OT-If you had a time machine

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Just a bit of fun.....

 

You have just invented a Time Machine....you can go to any period...past or Future...but can only observe...nothing you do will affect Past or future History.

 

And it's a once only trip...when you get back...it's all over for good!...the machine is set to return you after 2 days!...and you're aware that it's your only trip...so think about it....one chance people....and be careful what you wish for!!

 

where you gonna go?....

 

(remember...you cannot affect anything...so forget lottery numbers)

Edited May 15, 2011 by UK_Widowmaker

[Flyby PC 23]

Bannockburn, 1314.

 

... But on the way back I'd keep my eye out the window as we passed 1815 for a quick glimpse of Waterloo, and 1944 for D-Day too...

 

 

And if it wasn't just two days, I'd like to spend some time in Edinburgh between 1780 and 1850, just to speak to the stonemasons working there. The things I might learn from them, and just to see how certain things were actually done. Not the big stuff, that I reckon I understand, but the little, clever bits which nobody ever notices, special mortar mixes, storing stuff, doing things without electricity etc. You get so tired listening to so called experts who make a good living talking rubbish. It would be nice to see the real story from the mouths of the men who actually did the business. A little bit of knowledge goes a long way....

 

 

 

Now that I think about it, I'd probably choose Edinburgh. I'd love to see the spectacle of a great battle, any battle really, but I would benefit much more by learning things from tradesmen at the pinnacle of their craft, and have them explain things which have always puzzled me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Great answer Flypc...exactly the sort of stuff I hoped I'd see on this thread!

[Olham 164]

Well, I must be getting old and less enthusiastic about the world's history.

First I thought about famous events to witness, like 2 days in the life of Jesus, Alexander the Great,

the burial of a Pharao or the battle of Armin (Arminius; Hermann) and the Germanen against the Romans

in northern Germany; which was a very great battle against no less but 3 Roman legions; it took three days

and three nights, and not many Romans escaped it. Would be a thriller to witness.

But then I had a different idea.

I would first try to find out everything about pirate treasures, which were never found.

Then I would seek for any data about the time they were hidden.

If I would come across such a date and the pirate, who hid the treasure, I would travel back to him and watch,

where he buried it. Back in today, I would offer to show the hiding place for 50 % of the found.

 

Yeah, I know - I've become pretty materialistic, eyh? But then, it also has some spirit of adventure, hasn't it?

Edited May 15, 2011 by Olham

[Flyby PC 23]

That's the original video, but it doesn't seem to play these days.

 

Here's a different version which plays better.

 

 

It is worth watching....

 

 

Going back to the time machine, - there's a little voice in my head shouting 'dinosaurs'.

 

 

@Olham - If you wanted to make money, I expect you could sell your ticket for the time machine.

Edited May 15, 2011 by Flyby PC

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

haha...yes Olham..A fine idea!

[Olham 164]

Well, Flyby's would probably earn me the same amount even with far less effort.

I knew: I am no businessman. Clever, Flyby!

[xclusiv8 35]

I would go a 1000 years into the future. Theyve proberbly perfected the time machine by then allowing me to stay more than 2 days

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

I would go a 1000 years into the future. Theyve proberbly perfected the time machine by then allowing me to stay more than 2 days

 

hahahaha....good point!

[JFM 18]

If to only observe and not affect or be affected by the events? Then I would go to Pearl Harbor 6 December 1941. Get a good view and photos of the fleet, have a fun night in Honolulu, then be up bright and early for the events of the following morning.

[Creaghorn 10]

i would go to jesus and witness his last days first hand. but i would then need 3 days instead of 2 days because i would also love to be there at his resurrection

[Dej 17]

Well, if Jim's going to Pearl Harbour, I shall, if he doesn't mind, temporarily borrow his hobby-horse and go to Morlancourt Ridge, 21st April 1918 and see if I can't establish, beyond all doubt... who shot down MvR.

[Flyby PC 23]

On the subject of solving mysteries, I also wouldn't mind seeing how the Picts in Iron Age Scotland vitrified the walls of their hill forts. - That is around 1000BC they fused extensive areas of the stones together like glass forming vitrified walls to their forts. Nobody knows how or why they did it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitrified_fort

 

Modern archaeologists have managed to melt pieces of rock with authentic materials of the time, but nothing to the extent the picts managed to do it, and there is much more besides still not understood. It's predominantly a Scottish phenomenon which remains unexplained as far as I'm concerned.

 

Come to think of it, there's a whole lot more I'd like to learn about the Picts.

 

It would be a tough call to choose your two days of time travel, a really tough choice.

[Lewie 7]

It's a toss up for me, there's about 3 or 4 times and places in WWI that I would like to see. One day in particular would be the Messine Ridge underground mine explosion.

 

But you did say any time? How about roughly 65 million years ago on the very day the big rock fell onto the Yucatan peninsula. Of course I'd have to be quite a ways away and have protective eye gear. It would be a feat just to get the exact date it happened.

Edited May 15, 2011 by Lewie

[Typhoon 5]

I'm afraid that I am even a bit more materialistic than Ohlam. I would go only 3 weeks into the future, scan the last couple of winning lottery numbers, come back and play them.

 

Tony

[Olham 164]

I'm afraid that I am even a bit more materialistic than Ohlam. I would go only 3 weeks into the future, scan the last couple of winning lottery numbers, come back and play them.

Tony

Damn, yes - it is so simple! You see, Tony, I'm a complicated guy!

[77Scout 3]

Definately I would try to solve some great historical mystery ... can I take a video camera with me?

 

Go to Roswell New Mexico at the time of the 'alien spacecraft crash' and see what really happened.

 

Be in the Texas Book Depository window on the day of JKF's assassination.

 

Be present during any of the various 'miracles' described in the Bible.

 

Wow, the list can be almost endless. I think we are going to need more time machines.

[Olham 164]

Well, I think he wanted you to decide for ONE event to see?

[Javito1986 14]

I'd go to the future to the days just before the sun turns into a red dwarf and fries the planet. I'd like to see what the earth is like at the end of its life cycle. If possible I'd come here to Madison and see my city a few billion years into the future. There'll be nothing left and probably everything would be buried deep underground compacted in billions of years of rock layers but it'd be nice to be in the same area just the same

Edited May 16, 2011 by Javito1986

[Shiloh 12]

I might go back and be a fly on the wall at the Battle of Gettysburg. I've written so much about the battle I'd like to see if I know what I'm talking about.

[AROTH 0]

After the war where all of these machines were stored. As long as I could sneak my digital camera with me and just be ignored for a full day and click away.

Apologies to whoever originally provided this photo - I think it was from someone on this site, but I cannot recall who.

[Flyby PC 23]

It's quite funny, but this topic has touched on two extremes of my 'wondering'. Religion, and witnessing the end of the world. I don't want to see either.

 

I don't believe in any God, but paradoxically, I find it easier to accept that everything is pre-ordained - at least to a degree, because in real terms, it is.

 

We are all on a path, but we each have the power to influence that path by our own judgement. I sometimes wonder whether as a species, our fate is in our own hands. While it may take millions of years to happen, (lets hope so anyway), our planet will fail one day, and if we are still confined here and nowhere else, then that's the end of us. I don't think our future is that bleak however. I think we have on this planet enough resources, and the intelligence and imagination to 'somehow' find a way to transport ourselves to other planets, so that we might continue as a species after our beloved Earth is finished. We don't have the technology yet, but 100 years ago we barely had the technology to fly and look at us now. The problem is, it's not a certainty, and the clock is forever ticking. If we squander our resources, we will fail, if we dither and bemuse ourselves with wars and indolence we will run out of time and we won't be ready before the end comes.

 

People say we wont go back to the moon because there's no profit in it, but I think that's very short sighted. We should look upon the resources we have on planet earth and use them to optimise our survival above all else, not the abstract and unnatural concept of profit. Money has no value in nature and will count for very little if our planet is doomed by some forthcoming disaster, but by then it will be too late. We might hope for someone like Bruce Willis to blow it up and save us, but even Bruce Willis needed a space ship and a nuclear bomb - which thankfully somebody else had had the foresight to invent.

 

In what's left of my lifetime, I'd like to see us back on the moon, finding ways to sustain life on a barren rock, and using the lesser gravity to develop vehicles designed for space exploration with a view to our long term survival. - Massive deep space exploration vehicles crewed with colonies of people resigned to generation after generation of deep space exploration and never to see Earth again, but still be content to play their part in humanities future. - That means a ship which can renew itself for millenia, and provide a lifetime of contentment and fulfilment equal or better to a life on Earth. A ship thats a mini planet in its own right. Blimey, I sound like a Trekkie.... Beam me up Scottie.

 

That's the depressing side to it, how far we have to go, but on the up side, considering we only took to the skies and descovered electricity pretty recently, we're not doing too badly. We've already set foot on our moon, and we're looking further and further into the distance of space. We may not yet be doing all we can to get into space proper, but we know how to do it, and that is quite literally the giant leap for humanity.

 

The good thing is, we all fit into this. Rich, poor, intelligent, stupid, we are all part of the machine. Even the unfortunate junkie squandering his life on benefits can perhaps inspire somebody else to take a different path with their life. Nature wastes nothing. For now, profit and money does matter to us because it creates aspiration and desire, and the will to better ourselves makes us try new ideas to please each other. Even military aggression is necessary, because it provokes us to excell in our technologies and accelerate research. I hope in the future we will see progress driven by the pure lust for learning, not riding piggy back on military invention or personal profit advantage.

 

Will this all come to pass? Yes. I believe it will...someday. Have we time left to do it? I don't know, but at least we're all more aware how delicate our planet is, and I think we're making better choices now, but we've a long, long way to go.

 

This isn't a religious faith, but I have absolute faith we will one day do this, and a lot more besides. And when our Earth fails, by accident of nature or sheer exhaustion of our sun, we'll be ready, and already have firm footholds on other planets and pioneers opening up new frontiers. We won't need time machines, but we will need spacecraft far, far, far, beyond our current technologies.

 

Wow. I should really stop eating cheese before bed time.

[Capitaine Vengeur 263]

First, I would come back on my own teens and take advantage of the time paradox to teach to the f.....g moron I was then what not to tell and how not to behave with the girls. Some slaps would help. More seriously, would probably come back to the Pax Romana era (Italy, ca. 100 a.c.), and spend days in the Circus Maximus.

 

I'm always amazed that so many people would like to watch an ancient battle. I imagine that nobody can say what vomiting really means before having seen, heard and smelt a large battlefield after action.

[Olham 164]

I'm always amazed that so many people would like to watch an ancient battle.

I imagine that nobody can say what vomiting really means before having seen, heard and smelt a large battlefield after action.

I have never seen a battle in RL, but I am convinced, it has nothing glorious like in so many films, but sounds, looks and smells more like butchery.

Which it is more or less.

So, if I said I'd like to see the battle of Armin against the Romans, I meant: from a high up position with good overview-

and enough distance so I don't get any of the smells near me.

[tranquillo 10]

About 30 years ago I spent a couple of months living on a houseboat on Lake Dal, Srinigar, Kashmir. It was heaven on earth. I would like to go back to that time, before Kashmir was ravaged and re-enjoy that simplistic living for a couple of days. I wasn't married then and I'd very much like my wife to experience it with me.

I know, I'm soppy.