this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2024
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I'll go first.

3 options

  • Going back to 1964 to watch the Duke Ellington's Montreal show. Try to meet the man and the musicians. Hang around my city.
  • Go in the end of the 70s to meet my parents before they had kids. Grab a couple of beers and party with my young adults parents. See my uncles, etc. in their young time
  • Going to 1881 during the couple of days when Nietzsche wrote Zarathoustra. I want to discuss with guy even if he is supposed to be writing all day long. No consequence right.

What are yours?

EDIT: I'll clarify: You can't affect the timeline. It means you cant go back to try to get rich with stocks, lottery, etc. It's like going to see a movie, when you come back the world will be exactly the same. You can interact with people, but in the end, the day you spend in the past will not have existed for anyone but you, in your memories.

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[–] [email protected] 66 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Option 1: Attend Stewen Hawking's time traveller party - he likely won't expect someone so dumb though
Option 2: Watch and experience Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia - I often hear our conservatives argue this was actually friendly

I'd definitely try to record everything in both cases.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I've always suspected that Stephen Hawking's time traveler party did happen and there were many people there but Hawking's agreed to tell everyone that no one showed up.

I bet they also made a clone of Hawkings and left the clone behind and took the real him to the Future with them.

He's probably partying in 2743 right now in an 18 year old body, surrounded by beautiful futuristic space babes with neon hair and skintight glitter clothes.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (3 children)

But seriously though, if someone did show up, it's possible saying that no one did was simply required. Imagine everyone now thinking the future people will save us, and suddenly there's no future.

But I am sure it would still have some effects because of the butterfly effect. Hey, perhaps travelling into the past creates near-infinite timelines each time with all possibilities. I mean, it would affect the time traveller himself, and something would be slightly different each time. Simple example, because of the time traveller's presence things will go different and they will arrive at slightly different time due to which they will again arrive at a slightly different time. They may know something else, do something else, with some different effect in each time. But there's only so much a minor thing could do.

Perhaps if Hawking admitted to the vistors, rather than an unimaginable number of similar timelines, there would simply be no... but then the visitor ceases to exist... but if they already travelled back they must have...
Fuck, I hate getting stuck thinking about time travel.
But perhaps that's the thing, admitting to this would have perhaps resulted in some catastrophic events. But, like, how would you ensure it does not happen.

OK, let's trace it.
Time traveller goes back, returns, Hawking admits it, we're doomed with hope, there's no future, no time traveller to return.
But!!! They have already returned to their timeline. Maybe it doesn't effect their timeline. Maybe they just doomed one timeline, and only one, because in that one there won't be...
No, what the fuck, I can't just... or would that open another timeline... No. If you can't affect your own timeline it's not time travel.
Crap.

God damnit!!

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[–] WhatsHerBucket 41 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Initially I read that as “you can go back in time for 24 hours” and thought why would 24 hours ago be that interesting? :)

So my initial answer is: Not eating the late night burger I had last night.

My final answer is: San Francisco in the 60s/70s to hang out with the Dead and all the other amazing artists of that time. Maybe see a show at the Fillmore.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

I read it like that at first as well and actually have a use-case for it. I have a certification exam next week and that 24 hour rewind would be very helpful if I do terrible on the exam. lol

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I would go back to when this post had no comments and be the first so I can explain to everyone else what no consequence means. That way when I come back to the present I can still be disappointed by half of the answers in this thread.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Except no one would be able to read your comment before posting because, again, no consequence. So that's pointless.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The second sentence of my comment illustrates that lol. It's was supposed to be tongue in cheek.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Right? Even with my edits to clarify people just want to buy bitcoins lol.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 month ago (5 children)

At first I thought you meant "go back in time 24hs" in which case my answer would have been "yes! And get my haircut elsewhere!!!" But seeing what you mean for real, and with no consequences, I'd go back in time to see extinct animals. Shame I can't bring photos back with me

[–] WindyRebel 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Thought the same thing and was like, go the fuck to bed and do not watch that shit show of a boxing match.

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[–] bulwark 4 points 1 month ago

Lol, that's how I read it too and it got me thinking about the most inconsequential change I could make in my life in the last 24 hours. Maybe I'd get an extra ketchup packet with my lunch combo. Mission accomplished I guess.

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[–] Slowy 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Gonna go see some dinosaurs

[–] misterdoctor 5 points 1 month ago

What if you went back and the dinosaurs all just spoke perfectly understandable English but with a British accent? Nobody would ever believe you when you came back since “all of the science” suggests that dinosaurs didn't speak modern English with British accents.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago

My two choices:

  • Pontic Steppe, around 3000 BCE. Likely region where Late Proto-Indo-European was spoken.
  • northern Lazio, around 650 BCE. If possible/reasonable I want to spend a bit of time in an Etruscan city, then in a Faliscan city, then in a Sabine one. I'm OK travelling by foot if necessary, as long as there's always people talking around me.

In both cases I want to be able to record everything people say. Preferably video, but audio is good enough. I just want to know better about languages of the past.

It's kind of tempting to include 1450 Uruguay as a choice, since we barely know anything about the Charrúa language. However the Charrúa weren't exactly friendly to outsiders, so this option would be only if neither side can interact with each other.

[–] KammicRelief 12 points 1 month ago

I'd try to meet the Buddha, and see if he could shed some of that instant enlightenment on me. In the stories, he seemed to be able to say just the right thing to people to wake them up out of the matrix.

My first answer was "buy Apple stock" but no effect on the time line probably means I don't make any money. (well wait, what about enlightenment then, does that come with me?)

[–] TheRealKuni 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I would prefer to go back in time literally 24 hours and HAVE consequences.

I would not eat the food that likely gave me food poisoning.

[–] Shou 4 points 1 month ago

Hope you feel better soon.

[–] GraniteM 10 points 1 month ago

(Assuming that "no consequence" also means that I won't die on the trip...)

  • Witness the Tunguska impact.

  • See a Beatles show when they were just some small time dudes playing in a crummy club.

  • Visit the Great Exhibition of 1851 and go inside the Crystal Palace

[–] 2ugly2live 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)
  • Going back to slavery and beat some slave masters
  • Meet my mom when she was younger, maybe in high school. Tell her that she seems like a lovely young lady and very smart. I don't think she heard that enough.
  • Go back to the first day I got my first cat.
  • I would like to see a royal party of some kind.
  • Go to a Shakespeare play while he was still alive.
  • Go back to where my grandma alleges she met Bill Cosby to confirm if it's true, and, if so, punch him because apperently he was rude as hell.
[–] Chev 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Why not do the first one in the present?

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Prevent myself from being born.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

You can't affect the timeline...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Maybe it's just for the catharsis.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Go back to see how they built Stonehenge

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Go back to when I sold all 100+ Bitcoin for like $5 each and tell myself "no".

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Said no consequences so sorry, your younger self doesn't believe you and sells them anyway.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

"Some weirdo just tried to convince me this shit will be worth millions lol. Better sell it right away and get those 200 bucks back."

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Go back to the moment when the current highest level administrator of Twitter set the password. Then when I come back with the password. Now in the present, I log in and delete the entire twitter server.

History didn't change, I just went back to retreive some information to be used in the present.

😈

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

I would go back to ancient Rome, Athens, or somewhere similar and just do turism.

It would be incredibly cool to just look around and feel it how the world has back then. Video games like Assassins creed Odyssey scratch that itch but it would obviously be cooler in real life.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

I wanna see Carthage

[–] zxqwas 7 points 1 month ago

I'd like to go back many times to earlier in my life and try different dialogue options.

Like that time you thought of the perfect comeback two days later?

Or just learn how people act and react. If I say this, they react that way. Now if I say that how do they react?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I'd love to get the chance to talk to Isaac Asimov and talk to him about the future and how he decided to start releasing his stories. Probably around 1972 because I liked bicentennial man a lot.

Other than that:

  • go back to see socialist radical anti-authoritarian Jesus do his real protesting instead of the biblical king washed stories.
  • or go back to the fall of Amen to see the end and beginning of monotheism of the modern day and understand the actual departure of the worker force
  • see if I can find the actual great flood that all the myths seem to talk about and see if the conspiracy of it being about the Mediterranean basin is true. So probably Mesopotamia time and hope it's recent enough memory to hear actual stories.
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

So many bands I'd love to see! But that's somewhat small fry, so to speak, so ancient history, if I could travel to a different location also instantaneously (guess that'dhave to be possible or else it'dbe pretty boring or hard work!). Ancient Egypt, Greece, Central America Mayans... but then, are WE immune from consequences also?! Free from contracting diseases, free from being sacrficed to a god or getting enslaved?! Can we communicate with them?! Dinosaurs would also be awesome, if immunity was guaranteed....chomp!

Or perhaps just see my dad again :)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

Assuming no consequences means I won't die, or catch a disease or something, I'd go back like a hundred million years or so to look at dinosaurs.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

See Jimi Hendrix live.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Camera in hand, time to visit Chavín lands! They're one of the earliest recognizable societies of the Peruvian Andes. Given that a language barrier would be true for pretty much any "too far back" visits, might as well go with one that I'm really damn curious about!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

If there were no consequences, I can think of a few different things I'd wanna see.

  1. Just out of morbid curiosity, what an atomic bomb dropping looks like when it explodes, being there in person rather than just seeing footage (from a safe distance with protective equipment, just in case I can still get hurt, otherwise get as close as possible if there are absolutely zero consequences to my actions, as if I'm a spectator in minecr*ft).
  2. Probably just go back in time and watch as many cartoons as I could back in the early netflix streaming era because I absolutely love cartoons.
  3. Definitely go back in time and watch either An American Tail or Fivel Goes West in theaters because I really like both movies.
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)
  • Go to Teotihuacan to see how non/hierarchical it was, maybe trip balls if the opportunity presents itself.

  • Go to Harappa or Mahenjo Daro and see how indus seals were used.

  • Kindly ask the Minoans if that topless lady holding the snakes is in charge.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Tired: obsessing over the roman empire

Wired: obsessing over other ancient civilizations

[–] Kyle_The_G 4 points 1 month ago

I think it'd be neat to go to like 10,000 BC and just live a day in the life of some tribe/ancient city.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Find out a burning question that paleontologists have but can't find an answer to and tell them where to look.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I can't really answer without possibly breaking some rule... But my destination time would be exactly nine months before my own birth date...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

Stop trying to do the nasty in the pasty.

[–] gedaliyah 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I could finally ride every ride at Disneyland.

[–] gedaliyah 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Oh, I thought you meant just repeat the same day that just happened. I did not understand the question.

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