# Indulge your fantasy **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 6, 2006, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indulge-your-fantasy/343286 "2006-02-06T20:16:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indulge-your-fantasy/343286/1 "2006-02-06T20:16:40Z")
Admit it, you’ve all had the following fantasy, so let’s have a go with it: Imagine getting into a time machine and traveling back in time, bringing with you a single technologically modern object. What object you would bring and to whom would you show it. The purpose of this trip is not to influence a historical outcome (caveat: they will come down with selective amnesia after you leave), but simply for the “wow” factor. -I’d play Alexander the Great in Pac-man and beat him numerous times… (I think he’d pout). -I’d stick a pair of iPod ear-buds in Ben Franklins ears and a play some loud hip-hop music…(I think he’d like it). -As Ghengis khan pushed his men to sack the Kwarezm Empire, I’d rise an Apache Longbow helicopter from behind a tree-lined horizon, strafe the ground in front of him with 30MM ammo and hellfire missiles, then fly back behind enemy lines. (I can imagine he’d soon address his troops something like, “_Whaddya say we just go back to China and kick their butts again?_”) … ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indulge-your-fantasy/343286/2 "2006-02-06T20:33:47Z")
The Wonderbra. I don’t know who I’d share it with… maybe Anne Boleyn. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2006, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indulge-your-fantasy/343286/3 "2006-02-07T23:48:38Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > The Wonderbra. I don’t know who I’d share it with… maybe Anne Boleyn. LMHO\* . . . (\*laughing my head off) . ---
**Author:** ![jawdirk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df705f/32.png) [@jawdirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jawdirk)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2006, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indulge-your-fantasy/343286/4 "2006-02-08T01:09:50Z")
I’d show Nikola Tesla a solar-powered hand-held calculator. Or I’d show Alexander the Great a modern world map labeled in Greek. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2006, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indulge-your-fantasy/343286/5 "2006-02-08T01:13:26Z")
Middle ages or so… A small solar powered calculator. An off road motorcycle. A disposible lighter. A Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle. ---
**Author:** ![magpyre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@magpyre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magpyre)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2006, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indulge-your-fantasy/343286/6 "2006-02-08T01:20:31Z")
> [@River Hippie](#): > > Middle ages or so… > > A small solar powered calculator. > > An off road motorcycle. > > A disposible lighter. > > A Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle. Hope you dont want a long stay, you would be burned at the stake for witchcraft! ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2006, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indulge-your-fantasy/343286/7 "2006-02-08T06:41:38Z")
I’d take an electronic keyboard back and show it to Beethoven, a la _Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure_. Or perhaps an electric guitar for Mozart. Something tells me he’d get the hang of it pretty quickly. ---
**Author:** ![Phnord\_Prephect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/df705f/32.png) [@Phnord\_Prephect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phnord_Prephect)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2006, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indulge-your-fantasy/343286/8 "2006-02-08T08:11:19Z")
An I-pod or similar device, with copies of that artist’s music, while visiting any of a great many musicians who never got to experience their own music in a recorded form. Beethoven, even, if the volume could go loud enough for him to hear it. Or, the same music, to people such as Franklin, Edison, and “Eve, the proto-human”. Ya know, just to see if she liked it. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2006, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indulge-your-fantasy/343286/9 "2006-02-08T08:40:16Z")
I’d go to the Sermon on the Mount…with a Fokker triplane. And strafe Jesus. So I could watch him flee in terror like Cary Grant in _North by Northwest_. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2006, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indulge-your-fantasy/343286/10 "2006-02-08T12:07:16Z")
> [@Suburban Plankton](#): > > I’d take an electronic keyboard back and show it to Beethoven, a la _Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure_. > > Or perhaps an electric guitar for Mozart. Something tells me he’d get the hang of it pretty quickly. You know I’ve actually thought about this before. I’m thinking Beethoven would have the time of his life with one of those things. The look on his face would be worth the trip alone. I’m not sure I’d have the heart to take it back though. _Temporal paradox be damned!_ I’m let’n him keep it. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![mrklutz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@mrklutz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrklutz)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2006, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indulge-your-fantasy/343286/11 "2006-02-08T16:52:02Z")
> [@Ash](#): > > Now listen up, you primitive screwheads. See this? This… is my boomstick! Hard to top that one. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2006, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indulge-your-fantasy/343286/12 "2006-02-08T16:59:15Z")
I think we deserve a couple extra rules: 1. Whatever we bring back, we know how to operate 2. We’ve got enough fuel/power to operate it for long enough for a demonstration. 3. If it’s an item that works only in conjunction with another item, we get one full set that’s just big enough for a demonstration. 4. We speak the local language. That said, I’d take a videophone back and give Plato a ring. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![FisherQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@FisherQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FisherQueen)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2006, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indulge-your-fantasy/343286/13 "2006-02-08T23:03:51Z")
William Shakespeare, a portable DVD player, and a copy of that “Romeo and Juliet” with Leonardo diCaprio and Claire Danes. Yeah, that’d be cool. ---
**Author:** ![LiveOnAPlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@LiveOnAPlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LiveOnAPlane)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2006, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indulge-your-fantasy/343286/14 "2006-02-08T23:59:57Z")
I think I’d take a 3.6-megaton strategic nuke to a mile or so from the base of Masada. Then I’d hire a Roman Legionnaire to put is finger on the “Go” button and yell, “Hey, y’all, watch this!!” ---
**Author:** ![davenportavenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indulge-your-fantasy/343286/15 "2006-02-09T00:00:29Z")
My first thought was Jesus and Fred Phelps’ website, but since it couldn’t influence history I don’t want to make Jesus sad. So I guess I’ll fall back on mitochondrial Eve and a Roomba. Just because. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indulge-your-fantasy/343286/16 "2006-02-09T19:38:33Z")
> [@River Hippie](#): > > A Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle. My very thought ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indulge-your-fantasy/343286/17 "2006-02-09T20:07:41Z")
I’m bringing my modern…er… “bag of tricks”. And I will make Caligula blush.