Genie Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 If you could go forward 10 years or backwards 10 years which would you choose and why? Assume you don't get older or younger so health not a factor. I'd go back 10 years and bet on every sporting event I could think of. I'd also write as many of the hit records I could remember too! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted June 21, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted June 21, 2013 Ah, but... the butterfly effect. Indeed, I'd have to choose the one event to stop because from then on the world would be different. Since I can't go back before 9/11 I'd pick the London bombings to stop. But you couldn't be sure that stopping the London bombings wouldn't actually make things worse in the long run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 (edited) 10 years back because I could make a change to better the world. It'd be to stop the London bombings and then try my best to limit the damage of the economic crash by using my knowledge of a (now changed future) to try build a reputation as someone with amazing foresight. I'd do this by accumulating vast wealth by betting on stocks I know will rise in value. From this position it gives me a voice for which I can explain a future that will happen due to deregulation and leveraging. I then become a huge philanthropist and try best to improve the now unknown future. But you couldn't be sure that stopping the London bombings wouldn't actually make things worse in the long run. I know, but as a gambler I'm taking a calculated risk. If it's worse so be it. I acted to improve the future, at least I tried. Edited June 21, 2013 by CVByrne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarethRDR Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 10 years back, so I can sign up to VillaTalk again and be ITK on everything. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 Forward, gain as new much knowledge as possible, then come back and pass it off as my own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted June 21, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted June 21, 2013 (edited) OK, good answer CVB. I'm just a born pessimist, and I fear I'd be doing the world's biggest ever case of "Well-meaning but ill-informed amateur tinkering with massively complex and lethally dangerous machinery". Edited June 21, 2013 by mjmooney Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 i'm not sure stopping one terrorist event would make much difference to the world, and especially not in the way you might expect. eg: Stopping the London bombings might mean that home-grown terrorist cells might have grown bigger & stronger as MI6 weren't keeping a close eye on them, and so when they struck at the 2012 London Olympics, the devastation was much much worse. Anyway, i would go forward in time 10 years, see what was happening, which companies were big, latest tech. It'd be nice to see what had changed. and then when i come back, bring some tech/gadgets back with me, plus i'd have knowledge of sporting results and stock market anyway to do same as what those going in the past would do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 OK, good answer CVB. I'm just a born pessimist, and I fear I'd be doing the world's biggest ever case of "Well-meaning but ill-informed amateur tinkering with massively complex and lethally dangerous machinery". The chances one event change can have on the overall future will never be cataclysmic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted June 21, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted June 21, 2013 Not quite answering the question, but if I had one wish from a genie it would be to be able to live my life from the age of about 12 all over again, complete with the knowledge I possess now. It would be freakin' awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted June 21, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted June 21, 2013 My preferred 'thought experiment' with time travel would involve the impossibility of any interference in causality - whereby you can go back (or perhaps forward), but only as an invisible observer. So you could go and see if Jesus existed, or be present at the Battle of Hastings, whatever - but no-one would be aware of your presence and you couldn't actually DO anything except watch and listen. You could learn so much about the past. In a variant, I often think I'd like to go back and have a (two-way) conversation with my younger self - but the caveat is that "he" would have his memory wiped of the whole thing the second I return to the present. Thus no paradoxes. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Posted June 21, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted June 21, 2013 Id definitely go back, then I could wait till 2012 and only buy a half season ticket! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 In a variant, I often think I'd like to go back and have a (two-way) conversation with my younger self - but the caveat is that "he" would have his memory wiped of the whole thing the second I return to the present. Thus no paradoxes. what would be the point of that if he wouldn't remember it - any advice you gave him would be lost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted June 21, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted June 21, 2013 (edited) In a variant, I often think I'd like to go back and have a (two-way) conversation with my younger self - but the caveat is that "he" would have his memory wiped of the whole thing the second I return to the present. Thus no paradoxes. what would be the point of that if he wouldn't remember it - any advice you gave him would be lost. Yes, it would. But I'm trying to avoid the paradox. If "he" goes on to things differently, then who the hell am "I" ? I'm accepting that I can't change the course of history. But I could reassure "him" that some of the things "he" was worried about would actually turn out OK. Sure, he'd only have that realisation for the duration of our meeting, and then forget it, but it would be really good for that hour or so. Edited June 21, 2013 by mjmooney Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted June 21, 2013 Moderator Share Posted June 21, 2013 Making it a personal thing rather than a 'changing the world' thing, I'd go back and not make the mistakes I made. I've made some fairly big ones in the past decade so that timeline would be just the ticket to re-do over.I wouldn't mind a glance at 10 years from now just to see how much further our freedoms have been eroded. Just so I could know what we're in for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted June 21, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted June 21, 2013 I must admit, there was one particular missed opportunity with a woman in my early 20s that I'd like to go back and change. But it might change the entire outcome of my life, and I'm not sure I'd want that to happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVByrne Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 I can't say I'd change much from my past to be honest. Maybe the odd relationship thing to see where something may have gone. But there are no relationships that I messed up or anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regular_john Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 10 years back. Not to change the world, save any lives or make a fortune, just to use the confidence and self assuredness I have now to copulate with as many young women as possible. Yes, it's shallow. No, I don't care. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 I wouldn't want to go forward Supposing you go 10 years forward and the "you" isn't alive anymore or your children or other loved ones ... I'd rather not know when I was going to die as I suspect it would make me act differently .. Backwards ... well yeah apart from winning the lottery and clearing out the bookies a few times I'd always be wary of changing too many events ... I met my wife through a million to one shot so I kinda believe that what will be will be and if you change it you f**k it all up I must admit, there was one particular missed opportunity with a woman in my early 20s that I'd like to go back and change. But it might change the entire outcome of my life, and I'm not sure I'd want that to happen. the title said 10 years Mike , not 60 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wainy316 Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 I would go back 10 years and kill Miles Bennett Dyson. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8pints Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 I think I'd go back ten years and go left instead of right to see what would happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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