Title says it all, what event would you attempt to interfere with, in some (possibly vain) attempt to alter? If even given the opportunity, would you decline it?
I want to test these ideas about paradoxes, but I don’t want to destroy the whole world. So I might kill my dad, early on. He was an abusive asshole, and none of us deserved him, and I can’t conceive how his absence would have any negative effect rather on anyone other than his not to be born later children.
If I actually succeeded, well, that would be really interesting. I can’t imagine all the implications of what it would mean.
I don’t think I’d change anything big, I’d be absolutely terrified of cocking things up worse then they already are.
Then (assuming I’m immune to the effects, i.e. I can’t erase myself) I’d have to try and fix that, which might mess things up more so I have to fix THAT… down that road lies madness.
So I’d probably just pop back to tell myself last week what this week’s lotto numbers were or something.
I agree, as much as I would like to whack misogynistic christianity in the head with a crowbar to restore it to what I think the real Christ had in mind, or to stop Caesar from taking Britain or stop europeans from conquering the new world I would be afraid of what might possibly happen.
I think going back to just before March 6th 2007 lottery that was $304 million and giving myself the numbers, and maybe the numbers for a few more lotteries as well.
I would go back to the time of Noah and squash those two bed bugs as they got off the ark
I would go back to 1970 and not leave school early.
I would shot Columbus before his meeting with the Catholic Kings.
I’d have to come to one of a opinions, and quickly:
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I could systematically kill or alter the life-path of anyone I believe the world would be better off without, utilizing a complex system of societal analysis. I might find that killing Hitler would work to avert the Holocaust, but only result in a Russian-centric World War that’s far worse, however by finding a cute Jewish girl for Hitler to date and marry in his early twenties, maybe he’s not such a douche, there’s still a war, but there’s no German genocide. I have no idea where I’d even start with the Japanese Genocides, but I’d probably go further back then that and alter the course of some of histories earlier events. The loss of the Library of Alexandria, I’d encourage the Greeks to research Calculous… hell, I might even bring back a basic physics text book for Aristotle to skim through.
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I could accept that the Universe is as it should be, which while very difficult is probably the most reasonable course of action.
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I could use the Time Machine to recover items lost to history, or document tragedies/events that are otherwise unknown in the modern world. I’d record the Egyptians, Chinese, Greeks and South Americans each building their respective structures (I’d snap a few shots of the Hanging Gardens while I was out there). There are a lot of books that were lost in ancient fires, a lot of history we just don’t know because no one was there to record it…
Or most likely…
4. I’d go back in history, but with a time machine, eventually… I’d go forward first. I’d survey the technology in the future, and obtain as much as I could, obtaining the equivalent of a 26th century iPhone shouldn’t be extremely difficult or dangerous (hopefully) in the 27th century. I’d bring it back and alter their history, my future, rather than my history. I like the world right now, at least enough that I couldn’t change anything historically and risk changing it. If I changed something in WW2, I wouldn’t be here today. I don’t know that I’d exist at all, and that’s depressing.
But, I haven’t had kids yet, I can’t miss what I don’t have. If I have different kids than I would have had by not having the tech, who cares? I don’t know the previous timeline children, so fuck 'em.
My usual answer to this question is to go back and prevent my parents from meeting, even if it means killing one or both of them. Yeah, I’m not a happy camper, and rarely have been so in my nearly 50 years.
Right now I’m not feeling all that well and I’m pissed about some other things, so I might go all the way back to The Toba supereruption.
I would see to it that those survivors didn’t. More and more I come to the belief that the world would be better off without humans.
I’d tell Billy that he and his goat could stay.
Most of the things I would try to interfere with would be with fictional works rather than real-world events. The top priority would be trying(and most likely failing) to stop something from happening in the Firefly movie, Serenity.
Spoilers:
I’d try to stop them from killing Wash. Shepard Book, I could take. But not Wash. That killed the franchise, I firmly belive this. If this event had not taken place, Serenity would be one of my top 10 movies of all time. As it is, it’s only in the top 50.
End Spoilers.
Other than that, I might try to make sure that the TV series Lost and Sopranos were not created in the first place. Maybe try to make sure Angel, Heroes or Dead Zone had a final season or at least a movie-finale.
If I had to stop a real-world event though, I think I’d go back to last week and try to stop myself from dropping an entire cutting board of freshly-cut onions while I was cooking that pasta.
go back to last Thursday night so I could pay my phone bill on time
Probably I’d be too scared to do anything, but if not I’d be tempted to think big. I read a short story once about guy who invents a time machine and really wants a more advanced, science-friendly society. What he decides on is to go back to ancient Greece and teach Aristotle about the importance of the scientific method (as Aristotle was hugely influential, and his often-incorrect opinions were considered authoritative for centuries, etc.).
Needless to say it doesn’t work out for the protagonist, but can anyone come up with plans that work on a similar scale?
I’d go back to late 2003/early 2004 and tell my past self not to go to medical school, and clue him into the existence of the seduction community.
Last night, for some bizarre reason, I watched A Sound of Thunder. For those of you unfamiliar with the title, it’s the movie adaptation of the classic Ray Bradbury short story of a group of time traveling hunters who travel back in time to kill a T-rex, but accidentally kill a butterfly and the ripples of that minor event have dramatic consequences when they return to their own time. Having viewed this film, I believe I have a unique perspective to the question in this thread.
If I could travel back in time, what would I interfere with? I’d interfere with the filming of A Sound of Thunder. My god, that was a horrible, horrible movie.
I’d go back and make sure the idiots who wrote the bible would get it right from the get-go. As long as people are going to thump that book forever, they might as well have some real facts, a few less hooks to hang their bigotry and bile and maybe some predictions of things to come and tell people take a step back and stop taking the book as literal.
I would also add that DMark is a divine person and they should give copious amounts of money to him while he is on earth.
Could you give the same message to my past self while you’re up?
I’d go back about a month ago and prevent myself from accidently stubbing my toe on the kitchen table.
Though knowing my luck when I returned to the present I’d probably enter a brutal post-apocalyptic reality due to some exceedingly unlikely events following my foolish messing with things man was not meant to know the wont of.
I would be strongly tempted to try to murder the baby Hitler.
I’m sorry for you. You are so small. Please don’t imaginarlly reduce the rest of us to your stature, we are actually having a pretty good time.