Hypothesis: The first thing people will do with a time machine is right some wrong in their own past, avoid some mistake, make money, or benefit themselves in some way.
I’ve surveyed enough people to know this is true. My question is why?
My theories:
In terms of thinking about time, people have a hard time thinking beyond (either pre- or post-) their own lifetimes.
Compared to “What would you do with a million dollars?”, people are not pressured to make a charitable contribution to others. A person who gets a million dollars and doesn’t share it or donate part of it is seen as greedy and/or selfish. The time travel question frees them of the social obligation to say kill Hitler or save Jesus from the cross.
Compared to abstractions like feeding the hungry, helping the poor, or avoiding world war 2, it’s much easier for people to think in concrete terms of their own experiences, e.g. “I wish I hadn’t ridden in the car that night.”
People are afraid to do anything that would make a big change, so that the world as we know it might no longer exist. They’ve read/seen enough time travel stories (e.g. the “City on the Edge of Forever” Star Trek episode) that they know better than to change the past. They’re willing to risk changing their own history, but not History with a capital H.
If you have a time machine, there’s literally plenty of time to right all those other wrongs later. Why not start with the one that’s been bugging you personally?
If you have a time machine then I suppose it wouldn’t matter whether you make a personal or humankind-level trip to start. I’d do a selfish personal thing first probably then set the dials to help the rest of the people out after that.
Conversely, another way to ask this question is: Brainstorm 10 things you would do with a time machine. The first usually always fulfills the theory, and later choices will be added with an, “Oh yeah, I might as well kill hitler too.”
I definitely would not kill Hitler. It’s too dangerous. I would have to come up with something a lot safer, and that would take a while, and that’s more thought than I typically want to put into a hypothetical.
As for your question of why I think of my own timeline first: because I already have regrets, and such regrets are easier access. Plus, I’ve often heard this question asked with a restriction that it has to be in my own life, so my brain is already thinking that way before I realize the limitation is not present.
And, finally, I can know immediately if my plan worked, and I’m less likely to cause problems for anyone else.
What you said in number two rings very true for me. We think of ourselves before others, simply as a survival instinct. Which isn’t to say we don’t think of others, but if you ask me what I would do with a million dollars, my first thought would be something to benefit me, like buy a house or go travel. It’s only when I have more time to think about it that I remember that a million dollars could provide many opportunities to people less fortunate than I am.
It’s an even further leap of critical thinking to realize that traveling back in time could improve society as we know it, because we don’t have any past examples or role models to remind us. There’s no do-gooder traveling back in time demonstrating what’s possible, and no charities are requesting for us to volunteer to go back in time and correct mistakes.
What other people are saying about it being too dangerous only sounds true to a degree. Lots of people donate money to shifty charities, in which the money ends up in the wrong hands, the greedy get richer and those in need remain just as poor. And if the money ends up in the wrong hands, this can do a great deal of damage (though, I’ll admit, it probably would not end the world).
OK. You’ve galvanized me to go back and [thread=596006] start a thread[/thread], addressing the question of time travelers we can identify from our time.
I tend to follow the logic that I cannot travel back in time and kill Hitler to prevent or shorten WW2 because, obviously, I did not. However, that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t in Hitler’s bunker on 20 April 1945, passing him a loaded Walther. It just means I didn’t do much to help things along, did I? The Allies pretty much had things under control. And it means you maybe shouldn’t ask me where I got the trophy-mounted Hitler head over the fireplace. But this:
strikes me as a fantastic idea. I’d love to go back in time and just mingle with historical personages.
I’m very selfish. If could go back in time and be queen of the world, promise not to enslave you lower beings ;), or have some other position of comfort, I wouldn’t much care what was happening to everyone else.
People come up with selfish ideas because it’s not real. It’s like asking someone what they would do with a magical wish. “I’d wish for them to make my favorite ice cream again”…because it’s not real.
Take the other example people are mentioning - What would you do with a million dollars? You would get an accountant, that’s what. They you would pay taxes, and have quite a bit less than a million dollars. Then you would research health insurance policies, to see if you needed to keep your job to have good enough insurance. But no one says that, because it’s just a fantasy.
Having said that, when I get a time machine, I’m heading to the patent office. TO STEAL OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS. Oh yeah, I’m gonna be filthy rich.
Is the premise of the OP really accurate? Would most people use a time machine for short-sighted self interest? I wouldn’t waste a time machine on anything as petty as trying to fix my life or make money. I would want to satisfy my curiosity about the past and the future. I’d want to see how Christianity really got started, see Buddha and Mohammed, attend a real Roman orgy, see who built Stonehenge and why. see who Jack the Ripper was. Then (and with great trepidation), I would sneak a little further and further into the future (maybe jot down a few sports scores as long as I’m there) and see how bad things are really going to get.
Using a time machine only within the bounds of my own lifetime would seem like a terrible waste to me. Is it really true that most people would be more curious or adventurous than that?