# A new red pill/blue pill choice **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 25, 2023, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-red-pill-blue-pill-choice/995118 "2023-12-25T07:08:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2023, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-red-pill-blue-pill-choice/995118/61 "2023-12-25T21:46:30Z")
If nothing else, it’ll be a unique story! ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2023, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-red-pill-blue-pill-choice/995118/62 "2023-12-25T22:22:22Z")
I didn’t turn 17 until my senior year in high school (November bday), so I’d only have one year to get through before I’d have a lot more freedom than if I still had two years of high school to get through. I would definitely take the red pill. As others have said, I’d definitely be more careful with diet and exercise to hopefully stave off the arthritis and afib that plague me now. The people who are choosing the blue pill either are healthier/younger than me where that wouldn’t make a difference. $5M now would not significantly change my life. And I would do a lot more with significantly improved mobility and vigor. Another thing I was a lot more cautious and inhibited as a young person, and having the experiences I’ve had since, I know I could push myself to do a lot of things that I regret now not doing then. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2023, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-red-pill-blue-pill-choice/995118/63 "2023-12-25T22:26:10Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Yeah, you’d need a good college library or access to interlibrary loan (which you can technically get from any public library but would need to know what you are looking for in order to make requests). Even then, a lot of documentation on the American slave trade was not formalized in reference texts until the late ‘Sixties and ‘Seventies, and even Zinn doesn’t go much into the use and abuse of Chinese laborers and their use to expand the railroads westward because solid scholarly work in that area is still hard to come by. I was thinking more of things like the destruction of Black neighborhoods and business districts; and the US imperialist attitude to the nations of South and Central America; and the Trail of Tears and similar and current behavior of the USA to the pre-existing residents, who we were mostly taught there weren’t very many of in the first place and anyway they were mostly All Gone or assimilated by (our) modern times. (To be fair, our teachers probably thought so too, at the time). We were taught of the existence of the slave trade, at least, though not a lot of the details; and I’m pretty sure we were taught that Chinese laborers did a lot of that railroad work, though again without much detail, and I’m sure the abuse was glossed over. > [@Wallaby](#): > > Most peole can probably remember the winners of the major Horse races etc over their life. I’d probably only recognize a couple. And they were often the favorites, and paid out a lot less well than an early investment in Berkshire Hathaway or Apple. > [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > You will end up being so wracked with guilt about not stopping the various horrible incidents of the early 21st Century (all of your warnings and letters to the FBI, the Senate, and the President will be ignored), that you will be driven into insanity That would definitely be a possibility. Either nobody would listen to me, or they’d probably arrest me. Or, worse, both – you knew this was going to happen! You couldn’t possibly have known unless you were in on it – why are you refusing to tell us anything about the planning? I’d probably be dropping anonymous stuff into the mail, trying not to leave fingerprints, trying (to the extent of my ability) to mail from various locations, trying to use a lot of different typewriters, with a weird code attached in the hope that somebody would actually read them enough to realize that the person who knew about the earlier disasters might actually know about what they were predicting next. And I’d be going in terror of them identifying me and locking me up until I told them how I did it; not that they’d believe me when I did. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-red-pill-blue-pill-choice/995118/64 "2023-12-26T00:14:08Z")
Sixteen is too late for me, the damage has already been done by then, It’d just be a trash fire start over. With the same dose of pain immediately ahead. Nope. Even it was only 5$, I’m taking the money. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-red-pill-blue-pill-choice/995118/65 "2023-12-26T03:53:03Z")
At age 74 with cancer. I’m going back to 16. Yes I’d do some things a lot different, but I know enough about my field that I could make plenty of relevant if not important discoveries. I’d need a lot of coauthors though. I’d buy stocks and have enough money that I could sue Trump into nonexistence before he ever become President. There’s a few other people I’d accuse before the statute of limitations ran out as well (not to mention death). That last might be most important. ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-red-pill-blue-pill-choice/995118/66 "2023-12-26T04:53:49Z")
I think I would just go back to age sixteen to lose my virginity earlier. (Age 21 was the actual grand moment) I treated ladies with disrespect back then, and now I know better. I wish I had been kinder, more receptive, more attentive, intead of being an asshole. (I mean, isnt the red pill/blue pill both a reference to the Matrix movies but also to incels? I was not a nice teenager) ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-red-pill-blue-pill-choice/995118/67 "2023-12-26T05:33:28Z")
The character flaws I had at 16 are basically the same characters flaws I have now, so I have no confidence that living my life all over again (with only the crudest internet access for a good chunk of it!) would have a positive effect. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-red-pill-blue-pill-choice/995118/68 "2023-12-26T05:55:04Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Going back in time to 1990 would mean that I’d probably never meet my wife and my kid would never be born - and I _like_ my wife and my kid. So I’ll live with my choices and take the money. Precisely this, with the bonus that going back to 16 would mean experiencing the traumas of the mid-to-late '60s again (with the knowledge that I couldn’t do anything to change them). But primarily the fact that the Ottlets would never exist is a deal-breaker. While I don’t need the money, it could well provide a cushion for them against what may be coming down the pike. ---
**Author:** ![Nyvaak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Nyvaak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nyvaak)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-red-pill-blue-pill-choice/995118/69 "2023-12-26T06:02:47Z")
> [@scudsucker](#): > > I wish I had been kinder, more receptive, more attentive, intead of being an asshole. Seconding that - sort of. I would love to go back and be 16 again, just so that I could be a better person on the second go-round. I’m pretty sure I’ve never (or at least seldom) been a _bad_ person, exactly. Just clueless. But there have been so many times I could have helped people, in small ways or big, or avoided hurting someone. I just didn’t realize. An additional 51 years of experience and reflection would give me a much better shot at doing it right. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-red-pill-blue-pill-choice/995118/70 "2023-12-26T06:28:18Z")
Red pill so fast I’ll break the sound barrier with my arm snapping the pill into my mouth. By now I’d have a LOT more than $5 million. A lot more. And I’d have made better personal decisions. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-red-pill-blue-pill-choice/995118/71 "2023-12-26T09:11:14Z")
If it were just me, I’d take the red pill in a minute, but I have people I love and who I’m responsible for, and I just won’t abandon them to literally relive my youth. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-red-pill-blue-pill-choice/995118/72 "2023-12-26T12:38:25Z")
Also, travelling back in time won’t let me cure cancer, and I can’t watch my parents die again. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-red-pill-blue-pill-choice/995118/73 "2023-12-26T18:12:47Z")
Just to be clear, is time travel involved? Or do I revert to 16 in the year 2023? Some are assuming one some the other. I’d be tough to back and live without the internet. But being 16 now would be interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-red-pill-blue-pill-choice/995118/74 "2023-12-26T22:10:53Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Just to be clear, is time travel involved? Or do I revert to 16 in the year 2023? Some are assuming one some the other. When this thought occurred to me, I kind of briefly ran thorough the pros and cons of each. Honestly, I was on the fence. I’m 68. So I know the end is at least on the horizon. So the no-brainer answer seems to be more time. However, I’m tired so part of me thinks like **snfaulkner** : > [@snfaulkner](#): > > Just give me the blue pill and money. Let me get through this stupid life in the best way and end it. Also, like others, I was unintentionally cruel and stupid - I’d really like to correct a lot of that. But the thing is, I worded the OP sloppily or without enough forethought and so a lot of the red-pillers jumped on the ‘I’d just invest in Google and easily make more than 5 million’ train of thought. That’s on me, I did write “with all the knowledge you have accrued to date.” I was actually thinking more along the lines of consequences-of-actions type of thing. I was asked and addressed this directly in post #22 but by then the genie was out of the bottle so to speak. > [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > > [@Smapti](#): > > > > I need clarification on the red pill. Is my consciousness getting sent back in time into the body of my 16-year-old self? > > Yes, but the butterfly effect is in full force. You won’t necessarily know the market outcome or Super Bowl winners. The world may unfold differently. > > > [@Velocity](#): > > > > That being said, though, I have to assume the OP means we don’t get actual knowledge of things like Bitcoin, otherwise it would be trivially easy to make $100 million with such foreknowledge. > > Correct. Who knows, if you ran back the clock maybe Beta would have been the next big thing, ha ha. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-red-pill-blue-pill-choice/995118/75 "2023-12-26T22:40:33Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Just to be clear, is time travel involved? Or do I revert to 16 in the year 2023? Some are assuming one some the other. I’m assuming I revert back to my 16th birthday in 1987. Suddenly becoming 16 now would be advantageous, but not nearly AS advantageous. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-red-pill-blue-pill-choice/995118/76 "2023-12-26T22:47:12Z")
Red pill for me. I had a good childhood and there are so many questions I’d like to ask. I think I wouldnt make the mistake of getting married when I did, and I’d stay longer in the Army. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-red-pill-blue-pill-choice/995118/77 "2023-12-26T23:32:17Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Suddenly becoming 16 now would be advantageous, but not nearly AS advantageous. It occurs to me that if I were suddenly 16 now – would I be able to fake being an adult so I wouldn’t have to come up with a guardian somehow? (My parents have both been dead for some time; though they were alive with quite a few years to go when I was actually 15.) I know a lot of things now that I didn’t at 16; but I still don’t know how to get a good fake ID. And even if I had one – everyone who knows me now probably wouldn’t believe the 16-year-old was me, and they’d want to know what I had done with me. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-red-pill-blue-pill-choice/995118/78 "2023-12-26T23:38:40Z")
It seems like these red pills are being handed out willy-nilly. What if I went back to being 16 and every other 16 year-old I met was also “from the future”? ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2023, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-red-pill-blue-pill-choice/995118/79 "2023-12-27T00:03:26Z")
I can’t understand all these red-pill-takers. I survived it once, why would I chance it again? Also I’d like to keep my kids. Money please. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2023, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-red-pill-blue-pill-choice/995118/80 "2023-12-27T00:09:42Z")
One of my favorite science fiction authors was H. Beam Piper. His first story was titled “Time and Time Again” A forty three year old man is mortally wounded in a war, but he wakes up being his thirteen year old self. Like the red and blue pill dilemma he retains all his knowledge of the coming thirty years and determines to use it to change the future to avoid what he knows would otherwise be coming. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-red-pill-blue-pill-choice/995118.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-red-pill-blue-pill-choice/995118.md?page=5)