# Using a time machine to help just one person in the past **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 15, 2006, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-time-machine-to-help-just-one-person-in-the-past/356876 "2006-05-15T18:34:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-time-machine-to-help-just-one-person-in-the-past/356876/41 "2006-05-16T02:03:20Z")
“Yo, Varus. I’ve come to report that there’s a bit of a surprise waiting for you in this forest. I’ve got a scathingly brilliant idea.” ---
**Author:** ![Nic2004](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/4491bb/32.png) [@Nic2004](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nic2004)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-time-machine-to-help-just-one-person-in-the-past/356876/42 "2006-05-16T02:53:39Z")
Tell the Curies to wear lead aprons when working with the glowing materials… and keep up the good work. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Controvert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-time-machine-to-help-just-one-person-in-the-past/356876/43 "2006-05-16T03:12:53Z")
[QUOTE=Inigo Montoya] Anyone else thinking of that old Star Trek episode where Kirk & Spock have to let that pacifict chick get run over so the US isn’t too late in joining WWII, allowing the Germans to get The Bomb? I think it would be interesting to see how the world would be different if Jesus had gotten serious about carpentry, instead of romping about with his 'possles and being all self-righteous and rebellious, and instead perfected the 5-drawer dresser and…well, any other piece of furniture he developed would have been perfect I guess. [/QUOTE] Yeah, except Captain Kirk would have to travel back in time and push _you_ in front of a truck. 🙂 I’d keep poor Al Einstein from eating that tainted pickle. It would’ve been interesting to see what the hell comes after E=M… Hey what’s this box with the big red button do? Seriously, I’d probably force Houdini to see a doctor about his appendix instead of stubbornly ignoring the pain. ---
**Author:** ![Monstre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-time-machine-to-help-just-one-person-in-the-past/356876/44 "2006-05-16T03:26:11Z")
I think I’d go back and warn Phil Hartman that his wife was a psycho bitch and that he should find another place to sleep. ---
**Author:** ![Monstre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-time-machine-to-help-just-one-person-in-the-past/356876/45 "2006-05-16T03:27:48Z")
[QUOTE=Monstre] I think I’d go back and warn Phil Hartman that his wife was a psycho bitch and that he should find another place to sleep. [/QUOTE] Ooops – sorry. The OP said “struggling”, so I guess he doesn’t technically qualify. Still… ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-time-machine-to-help-just-one-person-in-the-past/356876/46 "2006-05-16T03:32:09Z")
[QUOTE=Inigo Montoya] Anyone else thinking of that old Star Trek episode where Kirk & Spock have to let that pacifict chick get run over so the US isn’t too late in joining WWII, allowing the Germans to get The Bomb? [/QUOTE] \<\\> Why else do you think I mentioned Edith Keeler? ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-time-machine-to-help-just-one-person-in-the-past/356876/47 "2006-05-16T09:10:53Z")
Me. 😉 Seriously, though, I’d try to get Philip K. Dick to go easy on the drugs and explain to him that once _Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep_ hits the big screen, he’ll be worth big money. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-time-machine-to-help-just-one-person-in-the-past/356876/48 "2006-05-16T13:18:11Z")
- Googling “Edith Keeler” \* Ah… :smack: Right then. _Ahem_ Well…do I still get points for the Norm Abram/Jesus connection? ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-time-machine-to-help-just-one-person-in-the-past/356876/49 "2006-05-16T15:37:49Z")
Of course, one can just as usefully speculate that maybe this has _already been done_, we just don’t know it! This might explain a few long, successful careers that one might reasonably expect to have been shorter. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-time-machine-to-help-just-one-person-in-the-past/356876/50 "2006-05-16T15:54:35Z")
Well, a week or two before the big bonfire, I could probably pick up a half dozen Modiglianis for a song. The money could help him pay for more paint, and more canvas, and some bread and wine, too. Tris ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-time-machine-to-help-just-one-person-in-the-past/356876/51 "2006-05-16T15:59:36Z")
Go back in time and either; 1; tell Douglas Adams to go to hospital for a checkup before he went to the health club on the day he died 2; just get him to postpone that fateful trip to the health club… ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-time-machine-to-help-just-one-person-in-the-past/356876/52 "2006-05-16T16:18:00Z")
I would save the little kid who lived next door to my parents and was run over by a truck in his own back yard about 1980. He would be in his late twenties or early thirties now, the truck driver would still be able to drive, his mother would still have a son and I would never have seen a child run over by a coal truck. ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-time-machine-to-help-just-one-person-in-the-past/356876/53 "2006-05-16T18:00:33Z")
It would be interesting to see what civilization would be like if someone had taught Euclid or Pythagoras the Arabic numeral system, what with its easy arithmetic and its zero. I’ve always wanted to have a time machine not to change things, but just to show things to great men and see the expression on their faces. Imagine showing a modern laptop to Alan Turing or Charles Babbage and telling them, “This is what your work will make possible.” Or taking Benz for a ride in a NASCAR racer. Or booking Wilbur and Orville Wright a first-class plane trip to Europe. Showing Johannes Gutenberg the stacks at the New York Public Library. ---
**Author:** ![anyrose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/54ee81/32.png) [@anyrose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anyrose)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-time-machine-to-help-just-one-person-in-the-past/356876/54 "2006-05-16T18:06:39Z")
[QUOTE=ianzin] Of course, one can just as usefully speculate that maybe this has _already been done_, we just don’t know it! This might explain a few long, successful careers that one might reasonably expect to have been shorter. [/QUOTE] Like Keith Richards? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-time-machine-to-help-just-one-person-in-the-past/356876/55 "2006-05-16T18:16:14Z")
[QUOTE=anyrose] Like Keith Richards? [/QUOTE] That is not time travel, it is just the result of your basic deal with the Devil. I would have thought that was obvious. Jim ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-time-machine-to-help-just-one-person-in-the-past/356876/56 "2006-05-16T20:29:32Z")
Stop that Dervish from Stabbing Winston Churchil at the battle of Omdurman. What?.. **What?** 😃 ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-time-machine-to-help-just-one-person-in-the-past/356876/57 "2006-05-16T21:27:46Z")
[Edvin Biuković](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edvin_Biukovic) Croatian comics artist who died at 30 of a brain tumor. He was a bit like a young García-López, & we needed one. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-time-machine-to-help-just-one-person-in-the-past/356876/58 "2006-05-16T21:31:49Z")
[QUOTE=Saltire] Imagine showing a modern laptop to Alan Turing or Charles Babbage and telling them, “This is what your work will make possible.” [/QUOTE] Just don’t run Windows on it, for the love of God. They’ll stop working and buy a goat farm so fast your laptop won’t have time to reboot. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-time-machine-to-help-just-one-person-in-the-past/356876/59 "2006-05-16T22:06:39Z")
[QUOTE=kaylasdad99] Yeah, that’ll work. How fast will the auctioneer have to talk to get past the point that this manuscript, purported to have been written four hhundred years ago, is on paper that bears all the signs of being no more thatn a couple of years old? [/QUOTE] Good point, **kaylasdad99.** Hmmm. Okay. Modified plan one is instead of bringing it back with me, I’ll bury it in a heremically sealed jar somewhere undeveloped in England where I can unbury it when I arrive in 2006. Modified plan number two is to acquire a 400-year old blank page journal in 2006, have Shakespeare write on IT back in time, then bring it back. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-time-machine-to-help-just-one-person-in-the-past/356876/60 "2006-05-17T01:39:59Z")
[QUOTE=Skald the Rhymer] Nice idea, but I wouldn’t trust it; I’d just shoot him. [/QUOTE] Stephen Fry wrote a novel about the idea of preventing Hitler from ever being born. The twist is that a slightly more reasonable man takes over the Nazi party, doesn’t force a massive war to the death, and “just” takes over most of Europe in a way that keeps the Nazis in control, and legitimizes anti-Semitism even in the United States. The character then has to go back and undo his work, figuring that the Nazis beat in a 5-year war is better than this. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-time-machine-to-help-just-one-person-in-the-past/356876.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/using-a-time-machine-to-help-just-one-person-in-the-past/356876.md?page=4)