Thought Experiment

[c4ts]

I'd prevent the assassination of Yitzak Rabin. It's nothing big, but it's not likely send history spiraling out of control in an unknown direction and I might be able to pull it off successfully.

 

[richardm]

That's really just 2 classes but Hitler is a special case.

What might be more interesting would be to stop the Kaiser and WWI. Then, the whole of European history in the 20th Century would have been very diffferent, I think (and you'd probably have stopped Hitler before he got started).

 

[richardm]

It's tough changing history. You can't really expect good outcomes.

I think this is very true. The best you can hope for is a different outcome. Human nature seems inclined to do its damndest to screw things up

 

[alfaniner]

I'd go back to the early 1980's and whisper to Bill Gates:

"Quality control!!"

 

[Piscivore]

I think this is very true. The best you can hope for is a different outcome. Human nature seems inclined to do its damndest to screw things up

My vote when I was 20 was "Kill Jesus". At 25 it would have been Abraham. But then I realised; it would have been someone else we, as a species, propped up on that altar. The OT was right about one thing- there is a certain percentage of the population that will prostrate themselves to any idol as soon as you turn your back on them. There are some who just need to be slaves.

 

[AWPrime]

You use nukes to cure that.

 

[LostAngeles]

There was a Twilight Zone episo... several episodes on this matter. Essentially, Rod Serling says you can't change history.

Rod aside, the question becomes "How important are the lessons of history?" The images and testimonies of Holocaust survivors are a stark example of the cruelty and inhumaness of humanity and the results of power. What about the Manhatten Project and the nuclear arms race? If we could eliminate the cold war, should we? Should we stop the slave trade? Should we stop the genocide of Native Americans? Should we stop Al-Queda in the year 2000? Should we stop the Columbine massacre? Should we stop the enslavement of the Jews, find a way to stop the AIDS virus before it becomes the pandemic it is now, fix the situation in the Middle East before it started, etc, etc...

In the past few decades, with the rise of global media, photography, film, and radio the impact of historical events are brought quicker to us and the time it takes to say, "Oh. That was bad." is decreased. In the past hundred years we've developed cleaner cities and factories, had civil rights extended to blacks, women, and others, we've witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust, the panic and fear of the atomic bomb and the cold war, seen recreational drug use brought to the forefront of policy, experienced riches, experienced poverty, had gap between the rich and the poor widening, the rise of the Internet and the beginnings of a global community, and terrorism both domestic and foreign. That's just skimming the surface.

How can you pick one event to change? If you stopped the Holocaust, would there be another, larger one? If you stopped the WTC attacks, might that open up the opportunity for a larger one down the line. If you stop the Black Plaque, who's to say there won't be another, newer virus resulting from that. Fixing one thing may make things worse.

I wouldn't even take the time machine back ten years ago to smack myself and say, "Get over it, you whiny dumbass and get your butt back on track."

The history of humanity sucks, but it's necessary.

 

[Marquis de Carabas]

Suppose you get access to a time machine. It could take you back to any historical time and place in say the last 4000 years. It takes you back in time, and brings you back to 2004 when you wanted to come back, but it can only be used for one round trip. Your mission in going back in time is to change the course of history for the better. You can only take the clothes on your back, as much money as you want in a form recognizable in the time and place you want to go back to, and the clothes on your back, and of course your knowledge of how history evolved. You can stay for up to a year. What would you do?

I would return to five minutes ago, and keep myself from reading this thread.

 

[RebeccaBradley]

How about going back to the 4th century and talking Julian the Apostate out of trying to invade Persia? Of course, it might not make a lot of difference in the end; a longer reign might have resulted in even worse civil upheavals than actually took place, and the Xians might well have come out on top anyway. Still, there's a chance the West would be singing from a rather different hymnbook these days if Julian had had a little more time.

But LostAngeles is probably right about the futility of trying to unravel history. So I think I'd just go back and warn Stan Rogers to take a later flight; I don't think the world could be harmed by having a little more of his music.

 

[jenspen]

I've thought about this before and thought that I'd go back to Vienna in the early 1820s and pump Schubert full of penicillin. But, with only the clothes on my back? Well, I'd go back a bit earlier and teach him about safe sex. Ahem.

Dead at 31...

 

[Sane]

I would kill Julius Ceaser. And prevent rome from conquering most of europe.


To bad I can't take nukes with me. If so I would vaporize rome and the ME.

Et tu AWPrime?

 

[AWPrime]

Et tu AWPrime?

Yep.