# Would you go back in time if it meant living your entire life again from your first memory. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 11, 2012, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-go-back-in-time-if-it-meant-living-your-entire-life-again-from-your-first-memory/621610 "2012-05-11T14:14:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-go-back-in-time-if-it-meant-living-your-entire-life-again-from-your-first-memory/621610/21 "2012-05-11T20:28:22Z")
I forgot to mention, the whole “adult brain in a kid’s body” thing? When I was a kid, I ALREADY kind of felt that way. I wasn’t really terribly interested in kid things or being a kid and I couldn’t WAIT to grow up. I spent most of my childhood with my nose in a book anyway, if I did it this way, my books would just be thicker and more interesting. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-go-back-in-time-if-it-meant-living-your-entire-life-again-from-your-first-memory/621610/22 "2012-05-11T21:50:24Z")
In addition to the downsides that have already been mentioned, I can’t really imagine having all the knowledge in my head that I have now, and being stuck up to as much as 17 years before having any kind of online access. I love to read and all that, but I still think I’d be miserable for a long time. And I’m not interested in the least in losing the wife I have now. If I could choose to take this option when I knew I was at the end of my current life, that’d be different. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-go-back-in-time-if-it-meant-living-your-entire-life-again-from-your-first-memory/621610/23 "2012-05-11T22:05:39Z")
I’d do it. I wouldn’t change that much, though the lottery option is tempting 😉 but I’d like a chance to see my folks happy. I know they were only together because of us kids, and I’d have to go through all the arguments and fights again, but I imagine they’d distress me less with my hindsight than they did as a child. Also would be able to see and quiz family members about family history, and maybe actually REMEMBER them, hehe. It’d be hard, but the avoidance of some things would be worth it. ---
**Author:** ![Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunzio_Tavulari)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-go-back-in-time-if-it-meant-living-your-entire-life-again-from-your-first-memory/621610/24 "2012-05-12T00:09:57Z")
As some have said, the knowledge you’ve gained would change the decisions that you would make in this second life. It would quickly branch off from what you remember and you would just end up making new mistakes that you would regret. Assuming that you held off marrying some rich countess and waited for your wife to appear, your accrued lottery winnings would color how that marriage played out. How can you be sure that the exact same sperm and egg will hook up again to produce the children you now have? You can’t go home again. ---
**Author:** ![Pixel\_Dent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-go-back-in-time-if-it-meant-living-your-entire-life-again-from-your-first-memory/621610/25 "2012-05-12T00:27:56Z")
> [@Tarwater](#): > > I want to impress upon you how difficult it can and probably will be living your entire life again. It will be nearly impossible for you to connect with your peers until you reach highchool or beyond. It’s almost certainly going to be long and tedious. So, in other words, exactly like the first time through. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-go-back-in-time-if-it-meant-living-your-entire-life-again-from-your-first-memory/621610/26 "2012-05-12T00:59:26Z")
What’s the difference between having 24 hours to memorize something and going back with all the memories I have now, including six-digit phone numbers and my old addresses? In either case, memorizing lottery numbers or riding my tricycle to the nearest college for a debate on existentialism would ensure wealth, as would predictions of the near and more distant future. ---
**Author:** ![Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angel_of_the_lord/32/2949_2.png) [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_the_Lord)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-go-back-in-time-if-it-meant-living-your-entire-life-again-from-your-first-memory/621610/27 "2012-05-12T01:00:15Z")
No, with some hesitation. There are people in my life that I’d rather not have out of my life. For the sake of still having them around, I wouldn’t. I could always reconnect with most of them. I mean, they’re mostly from the internet. I have a stupid good memory. I’d find them again, but it wouldn’t be organic. It wouldn’t be real. The rest of it is tempting, though. Could I avert my friend’s suicide? Could I get my mom to leave my dad years earlier? Could I stop myself from marrying the first idiot who came along and asked? Could I keep myself from gaining weight and having to go through the tedious process of weight loss? Could I major in something more useful than English? Maybe. Maybe not. I guess only two things could possibly make me do it–the chance to avert my friend’s suicide, and the chance to not make things wrong with a friend of mine that I badly and unintentionally wronged. But if I started from scratch, I don’t know that either of them would be in my life, and though that might fix the second situation, it probably wouldn’t fix the first. Also, living with my dad again would either be Hell, or would be a _lot_ easier than the first time around. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-go-back-in-time-if-it-meant-living-your-entire-life-again-from-your-first-memory/621610/28 "2012-05-12T01:11:25Z")
You’ve described the fantastically I think about most. The only catch is that one can’t have the same kids. You can get the same wife or husband, you can conceive on the same day/hour/minute, but you’ll never have the same kid. Keep your lottery numbers, this time around I’m going to be a rich doctor. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-go-back-in-time-if-it-meant-living-your-entire-life-again-from-your-first-memory/621610/29 "2012-05-12T02:53:42Z")
I’d pay good money not to have to live my whole life over again. To get to start over again from the age of 18, now that’d be a different story. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-go-back-in-time-if-it-meant-living-your-entire-life-again-from-your-first-memory/621610/30 "2012-05-12T03:00:29Z")
I said “Yes with hesitation” See, my grandmother is failing, at the age of 107. I love her more than anyone except perhaps my parents, I’d give anything for just a little more time with her, to appreciate more what I had when I was growing up. To go fishing one more time, with my Grandma and Grandpa and my sister’s. It takes the prospect of losing someone to make you appreciate them even more. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-go-back-in-time-if-it-meant-living-your-entire-life-again-from-your-first-memory/621610/31 "2012-05-12T03:17:04Z")
Yes too, but instead of investing in Apple I would know what to learn so I would had been recognized as a genius by the time I got \*\*to work \*\*at Apple. Or I could had already made enough money to keep MS-DOS away from Bill Gates. Or, I could had convinced that asshole that now wants to renounce his American citizenship to keep more of his billions to not to join that silly Facebook company. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-go-back-in-time-if-it-meant-living-your-entire-life-again-from-your-first-memory/621610/32 "2012-05-12T03:30:54Z")
> [@CanvasShoes](#): > > I forgot to mention, the whole “adult brain in a kid’s body” thing? When I was a kid, I ALREADY kind of felt that way. I wasn’t really terribly interested in kid things or being a kid and I couldn’t WAIT to grow up. I spent most of my childhood with my nose in a book anyway, if I did it this way, my books would just be thicker and more interesting. 😃 I was the same, I would trade equestrian arts for perhaps aikido/judo/karate. I would _not_ take up cross country skiing so I would not have broken my back and started a lifetime of annoying physical problems. I would have definitely avoided getting pregnant twice, hence avoiding the gestational diabetes that stuck with me and also damaging my kidneys. I could make an effort to hook up with mrAru and avoided 2 abusive relationships in a row. I always comforted myself with the thought that even though they were abusive, I learned some valuable things from both of them - with this offer I don’t have to go through them again, I already got my lessons from them 😃 A winning lottery number would be interesting - I know a guy who won a 1 million dollar lottery back in the day in NY - he ended up getting it as an annuity. He had a house he inherited from his grandparents, and the annuity let him basically not work. When I knew him he was an eternal college student. He took whatever classes interested him. He was on his third bachelor’s at the time. It might be interesting to be able to own a small house somewhere, and be a perpetual student living on an annuity. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-go-back-in-time-if-it-meant-living-your-entire-life-again-from-your-first-memory/621610/33 "2012-05-12T05:04:15Z")
Fuck yeah. Who never wanted to go back and do things different ? Plus, think of all that extra \*time \*! I already know most of the things they teach in school all the way up to bachelor’s degree, don’t need to learn how to be socialized or learn how the real world works and don’t care to spend any time with retarded teenagers anyhow. That’s, like, 18+ straight years of entirely free time without any distractions, or having to work, or having to worry about anything whatsoever. Long time until you get to the good part ? Shit, it’s too short a time before you have to get back to the good parts ! The only problematic aspect would be coping with being back under the strict and final authority of parents & teachers, no matter how unreasonable they turn out to be. And possibly freaking them out by starting to masturbate like a motherfuck at 6 months. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Bird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Little\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Bird)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-go-back-in-time-if-it-meant-living-your-entire-life-again-from-your-first-memory/621610/34 "2012-05-12T08:05:15Z")
I used to think about this a lot, and up until recently I probably would have done it. But there is no way now that I have my little boy, I couldn’t chance not making him. (even thought he’s why I’m up at this ungodly hour.) ---
**Author:** ![Otara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a88e4f/32.png) [@Otara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otara)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-go-back-in-time-if-it-meant-living-your-entire-life-again-from-your-first-memory/621610/35 "2012-05-12T08:27:40Z")
Leaving my partner and child no. I can think of many things Id do differently, but not so much I would do the whole shemozzle over, let alone lose what I have now for 40+ years. I cant really think of many big decisions I regret, only things I might have helped others with and lots of things that seemed big at the time, but dont so much now. I guess theres things like warning against 9/11 that might make me feel like I had to ethically, if noone else was going instead. Otara ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-go-back-in-time-if-it-meant-living-your-entire-life-again-from-your-first-memory/621610/36 "2012-05-12T08:32:07Z")
Yes, absolutely I would. I think mostly because I’d like the chance to try to affect a few things I had no control over when I was much younger (and one or two I did), and also to seriously try to take advantage of a few opportunities I let slip. Also the whole “quiz the old folks on family history” - I knew people who knew my grandmother’s _great-grandparents_, for chrissake - and those details are long gone now. ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-go-back-in-time-if-it-meant-living-your-entire-life-again-from-your-first-memory/621610/37 "2012-05-12T09:29:44Z")
Lets see…Full adult consciousness at about 5 years of age with the knowledge that I currently have and essentially no legal ramifications on what I do until I’m 12 years old…Yeah, sweet! ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-go-back-in-time-if-it-meant-living-your-entire-life-again-from-your-first-memory/621610/38 "2012-05-12T09:58:54Z")
Not a chance. My life isn’t perfect but I’m pretty damned happy with it and the people in it. I wouldn’t risk that for the possibility of changing just a few things. ---
**Author:** ![brazil84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@brazil84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brazil84)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-go-back-in-time-if-it-meant-living-your-entire-life-again-from-your-first-memory/621610/39 "2012-05-12T10:12:47Z")
> [@Tarwater](#): > > So what do you think? Would you do it? And what, exactly, would you do if you could? I have one question: Assuming I married the same girl, would I get the same children as I have now? Or would I get a different genetic shuffle, so to speak? ---
**Author:** ![Tarwater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de0a6/32.png) [@Tarwater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tarwater)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-go-back-in-time-if-it-meant-living-your-entire-life-again-from-your-first-memory/621610/40 "2012-05-12T10:39:34Z")
> [@brazil84](#): > > I have one question: Assuming I married the same girl, would I get the same children as I have now? Or would I get a different genetic shuffle, so to speak? You’re getting a new shuffle. It’s possible that you would get the same children, but not probable. The shadowy agency can’t give you odds on something like that. If you’re desperate about keeping your children the way they exist now, you’re better off not taking the offer. You can hedge your bets and try to conceive on the same day, the same hour, and the same minute as you did in your present history, but whether that results in an identical child is up in the air. The shadowy agency likes to think that it would improve the likelihood, but they’re not going to give you a guarantee. They’re experts in time-travel, not biological reproduction. And then there’s the whole nature-versus-nurture conundrum, which is so complex and mysterious and which raises so many philosophical questions, that for the shadowy agency to even attempt to put forth a reasonable answer, they would first need to spend an inordinate amount of time researching the subject. They have better things to do than that. And ultimately, they remind you, life is a variegate thing and you take your chances just like everybody else. What’s the old bromide? Life doesn’t come with a guarantee? And beside, isn’t it possible (nay, even likely) that you would grow to cherish and love any children you would have your second-time around, even if they didn’t conform to your expectations? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-go-back-in-time-if-it-meant-living-your-entire-life-again-from-your-first-memory/621610.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-go-back-in-time-if-it-meant-living-your-entire-life-again-from-your-first-memory/621610.md?page=3)