If you could live back in time....

[kent davidge]

If you could travel and live for one day back in time, where and when would you most likely want to go?

I would like to go to some year in the 60s, to some city in my country just to see how more quite and peaceful it was and to contrast how many people there are today and back then! For instance there are about 2.5 mi people living in my current city, while just about 600 thousand in the 60s.

 

[fresh_42]

If you could travel and live for one day back in time, where and when would you most likely want to go?

I would like to go to some year in the 60s, to some city in my country just to see how more quite and peaceful it was and to contrast how many people there are today and back then! For instance there are about 2.5 mi people living in my current city, while just about 600 thousand in the 60s.

Wherever this is, but the first thing that came to my mind was the draft. I prefer the English version of a draft. A similar question has already been posted here. My main concern is simple: whenever you go to, you'll probably have serious language problems, regardless which specific language is spoken. What's slang nowadays could have brought you into trouble back then. And the farther back you go, the more complicate it gets. Another difficulty, at least for me, would be that I would have trouble to accept the role of women. I'm glad that nowadays I can face them on an equal level. So not only language but also social conventions would be something I would not like at all.

 

[Vanadium 50]

where and when would you most likely want to go?

Saturday was pretty good.

 

[jtbell]

For instance there are about 2.5 mi people living in my current city, while just about 600 thousand in the 60s.

By contrast, my home city had about 60 thousand people in the 1960s (which I remember well because I was in school then: primary through high school), whereas now it has about 40 thousand people. The difference is noticeable when I visit: fewer shops, many schools have been closed and torn down, some areas are very run-down and full of abandoned houses, etc. Fortunately my old neighborhood still looks pretty good, including my family's former house. But my primary and middle schools are now vacant lots.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

If permanent, then never, we live in the best of times. For a few week vacation maybe the Jurassic or Triassic period, but I'd go with a full medical and security team

 

[Stephenk53]

If permanent, then never, we live in the best of times. For a few week vacation maybe the Jurassic or Triassic period, but I'd go with a full medical and security team

Personally I wouldn't go no matter how tight my security is, it would probably not end well.

Temporarily I would go to 1900 to see what my town and my country was like back then. My town had a population of 9,473 and now has 17,430 people

 

[BillTre]

If I could bring back samples and take the proper gear to get where I want to go, I would go to biologically interesting times: ocean bottoms during the Cambrian Explosion or deep ocean vents about 4 BYA (beginning of life).
Security team not required.

 

[Stephenk53]

If I could bring back samples and take the proper gear to get where I want to go, I would go to biologically interesting times: ocean bottoms during the Cambrian Explosion or deep ocean vents about 4 BYA (beginning of life).
Security team not required.

I don't know much about ancient life but couldn't you get infected by a disease your body has no resistance to due to lack of exposure

 

[BillTre]

I don't know much about ancient life but couldn't you get infected by a disease your body has no resistance to due to lack of exposure

Perhaps, but on the other hand, diseases would not be so well developed as they are today and certainly not specific for humans.

 

[fresh_42]

If I could bring back samples and take the proper gear to get where I want to go, I would go to biologically interesting times: ocean bottoms during the Cambrian Explosion or deep ocean vents about 4 BYA (beginning of life).
Security team not required.

Cambrian Explosion sounds good, but what to do with the time scale? What sounds like an event might be a geological glimpse, for humans however ... I recently saw a paleontologist on tv who investigated the current extinction occurrences by the same methods we examine the previous with. He found a twelve times accelerated process compared to previous mass extinctions. But do we realize even this significantly faster process as such? I'm afraid the Cambrian Explosion might appear quite boring.

 

[BillTre]

Well sure, its not a literal explosion (the "explosion" happened over a period of millions of years) but getting non-fossil biological samples of almost any geological glimpse from that period would be pretty interesting.
The Cambrian Explosion was a 20-25 MY period where many of the body plans of most of the existing animals were evolved to something like their current forms.
Perhaps the best option would be to make several stops at different time periods. They would all be interesting.
The preceding Ediacaran period (containing less recognizable fossil organisms (and fossil embryos!)) would also be interesting.

 

[Vanadium 50]

he preceding Ediacaran period (containing less recognizable fossil organisms (and fossil embryos!)) would also be interesting.

Hold your breath - not so much oxygen in the air way back when.

 

[BillTre]

I would include that under:

the proper gear to get where I want to go

Mostly intended for under water things, but still have to breath above the water too.

I'm surprised no one wants to go back to the formation of the solar system or something like that.

 

[BWV]

I would prefer to go back to a historic period where I could also access my brokerage account, say 2005. Or maybe just a powerball drawing from last year.

 

[OCR]

If you could travel and live for one day back in time...

Don't limit your opportunities... come way back. . (Yes, there is a way)


Come on, and I'll clear some things up... I helped once and I can do it again.

Really, you'll see... .

 

[lekh2003]

Or maybe I can go back to before Einstein came up with relativity and become the most famous child who managed to come up with relativity and disappear in a day...

 

[kent davidge]

@OCR Is your picture a reference to Plato's allegory of the cave?

Or maybe I can go back to before Einstein came up with relativity and become the most famous child who managed to come up with relativity and disappear in a day...

Lol

 

[jtbell]

@OCR Is your picture a reference to Plato's allegory of the cave?

I think it's a reference to the "Dawn of Man":

 

[OCR]

Or maybe I can go back to before Einstein came up with relativity and become the most famous child who managed to come up with relativity and disappear in a day...

Lol... click here .

I think it's a reference to the "Dawn of Man"

...

I helped once and I can do it again.

The first monolith is discovered by a group of hominids and somehow triggers a considerable shift in evolution, starting with the ability to use tools and weaponry.

OCR Is your picture a reference to Plato's allegory of the cave?

I never considered that, and...Lol...
.

 

[rootone]

If you could travel and live for one day back in time, where and when would you most likely want to go?.

To the restaurant at the end of the last Universe where you can watch the big bang happen while downing an espresso.

 

[jtbell]

Now that I think about it, the place and time I'd like to go back to is San Francisco, 14 April 1906, and ride along with the photographer who made this film...



...and then get out of town before the earthquake four days later!

Make sure to see the end of the film, when the cable car arrives at the turntable at the Ferry Building and gets turned around 180°.

 

[kent davidge]

Fascinating video. Everyone had a hat.. dress code was much more strict back then. In my small birth town one still can find elderly who always wear hats and pants like those.

 

[pinball1970]

Woodstock 1969 to see Hendrix but I would want a proper toilet and a mobile fridge.

I would like to meet my granddad as a young man too so 1920s Manchester in a pub somewhere. He played piano in his spare time to make a little extra. He could be quite unpleasant so I would need more than a day.

Also Canaan around 30CE, just to see what the fuss was about, I would need someone who can speak Aramaic and English to take with me though. Also a proper toilet and mobile fridge.

 

[kent davidge]

Oh seems that the pair toilet + mobile fridge really matters to you

 

[pinball1970]

Oh seems that the pair toilet + mobile fridge really matters to you

Yes we are entangledAny inference with them and some of my basic functions collapse

 

[kent davidge]

Yes we are entangledAny inference with them and some of my basic functions collapse

hahaha

 

[diajoy38]

I'd go to Vegas in Elvis time, seems like such a crazy fun time.

 

[LLD1231]

I'd plop myself dead center of Los Alamos, NM sometime around 1944 in a room where Oppenheimer and his team were in the midst of a brainstorming session. Sitting in on one of Oppie's classes at Berkeley, or visiting him and Einstein at Princeton would run a close second.

 

[pinball1970]

I'd plop myself dead center of Los Alamos, NM sometime around 1944 in a room where Oppenheimer and his team were in the midst of a brainstorming session. Sitting in on one of Oppie's classes at Berkeley, or visiting him and Einstein at Princeton would run a close second.

I really wanted to to put something like but it would just be a wasted experience because I would not get what they were talking about

I think I am changing my granddad for Buddy Rich at Ronnie Scotts in the 70s. My granddad could be horrible.

 

[LLD1231]

I really wanted to to put something like but it would just be a wasted experience because I would not get what they were talking about

I think I am changing my granddad for Buddy Rich at Ronnie Scotts in the 70s. My granddad could be horrible.

I wouldn't understand it, either. I'd just want to experience the atmosphere of one of the most fascinating times in history (to me, anyway), and spend a day worshiping Oppie in real life (I'm a female). LOL.

Maybe you should go back in time to the day your grandad was born and spank him really, really hard. :)

 

[pinball1970]

I wouldn't understand it, either. I'd just want to experience the atmosphere of one of the most fascinating times in history (to me, anyway), and spend a day worshiping Oppie in real life (I'm a female). LOL.

Maybe you should go back in time to the day your grandad was born and spank him really, really hard. :)

He was not horrible to me as such he could just be horrible to be around.

I think I get Buddy Rich and it would have been nice to see him play live.