This idea actually came up when I was still in HS and I saw the movie Back to the Future. The characters in the movie could set the time machine to any date they wanted. First they set it to December 25, 0 A.D. to witness the birth of Christ. (That’s not correct. But I digress.) Then they set it to the date when the inventor came up with the idea to begin with.
Anyway they certainly aren’t going to come up a time machine. Not in our lifetime in any event. But it’s still fun to think about. Just setting a date on the dials of some machine, then being immediately taken there. How cool.
What date would you set the controls of a time machine to, if it were really that simple?
Me, I’d set it to June 24, 3000 A.D. As far in the future as I could go (so they presumably have some wonderful technology). And the summertime so it’d be nice and warm (assuming the earth still has an atmosphere).
Sorry, that’s not what this is about. I think I have a good idea of what the near future holds. But it would be interesting to see 100 years from now. I’m also interested in the past. To see 100 years ago, would really, really make me appreciate the present.
That does remind me of a time-travel story I read once as a lad. A soldier was wounded and in a shit position, a sure goner if he stayed where he was but could not move. Suddenly, someone appeared out of nowhere to haul him to safety, then was not seen again. The identity of his rescuer consumed him, and he eventually built a time machine just so he could go back and see who it was. He watched and waited from a hiding place. But wait and watch as he did, no one showed up. He could stand it no more and ran out to save his past self. Then he realized it had always been himself who who was his rescuer.
Be careful you might go back and bang your sexy grandma and become your own grandfather!
I’d want to see the dinosaurs, Ancient Rome, the medieval period though I might catch the plague, and some point ludicrously into the future and see the robot dolphins overlords or the eternal oblivion.
Bolding mine. Maybe you could get a bunch of shots or vaccines before you went. Serious, if I went back a long ways I would take some medicines with me, and a few pamphlets on health care, just in case. A few antibiotics and painkillers at least.
Personally I’d travel to the future. First a few weeks in the future to figure out how to get rich (gambling info, lottery tickets, stock market prices, etc).
Then I’d travel into the far future and learn a lot of new technology. I’d probably just stay in the far future.
I’d like to go back in time and see Kurt Cobain and George Carlin live and in concert though.
I’d head to a number of dates around 1200-1150 BC so I could know what really caused the Bronze Age collapse. How could I resist finding out the answer to the greatest mystery of human history?
Then I’d head to the future for some robot sex.
ETA: I’d also see if anyone else showed up for the Time Traveler’s Convention, or if it’s just a bunch of me at different ages.
I’d travel about 15 years in the future, and get new 3-D printed pancreas and kidneys, and have them transplanted. Then, after my recovery, go back to May 7, 1824, and attend the first performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Then go to the late 1880’s and tell Vincent Van Gogh what his painting will sell for in the future.
