The Time Machine

Post Reply New Topic

If I had a time machine I think I would like to go back to 1966, before I started school and tell a wonderful little boy, who was so curious about the world and intoxicated with life, that 'everything will be ok'.

At the same time, I realise that he still lives with me and that I can tell him this every day and celebrate that he 'made it'.

Would you go back in time, without revealing who you really are, to tell yourself, at age 4, that 'everything will be ok' and to 'hang in there'?

I realise that for MANY people here, things are not ok right now so I have tried to phrase the questions so that everyone can have a vote.

I picked option #2 with my grandchildren in mind and with tears for them in my eyes while suspecting at least the oldest is experiencing AS/HFA. The thing I hope will be different for him/them, however, is the stuff I yet hope to leave behind.

I would go back in time and tell myself NOT to go to vocational school, so I would of NEVER met Jon!! !

Jon ruined my life!! !

I might be a bit biased, considering that A Sound of Thunder was just on TV.

I don't think I would physically go back in time for myself. I would to save others.

Other than that, I'd find a way to transfer my present consciousness into my body as a child. Then relive things differently.

i guess it has to be in the past. else I would remember it

Why in the world would you go back to prevent silly things that happened to you when you could do things like prevent major accidents, plane crashes, bombings, shooting sprees... jeez, compared to that, failing a year at college is really small peanuts!

Mostly, it wouldn't work - by being in the past (even if you sat in a locked room) you're immediately influencing everything around you in a sphere of radius speed-of-light*time-you've-been-there, causing a gazillion zillion tiny changes in the way things move; as the time increased, the effect of your being there rapidly increases making everything different for everyone (like the so-called Butterfly Effect, writ large)...

...but you could certainly identify some people as having Serious Potential For Trouble, I suppose, and expose any plots or nastiness that were currently underway (assuming you knew about them.) You'd probably want to study up on some astronomical phenomena beforehand - precise times and locations of supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, that sort of thing (stuff which will be utterly unaffected by anything happening on Earth, and which could not have been secretly discovered - things like the structure of DNA or the orbital parameters of then-unknown minor planets are out) so that you could at least convince scientists of your veracity.

Oh, and you'd also need to find a way to match your present velocity and position with the velocity and position of Earth at your target time, or you'd either asphyxiate, burn in the atmosphere as you streaked across at 30kms-1 (or whatever speed) or cause a very large crater...

*ahem*

Leastways, that's my plan.

I picked the second one because:

1. I wanted to go back time and save myself from being dropped by my dad.

2. I'd also go back to save my mates from that horrible argument which lasted for 2 years and it would of saved me from having depression.