Going Back in Time [Archive] - Two Plus Two Older Archives

snowden719

04-14-2005, 10:09 AM

I'm not sure what going back in time to show people something would accomplish, for one cannot change the present by going back in time. Think about it, if I went back in time 1000 years and tried to influence some past event, my influence would have already be seen in the present, as that event already happened. This does however, bring up an interesting notion of free will, for if it is true that in the year 2030 I visited the past, then its effects would already be felt by people in the current world, meaning that I would be unable to keep myself from going back in time, for I had already done it.

miajag81

04-14-2005, 10:24 AM

I think it would be kind of fun to bring a modern cell phone and laptop back to like 1990.

DrPublo

04-14-2005, 10:31 AM

Go back to 1981. Bring a newspaper with Michael Jackson's picture on it. Show the people that he's white now, and on trial for molesting kids.

Uproar ensues.

The Doc

InchoateHand

04-14-2005, 10:32 AM

[ QUOTE ]
I think it would be kind of fun to bring a modern cell phone and laptop back to like 1990.

[/ QUOTE ]

Great! Except half the cellphone's services wouldn't be available.

deacsoft

04-14-2005, 10:36 AM

I'd maybe go back to the 60's and the baby-boomer era to show them condoms and other forms of birth control. I'd then demonstrate (using lecture and props) the proper ways to use each. Then, hopefully, you and I wouldn't have to pay for the social security they're all sucking up these days.

M2d

04-14-2005, 10:40 AM

I'd go back to 1988 and show my grandpa (he died in 1989) my wife, my son and the deed to my house. he missed all of that.

Rhone

04-14-2005, 10:46 AM

[ QUOTE ]
I'd then demonstrate (using lecture and props) the proper ways to use each.

[/ QUOTE ]

Lectures and props are the most interesting ways you can think of to demonstrate birth control devices? /images/graemlins/grin.gif

Seriously, I do believe they had condoms back then. Not to mention the fact that the baby boom happened after World War II, not in the 1960s.

IndieMatty

04-14-2005, 10:49 AM

I'd go back to June 2nd 1993 and show Charles Smith how to make a layup. Seriously.

(Knicks Bulls Playoff series)

deacsoft

04-14-2005, 11:12 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Lectures and props are the most interesting ways you can think of to demonstrate birth control devices? /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

I believe anything else would have been considered extremely taboo at those times.

[ QUOTE ]
Seriously, I do believe they had condoms back then.

[/ QUOTE ]
I believe they had condoms too. Perhaps, they just didn't know how to use them?

[ QUOTE ]
Not to mention the fact that the baby boom happened after World War II, not in the 1960s.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was refering to them as two unrelated times. (two time travel trips /images/graemlins/smile.gif )

TimM

04-14-2005, 12:09 PM

[ QUOTE ]
You can go back in time with 3 objects to show to the people.

What do you bring and to what year do you go?

[/ QUOTE ]

Three issues of the Wall Street Journal

October 20, 1987
April 5, 2000
September 12, 2001

I go back to about 1984, and give these items to myself.

InchoateHand

04-14-2005, 12:28 PM

ChristinaB

04-14-2005, 12:39 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You can go back in time with 3 objects to show to the people.

What do you bring and to what year do you go?

[/ QUOTE ]

Three issues of the Wall Street Journal

October 20, 1987
April 5, 2000
September 12, 2001

I go back to about 1984, and give these items to myself.

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you just make a killing in the stock market, or do you warn people about 9/11?

My guess is that you are currently in the Insane Asylum after having tried several years ago to convince authorities that you know the future.

TimM

04-14-2005, 02:02 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Do you just make a killing in the stock market, or do you warn people about 9/11?

[/ QUOTE ]

I make a killing in the stock market, and I stop the 9/11 attacks from happening. Remember I will have a lot of details including the flight numbers of the hijacked planes.

[ QUOTE ]
My guess is that you are currently in the Insane Asylum after having tried several years ago to convince authorities that you know the future.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, I would have a lot of time and a lot of money to figure out a way to do it without that happening.

BTW I think your Columbus plan would only delay the inevitable. Perhaps mine would too.

Happy Hour

04-14-2005, 02:40 PM

Why stop 9/11?

Did you know someone personally that died in the planes or towers? Wouldn't it be easier just to convince that person to stay home on that day?

If you don't know any of the victims personally, then is it about saving the lives of strangers? Then why not go back and save the lives of the tsunami victims, or any natural disaster that claimed far greater numbers of people than 9/11?

Is it to prevent the Patriot Act or the War on Terror? Those things, or something like them, were inevitable.

Or is it to prevent the War on Iraq? Do you think that would not have happened had 9/11 not happened?

[ QUOTE ]
and I stop the 9/11 attacks from happening. Remember I will have a lot of details including the flight numbers of the hijacked planes.

[/ QUOTE ]

Which is why you would be arrested and tried right along with the would-be hijackers.

Sounds like a bad idea to me.

Reprocess

04-14-2005, 02:43 PM

[ QUOTE ]

I don't want this to become a change the future thread.

[/ QUOTE ]

You can go back in time and bring three objects.... seriously.

tek

04-14-2005, 07:05 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I'd go back to June 2nd 1993 and show Charles Smith how to make a layup. Seriously.

(Knicks Bulls Playoff series)

[/ QUOTE ]

Might as well show Jordan some videos of his baseball "career" /images/graemlins/grin.gif

wacki

04-14-2005, 07:09 PM

[ QUOTE ]
1482

to the Caribbean

Objects: Effective military tools that can be reproduced with local materials.

Result: defeat Columbus 10 years later and prevent any of his ships from returning to Spain.

[/ QUOTE ]

You realize, that if you were born in the US you would be killing yourself by doing this don't you?

Phoenix1010

04-14-2005, 07:19 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I'd go back to June 2nd 1993 and show Charles Smith how to make a layup. Seriously.

(Knicks Bulls Playoff series)

[/ QUOTE ]

lol. I feel ya. I actually cried after that game.

dr. klopek

04-14-2005, 07:26 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Then, hopefully, you and I wouldn't have to pay for the social security they're all sucking up these days.

[/ QUOTE ]

Or, you know...be born.

wacki

04-14-2005, 07:28 PM

[ QUOTE ]
You can go back in time with 3 objects to show to the people.

What do you bring and to what year do you go?

[/ QUOTE ]

Is this temporary or permanent?

If temporary, I would go back to the Juriasic period. I would bring a helicopter, a video camera, and something to collect DNA with. I want my T-Rex!

If permanent?

I would pass on the deal, unless of course I can rewind my aging and relive my highschool years. In that case I would bring the source code to Google, Yahoo, and all of the Microsoft products. I would put them on a really old style tape drive so I could read them. The plans for the pentium 4 wouldn't be bad. Also, the sports book Micheal J Fox had in Back to the Future would be nice.

Joe826

04-14-2005, 07:31 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I'd go back to June 2nd 1993 and show Charles Smith how to make a layup. Seriously.

[/ QUOTE ]

Good one. Being a Suns fun and all, i'd go back and kill John Paxton to prevent him from hitting that clutch three in the finals. I guess I could just kill MJ and solve the problem at the root, but then i'd be up for a hate crime.

Benholio

04-14-2005, 08:12 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You can go back in time with 3 objects to show to the people.

What do you bring and to what year do you go?

[/ QUOTE ]

Is this temporary or permanent?

If temporary, I would go back to the Juriasic period. I would bring a helicopter, a video camera, and something to collect DNA with. I want my T-Rex!

[/ QUOTE ]

Anyone picture wacki trying to sneak up on a t-rex with a syringe?

CCass

04-14-2005, 10:44 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I'd go back to 1988 and show my grandpa (he died in 1989) my wife, my son and the deed to my house. he missed all of that.

[/ QUOTE ]

Same here. I would go back to 1984 and show my grandfather his two great-grandsons (the only way for his direct family line/name to continue).

InchoateHand

04-14-2005, 10:46 PM

I'd bring both of these. I haven't decided what the third item should be.

http://www.latinoreview.com/films_2003/newline/texaschainsawmassacre/images/jessica-4.jpg

TimM

04-14-2005, 11:18 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Why stop 9/11?

Did you know someone personally that died in the planes or towers? Wouldn't it be easier just to convince that person to stay home on that day?

[/ QUOTE ]

No not really. If I went through the list I'm sure I could find someone. I did work at the WTC for a summer in 1987.

[ QUOTE ]
If you don't know any of the victims personally, then is it about saving the lives of strangers? Then why not go back and save the lives of the tsunami victims, or any natural disaster that claimed far greater numbers of people than 9/11?

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't have super powers, I can't stop natural disasters, or convince large numbers of people they are coming.

Really, most of the stuff is to make myself rich in the stock market. But I just think it would be a cool thing to do to foil the terrorist plot and totally change the world from that point on, and be the only one who really knows it. Perhaps someone much older might choose to do something like foil the Kennedy assassination, for similar reasons.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
and I stop the 9/11 attacks from happening. Remember I will have a lot of details including the flight numbers of the hijacked planes.

[/ QUOTE ]

Which is why you would be arrested and tried right along with the would-be hijackers.

Sounds like a bad idea to me.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'd have to find a way to do it anonymously. Shouldn't be to hard for a billionaire.

But actually I have to wonder if this little thought experiment would really work. Every dollar I took out of the market is a dollar someone else would not get. It shouldn't matter much at first, but over time it might subtly change things. I'd have to be careful about trying to time things too close, but I don't think the general trend of certain industries could be stopped. I could learn so much just from the advertisements.

Talk2BigSteve

04-14-2005, 11:59 PM

Bring: Underwear, Condoms, Lube

Haven't a clue what year to go to...

Big Steve /images/graemlins/cool.gif

TimM

04-15-2005, 12:25 AM

Just stay away from any of my male ancestors. I want to be born, dammit. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

nothumb

04-15-2005, 12:33 AM

I would clearly go back to about 1964 with a suitcase full of money, a Telecaster and a five pound bag of cocaine.

NT

GuyOnTilt

04-15-2005, 12:38 AM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
1482

to the Caribbean

Objects: Effective military tools that can be reproduced with local materials.

Result: defeat Columbus 10 years later and prevent any of his ships from returning to Spain.

[/ QUOTE ]

You realize, that if you were born in the US you would be killing yourself by doing this don't you?

[/ QUOTE ]

No, you wouldn't. Time travel into the "past" will not change anything in your universe of origin, other than the fact that you will no longer be there. You may or may not end up going back to it, though if "you" do end up returning to that particular universe, it will almost certainly not be "you". Also note that the further you travel back in time, the further off of your original worldline you will stray, which is ill-advised. But yeah, all this talk of stopping 9/11 and such is bull. You won't be stopping it from happening. It will still occur in an infinite number of universes, just as it will not occur in the same number of universes.

GoT

scotty34

04-15-2005, 12:40 AM

[ QUOTE ]
I'd have to find a way to do it anonymously. Shouldn't be to hard for a billionaire.

[/ QUOTE ]

I believe these two statements contradict each other.

astroglide

04-15-2005, 12:43 AM

[ QUOTE ]
No, you wouldn't. Time travel into the "past" will not change anything in your universe of origin, other than the fact that you will no longer be there. You may or may not end up going back to it, though if "you" do end up returning to that particular universe, it will almost certainly not be "you". Also note that the further you travel back in time, the further off of your original worldline you will stray, which is ill-advised. But yeah, all this talk of stopping 9/11 and such is bull. You won't be stopping it from happening. It will still occur in an infinite number of universes, just as it will not occur in the same number of universes.

[/ QUOTE ]

somebody get this guy on the phone with hawking! we have a complete expert on time and parallel universes!

buck_futter

04-15-2005, 12:44 AM

First and foremost, WHEN you would want to go back to is obvious so not really a fair question. Everybody wants to go back to the land before time. Hunting dinosaurs, now there is an adventure sport that puts skydiving to shame.

The REAL question is, what age would you NOT want to go back to? I say between 1700 and 1890. Not a lot of good stuff in there, I mean really, when you learned "the rule of three" with the shadows and all that, you were put into the working world. Furthermore, whooping cough? i have enough to worry about with whooping cough on my mind. And those frilly shirts.. unless your a pirate, steer clear.

GuyOnTilt

04-15-2005, 12:48 AM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
No, you wouldn't. Time travel into the "past" will not change anything in your universe of origin, other than the fact that you will no longer be there. You may or may not end up going back to it, though if "you" do end up returning to that particular universe, it will almost certainly not be "you". Also note that the further you travel back in time, the further off of your original worldline you will stray, which is ill-advised. But yeah, all this talk of stopping 9/11 and such is bull. You won't be stopping it from happening. It will still occur in an infinite number of universes, just as it will not occur in the same number of universes.

[/ QUOTE ]

somebody get this guy on the phone with hawking! we have a complete expert on time and parallel universes!

[/ QUOTE ]

Obviously I am not an expert on this. I've read up on it a bit and find the physics interesting, but I have no clue other than what I've read. If time travel is possible then this is how it would work, and this thread is assuming it is possible.

Oh yeah, and I have no clue what I would take. Have to think about it.

GoT

EliteNinja

04-15-2005, 03:10 AM

I'd bring info about Microsoft to my dad in 1980 or so.

FoxwoodsFiend

04-15-2005, 03:12 AM

Honestly, I thought of posting the exact same crap regurgitated from David Lewis but decided it was just pretentious and misses the point of this thread. Honestly Snowden, your act's getting old. Real old.

snowden719

04-15-2005, 09:47 AM

I thought of acting like a homosexual but thought that you might get mad that I was stealing your shtick. Your act is already old Foxwoods, your style is played out like "what you talking about Willis". Also, like Nas, you fellate men.

Rick Diesel

04-15-2005, 10:31 AM

I give my grandmother a 2005 Wall Street Journal in 1930.

Raiser

04-15-2005, 11:03 AM

read The Dark Tower by Stephen King. It's a 7 book series, most of them are pretty long, but King does lots of cool time travel stuff like this. Good stuff.

thatpfunk

04-15-2005, 12:36 PM

I guess I should have worded this question better. I think going back in time and changing the future is not very interesting.

I was just curious what objects you would take to "wow" the people of the time. Examples: I think it would be pretty sweet to show people from the 80's a laptop. Show them how advanced things were getting. Or perhaps bring a instant camera to the people of Egypt. Or bring an assault weapon and show the people of the middle ages.

Basically the things that would knock the socks off the people of the time. I guess I should have made my question more detailed.

InchoateHand

04-15-2005, 12:38 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I guess I should have worded this question better. I think going back in time and changing the future is not very interesting... I guess I should have made my question more detailed.

[/ QUOTE ]

The wording of the question had nothing to do with how much the thread sucked.

thatpfunk

04-15-2005, 12:41 PM

No, no, no. How you really feel.

Duke

04-15-2005, 12:52 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I guess I should have worded this question better. I think going back in time and changing the future is not very interesting.

Basically the things that would knock the socks off the people of the time. I guess I should have made my question more detailed.

[/ QUOTE ]

Changing the future and considering infinitely many implications for every small impact you have is not interesting, but getting a less advanced dude to say: "Golly gee it's shiny too!" is interesting.

Wow. That you seem to actually think this is more interesting than either of those 2 ideas.

~D

InchoateHand

04-15-2005, 12:53 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I guess I should have worded this question better. I think going back in time and changing the future is not very interesting.

Basically the things that would knock the socks off the people of the time. I guess I should have made my question more detailed.

[/ QUOTE ]

Changing the future and considering infinitely many implications for every small impact you have is not interesting, but getting a less advanced dude to say: "Golly gee it's shiny too!" is interesting.

Wow. That you seem to actually think this is more interesting than either of those 2 ideas.

~D

[/ QUOTE ]

Boom goes the dynamite!

thatpfunk

04-15-2005, 01:04 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Changing the future and considering infinitely many implications for every small impact you have is not interesting, but getting a less advanced dude to say: "Golly gee it's shiny too!" is interesting.

Wow. That you seem to actually think this is more interesting than either of those 2 ideas.

~D

[/ QUOTE ]

Read the responses. Is there anything remotely interesting or surprising? I didn't think so...

InchoateHand

04-15-2005, 01:07 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Read the responses. Is there anything remotely interesting or surprising? I didn't think so...

[/ QUOTE ]

When an OP sucks, the posts that follow typically do as well.

thatpfunk

04-15-2005, 01:09 PM

Why are you bothering with this thread then? Stop reading it. Simple as that.

InchoateHand

04-15-2005, 01:15 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Why are you bothering with this thread then? Stop reading it. Simple as that.

[/ QUOTE ]

Obviosuly it's a slow day. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

CORed

04-15-2005, 01:39 PM

Condoms and many other means of birth control (pills, IUD'S diaphragms) were available in the '60s. Do you really think you could get enough people to use them who otherwise wouldn't have to make a difference?

TimM

04-15-2005, 01:46 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I give my grandmother a 2005 Wall Street Journal in 1930.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't like this variation. It could prevent you from being born. Also, many of the companies from 1930 are no longer around, or have merged, or changed names. It would be hard to make good investment decisions in 1930 based on a 2005 paper.

CORed

04-15-2005, 02:52 PM

You could conceivably teach the Indians to smelt iron and make swords. This would give them a fighting chance. Most likely it would just delay the inevitible, though. The indians would still probably contract smallpox, measles, etc. from the Spaniards, and the next Europeans that find their way to America would still start the colonization. Also, do you really think the world would be a better place if Europeans didn't colonize the Western Hemisphere? I will grant that it wasn't good on balance for the Indians, but I guess I don't have enough self-hatred to think that the world would be better off without America.