# A different kind of time travel conundrum **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 24, 2023, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-different-kind-of-time-travel-conundrum/991993 "2023-10-24T05:10:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2023, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-different-kind-of-time-travel-conundrum/991993/1 "2023-10-24T05:10:30Z")
You wake up, and all memory has been wiped back to your fifteenth birthday. 1. What pleasantly surprises you the most? 2. What disappoints you the most? 3. What astounds you the most? ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2023, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-different-kind-of-time-travel-conundrum/991993/2 "2023-10-24T05:44:53Z")
So I wake up and essentially think I’m 15 except it’s 2023? I don’t think that’s a time travel question but rather a different kind of amnesia. 1.) Smart phones 1. Humor/political correctness. (I am 15 after all) 2. Robots on Mars ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2023, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-different-kind-of-time-travel-conundrum/991993/3 "2023-10-24T06:10:07Z")
Where is the leftover Cake? ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2023, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-different-kind-of-time-travel-conundrum/991993/4 "2023-10-24T06:26:54Z")
1. What? I’m still alive? 2. You’re not joking? I’m still alive? 3. I can’t believe I’m still alive. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2023, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-different-kind-of-time-travel-conundrum/991993/5 "2023-10-24T13:17:08Z")
Not really understanding the OP. Am I 65yo me here in 2023 in my present circumstances, but just with no memory of the last 50 years? Or am I suddenly a real 15yo again, but here in 2023, not back in 1973? If the first case, I’d be pissed to have missed out on 50 years of living & be old my whole remaining rather short life. And wondering why I was living with this particular strange but very cute 65yo woman. If the second case I’d be really unhappy when somebody explains to me that my parents are dead, I’m broke, need to somehow finish high school and work to support myself, and meanwhile the 65yo woman I’m living with doesn’t really want me underfoot anymore. She’s much too old & wrinkly for me too; not hot at all. Obviously the instant tech progress would be cool; like most young folks I was always more interested in the future than the past. OTOH, jumping from the lefty-leaning antigovernment protests of the early 1970s to the rightist fascist antigovernment protests of 2023 might be a _wee bit_ jarring. At least war in the Middle East will seem familiar. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2023, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-different-kind-of-time-travel-conundrum/991993/6 "2023-10-24T13:22:18Z")
1. Nothing pleasantly surprises me because I’m an incredibly old 15 year old. 2. I’m most disappointed by realizing I’ll never get laid now. 3. I’m astounded that I’ve grown incredibly old overnight. ---
**Author:** ![Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tired_and_Cranky)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2023, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-different-kind-of-time-travel-conundrum/991993/7 "2023-10-24T13:33:15Z")
_What pleasantly surprises you the most?_ I’ve got a nice family, a decent house, and reasonable financial security. _What disappoints you the most?_ No progress on racism or global warming and now we have increasing political violence. At least acceptance of LGBTQ persons is better. My body ain’t what it used to be. Also, I thought lightweight carbon fiber and aluminum cars would be the norm. Instead, everything is massively overweight dead feeling SUVs. This isn’t my biggest disappointment but I’m certain it would be one of them. _What astounds you the most?_ Ubiquitous internet access. Anyone over the age of 40ish who doesn’t answer this is probably underestimating just how profoundly smartphones etc. have changed our lives. They are even changing the lives of people who don’t use them because those people are being left behind. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2023, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-different-kind-of-time-travel-conundrum/991993/8 "2023-10-24T15:32:13Z")
First case. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2023, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-different-kind-of-time-travel-conundrum/991993/9 "2023-10-24T15:33:23Z")
\* What pleasantly surprises you the most? I can smoke pot legally \* What disappoints you the most? What in the name of stygian hell happened to US politics, and why is the music so sucky? \* What astounds you the most? Everyone’s toting around these little rectangular toys and they jab at them and talk into them all day long, wtf? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2023, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-different-kind-of-time-travel-conundrum/991993/10 "2023-10-24T18:15:46Z")
What pleasantly surprises me the most? The sex and gender barriers that have fallen. What disappoints me the most? I was 11 when we landed on the moon. _Why the fuck did it stop there??_ What astounds me the most? Computers so small and powerful that most of the science fiction I read had nothing approaching it. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2023, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-different-kind-of-time-travel-conundrum/991993/11 "2023-10-24T19:10:47Z")
1. The USSR no longer exists. (A close second: neither does the CRT.) 2. There hasn’t been that much of an improvement in air travel (in terms of how long it takes). 3. Not just that video phones are real, but **mobile** video phones are real - and direct dial at that. (My 15th birthday was during the Carter administration.) ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2023, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-different-kind-of-time-travel-conundrum/991993/12 "2023-10-25T01:17:47Z")
You’re taking me back to Jan., 1952. 1. The fact that I became a mathematician with a wife, three children and 6 grandchildren. 2. The incredible political mess in the US. 3. The whole computer, internet, phone thing. I had probably not even heard the word computer then. Or maybe I had but only in Sci-Fi. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2023, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-different-kind-of-time-travel-conundrum/991993/13 "2023-10-25T02:47:09Z")
My first thought is, “Oh crap, I don’t want to be 15 again!” II know the OP has explained that’s not what is happening, but I so much don’t want to be 15 again I can’t shake it. Maybe I’ll come back to this tomorrow. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2023, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-different-kind-of-time-travel-conundrum/991993/14 "2023-10-25T13:40:01Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > (A close second: neither does the CRT.) CRT totally exists now. But now it’s not an electronic component; it’s a component of the made-up but highly profitable culture wars. ---
**Author:** ![Guapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@Guapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guapo)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2023, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-different-kind-of-time-travel-conundrum/991993/15 "2023-10-28T16:01:09Z")
The smartphone. It would be totally beyond my comprehension. The only computer I had seen at that point was the incredibly large and expensive project MAC machine in the basement of MIT that took up a whole room. The fact that a handheld device was thousands of times faster at a fraction of the price would be literally unbelievable. The fact that it was also a phone, camera, music player would seem like magic. I’d be surprised that space travel had stagnated and that passenger planes were bigger but not faster. Lage flat screen, high def televisions would not be unexpected, but the fact that they are so inexpensive would be surprising. The fact that a twice divorced idiot could be elected president would be disheartening. I’d find it curious that a black man was president before a white woman. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2023, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-different-kind-of-time-travel-conundrum/991993/16 "2023-10-28T16:20:26Z")
What a horrible thing to do to someone. I would discover I am instantly unemployed and unemployable. I think I’d step in front of a bus at the earliest opportunity. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2023, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-different-kind-of-time-travel-conundrum/991993/17 "2023-10-29T14:02:15Z")
I’m sure that, despite my best efforts, I would inadvertently stumble upon some online porn. That would take care of #1 and #3. I’d be most disappointed that a huge number of otherwise functioning people think that there is something worthy in trump. There are people who hold up their phones at his rallies to capture every word and every idiotic face he makes. Are their lives so bleak that replaying that vid is actually entertaining? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2023, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-different-kind-of-time-travel-conundrum/991993/18 "2023-10-29T23:12:42Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > There are people who hold up their phones at his rallies to capture every word and every idiotic face he makes. Are their lives so bleak that replaying that vid is actually entertaining? Hero worship is much more about the deep need to worship than it is about wisely selecting a hero to so honor.