# No time at all **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 1, 2012, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-time-at-all/642702 "2012-12-01T20:33:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-time-at-all/642702/21 "2012-12-02T01:12:51Z")
Yeah; I don’t do it because you are actually destroying the last 500 years-worth of humanity, along with yourself. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-time-at-all/642702/22 "2012-12-02T01:14:20Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Yeah; I don’t do it because you are actually destroying the last 500 years-worth of humanity, along with yourself. Again-no. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-time-at-all/642702/23 "2012-12-02T01:21:40Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Yeah; I don’t do it because you are actually destroying the last 500 years-worth of humanity, along with yourself. He said world peace starts now, so, the last 500 years of everything stands. Just, now, people are wondering what to do with all those explosives… ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-time-at-all/642702/24 "2012-12-02T15:25:45Z")
It’s a simple “Would you trade your very existence for world peace” proposition. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-time-at-all/642702/25 "2012-12-02T15:32:15Z")
I’m no martyr, but sure, I’d sacrifice my current life for the well-being of the entire planet. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-time-at-all/642702/26 "2012-12-02T15:51:25Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Can I bring my iPhone with me? Back then you’d have to settle for analogue. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-time-at-all/642702/27 "2012-12-02T17:04:53Z")
Don’t mean to shirk my duty, but why not ask some terminally ill person to go on a nice trip as a farewell? Or give it to someone about to celebrate their 110th birthday? Or perhaps a convict on Death Row who truly wants to repent? Besides - knowing me I would lose the damned coin and be sitting around some campfire, eating roasted dead rat and angrily muttering about some things called “central heat”, “microwave”, “computer” and “car”. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-time-at-all/642702/28 "2012-12-02T17:07:04Z")
But if you were never born you would never be able to go back in time and there would be no-one to pick up the coin. Snake, you can’t do that! The future will be changed! You’ll create a time paradox!! Of course, the destruction may just be localised to our own galaxy. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-time-at-all/642702/29 "2012-12-02T17:30:46Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > Don’t mean to shirk my duty, but why not ask some terminally ill person to go on a nice trip as a farewell? Or give it to someone about to celebrate their 110th birthday? Or perhaps a convict on Death Row who truly wants to repent? > > Besides - knowing me I would lose the damned coin and be sitting around some campfire, eating roasted dead rat and angrily muttering about some things called “central heat”, “microwave”, “computer” and “car”. It has to be _you_ to pick up the coin, and as soon as you pick it up…poof! ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-time-at-all/642702/30 "2012-12-02T17:32:54Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > But if you were never born you would never be able to go back in time and there would be no-one to pick up the coin. Snake, you can’t do that! The future will be changed! You’ll create a time paradox!! > > Of course, the destruction may just be localised to our own galaxy. Already been covered in a previous post-no paradox for the purpose of the premise. There are no hidden booby traps, no paradoxes, no cheat codes. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-time-at-all/642702/31 "2012-12-02T17:38:07Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > It has to be _you_ to pick up the coin, and as soon as you pick it up…poof! Hmm…OK then - but did you have to call me a “poof”? I mean, “Gay” is much more politically correct. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-time-at-all/642702/32 "2012-12-02T17:52:09Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Premise: You are given a device that allows you a one way trip into the past, set for 500 years in the past to a specific destination, and told that if you take this trip you could bring about world peace in the present time merely by picking up a coin that is on the ground and putting it in your pocket. When you ask why the trip is one way, you are told that this one act will bring about world peace…and also wipe out your entire existence. This particular “Butterfly Effect” will cause you never to be born. > Would you take that trip and pick up the coin? Without reading anything but the OP: Nope. Not because I’m selfish, but because I suspect that the only way to cause world peace would be to cause the extinction of humanity, and thus that picking up the coin would lead to that in some circuitous fashion before my generation. ETA: Reading **Czarcasm’s** later qualifications: Nope. My non-existence would logically prevent my daughter from having been born, and it might (or might not) result in my wife’s life being worse than it is; and almost certainly it would cause my stepdaughter to have had a worse existence. I care the most about them; I just tolerate the rest of you. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-time-at-all/642702/33 "2012-12-02T18:03:12Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Without reading anything but the OP: Nope. Not because I’m selfish, but because I suspect that the only way to cause world peace would be to cause the extinction of humanity, and thus that picking up the coin would lead to that in some circuitous fashion before my generation. > > ETA: Reading **Czarcasm’s** later qualifications: Nope. My non-existence would logically prevent my daughter from having been born, and it might (or might not) result in my wife’s life being worse than it is; and almost certainly it would cause my stepdaughter to have had a worse existence. I care the most about them; I just tolerate the rest of you. It is sometimes frustrating to put forth questions of this nature, only to have people search desperately for reasons not to directly answer the question as it is presented-destroying the question, rather than answering it. **Skald** , I have already said that the _only_ thing bad that will happen is that you will be eliminated from the timeline. Your daughter gets born with all the traits she currently has, your wife will get the help she would have gotten from you. Please answer the question as if you, _and only you_, will be adversely affected. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-time-at-all/642702/34 "2012-12-02T18:10:13Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > It is sometimes frustrating to put forth questions of this nature, only to have people search desperately for reasons not to directly answer the question as it is presented-destroying the question, rather than answering it. > **Skald** , I have already said that the _only_ thing bad that will happen is that you will be eliminated from the timeline. Your daughter gets born with all the traits she currently has, your wife will get the help she would have gotten from you. Please answer the question as if you, _and only you_, will be adversely affected. **Czarcasm** , I don’t mean to fight your hypothetical; God knows I’ve done more of them than you. (I think. I’m not about to count.) But saying “Skald never existed” leads logically to “Skald’s baby was never born,” doesn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-time-at-all/642702/35 "2012-12-02T18:12:12Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > **Czarcasm** , I don’t mean to fight your hypothetical; God knows I’ve done more of them than you. (I think. I’m not about to count.) > > But saying “Skald never existed” leads logically to “Skald’s baby was never born,” doesn’t it? Yet again, _for the purpose of the op, the ONLY thing that will change is that you will never exist._. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-time-at-all/642702/36 "2012-12-02T18:16:14Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Yet again, _for the purpose of the op, the ONLY thing that will change is that you will never exist._. We disagree on what that leads to, but I don’t wish to fight the hypo any further; it’s rude, and I apologize for doing so. Anyway… Nope. Still not doing it. I want to exist. From my point of view, a perfectly peaceful world in which I never existed is identical to a world that doesn’t exist; it is impossible for me to benefit from it. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2012, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-time-at-all/642702/37 "2012-12-02T18:25:32Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > We disagree on what that leads to, but I don’t wish to fight the hypo any further; it’s rude, and I apologize for doing so. Anyway… > > Nope. Still not doing it. I want to exist. From my point of view, a perfectly peaceful world in which I never existed is identical to a world that doesn’t exist; it is impossible for me to benefit from it. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-time-at-all/642702/38 "2012-12-03T03:56:04Z")
I think I would do it. As an atheist I think that the way we live forever is by leaving the world in a better way than it was would we entered, and this would pretty much guarantee it. ---
**Author:** ![Atakapa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a8b319/32.png) [@Atakapa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atakapa)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-time-at-all/642702/39 "2012-12-03T04:05:40Z")
I’d turn down the offer. World peace would make things _incredibly_ boring, and have the side effect of rendering many of my relatives unemployed. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-time-at-all/642702.md?page=1)