if you got a hold of a time machine, what would you do?

[fallacy]

This topic was on another forum I read. After I thought about it this is what I would do.

I would Bring World of Warcraft back to 1998. Become the genius creator behind the game, make more money than Bill Gates and have the fame of creating the best game ever before MMORPG games even existed.

[Ginsu Victim]

I would Bring World of Warcraft back to 1998. Become the genius creator behind the game, make more money than Bill Gates and have the fame of creating the best game ever before MMORPG games even existed.

Neverwinter Nights came out in 1991, so you'd have to go back further (and take the PC tech with you).

[SavannahLion]

Time travel has rules you know. You gotta decide on what the rules are before someone decides for you.

I'd probably just go back and invest everything I have into Microsoft stock before it takes off. Maybe a little Google stock too.

[Howard_Casto]

Man those are some selfish uses. 

I would travel back to the 1890's and use my limited artistic ability and knowledge of the future to seat myself on the Vienna Academy of Art board of advisors for the sole purpose of revoking the rule which requires high school dropouts to have a proper "leaving" form and to encourage the acceptance of landscape artists. 

Then when a young bright-eyed youth by the name of Adolf Hitler comes to apply some 15 years later, he will undoubtedly be accepted and live a life of happy obscurity thus avoiding World War II and the Holocost. 

Of course there will be major changes of the timeline, but hey... no war and I've saved a buttload of Jews!

[jennifer]

         I would go to the chicago meat packing district [turn of the 19th century] and paint the blue stripes on cans.

[AtomSmasher]

Man those are some selfish uses.  

I would travel back to the 1890's and use my limited artistic ability and knowledge of the future to seat myself on the Vienna Academy of Art board of advisors for the sole purpose of revoking the rule which requires high school dropouts to have a proper "leaving" form and to encourage the acceptance of landscape artists.  

Then when a young bright-eyed youth by the name of Adolf Hitler comes to apply some 15 years later, he will undoubtedly be accepted and live a life of happy obscurity thus avoiding World War II and the Holocost.  

Of course there will be major changes of the timeline, but hey... no war and I've saved a buttload of Jews!

I'm guessing you didn't read the link SavannahLion posted.

"Permit me to sum it up and save you the trouble: no Hitler means no Third Reich, no World War II, no rocketry programs, no electronics, no computers, no time travel. Get the picture?"

[danny_galaga]

Man those are some selfish uses.  

I would travel back to the 1890's and use my limited artistic ability and knowledge of the future to seat myself on the Vienna Academy of Art board of advisors for the sole purpose of revoking the rule which requires high school dropouts to have a proper "leaving" form and to encourage the acceptance of landscape artists.  

Then when a young bright-eyed youth by the name of Adolf Hitler comes to apply some 15 years later, he will undoubtedly be accepted and live a life of happy obscurity thus avoiding World War II and the Holocost.  

Of course there will be major changes of the timeline, but hey... no war and I've saved a buttload of Jews!

I'm guessing you didn't read the link SavannahLion posted.

"Permit me to sum it up and save you the trouble: no Hitler means no Third Reich, no World War II, no rocketry programs, no electronics, no computers, no time travel. Get the picture?"

You know that the father of modern rocketry, Robert Goddard, was American right? You guys would still have developed a space program, maybe just ten years later. I say let Howard go to Vienna...

[Nephasth]

Why not ---fudgesicle--- with the future with no repercussions?

[SNAAKE]

go back to high school and have sex with as many girls as I can..

there were girls throwing themselves at me but I either didn't "get it"(signs or whatever) or didn't know what to do/say


Id also try to develop a better OS than windows and get rich. and MAYBE I'd hire someone to end bill gates(WINK) so I have no competition

[Howard_Casto]

Man those are some selfish uses.  

I would travel back to the 1890's and use my limited artistic ability and knowledge of the future to seat myself on the Vienna Academy of Art board of advisors for the sole purpose of revoking the rule which requires high school dropouts to have a proper "leaving" form and to encourage the acceptance of landscape artists.  

Then when a young bright-eyed youth by the name of Adolf Hitler comes to apply some 15 years later, he will undoubtedly be accepted and live a life of happy obscurity thus avoiding World War II and the Holocost.  

Of course there will be major changes of the timeline, but hey... no war and I've saved a buttload of Jews!

I'm guessing you didn't read the link SavannahLion posted.

"Permit me to sum it up and save you the trouble: no Hitler means no Third Reich, no World War II, no rocketry programs, no electronics, no computers, no time travel. Get the picture?"

No I read it.  Me going back wouldn't stop all war, it would just stop the horrible world war II that we are familair with.  Something else would fill the vaccuum, it would just be without the genocide hopefully.

Besides you are thinking too "back to the future." I would be coming from an alternate timeline so  I wouldn't disappear or any of that crap by changing the past.  Mind you my timeline would, but I'm not part of this alternate timeline, I was "locked in" as soon as I traveled back in time.  So it doesn't matter anyway.

Anyway that sort of thinking takes all the fun out of such a discussion.  Time Travel doesn't work anyway or else there would be time "tourists" all over the place.

[yotsuya]

go back to high school and have sex with as many girls as I can..

there were girls throwing themselves at me but I either didn't "get it"(signs or whatever) or didn't know what to do/say


Id also try to develop a better OS than windows and get rich. and MAYBE I'd hire someone to end bill gates(WINK) so I have no competition

Uh, if you did that now, you'd probably be jailed for statuatory rape. 

I think you mean to say "go back to high school and ENCOURAGE MYSELF TO have sex with as many girls as I can.."

[jennifer]

go back to high school and have sex with as many girls as I can..

there were girls throwing themselves at me but I either didn't "get it"(signs or whatever) or didn't know what to do/say
  
        Oh yes.... Quantum nerd, thats what girls REALLY want.

[Howard_Casto]

Why would you go back to high school and chase younger versions of women that, thanks to Facebook, you already know are gonna explode in fat when they hit 27?  Best to go so far back you'd never be recognized and you'll never know what time did to them afterwards.

What he said.  Just don't go back so far that they haven't invented penecillain yet. 

[fallacy]

Why would you go back to high school and chase younger versions of women that, thanks to Facebook, you already know are gonna explode in fat when they hit 27?  Best to go so far back you'd never be recognized and you'll never know what time did to them afterwards.

What he said.  Just don't go back so far that they haven't invented penecillain yet.  Wink

maybe he just got out of high school and it's still fresh in his mind.

[danny_galaga]

Why would you go back to high school and chase younger versions of women that, thanks to Facebook, you already know are gonna explode in fat when they hit 27?  Best to go so far back you'd never be recognized and you'll never know what time did to them afterwards.

What he said.  Just don't go back so far that they haven't invented penecillain yet.  Wink

maybe he just got out of high school and it's still fresh in his mind.

[Vigo]

Am I the only one who would head directly to the future? None of this mucking with my timeline junk or other rules to follow. Besides, where else are you suppose to get hoverboards?

[Nephasth]

Am I the only one who would head directly to the future? None of this mucking with my timeline junk or other rules to follow. Besides, where else are you suppose to get hoverboards?

Nope.

Why not ---fudgesicle--- with the future with no repercussions?

[Vigo]

Am I the only one who would head directly to the future? None of this mucking with my timeline junk or other rules to follow. Besides, where else are you suppose to get hoverboards?

Nope.

Why not ---fudgesicle--- with the future with no repercussions?

Missed that.  That's how to time travel. Best thing is, you could go to Walmart and buy a bunch of toys, then bring them to the future and trade that in for tons of future currency.

I suppose you could also just go forward one day and get the powerball numbers. Sounds much easier than going to the past and giving yourself financial advice.

[Ed_McCarron]

Warn people about horseboy?

[fallacy]

You guys are only thinking about money…  you have to get fame as well! What is the point of money without reconnection.

[Donkbaca]

Why would you need money?  Just steal stuff without fear and be a time bandit!

[Ginsu Victim]

You guys are only thinking about money…  you have to get fame as well! What is the point of money without reconnection.

I just had to give this word the recognition it deserved. 

[Ed_McCarron]

Why would you need money?  Just steal stuff without fear and be a time bandit!

I'm too tall.

[Malenko]

I'd make Xiaou2's mom swallow instead.

[Gray_Area]

I'd make Xiaou2's mom swallow instead.

Ohhh, that's brutal.

In any case. Time travel, space travel, mind travel.

Or in question format: Do you want to be immortal, invulnerable, and omniscient?

[Donkbaca]

Invulnerable, all the way. If I was invulnerable, I would join the army.  It would be sweet.  Imagine we are at war, and you are on the other side, and you me jump out of an airplane with no parachute, then hit the ground running, guns a blazin'! 
"Oh ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---! Did that guy just JUMP OUT OF A ---smurfing--- PLANE WITHOUT A 'CHUTE!"
"Hell yes! And he's coming right for us!"

I would singlehandedly be the world's most ulitmate weapon, in return for service, I would enjoy a king's lifestyle.

[Raitsa]

I'd make Xiaou2's mom swallow instead.

Epic! 

[hypernova]

I wouldn't do a damn thing.  Yet.  Only when we are on the true brink of planetary catastrophe would it be recommended to change anything in the past.

What is the point of money without reconnection.

Why would you want fame?  I'd rather be a quiet rich man, and help out the world without the media following my every move.

[Le Chuck]

Our Soldiers scare the ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- out of the enemy without invincibily.  In 2006 we told insurgents that our GPS were lie detectors that read the mind and would cause cancer if they lied.  Sang like a bird.  

I've had a good life, mistakes were made as they say, but if I had to do it over I would go back to Christmas 2008 when I left my cell phone in a Paris hotel and sneak it back into my bag.  That lost cellphone created a series of random bad decisions that haunted me for two years.  

Then I'd go to SEPT 18 2010 and try to talk MAJ Paul Carron out of killing himself.  

Screw the cellphone, I just want that one day.    

[Nephasth]

Hmm... If I were to go back in time, I suppose I would have to go way back, light a bush on fire, sit behind it, and talk to Moses...

[HaRuMaN]

Speaking of time paradox...  my wife and I always get into a huge argument after watching 12 Monkeys...   

[Le Chuck]

So to avoid paradoxical physics and splitting realities by doing something of value when given a time machine one should just go lay on a beach, but of course one would need to take money for all the rum runners and mai-tais so one would need a job to support the universe saving hedonistic time travel, but if one went every morning for a few hours before work, besides reducing one's lifespan in this age one would be broke by lunch... with a great tan. So really one would be forced to time travel about once a year, maybe for a few weeks.  Possibly to Majorica where it's nice... I bet people would really look forward to that kind of time travel.  They'd probably forgo the timemachine and just take a vacation.  Damn you paradoxes... making time travel worthless. 

Anybody ever read Heinlien's All You Zombies?  Pretty good for '58.  A great exploration of Paradoxes.

[jennifer]

    Before I go, I"m so going to fill my giant purse with tampons, and scented panty liners [with wings].... I"ll be famous!

[danny_galaga]

You guys are only thinking about money…  you have to get fame as well! What is the point of money without reconnection.

[Howard_Casto]

In any case. Time travel, space travel, mind travel.

Or in question format: Do you want to be immortal, invulnerable, and omniscient?

I'm not sure how space travel has to do with invulnerability but...

I intened to live forever so I've got that one covered.  Even if I die I'll just beat the reaper at a wicked game of twister and get to come back. 

I'm pretty sure that if you are immortal you are also invulnerable.  People throw around that term too loosely.  Example:  Vampires are NOT immortal becuase you can kill them.  They don't age but they aren't free from death and therefore are not immortal.  Regardless I can't be killed by conventional methods, so that's good enough for me. 

Omnisence.... hmm.... well I don't know everything but really I just have to know more than the people around me to get that superior feeling flowing.  Thankfully, I'm constantly surrounded by morons. 

[ark_ader]

I'd go back to when we were all originally green goo and add my own distinctiveness.

[fallacy]

I'd go back to when we were all originally green goo and add my own distinctiveness.

There was no oxygen in the atmosphere back then. You’re not very logical; please change your avatar to this to avoid confusion.

[AtomSmasher]

I'm pretty sure that if you are immortal you are also invulnerable.

I was thinking the same thing until I remembered the movie Death Becomes Her.  In the movie they are immortal, but not invulnerable and it shows the problems that can occur with that situation.

[Vigo]

Awesome movie, btw. Mostly because it was really cool to see Bruce Willis play the polar opposite of his normal character.

[ark_ader]

I'd go back to when we were all originally green goo and add my own distinctiveness.

There was no oxygen in the atmosphere back then. You’re not very logical; please change your avatar to this to avoid confusion.

If I had a time machine why would I not have an environmental suit?

Would you travel anywhere into the past without such protection?

So much for your logical perspective.

Change your avatar to this:



So we know how to treat your posts in future.

[Howard_Casto]

Ok so one of you says that they are gonna splooge in the primordial ooze and THAT is the part you argue about?

I worry about both of you!


"Oo that looks really important!  Let me stick my junk in it!"

[Gray_Area]

Space/Time - hence, along one 'axis' you travel in time; along another, you travel in space.

I'm not sure how space travel has to do with invulnerability but...

I intened to live forever so I've got that one covered.  Even if I die I'll just beat the reaper at a wicked game of twister and get to come back. 

I'm pretty sure that if you are immortal you are also invulnerable.  People throw around that term too loosely.  Example:  Vampires are NOT immortal becuase you can kill them.  They don't age but they aren't free from death and therefore are not immortal.  Regardless I can't be killed by conventional methods, so that's good enough for me. 

Omnisence.... hmm.... well I don't know everything but really I just have to know more than the people around me to get that superior feeling flowing.  Thankfully, I'm constantly surrounded by morons. 

Only Howard thoughtfully addressed this. However.

- immortality means you don't age

- invulnerability means you can't be destroyed

Invoking a non-causality field around yourself satisfies those. Omniscience would come from plucking the information from the hologram of the Cosmos. (All-knowing doesn't inherently mean 'simultaneously'.)

The ultimate bit through these is to manifest your imagination.

I was thinking the same thing until I remembered the movie Death Becomes Her.  In the movie they are immortal, but not invulnerable and it shows the problems that can occur with that situation.

[/url]

I just last night added this to my viewing cue, after it was auto-suggested to me.

[jennifer]

    The past has been tampered with...... I"m fadeing from this thread [Jennifer strikes death pose], Oh what a world....I"m melting...
POOF glitter everywhere!

[Mikezilla]

EVen though that picture makes her look more retarded than normal, I still think Sarah Palin is hot. 

[HaRuMaN]

EVen though that picture makes her look more retarded than normal, I still think Sarah Palin is hot. 

Ugh, wtf is wrong with you?

[danny_galaga]

EVen though that picture makes her look more retarded than normal, I still think Sarah Palin is hot. 

[Howard_Casto]

EVen though that picture makes her look more retarded than normal, I still think Sarah Palin is hot. 

Considering the Fonz went after Laverne at one point, he'd literally hit anything with a vagina.

[Vigo]

Come on, the Fonz never went after any girl. Laverne might have been one of his standbys, but that was only because she had skills that made up for her mild dogface issues. She walked around with a hunched back for a reason.

[Mikezilla]

EVen though that picture makes her look more retarded than normal, I still think Sarah Palin is hot. 

Ugh, wtf is wrong with you?

I guess I shouldnt have said hot... But she is still attractive in a sexy librarian, secretary way. You dont think so? For a politician? Cmon. 

[Vigo]

Haha, I'm on board with you. If we are talking worldwide female politicians, there are plenty much hotter. I have seen some pics of foreign female politicians on near supermodel level.  I really can't think of many better looking US politicians though. Maybe a few that are on the same level of attractiveness, but that's it. Well, unless the Susan B Anthony type happens to turn you on.   

[danny_galaga]

EVen though that picture makes her look more retarded than normal, I still think Sarah Palin is hot. 

Considering the Fonz went after Laverne at one point, he'd literally hit anything with a vagina.

The Fonz and I have this in common...

[fallacy]

I was just watching into the Universe with Stephen Hawking last night. He said time Travel into the past is imposable. Ow well so much for this fantasy, shut it down!
http://movies.netflix.com/WiPlayer?movieid=70211618&trkid=4705341#MovieId=70211618&EpisodeMovieId=70209126

[AtomSmasher]

Sending matter into the past might be theoretically impossible, but sending energy into the past might not be.  There was a short lived tv series a while back called Odyssey 5 where a group of astronauts get sent back in time to stop the world from being destroyed.  The being that sent them back said it's impossible to send them back as they are now, but he could imprint their minds and memories of today into their bodies 5 years earlier.  It was an interesting take on the subject.

[Mikezilla]

Haha, I'm on board with you. If we are talking worldwide female politicians, there are plenty much hotter. I have seen some pics of foreign female politicians on near supermodel level.  I really can't think of many better looking US politicians though. Maybe a few that are on the same level of attractiveness, but that's it. Well, unless the Susan B Anthony type happens to turn you on.   

Oh yeah youre right about that. Venezuela has some AMAZING politicians lol. I looked it up when I got home, cause as you know, cant do it at work. 

No, that type does NOT turn me on! 

[fallacy]

I wouldn't take anything you've heard as a Stephen Hawking quote seriously unless he said it in the 80s or earlier.

Does not matter, even if he went about his theories a bit silly. I don’t believe there is any string of time, a recording that you can go back to. Time is now and that is all there is.

[Howard_Casto]

While I don't think human time travel is possible (again if it were we'd see buttloads of "time tourists")  time is indeed a physical thing and any physical thing is definite enough to revisit. 

The problem with time is physicists are talking about actual time, which is a property of space (spacetime) while lamens are talking about the PERCEPTION of time, which is drastically different. 

Example:

People can't seem to get a grasp on the concept of gravity.  This is due to our limited perception of gravity.  If you are standing in a field gravity is a "thing that makes things fall down"  If you point to a globe gravity is a "thing the makes things pull towards the center". 

What gravity actually is, is a warp in space time around an object due to it's mass.  Think of pressing a marble in the mud.  Now pour water in the general area of where the marble is and it will feverishly wick in the tiny gap between the marble and the mud, trying to fill the void in the space.  This is more how gravity ACTUALLY works. 

And now that you can see gravity as a physical thing, the theory of realitivity is much easier to grasp.  Time operates differently the further away you get from the earth because you are slowing pulling yourself out of the spacetime void around the planet. 


And with that, my brain just overheated... nap time!

[AtomSmasher]

Gravity is just a theory, no ones been able to prove it actually exists

[ark_ader]

While I don't think human time travel is possible (again if it were we'd see buttloads of "time tourists")  time is indeed a physical thing and any physical thing is definite enough to revisit. 

The problem with time is physicists are talking about actual time, which is a property of space (spacetime) while lamens are talking about the PERCEPTION of time, which is drastically different. 

Example:

People can't seem to get a grasp on the concept of gravity.  This is due to our limited perception of gravity.  If you are standing in a field gravity is a "thing that makes things fall down"  If you point to a globe gravity is a "thing the makes things pull towards the center". 

What gravity actually is, is a warp in space time around an object due to it's mass.  Think of pressing a marble in the mud.  Now pour water in the general area of where the marble is and it will feverishly wick in the tiny gap between the marble and the mud, trying to fill the void in the space.  This is more how gravity ACTUALLY works. 

And now that you can see gravity as a physical thing, the theory of realitivity is much easier to grasp.  Time operates differently the further away you get from the earth because you are slowing pulling yourself out of the spacetime void around the planet. 


And with that, my brain just overheated... nap time!

I thought it was your nap time after the first sentence. 

I have to admit I have time traveled into the past before and it is no big thing.  There are side effects to this process, like feeling tired, cranky and with a slight back ache.  These symptoms disappear after a few minutes walking.

If you were lucky enough to fly Concorde from London to New York you were in effect traveling back in time. 

Now its time for my nap. 

[Howard_Casto]

Lame jokes aside my whole paragraph apparently went completely over your head.


You traveled back through a perception of time, not through time.  Timezones and international date lines have nothing to do with actual time.  Those constructs are put in place to measure the amount of sunlight left on a perticular location in a given day, not the passage of time. 

[jennifer]

      It look"s like Im somewhere over the Florida coast.... Things don"t seem as they should...

[AtomSmasher]

Lame jokes aside my whole paragraph apparently went completely over your head.


You traveled back through a perception of time, not through time.  Timezones and international date lines have nothing to do with actual time.  Those constructs are put in place to measure the amount of sunlight left on a perticular location in a given day, not the passage of time.  

Or perhaps his comment went over your head and he was actually talking about time dilation where time slows down the faster you travel.  If you're on the jet, then time elapsed slower for you then it did for people on the ground, so you would be slightly behind them in time when you landed   Granted our best clocks could not detect the amount of time changed from that short flight, but it doesn't negate the fact that time travel did happen.

[Quite17]

Time machine?
Simply thought to make some money,
and have some good travels——place change, time change
.

[Malenko]

I time travel all the time, but its always forward at the same pace.

[Howard_Casto]

Lame jokes aside my whole paragraph apparently went completely over your head.


You traveled back through a perception of time, not through time.  Timezones and international date lines have nothing to do with actual time.  Those constructs are put in place to measure the amount of sunlight left on a perticular location in a given day, not the passage of time.  

Or perhaps his comment went over your head and he was actually talking about time dilation where time slows down the faster you travel.  If you're on the jet, then time elapsed slower for you then it did for people on the ground, so you would be slightly behind them in time when you landed   Granted our best clocks could not detect the amount of time changed from that short flight, but it doesn't negate the fact that time travel did happen.

That's still not really time travel though, that's just realitivity at work.  You aren't traveling forwards in time, rather your time is slower than the ground's time.  Forward time-traveling doesn't really count because firstly we are all doing it right now and secondly it's generally just space travel.  I mean technically I suppose it is, but that's kind of lame.

It's the backwards part that's confusing and probably impossible to do (at least on the human level).

[knave]

I was thinking last night that it would be pretty entertaining to travel back as an observer and witness key points in history to see what really happened. No need to interfere...just the knowledge would be pretty cool.  I think it would be particularly interesting to see the reality of some of the biblical events.

[fallacy]

This guy’s first theory is time travel... What a F***in idiot!











^
ark_ader dad

[Ed_McCarron]

While I don't think human time travel is possible (again if it were we'd see buttloads of "time tourists")

I subscribe to the "Since time is a vector that naturally goes in one direction that's the only direction you can travel" theory.

Who says you can't jump forwards but not backwards?  Could explain your lack of "Time tourists."

[Malenko]

nevermind

[Howard_Casto]

While I don't think human time travel is possible (again if it were we'd see buttloads of "time tourists")

I subscribe to the "Since time is a vector that naturally goes in one direction that's the only direction you can travel" theory.

Who says you can't jump forwards but not backwards?  Could explain your lack of "Time tourists."

Heh, it's funny, that's kind of the reason I think that backwards time traveling might be possible.  Since time probably is a vector, it must have a start point.  While it might not be possible to travel backwards directly upon a vector, it is usually possible to get off said vector and intercet a previous point via bypass. 

You know like the old "time is a river" metaphor.  Sure the river of time might flow so shiftly and strongly that you couldn't possibly paddle up-stream, but why wouldn't you just paddle towards the bank, get off and walk upstream?

Again, that doesn't mean the HUMAN time travel is possible, just time travel in general.  Just like technically speaking, you could probably travel to another dimension by passing through a black hole, but it will never happen because you would be ripped apart at the sub-atomic level as you approach the event horizion.

[Ridgefire]

Hmmm I'd ride a dinosaur 

[Gray_Area]

  Just like technically speaking, you could probably travel to another dimension by passing through a black hole, but it will never happen because you would be ripped apart at the sub-atomic level as you approach the event horizion.

To another universe. And there are ideas about 'missing the singularity'.

[Howard_Casto]

Hmmm I'd ride a dinosaur 

Just make sure you buy it dinner first. 

HI-O!

[ark_ader]

Hmmm I'd ride a dinosaur 

Just make sure you buy it dinner first. 

HI-O!

And make sure she puts in her false teeth in too.