What would you do if time travel WAS possible?

[Epictetus]

Yes, yes. I have been reading all these postings that time travel is not possible, and it makes me hate that awful Stephen Hawking even more.

However this is the Free Thoughts Forum, and you all know what that means!

So if time travel were possible, well, before I tell you what I would do, let me tell you what my old mentor used to say:
(he said) I would get together as much money as possible and go back to Vienna circa 1920. Then I would find the painter Adolph Hitler and buy up all his work! I would flatter the man,"Dolf! You're a genius!" I would buy him dinners and secure his place in the art world.

My old friends point then was that if Hitler had succeeded as an artist, he would never have gone on to... well, you know.

Now my plan is much less altruistic. Not altruistic at all, in fact.

So if time travel were indeed possible, I would gather up a complete set of the Harry Potter series go back to 1980, long before J.K.Rowling ever conceived the idea of a boy wizard, and I would type the first book out, get it published, and let the cash roll on in over me. I'd hire someone trustworthy (or expendable) idiot who could type well to retype the rest of the books. I would only go back to 1980 so I could enjoy modern living, invest in dot.coms, befriend and support a young Bill Gates - that sort of thing.

And now I would be richer than the Queen. And somewhere J.K. would be wandering around, thinking those Potter novels sure cheered up her miserable existence wishing she had thought of it because it's just the sort of thing she would have done if she were a famous writer.

Aw hell! Maybe I'd send her a check for $10,000 after the final book was published.

So what would you do if time travel were possible? (And just remember: it isn't! that way there are no moral constraints to your fantasy)

[KilljoyKlown]

Yes, yes. I have been reading all these postings that time travel is not possible, and it makes me hate that awful Stephen Hawking even more.

However this is the Free Thoughts Forum, and you all know what that means!

So if time travel were possible, well, before I tell you what I would do, let me tell you what my old mentor used to say:
(he said) I would get together as much money as possible and go back to Vienna circa 1920. Then I would find the painter Adolph Hitler and buy up all his work! I would flatter the man,"Dolf! You're a genius!" I would buy him dinners and secure his place in the art world.

My old friends point then was that if Hitler had succeeded as an artist, he would never have gone on to... well, you know.

Now my plan is much less altruistic. Not altruistic at all, in fact.

So if time travel were indeed possible, I would gather up a complete set of the Harry Potter series go back to 1980, long before J.K.Rowling ever conceived the idea of a boy wizard, and I would type the first book out, get it published, and let the cash roll on in over me. I'd hire someone trustworthy (or expendable) idiot who could type well to retype the rest of the books. I would only go back to 1980 so I could enjoy modern living, invest in dot.coms, befriend and support a young Bill Gates - that sort of thing.

And now I would be richer than the Queen. And somewhere J.K. would be wandering around, thinking those Potter novels sure cheered up her miserable existence wishing she had thought of it because it's just the sort of thing she would have done if she were a famous writer.

Aw hell! Maybe I'd send her a check for $10,000 after the final book was published.

So what would you do if time travel were possible? (And just remember: it isn't! that way there are no moral constraints to your fantasy)

I wonder if they would still have a lottery?

[Neverfly]

I would go back to when there were no humans.



And stay there.

[NMSquirrel]

um..
here..
here..
here..
here..

there are so many threads on time travel that my browser crashes when i search the whole forum for 'Time travel'

these links are just from my subscribed list up to page 10...

the first link is the most recent thread(1-17-12)..join it..

[domesticated om]

would be awesome to do a tour of time. Things worth checking out:

Human history (strictly from observation standpoint) such as:

• Biblical events an people (get to see what actually happened without all the lies)
• Various wars or historically interesting battles .... Leonidas, Spartacus, Gettysburg,The red baron getting defeated, etc
• significant musical performances (like Hendrix on NYE in 69, Miles Davis, famous composers like Beethoven)
• Famous sporting events, fights to the death
• my own birthday.... heck, I'd track my own family history back to man's primate stages
• I'd check out Cleopatra to see if she was really that hot

Natural stuff I would love to check out:

• The big bang
• impact that created earth's moon
• Time prior to the impact (to see if there was other life)
• prehistoric life (I would spend the most time touring these periods)
• tour the mass extinction events
• Check out the official start date for life on earth (the birthday for the first microbe I suppose)

[KilljoyKlown]

I would go back to when there were no humans.



And stay there.

Loner I take it? As long as I can move both ways in time I'd be damn sure to check out the future and see how long human have before they go extinct. Also would be nice to know if we ever spread out to the stars, Then I could check out other planets as places I might like to live.

[Neverfly]

Loner I take it? As long as I can move both ways in time I'd be damn sure to check out the future and see how long human have before they go extinct. Also would be nice to know if we ever spread out to the stars, Then I could check out other planets as places I might like to live.

The idea has it's appeal... but I think watching, "When Worlds Collide" as a kid affected me.
The one thought that hammered it's way to the front of my brain was- How could I abandon Home and let everything that makes home, home- die.
All the diverse species and flora and fauna that just makes Earth, Earth.

I'd elect to stay behind in that situation. I do not know how to explain this in anyway. Maybe I cannot ever- it's just my nature. But to leave and know that the deer, the buffalo, the bear, the fish the birds- all gone - I'd cease to be me, somehow. An empty shell, not even a survivor at that point. Maybe it's the Native in me.

While I might like to visit other worlds, look up into the sky and see three moons or a huge ringed planet hanging in the sky- it's a bit like California. Nice to visit- never to move there.

But there IS a strong appeal to see the Earth as it was. Before we tamed and polluted it. When it was harsh, wild and free. Dangerous, yes- but FREE.
You eat what you kill.

I'd miss Dr. Pepper though. Might take a large supply with me, if possible.

[seagypsy]

I think I'd want to go back to the beginning of human evolution and document the evolution of human behavior.

[Stoniphi]

Time travel is not only possible, we are all doing it right now - we are traveling through time into our collective future.

[NMSquirrel]

stolen and edited from Domestic Om..
Human history (strictly from observation standpoint) such as:

• Biblical events an people
• significant musical performances ..Woodstock!
• My own history for stock tips and to slap some sense into myself at certain points.
• I'd check out Cleopatra to see if she was really that hot

Natural stuff I would love to check out:

• The big bang
• impact that created earth's moon
• Time prior to the impact (to see if there was other life)
• prehistoric life (I would spend the most time touring these periods)
• tour the mass extinction events

you wanna put yourself in the line of fire?

[KilljoyKlown]

tour the mass extinction events

Mass extinction events weren't something that just happened in the blink of an eye. Most of them took thousands of years to happen. Even the one we think of as the end of the dinosaurs, the asteroid strike was probably just the last straw at the end of a long extinction event. However, I do think the tour of those times would be very worth while and interesting ( be sure to not to leave any trash while there).

[kx000]

Travel back in time to kill the a-hole who invented time travel and screwed the world over.

[KilljoyKlown]

Travel back in time to kill the a-hole who invented time travel and screwed the world over.

You would only change reality in one of the duplicate realities that would be created at the moment you changed the past. But for you it would be real as you would be stuck in the new reality. For the rest of us there would be no change at all.

[kx000]

You would only change reality in one of the duplicate realities that would be created at the moment you changed the past. But for you it would be real as you would be stuck in the new reality. For the rest of us there would be no change at all.

At least I saved my own ass. Oh, and I stole the time travel instructions to keep for my self. I wonder, if I return to before I killed the time travel inventor if I can return from that point in time to my original reality? Maybe even to the future of it.

[Neverfly]

knowledge91,

Are you proposing that the act of Murder is a viable solution? "Dead men tell no tales..."

[madanthonywayne]

So if time travel were possible, well, before I tell you what I would do, let me tell you what my old mentor used to say:
(he said) I would get together as much money as possible and go back to Vienna circa 1920. Then I would find the painter Adolph Hitler and buy up all his work! I would flatter the man,"Dolf! You're a genius!" I would buy him dinners and secure his place in the art world.

My old friends point then was that if Hitler had succeeded as an artist, he would never have gone on to... well, you know.

That sounds great, but you have to wonder. Would you recognize the world you came back to? Clearly Hitler was a horrible, evil, bastard. BUT. Is it possible that the present might be even worse after your alteration than before?

Suppose no Hitler meant no WW2. Absent the pressure of a world war, there was no Manhattan Project. Therefore, instead of the US developing nuclear weapons as a result of a massive wartime effort and doing so well before anyone else had such a capacity, various nations around the world developed and built up stockpiles of nuclear weapons without ever having seen the horror of a nuclear attack.

This could mean that the first use of nuclear weapons might be an all out nuclear war that completely destroys the biosphere.

Now my plan is much less altruistic. Not altruistic at all, in fact.

So if time travel were indeed possible, I would gather up a complete set of the Harry Potter series go back to 1980, long before J.K.Rowling ever conceived the idea of a boy wizard, and I would type the first book out, get it published, and let the cash roll on in over me. I'd hire someone trustworthy (or expendable) idiot who could type well to retype the rest of the books. I would only go back to 1980 so I could enjoy modern living, invest in dot.coms, befriend and support a young Bill Gates - that sort of thing.

And now I would be richer than the Queen. And somewhere J.K. would be wandering around, thinking those Potter novels sure cheered up her miserable existence wishing she had thought of it because it's just the sort of thing she would have done if she were a famous writer.

Aw hell! Maybe I'd send her a check for $10,000 after the final book was published.

Why not just play the lottery or the stock market? Or you could go the Back to the Future 2 route and bring back a sports almanac.

Also, I'd recommend a trip to the future to see what kind of medical technology they've developed. Get any diseases I have cured. Maybe some nano-tech to deal with the ravages of age. Maybe they'd even be able to do some upgrades.

[Stryder]

I go back and stop all of you messing up the time-line

After all there is really two camps when it comes to time travel theory, the one that states that time travelling will mean existing in alternative parallel time-lines, or the multi-world's type which would seem like the entire universe is altering it's reality compared to the observers (or Time travelling meddler in this case.) original understanding.

The latter is actually more probable if such mechanics wasn't fiction, however time travel trials might induce a number of side effects that would likely get any meddling criminalised.

For the latter to be correct it would pose that paradoxes occur at a subatomic level. While a deviation can occur to some extent in regards to particle-waveform duality, there still exists the defining parameter of the particle.

So the hypothesis is that you wouldn't deal with macro abstractions of say "Hitler not existing", but what would actually have to play out is the entire universe requiring every atomic state having to be re-orientated, emanating out from the point of meddling. (After all the particle-waveform duality of sub-atomics would only be working on one atomic state at a time)

[Buddha12]

I'd go back in time and give my sister a kidney for a transplant so that she wouldn't have died.

[Neverfly]

Stryder posted about the enforcement of the timeline and MadAnthonyWayne raised the issue of unintended consequences.

For me, I've always found it hilarious that folks seem to think, right off the bat, "kill historical figure." Or Gramps. Whatever.

The reason for this seems simple enough: It's all inclusive and an effective method.
But... unnecessary and it's not like, as a society, that we condone killing to solve an issue anyway. Add to that that most time travelers are not likely to be heartless. They may have a great amount of difficulty in traveling back in time to before a figure had committed the act they wish to prevent and murdering them coldly.
Even ol' Adolf himself: You go back to when he was in his early years, studying photography and being a mostly normal Joe... Even the known history may not be enough to take that strangers life as he innocently hums to himself, smiling, while checking his portfolio, only to look up at you with dawning horror on his face as he sees that you are armed and realizes your intentions- And he has no idea why you wish him harm.
The impetus to find some other way, some way to save a life, will occur to any rational being.
Taking a life is not easy. Believe me- it is not.

What would occur to anyone is the Uncertain Means: To influence events with subtle and minute adjustments. Perhaps a long and complex series of them.

Let's take MadAnthonyWaynes example- By Godwin, the most likely internet discourse...

So we go back in time and Kill Hitler before the outbreak of the War.
Disaster strikes, nuclear holocaust and mutated three eyed fishes.
Well this is no good. We go back in time to just before we went back the first time and say to ourselves, "Don't do that."

Back to the drawing board.

Epictetus' O.P. poses the idea of influencing Hitler away from his own future.

A person would pretty much have to either calculate out the effects... and figure out the influences...
Or Trial and Error- keep trying 'til you have the desired outcome.

Killjoyklown and Stryder both make mention of alternate realities as a result.

That's just a headache waiting to happen.

What you end up with is influences on historical events that only show up in the alternate realities and trial and error efforts spawning alternate realities all over the place like amorous bacteria in a petri dish.

This means only one post in the thread makes any sense:

Originally Posted by Knowledge91:
Travel back in time to kill the a-hole who invented time travel and screwed the world over.

That a-hole or at least Epictetus for asking the question in the first place.

[kx000]

knowledge91,

Are you proposing that the act of Murder is a viable solution? "Dead men tell no tales..."

Trap question. Lets put it this way, society is better off without some of us. We can do without murderers.