this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2024
54 points (95.0% liked)

Asklemmy

43945 readers
767 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy πŸ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I'd go back a few million years whenever fish decided to crawl onto land and yeet them back into the ocean.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

If you just wait long enough those fish turn into mammals and go back in the water on their own.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 weeks ago

I'd definitely pull a Biff Tannen

[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Is it one way? If so, I will pass.

If not, I would take my kid to see some of the big steam engines of the past that we can't anymore, take a ride on an established safe train/route. (Or maybe buy some old Lego to take home)

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Depends on the rules.

Round trip to a 'read only' version of the past? I'd like to see the dinosaurs.

Round trip that can make changes? Probably a few hundred or even thousand years ago, so I could give them modern technology, information about climate change, try to educate people on social issues, etc. I'd create detailed instructions and try to make a religion out of it. There's no guarantee it would work, but I'd hopefully return to a solarpunk utopia. Honestly not sure if I would try this, as it would basically overwrite everything I've ever known.

One way trip? I'd probably pass, unless I can de-age. I would definitely want to go back to being a child with all my current knowledge.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Round trip that can make changes? Probably a few hundred or even thousand years ago, so I could give them modern technology, information about climate change, try to educate people on social issues, etc

What tech would you take back if you could though?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I haven't really thought through the details.

It would probably take decades to prepare, and to figure out what the best approach would be.

It also depends on how much I could bring back.

If it's just me and what I can carry, I think I would just bring a few things to demonstrate the tech. Maybe a high power flashlight and solar charger. The important part would be a detailed guide on how to re-enginer everything we have today, as well as the science behind it. Really, I think scientific knowledge would be the most impactful.

If this was a huge operation with near infinite resources, I would send back a giant self sustaining compound with a general purpose factory. I think it would probably be possible to sustain a roughly 60s level of technology indefinitely on a small scale until the rest of the world caught up

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Any further back than 2 or 300 years and you would definitely, 100% guaranteed be burned as a witch upon arrival.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

You could visit late 1700s or early 1800s and start a company that makes renewable energy. Maybe something like wind power, wave power etc, should be achievable with the technology available at the time. If your company becomes successful enough, you could compete fossil fuels out of the market. Then, invest that money into developing energy storage technologies to outcompete the internal combustion engine.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

That’s a good idea, and it could make a one way trip worth it if it meant becoming super powerful. I’d also focus on medical technology, and maybe computing.

Although I’m a bit unsure of whether I could really create enough broad social change just from that. My goal would be liberation for people of all races, genders, and sexual orientations, the dismantling of capitalism and power structures, etc.

The other option would be to do far back enough so that I could be some sort of god king, which would be a lot more work technologically, but might be easier to create a religion that would canonize my instructions.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago

I'd probably go back to around 2000 and tell myself that my stupid decisions were going to catch up to me in about 24 years, and they will definitely cost me the relationship I have with only person in this world who had ever genuinely loved me, and that it will drive her mad and she will react in a most brutal and callous way.

I would remind myself that the way I think other people are feeling is almost always wrong, to some degree, and that i should listen better to her about her feelings while I still have a chance to salvage what was once true love.

I would explain that, if I'm not careful, I will misinterpret everything she says about her feelings, and i will lose all my friends and hobbies, one by one, trying to be someone for her that she doesn't even want.

I would describe the way it feels to be with her, then illustrate the way it will feel when she starts dating other guys while you beg her to please work with you on your relationship, and that it would already be too late no matter how much you want it to work.

I would suggest that, if I decide to proceed while ignoring all my other advice, then I should at least not buy a house with her in 2023 when she is so insistent. Just hold out for one more year before making that mistake.

She wanted to be my forever person, and i didn't know how to deserve that. We were fucking teenagers when we got together, and neither of us knew how to be. We were just spitballing.

And I'm a fucken dumdum.

I probably wouldn't listen to me anyway

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago

I probably go back to when I was a kid and my mom kidnapped me and since I look so much like my dad kick in the door and raise myself as my own father.

Use my knowledge of the future too make myself incredibly rich and give my younger self all of the advantages and opportunities of life.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

1988 and see the Berlin Wall (from the west obviously), travel through ghost metro stations

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I was in West Berlin in 1981, we had a picnic by the wall and rode the metro through the ghost stations. Which were a bit meh to be honest. You had to change a certain amount of currency to visit the east and we couldn't afford it, so we just stayed in the train and went back again.

We hitched to Berlin, and the freakiest part was driving through the corridor that linked West Berlin to West Germany.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

I was born after the Berlin Wall fell, but have read a lot about it, that is why I find it so fascinating.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Big pass on a one-way ticket. I'd quite like to see a dinosaur though....

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

It should be a very short glance though...

Time Traveler Causes of Death

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

2500 BC. Egypt. Just sit and look at those aliens build the pyramids.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Someone's gonna be disappointed

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Are you implying that the big triangles were made only by the giants without alien intervention?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

No I'm saying that there is no triangle.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Just like the moon and birds?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Yup, birds are just FBI surveillance tool and moon is just a cardboard cutout placed somewhere that is why you can see the moon during daytime also.....πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I wouldn't go anywhen. My dissatisfaction is intrinsic and the year is irrelevant.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Not even with someone else's dick.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

As a woman I'd rather not go into any distant path.
So i choose last year and slap myself before I do an especially stupid thing that caused me near financial ruin and drained what little savings I had.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

That is the way to go. Any point in time in the past is generally worse than the present. So just go back enough to fix something in our own life'and maybe play the lottery or some stock trading to get set for life.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

I would go back to my teen years just to relive it again. Assuming I could repeat the process when I read this post I would do it over and over again. I wouldn't change anything, I would just enjoy the ride.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

Trans and disabled, so that limits my options a bit.

I think I’d just go back to 2011 and just vibe.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

Definitely need to go back a few years for some stock trades ........

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

If I get to go with a Tardis, language barrier won’t be a problem. If not, medieval Europe will be out of the question, since languages have changed so much during the past few centuries.

If you travel back even further to see mammoths or even dinosaurs, languages won’t be an issue. Who knows what the ancient microbes will do to your immune system, so there are some serious risks.

I guess the past 200 years might be the most reasonable ones to choose from. I think I might want to meet James Prescott Joule (1818-1889), the inventor of the correct unit of energy.

James Watt (1736-1819) would be pretty interesting too, so I hope English hasn’t changed too much. Would be pretty annoying if we can’t communicate properly.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

Fun in this thread to identify who is a white man by whether they'd even consider being safe visiting the past

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I'd go back 9 months prior to June 14th, 1946 and yell "Wait! For the love of God, use a condom!"

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

For anyone wondering, yes this is the birthdate of the detestable newspaper tycoon Ralph McAllister Ingersol II

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

Just kick him in the balls before he climaxes

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

August of '69. The first Woodstock.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I would go back to the inception of Bitcoin start some kind of shop, maybe pizza ice cream and donuts and offer products for Bitcoin. Any profits I Madoff non-Bitcoin sales I would sink directly into getting people to give me more Bitcoin.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Would be funny if you caused an early blitz that petered out, and then the coin never became the number one coin.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

You're right you'd probably have to be careful. Might need to balance the purchasing with mining.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Was there every a better moment to see if you can ride a T-rex? See the dinosaurs walk the earth, experience the wild nature that must have been around back then. I bet we don't know about a lot of the amazing things from that time.

Of course you would have a hard time trying to survive, but it would be cool. Dangerous, but cool.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Are we assuming we can go back? Or are you just stuck with dinos as your friends now?

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments
view more: next β€Ί