Star Trek universe, to study martial arts.
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I like the Discworld, but I’d really like to see the transformation of the children in Childhood’s End. It has always fascinated me and drawn me and remains one of my favorite books.
I know I’m unlikely to get much interest… but I’d like to see Middle-Earth. I want to see the the Grey Havens and meet Cirdan before he finally leaves. I want to see the White City rebuilt in all its glory. I want to travel to the Lonely Mountain and see the mighty treasure fo the Dwarf-Kings for my own, and perhaps even live to enter Moria reclaimed from the goblins.
And then, when I’ve seen all the great places and the mighty kings, I want to visit the green hills of the Shire and visit Samwise Gangee, and hear him tell how he and Mr. Frodo took a little old ring halfway across the world. I would write all his tales down in a book, every word like he says it, and leave it for him to finish when he has time. All the great storytellers could use a good clerk.
Kaor!
And I know how to swordfight, I stink but I’d be able to leap. Thats got to count for something.
Chrestomanci’s “Many Worlds” Universe, where Diana Wynne Jones set a lot of her books.
I would like to go to Kobol of the 21st century incarnation of the Battlestar Galactica television series (not the 1970s version) while the gods still lived among the humans and when the humans were leaving Kobol for what would be the Great Colonies just to see the origin points of all the stories that were hinted about in the series. And I would like to travel with Ford Perfect of the U.K. version of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
The planet Gor. Of course, that planet has its own plethora of sub-cultures. I think my favorite is the city of Port Kar, run by a syndicate of pirates (in book #6, “Raiders of Gor”). Yes, I believe I could thrive there. And I could teach the lusty wenches of the planet how to make love in the manner of a man from Earth.
Most lusty wenches aren’t anatomically equipped to make love in the manner of a man.
More of an alternate history than another world, but I’d kind of like to visit Randall Garrett’s Plantagenet Empire to see if I had any Talent. Even if I didn’t, I could possibly teach them how to get teleson wires across the Channel.
I’d like to visit Ian Banks’ Culture to study what it takes for a civilization to reach a post-scarcity state, and the economic systems that lead to it. Specifically I’d be looking for the successor to capitalism. Also, I’d study methods of suppressing violence and war from within existant culture (as opposing suppressing/minimizing it from without, as the Culture does. I’d get my info back to Earth, possibly via knife missile, but I myself would stay in the Culture … a much better environment than anything Earth has to offer. You may not wish to fund the trip, Skald, as a successful outcome would redefine “profitable” in ways you might not approve of.
I’d go to 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Hmmm… seems like there might be some problems with that scenario.
Oh, no need to go to Skald and his ruinous bargains for that!
Hands Tim a ticket to Port Kar:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Port%20Kar/168/135/644
You’ll need to debark from Earth here:
Risa. I seek Jamaharon.
And then you’d come back here in a few months, and die of withdrawal symptoms.
Having thought about it a bit, it would have to be a fantasy world. Given that studying a merfolk civilisation first-hand would be out of the question, maybe something like the angels of Bant?
The world of the Quintaglios from Robert J Sawyer’s novels. I could make myself considerably useful in getting them off planet in time and I’d like to study as a cultural exchange.
Should’ve included the WHY …
I would love to see how the world’s religions deal with the proof of extraterrestrial life. And how that affects the common person. How it affects business worldwide, too (Xmas, RCC wealth, etc…)
Mote In God’s Eye for pretty much the same reason.
Mmm, my first thought was to study the society of the Nasqueron Dwellers from Banks’ Algebraist, but I see my benefactor isn’t supplying me with a gascraft nor the means to slow my metabolism down, so I’d likely just end up a carbon-rich smear in a cloud-layer.
Failing that, I’d say pre-re-Contact Jijo, to investigate the interactions and social mores of such an alien-species-diverse locale. And we’re not talking bumpy-forehead aliens here.
I’d like to have a few drinks at the catina bar in Star Wars.
Might get shot - first or second.
I completely agree with this comment, although Yellowstone, pre-Melding Plague, would be very, very interesting to visit. (and I doubt they’d like me much after I got the Conjoiner surgeries.) You’d probably want to get backed up before you visited… Turquoise might be nice to visit too. But yeah, it’s a bleak universe, pretty much what ever time you took a look at it.
Another vote for visiting the Culture. Maybe even tag along with the Quietus service, provided you avoided actually stepping foot in Hell?