The rules are that you have to go back to a known date and place (you can have some wiggle room on the exact time of day, however). You can take anything you want and leave any of it there when you return. You can bring things back with you, but only if you can carry them. You have access to any location, so no need to worry about getting past security (though you may have to deal with them after you arrive).
Do you go back to shoot Hitler? Buy up some Van Goghs on the cheap? Or go to witness a key event or meet a famous historical figure?
There were a few days in 1913 when both Hitler and Stalin were in Vienna. 15 minutes would be cutting it realy close, but for the sake of humanity I’d forgo a leisurely post-homocide coffee with whipped cream.
I’d go back to my high school and leave my 16 year old self a letter saying which girls not to bother with and which ones I should be chasing. Also a complete listing of horse racing results from about a week of races at the Detroit Race Course in say 1980 or so. Maybe some winning lotto numbers and dates.
Agreed, lottery ticket. Killing Hitler or the like might seem like the noble thing to do, but I am not smart enough to know what other, possibly more horrific, course of events I might unleash by doing so.
I like the idea of leaving a letter, which would allow you to accomplish a lot more than you could get done in just the 15 minutes. If only there were some way to go back to that day in 1913, kill both Hitler and Stalin, and mail a letter to your future self with some winning lottery numbers. I can’t think of how you’d guarantee receipt of the letter, though, in time to act on the contents.
Excuse me, but I believe your scenario is completely flawed without any consequences to my actions. If I don’t get to experience the difference without Hitler for example, the act has no meaning. So I can’t go back 15 minutes and do anything of significance unless I can relive all the time thereafter. It makes no sense at all. I can imagine all kinds of things and I do that every night.
Hm. Pretty mundane, but go back to the point in 2002 and instead of opting to work out the closure of a call center in CT and take the position in the call center in Texas. We had a roomie to watch over the farm while mrAru was out to sea, I would have had a job paying $17 an hour in an area where the job paid $8 an hour and done the exact same job. That income would have gone a lot further in Texas, allowing me to rent a small studio flat until mrAru processed out of the Navy the next summer and packed the rest of the stuff and sold the farm. Not that I am enthralled with Texas, I really do not like Texas, and the people in Texas tend to be rude yahoos, but I could have then tried to transfer to the call center in Bloomington, or mrAru could have job hunted around the country and we could have moved there.
Well, that’s me sorted, then. I’d be sure to include the recent MegaMillions winning numbers on my list of lottery numbers. And I’d throw in a few big sports upsets to go along with them.
…but the whole point is the post deed coffee.
My standard reply in these things is to go back and kill one or both of my parents, or maybe just give my father a box of condoms and tell him how to use them.
Either go back in time to hand my grandfather a letter detailing lotto wins, stock tips and gaming advice, or do the same for my father. My grandfather had better capital for such stakes, but had his own financial failings that may have made the whole thing no good.
But my father would be more likely to believe me, being a sci-fi guy anyways.
Whether or not you get to experience the consequences depends on what you choose to do with your 15 minutes.
Some things, like killing Hitler, would have meaning for a lot of people even if you don’t get to see the results personally until you return to the present. Other things, like giving yourself winning lottery numbers, would be significant to you directly.