POLL: Time Travel

[Texasmame]

I'd go with the past - but not like you're thinking.  I'm talking "nobody hit the $300 million lotto this week" past.  I'd go back to then, play those ---smurfin---' numbers and retire to Maui.   

Uh, that aside, tho. . .  The future may be my thing.

Speaking of which, anyone see "Idiocracy" yet?  It's still ripped on my XBox waiting for me to get two hours to watch it. . .

[crashwg]

Your "winning the lotto" argument is hard to beat so I went with that.

Idiocracy blew pretty hardcore BTW...  I wouldn't recommend the movie to anyone.

[somunny]

The future looks like dog ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---, so I'm headed backwards. 

[Apollo]

I'd go 5 million years in to the future just to know. I'd outfit myself pretty well though, a couple of glock 20s with a ton of ammo, a big assed hunting knife and some pretty sturdy clothing, boots, survival gear etc. Chances are I'd be dead pretty quick but man what a cool ride.

[Hoopz]

I'd go to the future so I could find out how all of Texasmame's polls are going to end up! 

[FrizzleFried]

Past...

...and Idiocracy was merely OK...I wouldn't go so far as to say it blew...5.5/10 MAYBE a 6 on a good day.

...it ain't no Office Space that's for sure.

[somunny]

I'd go 5 million years in to the future just to know. I'd outfit myself pretty well though, a couple of glock 20s with a ton of ammo, a big assed hunting knife and some pretty sturdy clothing, boots, survival gear etc. Chances are I'd be dead pretty quick but man what a cool ride.

That's like a caveman saying he'll go into the future and take his best bone.

[Apollo]

I'd go 5 million years in to the future just to know. I'd outfit myself pretty well though, a couple of glock 20s with a ton of ammo, a big assed hunting knife and some pretty sturdy clothing, boots, survival gear etc. Chances are I'd be dead pretty quick but man what a cool ride.

That's like a caveman saying he'll go into the future and take his best bone.

Did you read the last sentence, the bit with the quick death?

[Chris G]

I'd go 5 million years in to the future just to know. I'd outfit myself pretty well though, a couple of glock 20s with a ton of ammo, a big assed hunting knife and some pretty sturdy clothing, boots, survival gear etc. Chances are I'd be dead pretty quick but man what a cool ride.

That's like a caveman saying he'll go into the future and take his best bone.

I was thinking the same thing... and what sort of violent future are you envisioning, anyway?  

My first choice would be to go back to the beginning of time to see how it all started for sure, but since I probably couldn't survive more than a millisecond, I'm going to vote future.

[Apollo]

It's got nothing to do with violence and everything to do with the fact that there would be no humans around and who knows what the ---fudgesicle--- everything else has evolved in to IT'S 5 MILLION YEARS!

[Q*Bert_OP]

I'd go 5 million years in to the future just to know. I'd outfit myself pretty well though, a couple of glock 20s with a ton of ammo, a big assed hunting knife and some pretty sturdy clothing, boots, survival gear etc. Chances are I'd be dead pretty quick but man what a cool ride.

That's like a caveman saying he'll go into the future and take his best bone.

 and what sort of violent future are you envisioning, anyway?   

Uhhh...think along the lines of Smash T.V.

[shorthair]

It's got nothing to do with violence and everything to do with the fact that there would be no humans around and who knows what the ---fudgesicle--- everything else has evolved in to IT'S 5 MILLION YEARS!

You aren't reading any speculative fiction, I think.  Try out Stephen Baxter's Vacuum Diagrams.

[danny_galaga]

I'd go 5 million years in to the future just to know. I'd outfit myself pretty well though, a couple of glock 20s with a ton of ammo, a big assed hunting knife and some pretty sturdy clothing, boots, survival gear etc. Chances are I'd be dead pretty quick but man what a cool ride.

That's like a caveman saying he'll go into the future and take his best bone.

 

damn texas, thats a good question to pose. my dad and i sometimes said we were born 100 years too late. if we were born earlier we could have invented al sorts of cool stuff. but of course, we would just be poor farmers struggling to survive then  . whatever i do in life i want to earn my own way, so while going back one week armed with the lotto numbers would be appealing to some id rather not. the future? would i like to be Fry? i love history (hence the past appeal) but the completely unknown future sure would be tempting too, unless i become '1996 man'



perhaps what i should do is go back 20 years and not ---smurfsicle--- up highschool...

[Buddabing]

The past, definitely.

I would like to go back to 30-31 AD and follow Jesus around. Of course I'd have some kind of miniaturized camera and data recorder. That would resolve a few debates. Then it would be neat to travel around and see a lot of the ancient wonders of the world which existed back then but don't exist now.

There would have to be a lot of preparation made, of course. I'd have to fabricate a bunch of silver and gold coins matching the coins of the time. Language training would be required. Then I'd have to figure out a way to engrave the lottery numbers on a tablet so that only I could figure it out. I'd need a whole ton of shots and large amounts of antibiotics, too.

[patrickl]

The past, definitely.

I would like to go back to 30-31 AD and follow Jesus around. Of course I'd have some kind of miniaturized camera and data recorder. That would resolve a few debates. Then it would be neat to travel around and see a lot of the ancient wonders of the world which existed back then but don't exist now.

I wonder how much travelling around you would get done though. It's not like in those days they would hop on a plane and take a grand tour of the ancient wonders.

BTW people are assuimg they can bring stuff along, but as in the Terminator movies it was clearly shown, you can not take things with you 

[(+_+)]

I'd go 5 million years in to the future just to know. I'd outfit myself pretty well though, a couple of glock 20s with a ton of ammo, a big assed hunting knife and some pretty sturdy clothing, boots, survival gear etc. Chances are I'd be dead pretty quick but man what a cool ride.

You know what would be twilight zonish about your choice. When you suddenly appear 5 million years into the future, you realize that there is no longer anything under you feet. The planet had been blown to smitherines at some point in the past. At least you'd have you Glocks to end it quick.

[SithMaster]

Actually terminators would not be able to travel back in time but since they are covered in flesh they can.  so skin a person and stuff your time travel items in it.

and why would you want to mess with time.  You go back to far and prevent world war 2 meaning the us doesnt go into a cold war with russia and the DoD doesnt work on a computer network or computers for that matter.  so no internet and all the things that came about otherwise.

i dont think you would need that many shots would you?  arent humans to the point where we are immunized against everything from the past.  what you dont want to do is bring aids or small pox back with you.

that being said id like to pick up some items that would be rare and have a high collectors value.  but even then its to risky.  or bring back a computer with you and become the most powerful person in that era

[Buddabing]

I can bring whatever I want, a la Bill and Ted.

Need a gun? no problem, I'll just go back in time and put one under this rock.

Need to get rid of some bandits? Go back in time and dig a hole under where they are standing.

[ChadTower]

You could to back to Dallas, November 1963, stand on the grassy knoll and shout "duck". 

[MustardTent]

I'd go with the past - but not like you're thinking.  I'm talking "nobody hit the $300 million lotto this week" past.  I'd go back to then, play those ---smurfin---' numbers and retire to Maui.   

I'm not sure this would work.  If nobody hit the winning numbers, then you don't know what they are for that drawing.

However, I do like get rich quick schemes.  So, instead, find a lottery that was very large with 1 winner.  Go back and get the same numbers.  Still big winnings.

[Hoopz]

I'd go with the past - but not like you're thinking.  I'm talking "nobody hit the $300 million lotto this week" past.  I'd go back to then, play those ---smurfin---' numbers and retire to Maui.   

I'm not sure this would work.  If nobody hit the winning numbers, then you don't know what they are for that drawing.

However, I do like get rich quick schemes.  So, instead, find a lottery that was very large with 1 winner.  Go back and get the same numbers.  Still big winnings.

They always announce the winning numbers.  How else would people know if they won or not? 

[shorthair]

The past, definitely.

I would like to go back to 30-31 AD and follow Jesus around. Of course I'd have some kind of miniaturized camera and data recorder. That would resolve a few debates.

You're forgetting you have to stay there.

I'd be more interested in how I was going....how is almost always the most important.

[AlanS17]

I don't think I'd go anywhere that I couldn't return from. There are simply too many people here that I couldn't leave behind.

If I skip to another point in my own life, the people would still be there, but then so would another version of me. So to reap the benefits of the "past lotto" scenario, I'd either have to donate the money to the other me and commit suicide or find some way to take out the other me. I don't like either of those options.

 

[Bones]

I would grow a mustache and go back to the 70's where I would star in low budget 8mm porn and drive a black Trans AM.

[ArcadeMaze]

X

[MustardTent]

They always announce the winning numbers.  How else would people know if they won or not? 

Oh man, I don't know what I was thinking.  I wish I could go back in time...

[Apollo]

Of course you would be able to stop them dying, by travelling back in time and interacting with the 'past' you create a different future, one in which anything could happen including people not dying when you thought they would in the now non existant universe/reality that you came from.
Maybe you would create a future in which you were killed in an accident before you got to the age when you travelled back in time.....

Travelling back in time and interacting with the same universe you came from is logically impossible.

OOOH QUICK LET'S ARGUE ABOUT TIME TRAVEL!

[ChadTower]

Would it be weird to go back in time and have sex with your wife when she was 18 again?   

[bfauska]

I don't think that time travel is possible any more...  The Delorian is broken.  Wait, not really... all the component pieces of the Delorian are broken, but the car itself is perfectly fine, just not functional.



I realize the train still exists, I just felt like being an ass.

While I think the past would be cool to see fist person, I feel like I could get a fairly good idea of what happened by studying it.  The future however is quite unknown, and would be cool to get a chance to see.  The problem is that if you can't come back you wouldn't get to experience the future you would have had if you stayed.  I have too many people and things I want to experience to leave this time and go see some totally unknown time.  At least if I stay here I know I have a good chance of seeing stuff around me happen, if you go into the future even a few minutes too far you could totally miss any signs of civilization as we know it.  5 minutes after a nuclear war you arrive and see nobody, and then die from fallout.  Five minutes after the last people die from drastic climate change, you see nothing and then die from starvation/hypothermia/heatstroke.  Five minutes after the earth finally gets pulled into the suns gravitational pull, die.  Obviously you could also arrive at some bustling metropolis or glorious peacefull planet, but with some of the options I think I'd rather find out what happens in my life if I stay here, it's still an adventure.

[shmokes]

I chose future, because I'm hoping they will have cured aging, the only terminal disease I know that I am currently afflicted with.

[MikeQ]

I would go into the past.  Just a week and take some winning lotto numbers.  Win Lotto.  Invest the money.  After a week had passed, I would be presented again with the opportunity to travel to the past or future.  This time I would pick the future.  I would go far enough into the future that my investment would have a healthy return.  If in the future I found life to be worse, I'd have the money to build a new time machine and return to the past.

[somunny]

OOOH QUICK LET'S ARGUE ABOUT TIME TRAVEL!

Only if you put away your Glocks and "big-assed hunting knife" first.

[Texasmame]

I would go into the past.  Just a week and take some winning lotto numbers.  Win Lotto.  Invest the money.  After a week had passed, I would be presented again with the opportunity to travel to the past or future.  This time I would pick the future.  I would go far enough into the future that my investment would have a healthy return.  If in the future I found life to be worse, I'd have the money to build a new time machine and return to the past.

HAHAHAHA.  Nice wrinkle but nobody said anything about building a time machine or whatnot.

I guess you could keep going to the past, kinda like Groundhog Day, and eventually the opportunity presented in this thread would always come up again.  But, if you go into the future, you're stuck there. . . as far as we know.   

[Bones]

I chose future, because I'm hoping they will have cured aging, the only terminal disease I know that I am currently afflicted with.

But shmokes.... Freddie Mercury is only in the past!

[TOK]

Would it be weird to go back in time and have sex with your wife when she was 18 again?   

Then just say "get lost skank!" this time. 

[ChadTower]

Then just say "get lost skank!" this time. 

 

Of course, you mean afterwards, right? 

 

[rovingmind]

OOOH QUICK LET'S ARGUE ABOUT TIME TRAVEL!

Only if you put away your Glocks and "big-assed hunting knife" first.

let him keep them, they wont do much good while he's being sucked into the black hole 3 million years from now (give or take a couple hundred thou)

[shorthair]

OOOH QUICK LET'S ARGUE ABOUT TIME TRAVEL!

..............

Only if you put away your Glocks and "big-assed hunting knife" first.

...............

let him keep them, they wont do much good while he's being sucked into the black hole 3 million years from now (give or take a couple hundred thou)

Need a few billion for that, chumly, although the Earth'll be fried looong before that just from stellar expansion. However, an event horizon event may occur much sooner depending on our utililsation of technological development.

[danny_galaga]

Would it be weird to go back in time and have sex with your wife when she was 18 again?   

or worse:

Nibblonian 1: "It's a genetic abnormality which resulted when you went back in time and performed certain actions which made you your own grandfather."
Fry: "I did do the nasty in the pasty!"
Nibblonian 2: "Verily. And that past nastification is what shields you from the brains. You are the last hope of the universe."
Fry: "So, I really am important? How I feel when I'm drunk is correct?"
Nibblonian 1: "Yes. Except the Dave Matthews Band doesn't rock."

[Apollo]

oh man that's funny ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---