If You Could Time Travel, Would You Go Back or Forward?

homeagain wrote: What if........????

"This distinction between past,present and future is only an illusion."......(Albert Enstein)

"Ultimately ALL moments are really ONE,therefore now is eternity."...(David Bohm,Quantum Physt.)

Funny you should mention that. Just finished a story "Police Operation" written in 1948 that explores that theory. Author H. Beam Piper. It is included in the book "The H. Beam Piper Megapack" available on kindle.

NOVA'S program "Thru the wormhole" with Morgan Freeman narrating is "the bomb"....LOTS of
cool stuff about time NOT being linear, String Theory,Quantum "leaps",some seriously celestial
"stuff"......(MUST pick up the book you recommended....a VERY forward thinking writer for his
era.)....I happened to watch a movie with Paltrow playing the lead character.....SLIDING DOORS,explores the concept of living a parallel life....one being assertive and independent and
the other being timid and dependent....the arc of the timeline dovetails into one persona/and
the choices that brought the character into wholeness.....it was a good film.


"

It is a short story. I believe you can find it free somewhere in cyber space.

I'd want to go back in time so I could verify my Great Grandad's account of how tough it was to grow up "back in my day..."

"I grew up with 16 brothers and 10 sisters. We lived in a shoe box in the middle of a dirt road, all we had to eat was hot dirt and we were glad to have it! We all worked in the local factory 27 hours a day and went to school in our spare time instead of wasting our spare time playing, sleeping, or other such frivolous wastes of valuable time. The path to school and back to home was up hill both ways and always covered in waste deep snow, even in July! We didn't have money for novelties like shoes so we went barefoot.

The eldest person in the family in the house got the honor of taking the first bath in the clean water and each family member got to use the same bath water, sometimes augmented with some additional hot water, based on their age and position in the family. Imagine how dirty the babies were after a Saturday night bath! Truth is a little bit of dirt is good for you, it'll make you tougher..."

Then again, would it really be possible to go back in time and not have any impact on the past that would result in changes in the future? I guess if you could go back as the equivalent of a ghost that couldn't interact or impact anything in the past it might be possible. Going back into the past as a live human being and having direct interactions with people from the past could only result in paradoxes, changes in the past that would result in larger changes in the future that aren't congruent with what the future was before your trip back in time.

Speaking of paradoxes, "All You Zombies"

By Robert A. Heinlein is the best paradox story ever written. It is a short story of a man who is his own father AND mother. He KNOWS where he came from, do you?

Definitely go to the 60s for the cool cars, freedom and nostalgia. I have a pretty good idea already about what the future would look like and it ain't pretty, I'll pass on that.

Aeyyyyyyyyyy The Fonz! LOL

I'd go back to the week before the $400,000,000 lottery was picked. Then make my own future and just live like it was the 60's.

Forward -- cuz I can't do that again!

otisptoadwater wrote: I'd want to go back in time so I could verify my Great Grandad's account of how tough it was to grow up "back in my day..."

"I grew up with 16 brothers and 10 sisters. We lived in a shoe box in the middle of a dirt road, all we had to eat was hot dirt and we were glad to have it! We all worked in the local factory 27 hours a day and went to school in our spare time instead of wasting our spare time playing, sleeping, or other such frivolous wastes of valuable time. The path to school and back to home was up hill both ways and always covered in waste deep snow, even in July! We didn't have money for novelties like shoes so we went barefoot.

The eldest person in the family in the house got the honor of taking the first bath in the clean water and each family member got to use the same bath water, sometimes augmented with some additional hot water, based on their age and position in the family. Imagine how dirty the babies were after a Saturday night bath! Truth is a little bit of dirt is good for you, it'll make you tougher..."

Then again, would it really be possible to go back in time and not have any impact on the past that would result in changes in the future? I guess if you could go back as the equivalent of a ghost that couldn't interact or impact anything in the past it might be possible. Going back into the past as a live human being and having direct interactions with people from the past could only result in paradoxes, changes in the past that would result in larger changes in the future that aren't congruent with what the future was before your trip back in time.

Or if you did go back in time and did something, that event has already happened...it just didn't make the history books. Like the solar calculator you gave Edison was broken while being taken apart.

FredHayek wrote:

otisptoadwater wrote: I'd want to go back in time so I could verify my Great Grandad's account of how tough it was to grow up "back in my day..."

"I grew up with 16 brothers and 10 sisters. We lived in a shoe box in the middle of a dirt road, all we had to eat was hot dirt and we were glad to have it! We all worked in the local factory 27 hours a day and went to school in our spare time instead of wasting our spare time playing, sleeping, or other such frivolous wastes of valuable time. The path to school and back to home was up hill both ways and always covered in waste deep snow, even in July! We didn't have money for novelties like shoes so we went barefoot.

The eldest person in the family in the house got the honor of taking the first bath in the clean water and each family member got to use the same bath water, sometimes augmented with some additional hot water, based on their age and position in the family. Imagine how dirty the babies were after a Saturday night bath! Truth is a little bit of dirt is good for you, it'll make you tougher..."

Then again, would it really be possible to go back in time and not have any impact on the past that would result in changes in the future? I guess if you could go back as the equivalent of a ghost that couldn't interact or impact anything in the past it might be possible. Going back into the past as a live human being and having direct interactions with people from the past could only result in paradoxes, changes in the past that would result in larger changes in the future that aren't congruent with what the future was before your trip back in time.

Or if you did go back in time and did something, that event has already happened...it just didn't make the history books. Like the solar calculator you gave Edison was broken while being taken apart.

I suspect you are not a syfy fan. The classic time travel paradox is what will happen if you go back and kill your grand father before your father is conceived. Geez, get a life.Everyone knows that :rofllol :woo hoo: :woo hoo: