this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2023
56 points (98.3% liked)

Asklemmy

43945 readers
44 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy πŸ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Smart dudes posting to jump to pre-Bitcoin times coming in 3-2-1

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

You know, there's a variety of assets you could get in on the ground floor with.

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

And the smart move would be to spread it around anyways, no telling what a sizeable investment in - for instance - Apple might have had early on, maybe it would change history so that it didn't turn out successful

Better to do some bitcoin, some of each major stock you can recall, and funds for industries you know will take off

[–] TheBananaKing 17 points 1 year ago

1: Ten seconds from now, I have shit to do.

2: A week ago. "I bet you a billion dollars that sub implodes..."

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Four hours from now, because then I'd be off work for the day.

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

So you'd basically be gone for 4 hours? Not that I would recommend it but do you have a bathroom at your company?

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

Think big, how about 28 hours so you're off work for the weekend instead of just the day?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It said era, so I assume "modern" could just as well land you in 2006 Iraq, if it's even allowed.

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

I mean, it's also time travel, not location travel, so I'd be most likely to end up in space and die almost instantly.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Depends what reference frame you're using. If you're following an inertial frame backwards through time you're most likely to end up deep inside the Earth, actually, because that would put you in a sort of orbit.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

The real answer

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

1990s A.D. so I can enjoy the great music whilst also being able to see the birth of Linux.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Now I'm imagining Linus sitting in his basement and suddenly some nerd just pops into existence behind him. "Don't mind me. I'm just going to watch over your shoulder."

[–] rbhfd 4 points 1 year ago
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] ShakeThatYam 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I always think it would be cool to visit some historical moment. Then I remember I'm not white and that I would not be having a very good time.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

30 years ago, to start creepily leaving teenage me notes to make better decisions

[–] emptyother 2 points 1 year ago

I am ashamed to say it, but I would sit and wait for 10 years, then go beat up a certain kid.

4+ more years back in time and I might adopt myself, and raise myself in a way that didnt turn me into the guy who would beat up the kid mentioned above.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

It's crazy that every point in history has its own blend of "suckitude" that don't want to deal with.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

1 hour into the future so I can eat lunch early and avoid the dangers of going to some new reality I don't have the skills or resources to deal with.

[–] perviouslyiner 3 points 1 year ago

1 week into the past so that you can put a bet on some event that you actually still remember, and avoid the dangers of the distant eras

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

California in the 1960's. Being a hippy during Woodstock sounds like the ultimate experience I missed out on just because I didn't exist at the time

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My highschool days. Wouldn't change a thing either, except I wouldn't start smoking cigarettes.

[–] Confuzzeled 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

But you aren't turning into your younger self, surely it's back to the future rules.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I believe in the multi-verse approach to backwards time travel. Solves the grandfather paradox. When you go back in time you branch to a new timeline. So if you went back to your high school days, you would be in a world where a version of you exists as a youngster and version of you exists in parallel as the guy who travelled back in time. You'd be two different people and you could talk to your younger self without creating a paradox. When travelling forward in time you stay on the same timeline. Quantum mechanics theorizes that's what happens.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think I'd go paleolithic. Pre-agricultural, on the move finding food, being in nature. It'd be dicey obviously but like whatever, if you die you die. I feel like the physical activity, adrenaline, living in community, being in nature... Would just be nice. I feel like I probably wouldn't be depressed anymore eventually. Like who would have the time?

Also damn can you imagine seeing like 4000 lb armadillos and shit? Living among a bunch of now-extinct megafauna seems like it would be both thrilling and terrifying. Honestly I'd probably die by trying to Disney princess with a twelve foot tall deer or some shit.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Not human prehistory. That one would suck, I'm in no way built and trained as a hunter-gatherer. Either some civilisation, pre-humans or a recent era, then.

From the wording I'm assuming limited control of where I land, So I can't airdrop in behind a world leader or into a vault, but I can choose a region.

Gilded age is tempting, for classic "change history" reasons, and because I could kickstart semiconductors early and make a buck. The disadvantage is I'd be destitute on arrival, and my education, while extensive, is undocumented there, so maybe I'd die in a coal mine anyway. Perhaps I'd pick England and try to chat up Bertrand Russel, he could vouch for my knowledge after a quick conversation and might even be a good choice to explain my situation to.

If I'm going ancient civilisation, probably Rome. I could find some sort of industry to start and even just my clothes will be valuable. The Incas would be cool to but if I'm being adventurous I want more time to prepare.

Pre-human, maybe New Zealand. I'll eat local forage and hunt moa until I eventually die. It's better than starving, and I don't have to worry so much about large predators.

[–] CalamariSafari 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not sure about pre-human NZ, I'd be worried about the Haast's Eagles wanting to turn me into a tasty snack.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

IIRC they couldn't really lift an adult man very well. At that point, I can deal with them by carrying a pointy stick whenever I'm under open sky. Maybe some simple armour too.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

As recent as possible to have modern medicine; I like not dying from a flu...

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Lame answer but I would pick the closest time I could back to my time as I could.

I don't think I could survive without modern day technology and I really don't want to try.

If going into future is an option maybe. That would probably be my next best option if I couldn't pick a past time within the last 50 years.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

The future's looking pretty bleak, so…yeah, now would be the best choice.

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

OK... where in the world would I pop up?

If where I live, in ParanΓ‘: 1300 then. I'd be teaching the local Kaingang: a few farming techniques, a bunch of food-preserving techniques, writing and paper making. Ah, and gunpowder too, so they can use it against the Spaniards coming from AsunciΓ³n and the Portuguese from the coast. Past that I'd... marry a local girl and try to live a happy life? Language would be a struggle though, because even if I knew 2023 Kaingang or Guarani that doesn't automatically makes me know some older variety of the language.

If anywhere in the world: Republican Rome, around 150 BCE. I know basic Latin so it wouldn't be actually easier to adapt than the above. I'd probably find some craft to live from, either in a taberna selling food or blacksmithing. I actually know a few Roman recipes (thanks Apicius), I could even give them a bit of modern twist; they should already know pizza (Virgil mentions it) but a modern style pizza bianca would be new. Perhaps I should leave a note to the Julii that, if one of them conquers Gaul, he should watch out for potential killers.

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

You would fuck up history by preempting pizza? What kind of pizza would we end up contemporarily?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

At least a century after the 15th Millennium but at least a century prior to the 25th Millennium.

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

Holy cow, a million years into the future!

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

1491 to the soon-to-be landing point of Christopher Columbus. I would bring an arsenal of modern day weaponry and then arm and train the natives in anticipation for when his ships appear on the horizon.

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

Very excited to see what Italian people would cook without tomatoes.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Still a lot of pasta, which predates the Columbian exchange. But probably a lot more focus on herbal seasonings, cheese/dairy, oils, etc. Carbonara probably still popular. A lot more pesto on average.

Pizza would be white pizza with toppings, maybe with a pesto base. Fish, meat dishes, and European vegetable dishes probably still mostly untouched.

You're really just missing tomato sauces and gnocchi with the lack of the Columbian exchange, and tomato is essentially optional in many Italian dishes anyways. Surprisingly not as big a change as I would have thought.

I think maybe in North America we associate tomatoes more strongly with Italian food because it was more readily available for Italian-American immigrants than it was back in Italy.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

By the way, this would be a great fit over here. https://lemmy.sdf.org/c/hypotheticalsituation if it's not indexed already.

[–] emptyother 3 points 1 year ago

For anyone who wants money, choose 2016, spend a year earning as much money as you can, invest them in january 2017, and you'll be rich in November 2022.

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

Few hundred years into the future, interested to see what people get up to

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Ech 2 points 1 year ago

With that kind of time limit? As recent as I can. It's not exciting or anything, but if I'm gonna be stuck somewhere, I'd have a much higher chance of survival in a period I'm relatively familiar with, and in a time with a much farther progression in sciences.

load more comments
view more: next β€Ί