If you could go anywhere in time and space

[Ivan Seeking]

This came up the other day...oh yes, the original Time Machine movie has been running. Assume that you only get one trip to one time and place - any time and place - and a trip home. After that, you would melt if you tried again.

So, in addition to where and when, if you choose the past, dare you take a chance on changing things? Would you try to change history?

 

[JamesU]

I would go to December 21, 0000 to witness the birth of christ. then you athiests will be sorry (<-I know, inappropriate for this)

no, I wouldn't change the past. (I saw the butterfly effect )

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

I don't know. There are just too many interesting people and events.

Maybe go back and shoot pool with Tesla and Sam Clemmons.

 

[dgoodpasture2005]

I would go as far into the future as physically possible... hopefully we'd have instantaneous... or almost... space travel by then, and while there i'd go everywhere i could and witness the universe up close instead of pondering from my balcony ;) then of course i'd come back... and no one would believe me

 

[hypnagogue]

It'd be a hoot to see humanity at its technological peak. Granted that one can't predict when that would happen, I'd settle for, say, 3000 AD, crossing my fingers that we're still around at that time.

 

[dgoodpasture2005]

It'd be a hoot to see humanity at its technological peak. Granted that one can't predict when that would happen, I'd settle for, say, 3000 AD, crossing my fingers that we're still around at that time.

i agree, that would be really cool.

 

[hypnagogue]

As for historical events-- I think it'd be quite a spectacle to witness a catastrophic meteor strike upon Earth (any one of the major ones will do), as seen from nearby orbit.

Actually, I seem to recall a program on the science channel about a hypothesis that the moon was formed from material from the Earth following a huge collision with a planet-sized body. If that's what really happened, that's what I'd want to see.

 

[honestrosewater]

I would go to December 21, 0000 to witness the birth of christ. then you athiests will be sorry (<-I know, inappropriate for this)

no, I wouldn't change the past. (I saw the butterfly effect )

I have heard (but not confirmed (as if I could?)) that Jesus was actually born in 4 B.C. Heh, those crazy calendar makers.

For my own happiness, I would want to visit Shakespeare, around the time that he retired. For humanity's happiness, I don't know - I would have to go back pretty far...

 

[dgoodpasture2005]

geez.. that makes me want to see the big bang :)

 

[honestrosewater]

As for historical events-- I think it'd be quite a spectacle to witness a catastrophic meteor strike upon Earth (any one of the major ones will do), as seen from nearby orbit.

Actually, I seem to recall a program on the science channel about a hypothesis that the moon was formed from material from the Earth following a huge collision with a planet-sized body. If that's what really happened, that's what I'd want to see.

Don't forget your safety goggles. I imagine that would kick up a helluva mess.

 

[hypnagogue]

Don't forget your safety goggles. I imagine that would kick up a helluva mess.

Yeah, I have to give myself some room to be fanciful. Being present at and observing the big bang is something on a much grander scale of course, but too physically implausible for me to mention it as a possibility.

Here's a nice computer simulation of what the moon-forming impact would have looked like: http://www.classzone.com/books/eart...zations/es2501/es2501page01.cfm?chapter_no=25

And more general information about the hypothesis (though this article is 4 years old):
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/lunar-01d.html

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I got a charge out of the last episode of Star Trek TNG. The type IV being Q takes Picard to the moment when life on Earth emerged from the primordial ooze. Then...ooops, it didn't happen because of Jean-Luc and his messing with a time reversed temporal distortion. Now that would worry me!

 

[honestrosewater]

Picard is hot. :!)

 

[1123581321]

i would want to see ancient Rome. Maybe kill brutus and all of the senators rambo style and completely change history. or kill atilla before he got powerful. or i could save the library in alexandria (or just see it).
i wonder what we would be like now if i could prevent rome from falling?

fibonacci

 

[arildno]

Heliogabalus threw wonderful parties, I've heard..

 

[GOD__AM]

I would find the biggest lottery ever won, and go back with the numbers that allow me to win on the day it rolled over and became the biggest.

 

[Astronuc]

Going back in time, I would like to hop-skip through the Triassic, Jurrasic and Cretaceous periods (all part of the Mesozoic era) and see the dinosaurs.

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mesozoic/mesozoic.html

Of course, I'd probably want to do the same for the Paleozoic and the Cenozoic, as well. Well as long as I'm out and about in Time.

As for where, besides the earth, I certainly would love to go throughout the Milky Way and see those nebulae and gas clouds, and the galactic nucleus, and then off the explore all the galaxies (and bars) in the Universe. It would be interesting to find other forms of life, assuming they exist.

 

[matthyaouw]

Going back in time, I would like to hop-skip through the Triassic, Jurrasic and Cretaceous periods (all part of the Mesozoic era) and see the dinosaurs.

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mesozoic/mesozoic.html

Of course, I'd probably want to do the same for the Paleozoic and the Cenozoic, as well. Well as long as I'm out and about in Time.

No Precambrian?

 

[honestrosewater]

The Cambrian Explosion was hot. :!)





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