This is media related so I put it in CS but mods feel free to move it.
Say you are standing at a magazine rack that has this week’s current issue of every magazine published (no Newspapers). Suddenly, a small time portal opens up to 1990 (younger folks feel free to adjust that year). You have just enough time to grab any single issue off the rack and pass it through to yourself. No time for notes or other information. What do you grab?
Slightly different question: Say the magazine rack is magic and you can grab any single issue of any magazine from any time after 1990 (again feel free to adjust the year)?
A magazine from 1990 doesn’t seem that exotic to me. I could probably find one in my attic with some digging. A magazine from the 1800s might be cool to look through.
No. Guys. You’re not grabbing a magazine from 1990 and taking it for yourself. You’re grabbing a 2010 magazine and giving it to your 1990 self.
I guess the obvious answer would be something like “Wall Street Week” (is that even a magazine?) but if I only had a second to choose I’d probably just go with Time or Newsweek just because I think my younger self would be interested that in 2010 we don’t have flying cars. (But we do have smartphones and the Internet.)
Is there a magazine that has the last 20 years winning mega-millions numbers or winning lottery numbers? Failing that, something telling me about stocks and real-estate and when everything fell apart ( so my younger self would know when to sell.)
Linux mag with CD with source code. It may take five years to dig it, but it’ll still get us a leap ahead.
No, that’s second. Number one: Stop 9/11. So some kind of retrospective mag. AFTER that, the Linux mag. After that, if I can find a copy of Nature, that. After that, a sports almanac. (Hello, McFly!) After that, go mad chucking things in. That’s in order of priority, of course. If the Linux mag has some note on 9/11, so much the better. If I don’t have time to hunt down something with 9/11, the linux mag.
Another vote for Spy magazine. One of my kids got me Spy: The Funny Years a few years back. Almost as good. Whatever happened to that short-fingered vulgarian anyway?
Y’know, I’ve tried serious threads like this, only to have the overly-creative Dope minds turn it into a gag fest. It’s like “Who would you rather be stranded on a desert island with, Brad Pitt or Brian Griffin?” “Neither! I want the ugly guy who’s a boat builder!” ::sigh::
My 1990 self would be like “Dude, what’re you giving me news for, hand me a MAD magazine!”
I mean, not to rain on the OP’s parade, but just examine the premise for a bit. A time portal opens up and you have the time to, well, not gape and awe at a friggin time portal but to logically pass a single issue of a magazine to your younger self.
So be thankful no one in this thread has yet to fight the hypothetical on this one and just went with the premise.
Why would you give yourself a magazine? There’s really only one reason: to pass information to yourself in the past.
Why? To either change yourself, change history, or give yourself a million bajillion dollars. Probably all three. And that’s really what it comes down to. There’s about a million bajillion threads on here asking what we’d do with a million bajillion dollars.