# If you could travel in time anywhere, anywhen, where/when would you go? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 8, 2011, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-in-time-anywhere-anywhen-where-when-would-you-go/581110 "2011-05-08T01:01:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-in-time-anywhere-anywhen-where-when-would-you-go/581110/21 "2011-05-08T11:26:13Z")
> [@Desert\_Nomad](#): > > 100 years into the future, and buy an almanac or some sort of device that is equivalent if books are no longer around. Bring that info back. I’d do something similar but instead of a sports almanac, I’d bring back as much technical knowledge as possible. This has the dual advantage of making me a ton of money and helping bootstrap humanity into a better age. ---
**Author:** ![Foggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foggy/32/1082_2.png) [@Foggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foggy)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-in-time-anywhere-anywhen-where-when-would-you-go/581110/22 "2011-05-08T12:06:52Z")
> [@If You Could Time Travel, What Would You Attempt to Interfere With?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-time-travel-what-would-you-attempt-to-interfere-with/577826/9): > > 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.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory) > > 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. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Quia\_Sic\_Dico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/bbce88/32.png) [@Quia\_Sic\_Dico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quia_Sic_Dico)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-in-time-anywhere-anywhen-where-when-would-you-go/581110/23 "2011-05-08T12:09:09Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Can’t you just listen to Richard Simmons? 😛 I could, but then my brain would disintegrate and leak out of my ears. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-in-time-anywhere-anywhen-where-when-would-you-go/581110/24 "2011-05-08T12:19:34Z")
> [@Foggy](#): > > ☹ I suggest you **never** watch _Joe Vs. the Volcano_. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-in-time-anywhere-anywhen-where-when-would-you-go/581110/25 "2011-05-08T12:40:09Z")
Go back to ancient Eqypt, 18th dynasty and meet the female pharoah Hatshepsut. ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-in-time-anywhere-anywhen-where-when-would-you-go/581110/26 "2011-05-08T12:42:09Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I’d be waiting on the moon on July 16, 1969 . . . and sneak up on Armstrong and tap him on the shoulder. :eek: That would be awesome, but you’d feel silly when you realized you were four days early! ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-in-time-anywhere-anywhen-where-when-would-you-go/581110/27 "2011-05-08T12:44:25Z")
> [@Quia\_Sic\_Dico](#): > > a baroque music enthusiast, I’ve always been curious to hear what the celebrated castrati really sounded like, so I should like to go to London in 1734 and attend a performance of Artaserse by Broschi and Hasse, in which both Farinelli and Senesino sang. Come to think of it, I’d love to discover who was the first person to sing/play with vibrato. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-in-time-anywhere-anywhen-where-when-would-you-go/581110/28 "2011-05-08T13:15:15Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > Go back to ancient Eqypt, 18th dynasty and meet the female pharoah Hatshepsut. I’d tell her that her name makes it sound like she’s wearing a cheap sheep’s suit and hat. ---
**Author:** ![Septima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@Septima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Septima)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-in-time-anywhere-anywhen-where-when-would-you-go/581110/29 "2011-05-08T16:19:03Z")
The trouble with the past is that most of it was, to put it mildly, disgusting. My love for Pompeii would really, really tempt me to go back, a year or so before the eruption, just to see the real thing. But unless I could time it to right after a rainstorm, I don’t think I’d be able to enjoy it much, what with the filth and all. Rome itself would be another option, but I’d stay out of the streets. Maybe take in a speech by Cicero. Not one of the political ones, but one of the really juicy trials. I have a particular one in mind, where he spent a good hour or so ripping Clodia Pulcher a new one like only he could, accusing her of poisoning, incest and theft, _while she was sitting right there_. That, I’d like to see. My second love, Victorian London, is best enjoyed in hindsight, I think, since going there would be a decidedly scatological experience. Actually, the worlds fair of 1851 might be an exception - I’d just find somewhere to sit, and look at all the people, and talk to as many as I could. ---
**Author:** ![Quia\_Sic\_Dico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/bbce88/32.png) [@Quia\_Sic\_Dico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quia_Sic_Dico)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2011, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-in-time-anywhere-anywhen-where-when-would-you-go/581110/30 "2011-05-09T00:19:49Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Come to think of it, I’d love to discover who was the first person to sing/play with vibrato. I bet it was someone French. ---
**Author:** ![Quia\_Sic\_Dico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/bbce88/32.png) [@Quia\_Sic\_Dico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quia_Sic_Dico)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2011, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-in-time-anywhere-anywhen-where-when-would-you-go/581110/31 "2011-05-09T00:26:52Z")
> [@Septima](#): > > The trouble with the past is that most of it was, to put it mildly, disgusting. You should just go some day when you have a bit of a cold and your nose is blocked. Or bring a few perfumed hankerchiefs or something. On the bright side there would probably be a lot less CO2 and other chemical polution in the air (possibly excepting Victorian London with all those coal fumes wafting about the place). ---
**Author:** ![pohjonen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pohjonen/32/423_2.png) [@pohjonen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pohjonen)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2011, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-in-time-anywhere-anywhen-where-when-would-you-go/581110/32 "2011-05-09T01:04:11Z")
I think it would be cool to stand on a safe hill and watch the flood from [Glacial Lake Missoula](http://www.glaciallakemissoula.org/virtualtour/index.html). ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2011, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-in-time-anywhere-anywhen-where-when-would-you-go/581110/33 "2011-05-09T01:11:21Z")
> [@classyladyhp](#): > > to watch Michaelangelo carve the statue of David I wonder if Michaelangelo winced when he carved away at David’s nuts with those tools. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-travel-in-time-anywhere-anywhen-where-when-would-you-go/581110.md?page=1)