taking your chance that things would be better.

We could assume that your present life carried on in some alternate reality. But you would not be aware of it any more.

Would you wish to do it ?
Click to expand...

Problem is, without knowing future-history you'd quite likely be doomed to repeat your mistakes. Then end up in exactly the same present, get the opportunity to go back in time, repeat your mistakes... Caught in an infinite loop. Infinitely old consciousness with only a few years of memories to show for it. If you want to rewrite your history you need to know what it is you're rewriting.

Yes, I'd want to rewrite my past. But I'd want to rewrite key moments in other people's pasts more. Car accidents. Early medical diagnoses. Which dodgy builders to watch out for, which toxic people to avoid like the plague.

Or there might be an anti-Quantum Leap clause in the time travel contract - you're not allowed to go back to a time within your own timeline (all Sam's Leaps in Quantum Leap were within his own lifetime).

In that case, apart from the rather good suggestions in this thread, I'd have to go back in time. Going into the future could be interesting or it could be really depressing - what if the environment has been destroyed, civilisation collapsed, your favourite band has reformed and they're just nowhere near as good as they used to be? Would you really want to know that that's what your future holds and you're powerless to stop it? Or remain ignorant of the future and let it be a surprise?

But where to go in the past? Ideally somewhere you could blend in without being called a witch or demon or invading foreigner. Do we get a universal translator and appropriate attire? Would be difficult to hang out with, say, Napoleon if you turn up at his palace and immediately get shot as an English spy. Every conversation with the locals in Jeruselem ends up as an improvised sign language and you get to the Sermon on the Mount just when they're packing up to go home. Do we get vaccinations? Would suck to catch the Plague after loitering too long in the pit at the Globe Theatre.
 
Im tempted by the Victorian age.

But going back to see a famed Fortean event would be appealing.
 
Tribble,

I aught to add one concession.

At that moment in question you are aware that you are about to make the wrong decision. And change it.

You won't know why you suddenly changed your mind.
 
On Thursday I took a day off Work and spent it in shirt-sleeves digging small holes in a stubble field near Wendover. There were probably
problems at Work but nothing that could be done as I dug my holes. The sun shone, the overhead pylons hummed, I'd lost sufficient weight to require a belt for my overtrousers, all I detected in the holes were rusty nails - but this was my last ever chance to do what I was doing where I was doing it, as HS2 had bought the field to build a railway. I didn't need hindsight or retrospection to know I was at peace (the first time for a long time) and would look back on that day with nostalgia and contentment.
So back to last Thursday please.
 
Bad Bungle said:
On Thursday I took a day off Work and spent it in shirt-sleeves digging small holes in a stubble field near Wendover. There were probably
problems at Work but nothing that could be done as I dug my holes. The sun shone, the overhead pylons hummed, I'd lost sufficient weight to require a belt for my overtrousers, all I detected in the holes were rusty nails - but this was my last ever chance to do what I was doing where I was doing it, as HS2 had bought the field to build a railway. I didn't need hindsight or retrospection to know I was at peace (the first time for a long time) and would look back on that day with nostalgia and contentment.
So back to last Thursday please.
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Some detectorist found a hoard of coins recently. That was you, wasn't it?
 
Bad Bungle said:
Heh - spent it all on a Time Machine.
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Could you then travel back in time, rediscover the hoard, and spend it on something else?

In all seriousness, though, it sounds like you really did find an invaluable treasure last Thursday.
 
Krepostnoi said:
Could you then travel back in time, rediscover the hoard, and spend it on something else?

In all seriousness, though, it sounds like you really did find an invaluable treasure last Thursday.
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Aww (sniff). Thank you.
 
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