Hatrack River Forum: If you could go back in time

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Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :

science-fiction style, to change history at some point of your choosing, what would you choose? Assume that you can bring, say, a carload of equipment, books, and whatever.

For myself, I think I should go back to Victorian England and try to avoid the Great War and all that followed, while at the same time speaking to all the great scientists of classical physics : Maxwell, Hertz, Planck, etc. I would bring my textbooks, of course, and a computer with its own generator to convince people I wasn't a madman.

Posted by newfoundlogic (Member # 3907) on :

I wouldn't try to change anything out of fear of preventing my own creation and therefore creating a paradox.

Posted by MEC (Member # 2968) on :

you wouldn't necessarily create a paradox.

I would go back before the big bang, and prevent it.

[ January 23, 2005, 09:11 PM: Message edited by: MEC ]

Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :

But if you create paradox, you can then patch that paradox, and get an extra card in your hand. That's a good thing!

Posted by Bella Bee (Member # 7027) on :

The great war didn't start in Victorian England.

I would go back to ancient Europe, especially concentrating my efforts on Holland, and improve the (extremely short, miserable and muddy) lives of thousand of people by teaching them how to make Wellington boots.

Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :

Well, duh, I know it didn't start there, but it could easily have been prevented by British intervention in the Franco-Prussian war, on the French side.

Posted by littlemissattitude (Member # 4514) on :

Haven't you ever read The Man Who Folded Himself , by David Gerrold? You wouldn't change anything, you'd just create a new time-stream. Sheesh. [Razz]

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

"I would go back in time to yesterday, take myself to tomorrow, and skip this stupid assignment."

Edit: not that the mental exercise is stupid, KoM. I just like quoting Calvin and Hobbes.

[ January 23, 2005, 09:26 PM: Message edited by: Dagonee ]

Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :

This is something I used to think about quite a lot. There have been quite a few pivotal times in my life when I think I made the wrong decision, and wondering "what if" is one of the prices.

But even though I've dreamed of changing all of those choices, I wouldn't touch a one. Too big a chance I'd come back and be missing a kid, or not have the relationship with my wife I have now.

Not worth it.

Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :

I would go back in time, find my arch-nemesis' parents and make sure they never meet.

Also, while there, I would purchase stock in various companies and put $1,000 on deposit at the bank of my choice; interest to be compounded daily.

And I'd buy an Austin Healy MK 3000 new and store it in a garage under climate-controlled conditions.

I'd also make sure that Ronald Reagan's acting career was so spectacularly successful that he couldn't afford to leave it for politics.

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

I think I'd go back and see if I could get the founders to put a guaranteed deadline to end slavery into the Constitution. I'm thinking blackmail and a little technology to look like an all-powerful ghost might do the trick.

Edit: or better yet, stop it in Virginia when the first slaves were brought there.

Dagonee

[ January 23, 2005, 09:42 PM: Message edited by: Dagonee ]

Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :

That would be a good trick. How are you going to get anyone to move there if they can't rely on slave labour to clear the forest primeval?

Posted by Shigosei (Member # 3831) on :

Introduce robots at the same time?

Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :

KoM: People moved West without slaves...when "west" meant out of the coastal areas and into the forested areas of New England.

It would not have been impossible to make the south profitable if they'd chosen differently from the start.

But, once the slave-based economy took hold, no-one growing cotton or tobacco (or other "southern" crops) could ever survive financially while paying a fair wage for labor.

Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :

1982.... If the coach would have put me in, we could have made it to state. I could have gone pro. Things would be a lot different.

Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :

I would go back in time, write Ender's Game and create Hatrack the instant the Internet existed.

Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :

quote:
1982.... If the coach would have put me in, we could have made it to state. I could have gone pro. Things would be a lot different.

Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :

I would shoot Aaron Burr in the back of the head before he could kill Alexander Hamilton.....don't know why....but I would

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

quote:
That would be a good trick. How are you going to get anyone to move there if they can't rely on slave labour to clear the forest primeval?

Most settlers didn't have slaves. It was never economically feasible in the places it didn't take hold. Kansas had a mini-civil war over whether settlers could bring slaves. And there was some issue w/ Missouri, if I recall correctly.

Slaves were used mostly on established farmland, not on pioneer farms, although of course they were used there, too.

But without the warping of economics accomplished by slavery, I think we would have developed much differently. Also, I think the existence of slavery and its toleration have tainted this country from the beginning, in ways far beyond racism.

Dagonee

Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :

I don't think I would have enough confidence in my ability to change minds to try and convince someone to avoid certain mistakes, not to mention, the repercussions would be totally unknown. I think I'd rather just go back to about 1600 and plant a thousand new ideas about science into the European air. [Smile]

Hobbes

Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :

I would only go back ONE day -- but first scan the paper for someone who died that day, and see if I could prevent it while I back.

And then keep doing that over and over.

Kind of like Early Edition

FG

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

I liked that show. Especially the one where the same woman has to be saved many times.

Posted by Ryuko (Member # 5125) on :

I would have joined Hatrack earlier, and become like, the queen of Hatrack that everyone worshipped, like AK or a female version of Hobbes.

But all joking aside, I would probably go back to when I was very young and expose myself to a foreign language. Preferrably something romantic or asian. Then, I would be having a lot easier of a time of learning languages now. (Not that it's that TERRIBLY hard.)

Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :

quote:
I would have joined Hatrack earlier, and become like, the queen of Hatrack that everyone worshiped, like AK or a female version of Hobbes.

I'm flattered of course, but I'm not sure I'm quite who you think I am. [Wink]

Hobbes

Posted by The Pixiest (Member # 1863) on :

Without slavery, none of the African-Americans alive today would not have been born because their great^X-grandparents would never have met. Further, if they WERE alive today, it would be in some god awful hell-hole in africa.

And if that's not enough to convence you, we wouldn't have peanut butter because George Washington Carver would never have been born.

Preventing slavery would improve the lives of millions who are already dead at the expense of millions alive today.

Posted by newfoundlogic (Member # 3907) on :

Unless of course we prevented imperialism altogether and then Africa wouldn't be the hellhole it is today.

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

quote:
Without slavery, none of the African-Americans alive today would not have been born because their great^X-grandparents would never have met. Further, if they WERE alive today, it would be in some god awful hell-hole in africa.

And if that's not enough to convence you, we wouldn't have peanut butter because George Washington Carver would never have been born.

Preventing slavery would improve the lives of millions who are already dead at the expense of millions alive today.

It's a nice theory to make us feel a little less bad about the 4-century enslavement of millions of people, but it doesn't hold water, especially when you consider how many people don't exist today because their would-be ancestors were forcibly kept apart, or were flat out killed in the middle passage or later.

It's easy to look at Africa and decide it's a mess, but much of that mess was caused by the systematic exploitation of Africa, of which the slave trade was the first big step.

Dagonee

Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :

Or I would go back in time and fix the the ruling of the 2000 election and make the House of Representatives decide(not the Supreme Court) because that is the way it is supposed to be....and maybe if we got lucky it would prevent this war we are in.............. [Dont Know]

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

Um, the House would have been HEAVILY Republican by the standards used - each state delegation votes together, and the state gets one total vote based on the majority of reps from that state. Ties get no vote. Under that standard, the tilt in the house was much more in favor of Bush than otherwise.

If you wanted to stop the war, why not go back and kill Sadaam before he took power?

Dagonee

Posted by Corwin (Member # 5705) on :

quote:
Preventing slavery would improve the lives of millions who are already dead at the expense of millions alive today.

If you'd actually have this power I think preventing anything would be at the expense of some people today, don't you?

Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :

Yes, I'm not actually sure I'd take the opportunity to go back in time and change something for that reason.

Posted by newfoundlogic (Member # 3907) on :

Why should the House of Reps decide legal matters anyways? If you ignore Michael Moore's twisting of the facts, Bush would have won any further recounts anyways.

Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :

quote:
If you wanted to stop the war, why not go back and kill Sadaam before he took power?

This assumes that Sadaam was the actual reason for the war. Might be better to go back in time and deplete Iraq's oil reserves.

*ducks and runs*

Posted by Corwin (Member # 5705) on :

By the way, do you know "A Sound of Thunder", the movie, is coming out this year? See it, then think again before going back to change something! [Wink]

Posted by newfoundlogic (Member # 3907) on :

Oh how I love The Simpsons.

Posted by James Tiberius Kirk (Member # 2832) on :

Go back in time, and come up with the idea to bottle water.

--j_k

Posted by Danzig avoiding landmarks (Member # 6792) on :

I would go back to yesterday and kill myself, if I was brave enough.

Otherwise it would be a tossup between the Victorian era and the fifties and sixties. Absinthe, opium, and Vin Mariani while admiring Van Gogh, or taking legal LSD at the first Doors concert, and drinking with Kerouac?

Posted by Puppy (Member # 6721) on :

I'm with Chris on this one. Every change you make will have one immediate, foreseeable consequence, and a zillion unforeseeable ones. On a selfish level, that could mean the loss of a loved one. On a broader scale, that could mean accidentally creating a massively horrific future.

Posted by Desdemona (Member # 7100) on :

Like Pastwatch?

Posted by Puppy (Member # 6721) on :

Like the opposite of Pastwatch [Smile]

Unless you consider a peaceful union between the great societies of the eastern and western hemispheres, and the end of slavery and human sacrifice to be "horrific" [Smile]

Posted by Desdemona (Member # 7100) on :

Well, not really. But the whole consequences thing, and how they had to be really careful.. And the Interveners, as well.

Posted by Joldo (Member # 6991) on :

My mother told me a story once. One of her favorite nephews, her big sister's little boy, she promised she'd take him and his sister to this big light garden one Christmas. On her way home from work the set night, she was really tired. Before leaving work, she called her sister about it. My aunt told her that the little sister was already asleep and they could probably skip it.

When she went to my aunt's house the next morning, she found out her nephew had been crying a lot about it, disappointed. She promised she would take him the next year.

That summer he died in a car wreck. My mom says this is one of her deepest regrets and most painful memories. This was long before I was born, when my mother was fresh from high school.

If I could, I would go back to sit with her on that car ride home. I would tell her that she most definitely should do it, and treasure the memory, asking her to trust me. I would not overly change history, though really, who knows?

That's what I'd like to do. Go back and heal all the little hurts. Not the great pains, but the inflamed scratches and bruises that are ignored.

Posted by Danzig avoiding landmarks (Member # 6792) on :

Actually, I like Joldo's idea better. I would ahve a hard time if I could only use it once, though... and if I was not certain I would be successful, I might stick to my first plan.