# Five minutes of the future **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 16, 2014, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-minutes-of-the-future/707409 "2014-12-16T17:40:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-minutes-of-the-future/707409/1 "2014-12-16T17:40:20Z")
So, I’ve finally got enough unobtanium to let the Timeviewer - an old Virtual Boy - see into the future\*. Just pop in the date and location and you can view (but not alter) what’s going on. The bad news is you only get five minutes (I blame quantum) and once you’ve made your choice, you’re stuck in that date. It’s also a one-time deal, unobtanium is hard to come by. You can move the ‘camera’ around though at 5 kph. When and where do you want to plug in? Next week’s lottery results? October 21st, 2015? 802,701 A.D.? - _Any_ time in the future. Although if you plug in something after the heat death of the universe you might have a boring five minutes. You’ll get ‘404 Universe not found’ and break it if the time and space ends up outside of time and space. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-minutes-of-the-future/707409/2 "2014-12-16T17:46:23Z")
Next week’s lottery results will do me nicely. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-minutes-of-the-future/707409/3 "2014-12-16T18:08:51Z")
2045 White House Oval office. _ZZZzzzaaaappp. **armedmonkey** appears wearing a sombrero and drinking a margaritta. Secret service draws their firearms_ **armedmonkey** : Goddamnit! Benjamin Franklin told me there’d be French chicks here. Not that you don’t look good, Madam President, but well, him and Tesla promised me a party. This is the worst get together I’ve ever been to. You people should be ashamed yourselves. _ZZZzzzaaaappp. **armedmonkey** disappears._ **The entire executive branch of the U.S. Government:** What the Fuck just happened? ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-minutes-of-the-future/707409/4 "2014-12-16T18:37:03Z")
ZZZzzzaaaappp. **armedmonkey** appears in a rundown apartment in Maui, Hawaii. 1970. **Nicola Tesla** : What is wrong with you?!! What part of “observe but do not alter” do you not understand? It’s a viewer fer chrissaakes. Fuck it. Let’s go see Hendrix. But I don’t want you or Ben to touch anything, you understand? ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/five-minutes-of-the-future/707409/5 "2014-12-16T22:19:12Z")
1. I want to view stock market histories for the Fortune 100. Hopefully some of the winners will be not-too-evil companies I can invest in today (or soon). or: December 2099. (I’m pretty sure people will still consider that to be the end of the century.) I want to view the end-of-century special on TV or visit a century retrospective at a museum.