If You Could Travel Through Time (and Space)...

[DreadFish]

The other day, I was listening to a good episode of This American Life, or Radio Lab, I dont remember, where they talked about time travel. They asked people what they would do if they could travel through time. Various answers included reliving past events, going back and doing things different, changing history (as in, killing Hitler) etc..

I like this premise, so I wanted to ask RF the same question: If you could travel through time in any way, no limits, past or future, what would you do?

Now there are a couple different perspectives. Traveling back in time as you are now is different than going back in your own timeline and re-experiencing your childhood firsthand; the latter being more like rewinding your own life (though presumably with the possibility of retaining your current knowledge).

Anyway, the point is, you can do it any way you want, what would you do?

As for my answer, id like something between the Observers in Fringe and the Doctor. I'd love to travel throughout the past and see things happen, first-hand. I want to witness famous and important events, I want to see historical figures with my own eyes. In this way, I'd be making the past real to me and I'd live in a bigger world. In a more Doctor-esque style, I'd love to actually meet historical people or just interact with the people of the past. Id call this a form of soft-intervening. I don't want to change major events, I feel that could change my known present so much, I'm not sure id want to mess with things; I guess I'd call that hard-intervening.
I'd also love to go back and relive parts of my childhood; I think that would be so much fun. There's not much I would change in my own past, but there are a couple of things that I might do differently knowing what I know now.
As for the future, traveling through the past would probably pique my interest in the future but, as I currently stand, I'm not so interested in traveling into the future.


So there you have it. Poll is public and you can choose as many options as you want. I'm most interested in what people have to say; the poll is just because polls are neat and I may or may not be working on a method of time travel and am surveying the masses to find out who is worthy of using this great power...

 

[Estro Felino]

I would meet people of the past, definitely.

I would interview lots of historical figures.
Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, and many many others. I would record the interviews, of course.

I'm absolutely sure that those interviews will force historians to rewrite the 80 % of history books.

 

[Iti oj]

i'd go to the past to see how correct science and history was. I would go to the future to see how science had progressed.

 

[Iti oj]

ohh and id find out winning sports teams and companies to invest in the future. Then come back and get rich. I wouldn't steal from the past, don't want to change things.

 

[Jainarayan]

See the future - I would like to see the far future to see how mankind and the Earth fare. Kind of like H.G. Wells' The Time Machine. Of course I'd probably launch my cookies if I witnessed the last scene the Time Traveler did.

Observe various people and events in the history of the earth - The dinosaurs (from a safe distance, of course ), the rise of language, human migrations, the rise of civilizations.

 

[Gnostic Seeker]

I can think of many reasons I'd want to travel into the past, but I know wanting to go back to parts of my earlier years isn't for any good reason. Its because I still hold on to things in those earlier years.

 

[DreadFish]

I would meet people of the past, definitely.

I would interview lots of historical figures.
Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, and many many others. I would record the interviews, of course.

I'm absolutely sure that those interviews will force historians to rewrite the 80 % of history books.

Cool idea but, for the sake of realism (because this thread is full of it), how would you get interviews with those figures?

 

[DreadFish]

I can think of many reasons I'd want to travel into the past, but I know wanting to go back to parts of my earlier years isn't for any good reason. Its because I still hold on to things in those earlier years.

This is one thing I think about in regards to reliving my childhood. Im very attached to those times. They've become a sort of Golden Age lost to time that probably wasn't quite as amazing as I remember it.

 

[Ingledsva]

*
I would go back and stop the religions of Abraham from destroying so much of our ancient past, and knowledge. Imagine where we could be now.

*

 

[Parsimony]

I would much rather visit the past than the future. I have questions about history that I badly want answered. That being said, I would simply observe the past and offer no interference. Changing history can have unpredictable effects. Hopefully, I could retain some kind of invisible, intangible form that would allow me to observe without being observed. That would minimize the threat to causality. Now for a list of some things that I would like to observe firsthand:

1. Miraculous events as recorded in the Bible such as the Sun standing still, the contest on Mount Carmel and the raising of the dead (including Christ). I want to see how much of it actually occurred.
2. Check to see how much of modern paleontology, geology and evolutionary theory are correct. Besides, just knowing the appearance, behavior and sounds of the dinosaurs would be amazing enough.
   
3. The Kopperl Heat Burst of 1960. I'd like to see if it really got over 140 degrees Fahrenheit that night (if I'm allowed to bring an appropriate thermometer).
   
4. The Tri-State Tornado of 1925. I've been fascinated by this monster since I was a child. To see it in person would be amazing (given that the damage path is known, I could easily pick a safe viewing point).
   
5. Probably quite a few nostalgic events in my childhood.
6. Reported sightings of cryptids, UFOs, ghosts, etc. This would be a great way to know what was hoaxed and what was not. The crash in Roswell, New Mexico would be of great interest.

 

[Ingledsva]

1. Reported sightings of cryptids, UFOs, ghosts, etc. This would be a great way to know what was hoaxed and what was not. The crash in Roswell, New Mexico would be of great interest.

The only way you can be sure about such, is to actually see them for yourself.

I have seen a flying Saucer, here in Alaska.

*

 

[Parsimony]

The only way you can be sure about such, is to actually see them for yourself.

I have seen a flying Saucer, here in Alaska.

*

I'd be glad to hear about it when you have the time. I've seen a UFO myself.

 

[Thief]

We get to see it all.
If there is a life after death....who ever survived the last breath is still around 'somewhere'.

Communication would be directly mind to mind.....heart to heart.

You get to see it....all of it....as THEY did.
even as their own hand did allow it!

 

[ShivaFan]

I am assuming I can only do this one time. Of course, if I could do this multiple times, I could give more examples. But if one time, here is what I think I would do, which is part of the idea of going back in time to see some moment in history.
Even though I am a Hindu, and even though I am not becoming a Buddhist, nor would seeing this event change me into a Buddhist, nevertheless I would go back in time and:
* Be in Deer Park at Isipatana near Varanasi (India) at the moment when Siddhartha (Buddha) was to give his sermon THE SETTING OF THE WHEEL OF DHARMA IN MOTION.

Update: However, it would be nice if the same time machine would allow me to understand the local dialect called Magadhi (mixed with Sanskrit terms) spoken by the Buddha. But even if I couldn't, I would want to be sitting on the grass at that moment to see the Buddha and hear his voice speak of THE GREAT REVOLVING WHEEL.

 

[DreadFish]

I am assuming I can only do this one time. Of course, if I could do this multiple times, I could give more examples. But if one time, here is what I think I would do, which is part of the idea of going back in time to see some moment in history.
Even though I am a Hindu, and even though I am not becoming a Buddhist, nor would seeing this event change me into a Buddhist, nevertheless I would go back in time and:
* Be in Deer Park at Isipatana near Varanasi (India) at the moment when Siddhartha (Buddha) was to give his sermon THE SETTING OF THE WHEEL OF DHARMA IN MOTION.

Update: However, it would be nice if the same time machine would allow me to understand the local dialect called Magadhi (mixed with Sanskrit terms) spoken by the Buddha. But even if I couldn't, I would want to be sitting on the grass at that moment to see the Buddha and hear his voice speak of THE GREAT REVOLVING WHEEL.

We'll pretend you have a TARDIS. That means it translates what other people say so you can understand it and what you say so that they can understand it.

And you are welcome to travel more than once.

 

[Jainarayan]

*
I would go back and stop the religions of Abraham from destroying so much of our ancient past, and knowledge. Imagine where we could be now.

*

I wonder what the results would be if someone programmed a computer model. The parameters could be endless: suppose Alexander the Great died in infancy; Genghis Khan did not unite the Mongols; Hitler never born (a biggie); etc.

 

[Estro Felino]

Cool idea but, for the sake of realism (because this thread is full of it), how would you get interviews with those figures?

lol
that's a good question. well...not to mention that journalism is a very recent activity. But historians have always existed. I could tell them I am a historian and I need to write history books

 

[Estro Felino]

off topic comment:
did you know that there are people who take time travels seriously? they speak of wormholes and other science-fiction stuff.

I blame teachers and professors for not underlining that science-fiction is fiction.

 

[DreadFish]

off topic comment:
did you know that there are people who take time travels seriously? they speak of wormholes and other science-fiction stuff.

I blame teachers and professors for not underlining that science-fiction is fiction.

Actually, well-respected scientists take it as a possibility. It certainly is a possibility. Science fiction has also led the way in some possibilities.

 

[Infinitum]

At the risk of messing things up I would almost be prepared to travel to my own past and give myself a few advice I wish someone had given me back then. It would save me from a lot of completely unnecessary problems.

And then the usual culprits. I'm as interested in history as anyone is, but there's a small cynical voice at the back of my brain telling me the past wouldn't be nearly as glorious as history often paints it to be. Imagine the smell on a medieval street, to start with. Our modern world is full of wonders and beautiful clothes and all sorts of cultures, and still our everyday life feels a little... grey, doesn't it? How long would we actually be fascinated with Roman life after we got to experience it firsthand? (Mind you, I would still travel. It's just that... yeah, well...)