If you could go back in time, when would you go?

[[Syl]]

A follow up to Foul's post.

[Nathan]

1700s-1800s. Height of the British empire, exploration of exotic places still to be done, and the protection of the empire to do whatever you please and get away with it.

I'd explore the remains of ancient temples and bring back the spoils to sell back home and become rich off my plunderings, never having to worry about the consequences because my country will come to the rescue if anything goes wrong.

[Plissken]

17-1800's - For all of the reasons that Nathan listed, plus the chance to experience Revolution for causes I believe in (and the chance to be - you guessed it! - a pamphleteer!), plus all of the advancement in art and science, multiplied by the fact that I'd be really tall back then!

[Lord Mhoram]

5th century BC: Age of Pericles and the height of Greek philosophy, Socrates, the Buddha, Confucius. Lots of good stuff going on there.

[Plissken]

Oooooh. Good points, Mhoram. Maybe we should just take a tour before we decide!

[Lord Mhoram]

Plissken,

Yes, yes, there are far too many interesting periods. But I would still pick the one I mentioned.

[aTOMiC]

Going back to before relative comfort and technology would spell my doom. I've often tried to imagine myself placed in similar circumstances to that of the period characters I watch in movies and television. First of all any period before the invention of deodorant is not going to be very high on my list. No periods where I would likely die within moments of my arrival. Ice ages, world wide extinction events that sort of thing. I'm guessing I'd be cool with going back to 1983.

[ChoChiyo]

1800's because I wanna be a cowboy....er....cowgirl.

Also, I could be a suffragette and chase men arround with axes.

Hee hee hee

Just kidding.

I would like to see the growth of the railroads and the herds of buffalo that stretched from horizon to horizon....that would be cool.

[ur-bane]

100-1000

I really really really want to see my area as nature intende....oops, I mean, I want to see my area before the white man settled there.

It would have to be only a visit, because I don't want to live in any other time but "now."

That's my number one choice. I also want to accompany everyone else when they travel back to their favorite historical location/era. And my complete personal list would take me a day to type.

[Cail]

Either the old west or the early 80s.

[dlbpharmd]

I voted 1900s, but specifically would like to be on a certain grassy knoll on a November afternoon in Dallas, 1963 - with my camcorder, of course.

[ChoChiyo]

It would be nifty to go back to the time of Jesus and see the angels singing to the shepherds and see the baby in the manger--and listen to the sermon on the mount...I don't think I could watch the crucifixion though.

[bossk]

I picked 17-1800s as well. I used to be much more interested in ancient history because it seemed so exotic. But recently I have become primarily interested in American history and how we arrived where we are today, so this period fits my curiosity to a "T".

[Avatar]

If we're just spectators, I'd take the full tour I guess. Too much interesting stuff. Way too much...

--A

[matrixman]

Of the choices listed...the 1700s-1800s. I want to see the young musical genius that is Mozart, then after him I want to see the rise of the upstart Beethoven. I want to be at Beethoven's concerts where he pounds the crap out of the pianoforte as he performs his own works. I want to be at the premieres of all the 9 symphonies to witness audience reaction, and to hear how they truly originally sounded. I want to be there as Beethoven obliterates his dedication to Napoleon off his score of the "Eroica" symphony in disillusionment at Napoleon's crowning himself as Emperor. And it would be interesting to witness the rise and fall of Napoleon's own career.

2nd choice...out of insatiable curiosity I'd like to go back to see Jesus Christ as a live human being.

3rd choice...it would be cool to be there to witness reaction to publication of Einstein's Theory of General Relativity (1905?).

On a less ambitious note, I wouldn't mind just heading back to the early 1980's (minus school): when Tron, Blade Runner, Wrath of Khan and Return of the Jedi (minus those damned dirty Ewoks) blew my mind, and when the Police was rocking the world with Synchronicity. Back when I first came across a book called Lord Foul's Bane...hmm, wait a minute, this means I'd be meeting myself! Shades of Marty McFly.

[Loredoctor]

19th Century.

[onewyteduck]

If we're just spectators, I'd take the full tour I guess. Too much interesting stuff. Way too much...

--A

What he said.

There is a really great short story called "Going After Old Man Alabama" about a Native American holy man who figures out the secret of time travel and goes back in time to stop Columbus.

Spoiler

The only problem is, he winds up on the Mary Celeste.

I wish I could remember who wrote it!

[Avatar]

Poor bugger. Interesting question though, would you act to change history, if it meant that your time would never come about as a result? (Or at least be vastly changed?) Oh, and how about the eternal paradoxes of time travel? Could you even change the past? Would be nice.

--A

[ur-bane]

Change the past? Total conjecture here, but I think not for those in the present that you left.

If you changed anything in the past, it would affect those alive in that past from that time onward.

But the time from which you came would not change, because it was already influenced by a past that previously occurred.

That's just my take on it....I don't think it would be like the movies where an act is committed and suddenly someone gets new memories, ends up in a different social class, finds out that even though he saved dad, mom is now dead, etc, etc, etc.......

I've said this in the Runes forum....I don't think the new past that you create can ever catch up with the present that you left, therefore it won't affect it.

OK Syl....you can have your thread back.

[Avatar]

Uh, just before you have it back, I just want to ask, do you therefore think that "your" timeline will continue to have an independent existance? You know, like the Everett-Wheeler-Graham model of multiple universes?

--A