So I want to travel in time to the future and come back in say a century or so. Oh and when I come back , I want to be a billionaire assuming that is not chump change by that time, to make up for me being a techno throwback.
So using the magic of time dilation, how far out do I have to travel and return, pluto or the kuiper belt to achieve the time travel aspect.
Second is the moolah , whats the minimum amout of seed money, where do I trust to put it (thinking switzerland) and how do I package it.
Energy is big now and will be for some time, but a century ? Steam and coal were big a hundred years ago and may yet be again obviously, but I dont want to be crusing past saturn when CNN tells me that the energiser bunny boys have developed unobtainium and I may as well crack open the airlock.
So I want to treat the money like a torrent stream, unless anyone convinces me differently and I assume it works like a credit card only in reverse, is this possible for anyone outside mastercard and visa.
Next I figure that while I am heading out to the great beyond , there is no reason not to make a little coin in the journey itself, besides the usual webcam blog thingie , photos and scans of planets may be fungible , but for how much.
You could stay at home and go one hundred years into the future- at the rate of one hundred years per century. I presume you’re talking about time dialation, the effect of relativity cause by traveling close to the speed of light. So if you travel 100 light years (50 out, 50 back) at close to the speed of light, 100 years will pass back on Earth while you would age only um… dang, I need one of those “shiptime to Earthtime at 1 G acceleration” tables. Anyway, I presume it’ll be five years shiptime or less.
Ok, so how to invest your money so you’ve accumulated a cool billion? I don’t think there’s ANY static portfolio you could invest in that couldn’t run into serious trouble. Over 100 years depressions can occur, governments overthrown with previous debts repudiated, hyperinflation with currencies replaced, entire industries become obsolete, etc. You’re going to have to entrust your money to some sort of investment company, charged with maximizing your investment. And a casual look around will show that they often do a fair job of managing money, but they’re by no means infallible. Everyone wants to just sit back and let the magic of compound interest make them rich. Not everyone can be rich. Someone has to lose. Another problem is that 100 years is a long time by human standards; some guy showing up and claiming “his” money after someone else has controlled it for ten decades makes it tempting for the steward to stick a dagger in the heir’s back.
Invest in oxygen. Do not ask me how I know this, just do it.
Yeah agreed, it would be hard to predict. Oil might seem like a good investment now, but it may be obsolete further in the future. If you could go 10-20 years in the future, it might be a better idea.
Robert Heinlein… “Quit smoking and invest the money you saved from buying cigarettes in a compund interest acct. By the time you retire, thanks to inflation and taxes, you can take that money out and use it to by an entire carton of cigarettes.” This is a paraphrase of one of his characters - Lazurus Long, on investing for the future.
Let me put it this way… If you managed to some how invest your “nugget” and make a billion… its very likely that by the time you get back, a billion will rent you exactly one half of a new york second…
Remember Dr Evil asking for “ONE MILLION DOLLARS!”
That’s the trick, isn’t it? You would need to invest in something that consistantly shows a return exceeding inflation and will actually be around in 100 years. I don’t think that’s impossible. There are plenty of companies that are over a hundred years old. A typical savings account, however, won’t issue a high enough return to outpace inflation.
Real estate might be your best bet. But if you aren’t around they might just assume you are dead and declare the property abandoned.
Also, there is the small matter of how do you show up in 100 years and collect?
You could capture a bunch/all of an endangered species (maybe capture a respectable breeding amount, and then kill the rest, to make it easier), take them with you on your ship, and then sell them when you got back. But that’s probably cheating.
I suppose just stealing something valulable now, and not returning until the statute of limitations has run out is skirting the issue a bit, too, right?
Just 24 hours will do, buy a newspaper, note the winning lottery numbers, return,place lottery, collect winning ticket, retire to a life of debauchery and wild Bacchanalian orgies.
