If You Could Go Back In Time

[ANDY76]

This is something I often think about...
If you could go back in time, would you change anything? I'm not talking about making a note of the winning lotto numbers, or anything for personal gain, I mean things like trying to prevent 9/11, or human suffering?
If you could go back, would you want to change anything, or do you think it would be best left alone?
Might seem like a stupid question, but I'm sure most of you have had this kind of thought.

 

[In-4-mant]

leave it alone. ever play command & conquer: red alert? think of it that way. if we went back in time and killed hitler, thus preventing, if not drasticallly reducing the likelihood of WW2, we could have gone to war with the soviet union instead. the cold war could have turned hot, and the cuban missile crisis could have been a real crisis. if ww2 never happened, we might not have made it to space because the space program was the result of german V2 rocket research. suppose if MLK or JFK didnt get assassinated...yeah they'd be great leaders and spokesmen, but their deaths were the jumpstart for civil/human rights movement.

it sucks that bad things have happened in the past, but what doesn't kill us only makes us stronger. and if we change the past to prevent a bad thing, an equally worse, if not greater bad thing could happen.

consider an earthquake. if you dont have those little tremors, a massive earthquake will occur as the result of built up tension. earthquakes are bad things, but there is some good in even the worst things.

 

[jod0565]

I would go so far back and prevent the beginnings of "currency" so we did not have to work and there would be not "classes" of people based on their income. No poor or rich people.
Also, I'd go back and slap the first person who ever made a racist remark.

 

[D-rock]

I wouldn't want to go back even to help myself. The bad experiences I have faced and the pain I have felt are part of the things that make me...me. I am happy with who I am and wouldn't want to be anybody else. As far as helping the world I wouldn't want to go back. Unless human nature can change you are just treating the symptom and not the cause. Its best if we can have a past, no matter how bad, that we can learn from and make a better future out of.

 

[Porn_adicct]

I’m depressed right now, so don’t judge me.

If life was as the scientist told (no god, evolution of species, dinosaurs, big bang) I would go to the beginning of mankind, and kill the first human being ever to exist.

If I had full control of time, I would make sure that I REALLY killed the first man alive, moving to the future to make sure (no one really knows how we are here) if I found a chimp who started to look like human, I would kill him also, just to be sure. Then after moving to the future the humanity started to take care of their history, and didn’t find any roman empire, no pyramids, no Aztec or Mayan empire (sorry if I missed your favorite empire) , no sign of a human being, then I would return to 2005 (or the time I started my trip) and would visit all the world.

Then I would see the oceans with clean pure water, the ecosystems in perfect balance, Australia with its original species, the forests that became deserts for our own fault, would sleep seeing all the freaking stars in the sky everyone talked about, the weather in it’s real form, I think the trip would be entirely in silence, just interrupted by the wind in my ears, the water flowing or the animals. I would visit entirely America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania, without need for a passport or someone keeping and eye behind a wall of steel covering an imaginary division.
No need for language, history, politics, recognition, justice, power, money or fame. No societies, no humanity

Then, just to remember me that I am human and if I was still alive from my trip, I would return to the place I was born, would be easy, I remember the maps, maybe it would look different without the buildings, the people, the noises. But I can remember the mountains, I know I could find them, once when I am covered by them, just chose one of them, if you go straight you find everything.

Everywhere is fine, If I found the extinct river every old people talked about, then I know I would know my home is like 4 blocks away, maybe at the time I would forget how big a block was, so anywhere is fine.
I would establish there, eating and drinking what nature could give, without modern medicine, and today’s food, I know I’m doomed, but what the hell, I could wait. Just to be sure that when I closed my eyes, no human being ever walked the earth again.

But again, that is if I had a time machine. Until then, enjoy the trip

 

[waltercoffman]

I do not honestly think I could prevent myself from doing something to benefit me - even if I were going back in time to prevent something like JFK being killed, I do not believe I could resist putting just a small investment into IBM stock...sounds selfish but if time travel were possible, that is what would happen, its human nature.

Didn't do much to cheer you up, did I?

 

[D-rock]

I’m depressed right now, so don’t judge me.

If life was as the scientist told (no god, evolution of species, dinosaurs, big bang) I would go to the beginning of mankind, and kill the first human being ever to exist.

If I had full control of time, I would make sure that I REALLY killed the first man alive, moving to the future to make sure (no one really knows how we are here) if I found a chimp who started to look like human, I would kill him also, just to be sure. Then after moving to the future the humanity started to take care of their history, and didn’t find any roman empire, no pyramids, no Aztec or Mayan empire (sorry if I missed your favorite empire) , no sign of a human being, then I would return to 2005 (or the time I started my trip) and would visit all the world.

Then I would see the oceans with clean pure water, the ecosystems in perfect balance, Australia with its original species, the forests that became deserts for our own fault, would sleep seeing all the freaking stars in the sky everyone talked about, the weather in it’s real form, I think the trip would be entirely in silence, just interrupted by the wind in my ears, the water flowing or the animals. I would visit entirely America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania, without need for a passport or someone keeping and eye behind a wall of steel covering an imaginary division.
No need for language, history, politics, recognition, justice, power, money or fame. No societies, no humanity

Then, just to remember me that I am human and if I was still alive from my trip, I would return to the place I was born, would be easy, I remember the maps, maybe it would look different without the buildings, the people, the noises. But I can remember the mountains, I know I could find them, once when I am covered by them, just chose one of them, if you go straight you find everything.

Everywhere is fine, If I found the extinct river every old people talked about, then I know I would know my home is like 4 blocks away, maybe at the time I would forget how big a block was, so anywhere is fine.
I would establish there, eating and drinking what nature could give, without modern medicine, and today’s food, I know I’m doomed, but what the hell, I could wait. Just to be sure that when I closed my eyes, no human being ever walked the earth again.

But again, that is if I had a time machine. Until then, enjoy the trip

If you killed of humanity, you would never be born in the first place. You would end up creating a paradox.

 

[Porn_adicct]

I know, but no one here has traveled in time as I see.

That remained me a joke in South Park, talking about the laws of a time portal based on ones supplied by television shows and movies.

Let’s say my vision of time traveling is like dragon ball z and trunks (pretty geek), you could see your father killed, but still you can remain in that time as much as you want.

This thread seems to go well, let’s not move it into quantum physics

 

[Max]

If we could go back, (and I was in power) I would make sure unrulely countries like Iraq would be built up to proper cities and make sure the people were disciplined. Also the people that wanted a little bit of land they can call thier home, could have it. And hopefully that would cut out all the shit terroism we have in the world today!

 

[Immoral]

Well I don´t really care to go back where I came from :eek:

 

[McRocket]

I’m depressed right now, so don’t judge me.

If life was as the scientist told (no god, evolution of species, dinosaurs, big bang) I would go to the beginning of mankind, and kill the first human being ever to exist.

If I had full control of time, I would make sure that I REALLY killed the first man alive, moving to the future to make sure (no one really knows how we are here) if I found a chimp who started to look like human, I would kill him also, just to be sure. Then after moving to the future the humanity started to take care of their history, and didn’t find any roman empire, no pyramids, no Aztec or Mayan empire (sorry if I missed your favorite empire) , no sign of a human being, then I would return to 2005 (or the time I started my trip) and would visit all the world.

Then I would see the oceans with clean pure water, the ecosystems in perfect balance, Australia with its original species, the forests that became deserts for our own fault, would sleep seeing all the freaking stars in the sky everyone talked about, the weather in it’s real form, I think the trip would be entirely in silence, just interrupted by the wind in my ears, the water flowing or the animals. I would visit entirely America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania, without need for a passport or someone keeping and eye behind a wall of steel covering an imaginary division.
No need for language, history, politics, recognition, justice, power, money or fame. No societies, no humanity

Then, just to remember me that I am human and if I was still alive from my trip, I would return to the place I was born, would be easy, I remember the maps, maybe it would look different without the buildings, the people, the noises. But I can remember the mountains, I know I could find them, once when I am covered by them, just chose one of them, if you go straight you find everything.

Everywhere is fine, If I found the extinct river every old people talked about, then I know I would know my home is like 4 blocks away, maybe at the time I would forget how big a block was, so anywhere is fine.
I would establish there, eating and drinking what nature could give, without modern medicine, and today’s food, I know I’m doomed, but what the hell, I could wait. Just to be sure that when I closed my eyes, no human being ever walked the earth again.

But again, that is if I had a time machine. Until then, enjoy the trip

I think that was frigging cool. Sounds like you copied it from a book (that's how good it is - but I believe you wrote it). I like it! I'd rep you if I could.

 

[McRocket]

I do not honestly think I could prevent myself from doing something to benefit me - even if I were going back in time to prevent something like JFK being killed, I do not believe I could resist putting just a small investment into IBM stock...sounds selfish but if time travel were possible, that is what would happen, its human nature.

Didn't do much to cheer you up, did I?

You did to me. Makes me feel like not so much of a dickhead. I do not think I could resist either.

 

[McRocket]

My answer is both selfish and unselfish.

I would go back and time and manipulate events to whatever extent it took to leave me as the most powerful human on the planet and then run the world as I think it should be run. And I would give an example for all that followed me.
And if that didn't work; like I was not as good as I would hope I would be (which is probably what would happen). Then I would hope that I would insigate WW3 and end the human race.
Because I believe in reincarnation and they would all hopefully go to some other planet that was better. And the only one that would be blamed karma wise would be me. So everyone would end up in a better place and I alone would suffer the consequences.

But I do not think I am that noble.

Ahh, fuck it.

Let me go back and fix it so that women run things. They aren't perfect. But surely they would do a better job then us men have.

 

[tunsty]

I would go back to my schooldays... There were a few people I should have 'sorted out' back then.

 

[Anonymous2]

I'd go back for just one day to see how the world turned out to be after mcrocket ruled it as its most powerful inhabitant. Really, he and I have such differing opinions on things that I'd love to see if he was right after all. And of course to say "Told ya" if he wasn't.

On a more serious note: I have never really thought about this and from the top off my head I couldn't say I'd wanna go to this or that year in order to change things for mankind. It would probably be more personal stuff, like making sure I didn't hurt my ex-wife, meeting my girlfriend earlier than I did, following another career path. If I could go back in time, another drive would be meeting people who I find intriguing, interesting or who I look up to, like Franklin D. Roosevelt or Lou Gehrig or John Steinbeck or Rosa Parks. Maybe if I think about this harder I'll find this one point in time at which I would have loved to intervene in the interest of humanity.

Great thread idea BTW! :hatsoff:

 

[tunsty]

Go back to the beginning of time, whaen God was creating the Earth...
'Hey God, you do know that it's all gonna end in bloodshed, war and greed...quit now while you've got the chance.'

 

[BNF]

I peeked into the thread half expecting to see... I'd go back and "do" Eve or go back and "nail Queen *ç%+" or Mae West or something...

 

[ANDY76]

I would go back to my schooldays... There were a few people I should have 'sorted out' back then.

I know what you mean!

 

[ANDY76]

If you could go back and wanted to change something, ie, 9/11 - how would you go about doing it? What would you say?

 

[Anonymous2]

If you could go back and wanted to change something, ie, 9/11 - how would you go about doing it? What would you say?

Seems like a lot of atrocities in more recent history are the brainwork of one single maniac who -by one means or the other- manages to infect others with his sick set of values. So I believe killing Hitler or Bin Ladin would be sufficient for preventing WWII and the Holocaust and 9/11.