highthief

You can pick one of three options:

1 - Go back one week in time knowing what this week's winning lottery numbers will be.

2 - Go back a number of years into your own past and make more personal changes (education, relationships, employment, etc) but not get any wealthier.

3 - Go back to any point in time and make a significant positive change in world history (discover a cure for some disease, stop a war before it starts, kill Hitler before he gets to power) but again, you won't be materially wealthier.

Which do you pick? Have to say, I'm a greedy person in some respects - I largely like my life right now but would be happy to have a few more dollars, so it's option 1 for me.

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Tully Mars

Seems like all three could have a neg. impact. I'd go for number one also. If I found having money too much a burden I could always just give it away.

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Jetée

If time is like a river, (theory of something or other proposed by I forget whom) then I'd like to make as little a splash as possible. Assuming everyone following adheres to your set definitions and we don't "jump forward" in time, I'd go back in time no further (farther?) than 50 hours or so (3 days max).

Money is of no interest to me, but it seems to travel and lodge, one needs it handy. Plus, I'm kinda scared of the publicity of winning a lottery/sweepstakes. I think I'd like to pool my money together for awhile, plan a trip to Vegas (after leaving the present to live out the past) and bet a huge pot on an assured winning underdog, say the recent US Open results of Del Potro over Federer with 4-1 odds (via VegasBlackbook).

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northstar

The problem with number three is it can take away my very existence, or create a parallel universe making the changes null and void anyway. Though in general terms I'd probably say three. I don't believe in the practicality of it, so I also say one. Sorry to be difficult haha.

lostgirl

None of the above.

I love ancient history, and I would love to go back as an observer. I want to see the pyramids being built, the Colossus of Rhodes, the eruption of Thera, dinosaurs, you name it.

I would never change anything in the past, the grandfather paradox applies. It's also believed we would only create a parallel universe, and it would never affect the world we now know.

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Willravel

I don't care about wealth. I care about how the process of trial and error has resulted in unimaginable suffering and death during the history of the species. Imagine meeting early humans, hunter gatherers, and teaching them language, science, mathematics, logic, art, music, and social/governmental theory like freedom, democracy, human rights, and equality. Imagine skipping 20,000 slow years of human development. The year 2009 could look like the year 22,009. The only thing I would ask in return is that they make central the ideals of truth and justice.

It would be interesting to see what 2009 would look like.

ratbastid

I've read too much sci fi to be reaaaaaal comfy with time travel. There are always unexpected consequences.

That said, I don't see how me suddenly being super rich could hurt anyone.

noodle

what ratbastid said.

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Charlatan

thirded...

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fresnelly

There will always be a war of some kind or another

Money can't buy happiness.

The world would be a better place if my wife's sister was still alive.

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World's King

I'm taking the money...

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GreyWolf

Actually, I would most prefer to travel back as an observer... to see what actually happened in the time of Caeser, or Christ, or to witness great events without the fog of time obscuring them. Changing things is not something I'd be terribly interested in.

Going back to get money wouldn't appeal to me, I have enough already (yes, I really do, but I'm not immensely wealthy, lol).

Going back to relive my own life sounds interesting until I think about the possibility of wiping out the existence of those I hold dear. That alone makes me accept my life as it is today.

I'm an inquisitive person, so I pick a modified option 3.

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SSJTWIZTA

i would go back and stangle hitler, stalin, and mao tse-tung. perhaps as infants....less of a struggle from those soon to be genocidal ass-hats.

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Then they came for the communists and I did not speak out because I was not a communist.
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Lasereth

The question is a little unfair because there's an obvious answer.

It's sort of odd how the majority of people would rather be rich than save 50,000,000 lives.

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Willravel

WWII? I thought that was 55m.

inBOIL

I'd make personal changes, although the changes I'd make would almost certainly make me wealthier, just not rich. As far as saving millions of lives, the butterfly effect could result in your effort being in vain, or even counterproductive. Best to stick to making small changes that matter to you.

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DaniGirl

Id go with number one. I'm thinking of my financial situation which would also help my personal life and the lives of my family. My kids future is what matters to me. So in a way it would be like picking number 1 and 2.

wooÐs

#2.

There's lots of things I 'coulda' done that 'woulda' prevented a lot of negatives in regards to my overall health and happiness today.

jnthnlllshprd

option 1, although I'd do what Hitler did just to undo what I did in July 2008.

Xerxys

Spiritsoar

1. A short period back in time, to gain financially. If I had a choice, I would find some strange series of stock investments to multiply my money exponentially, or something more discreet than lottery winnings. But, failing that, I'd take the lottery.

It may seem insensitive to gain personally, rather than help others, but Fate is tricky. I absolutely wouldn't change a thing about my life, despite wrong choices and missed opportunities. My life is far from perfect right now, but I'm happy with the direction it's going, and I wouldn't want anything to change what might have been.

As for historic changes, no. I know it might seem horrible, for all the things that might be better, for all the lives that might be saved, etc. Or things could have just gotten worse, or different in ways we couldn't expect or predict. We've done the best we could as a species throughout history to cope with the difficulties that we had, and we learned from each hardship we've endured. I couldn't tamper with that.

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Vigilante

Dinosaurs. If there is not option for dinosaurs, then this thread is a waste

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Allyallyally

Option 2, for sure. I don't want to be rich, and I don't want to mess with any of the bigger events of the world. I would use the opportunity to improve myself, and do things that I was afraid to do at the time, only with a whole new perspective. I'd take more chances, be less stupid, and express how I felt more often.

Oh, and I wouldn't have broken up with my first ever boyfriend (in such a nasty, childish way) when I was 12 years old just because my friends didn't like him. Sorry, Tom. You were cool.

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ametc

I would go back in time and sweet talk my ex so it would be much easier now to stalk his new girlfriend. >_>............ This is not crazy, is it?

highthief

Obviously, there is no obvious answer, given the split in votes.

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ametc

I wish I could go back in time and never talk to my ex everrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I am losing sleep over this stupid shit. >:C

Reese

I'd kill Hitler.

I was going to post some holocaust photos but didn't want to ruin the thread. I don't care if it caused a grandfather paradox. It's the right thing to do. If someone told you that tomorrow, they were going to torture and kill 5 million people, why would you not stop it? Because you know the world will survive it is reason enough not to prevent it?

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thirdsun

I'll take option 1, but instead of the lottery, I'll just purchase 500 shares of MSFT. Effectively, the same thing but expotentially more lucrative.

Jove

I would choose option 3, but I would observe the events and not mess with their situation because that may drastically change the future.

ratbastid

Like I said above, I'm a big fan of time travel sci fi. Here's a tiny short story by Desmond Warzel that's one of my faves.

Abyss & Apex : Fourth Quarter 2007: Wikihistory

warrrreagl

This. I would just want to observe without changing.

I would be curious to know, though, if the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle would apply to this as well.

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DaniGirl

Great idea! I thought about this question even more and I may have changed my mind. Now I would not like to mess up the future in any way. But if there is one thing I would go back and change it would be 9/11. Save all those lives and stop a war. But really whose to say it wouldn't just happen another day another time. Is there really any way to stop war or just postpone it? Sorry I'm having a weird day.

Vigilante

I think you meant number 2.

2 would be tempting, but you'd have to go back to the 80's to make serious cash. Intel, AMD, M$, all the hard drive companies. Oil. Toyota? Etc.

Between that and seeing the dinosuars...man. I still think I'd go see the dinosuars.

However if I did go back to the 80's, sadam and bin laden would be dead. I'd make sure Reagan knew, somehow.

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jnthnlllshprd

nvm

KellyC

First option sounds good to me. I do really need it and I'm sure as hell I can improve lots of personal changes/relationships with the help of money and perhaps even making positive changes in history too....but from this point on.

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Terrell

If I could only do it once, I'd take the money.

If I could do it multiple times, I'd probably go back and meet some historical figures. Would also go back and see some extinct creatures. If I'm not confined to earth, I might go all the way back and see our solar system form, even if I had to go to several different times, and see it like a time-lapse type of thing.

yotta

Fucking with history is a major butterfly effect issue, not touching that. I'm pretty happy with where my life is now, even if my childhood was awful in a lot of ways. I'd go back to the night there was a fire in my house and I'd go back for my dog. I'd left him in my bedroom where he died of smoke inhalation/suffocation. I could have easily gotten him out, but it had been drilled into me never to go back into a burning building. I don't think it would have changed my life much to have him, but I will always feel guilty about it.

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percy

I'd go with 2. I think.

I was in a relationship for 2 years and it ended. It was beginning to get mentally and verbally abusive. After a year apart, and on the verge of a wonderful new relationship, I went back. That lasted 5 more years until the abuse was too much.

I can still remember the day, the month, the clothes I was wearing when I made that decision to give up what could have been a wonderful adventure that eventually turned into a nightmare. I would go right back to that moment and,...

And I don't know. What I potentially lost I may have never gained,...strength, courage, a sense of myself, independence, individuality, a life worth more than living.

Life is funny ain't it.

ironman

If it wasn't for WWII we would not have computers, jets, space travel, microwaves, radars, lasers, nuclear energy, etc...
I rather risk going back one week and winning the lottery, than going back 50 plus years and risking the lives of hundreds if not thousands of millions of people. If those 50 mil wouldn't die, I think it's almost sure most of us would never be born, too much variables would be introduced into the equation of live if you were to save such a huge amount of people and change such a significant milestone in history. Butterfly effect my friend.

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lostgirl

This keeps going though my head every time I read this thread.

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We always arise from our own ashes. Everything returns later in its changed form. - Children of Dune