If You Could?

[Such Irony]

Tough question. I think I would choose the future because I could always read about events in the past to satisfy my curiosity. The future though, we don't know for sure, we can only speculate. So it would be fun to travel in the future and see how accurate the predictions really were.

I'm not sure how far out in the future I'd be willing to travel though. I have a feeling that too far out in the future, I would be:

a. The only human on the planet because the human race has gone extinct.
b. The only human on the planet because the human race has evolved into something far more intelligent.
c. One among many humans, but experiencing serious disorientation because I'd now have to navigate completely new to me technologies and cultural norms.

So for that reason, it might be better to travel to the nearer future.

 

[senza tema]

Past. I'd like to see how King Henry VIII looked like, he had 8 wives.. he must be really gorgeous during his time..

He was a fatass but rich and powerful and dangerous. Power >>> looks in this case.

 

[Mole]

Fantasy is important. And so fantasising about If You Could is important.

And fantasy becomes important when we experience it fully, then we analyse our fantasy, evaluate our fantasy, and integrate it into our daily lives.

Just to experience fantasy without analysing, evaluating, and integrating is flaccid. It is the work of narcissism.

 

[Poki]

What if time flows "in reverse" though? Assuming we think of it as moving along a straight line, although I think that's a silly way to look at time, but you get my point, right? would we even be aware we were moving in a different direction in time? I'm not a theorist so forgive me if I sound uneducated here, but we'd be experiencing effect before cause, but would we be able to even perceive it that way or still think we were moving the "right" direction through time?

what exactly is time though? if its just a unit of measure can a unit of measure change whats being measured?

if we go back in time, can we walk forward as time goes backward...what happens where those meet...the time capsule. does time stand still.

if time truly went backwards woupd we even know? wouod the machine we create turn itself off the second it went on.

is time relative?

to take this to another realm...all we do is see the past. all we see is a visual representation that travels at the speed of light. what if we could travelfaster then light, we could get ahead and see what happened, but would we distur he light traveling through it nd when we look bacm all we see is a wave?

what if aliens could already travel the speed of light and are screwing with our perception and hiding things from us? at that point could we actuall create a cloak that works by disturbing or even controling light?

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

what exactly is time though? if its just a unit of measure can a unit of measure change whats being measured?

if we go back in time, can we walk forward as time goes backward...what happens where those meet...the time capsule. does time stand still.

if time truly went backwards woupd we even know? wouod the machine we create turn itself off the second it went on.

is time relative?

to take this to another realm...all we do is see the past. all we see is a visual representation that travels at the speed of light. what if we could travelfaster then light, we could get ahead and see what happened, but would we distur he light traveling through it nd when we look bacm all we see is a wave?

what if aliens could already travel the speed of light and are screwing with our perception and hiding things from us? at that point could we actuall create a cloak that works by disturbing or even controling light?

Exactly. How could we know.

Maybe aliens are fucking with us. Maybe our universe exists inside a black hole.

 

[Poki]

Travel into the future is a fact of Relativity, and our travel into the future depends on our relative velocity or our relative gravity field.

Satellites use the equations of Relativity to correct for travel into the future.

If we move at high speed away from the Earth, we may move 200 years into the future, and when we return to Earth everything will be 200 years older.

if time is nothing more then a cause and affect of change, everything we do will affect that. so are we slowing down time, or are we slowing down cause and affect? the mere fact that we are moving means we have just skewed standard cause and effect based on the speed of the world and the change that movement causes. lets say we have a molecular reaction where molecules move one direction for change. we now move in that direction so fast that the molecule stays the exact same distance from the object its attracted to. did we just cause time to stand still? we have so much we dont understand about physics.

 

[Santosha]

Neither. I wish I could quit focusing so much on the future and (occasionally) the past, and be fully present. Which has always been extremely difficult for me. Maybe tied to 6w7 motivations. Wanting to know the future outcome to ensure security, a focus on the future to alleviate pain/discomfort/not-enough'id'-ness. Whatever. I'd take future over past, and a complete acceptance/embracement of now, over both.

 

[Lady Lazarus]

In general: if I could I would.

 

[citizen cane]

God I hate Cher's voice.

 

[Mole]

if time is nothing more then a cause and affect of change, everything we do will affect that. so are we slowing down time, or are we slowing down cause and affect? the mere fact that we are moving means we have just skewed standard cause and effect based on the speed of the world and the change that movement causes. lets say we have a molecular reaction where molecules move one direction for change. we now move in that direction so fast that the molecule stays the exact same distance from the object its attracted to. did we just cause time to stand still? we have so much we dont understand about physics.

We understand Relativity and Quantum Mechanics deeply and precisely.

 

[Cloudpatrol]

Past. There are things in the past that I know I like, whereas I have no idea about the future.

My grandpa worked for Hyman Rickover (who would have been a captain at the time, IIRC) as an engineer in the Electrical Section at the Bureau of Ships. He once talked about standing on Constitution Avenue watching Eisenhower go by. I wish I could have been there too.

I get the impression you have an appreciation for things Industrial. Does that hail from your Grandfather? THANK YOU for the vids!!

future. there's nothing for me in the past. nothing i want to deal with anyway.

Anytime specifically in the future? If you had to punch something in?

Do I get to participate or just watch?

When I read your first line, I thought I was mistakenly in the "Mature Random Thought" thread

Of course, you may do as you please because this is your adventure!


[MENTION=27574]Cowardly[/MENTION]
2) If you could only travel to the past, what past event would you choose to witness? Your birth? Seeing your Grandparent's meet? The trial of Galileo? The Beatles performing? ANYthing your heart desires.
I wouldn't choose any event in particular. Instead I would choose to visit the city of Alexandria in its heyday. It's always fascinated me.

I'd also want to visit the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Or have a conversation with Tesla.

It would be cool to pick up Tesla and have your meeting IN the Hanging Gardens of Babylon!


[MENTION=28501]VeniVidiVertigo[/MENTION]

Your Hitler scenario made me laugh so hard! What continent would you have wanted to discover?

Between your answer in your welcome thread and this one, I see you will be a fun/thoughtful playmate on the forum. Glad you joined!

 

[Mole]

Exactly. How could we know.

The Know Nothing Party of the USA naturally doesn't know, but we know backward travel in time is impossible because of entropy, and we know with precision how we travel forward in time.

However the Know Nothing Party appeals to million upon millions of Americans as we can see by their voting for Mr Trump.

For the Know Nothing Party, Mr Trump and the Republican Party, click on The GOP: The New Know Nothing Party?

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

The Know Nothing Party of the USA naturally doesn't know, but we know backward travel in time is impossible because of entropy, and we know with precision how we travel forward in time.

However the Know Nothing Party appeals to million upon millions of Americans as we can see by their voting for Mr Trump.

For the Know Nothing Party, Mr Trump and the Republican Party, click on The GOP: The New Know Nothing Party?

Stop

 

[SD45T-2]

I get the impression you have an appreciation for things Industrial. Does that hail from your Grandfather? THANK YOU for the vids!!

I don't really know why I like most of the stuff I like. I mean, nobody in my family has a background in railroading.

 

[Cloudpatrol]

I don't really know why I like most of the stuff I like. I mean, nobody in my family has a background in railroading.

Right!

Not everything needs a "WHY?"

 

[Mole]

I don't really know why I like most of the stuff I like. I mean, nobody in my family has a background in railroading.

Dear Mr Stoat,

I have driven a steam train from Picton to Thirlmere on the Loop Line, across the viaduct and through the tunnel and through the Bush to Thirlmere. Click on -

- Mole.

 

[VeniVidiVertigo]

Your Hitler scenario made me laugh so hard! What continent would you have wanted to discover?

Between your answer in your welcome thread and this one, I see you will be a fun/thoughtful playmate on the forum. Glad you joined!

Thank you! If i traveled back in time to explore i would have to have some parts of my memory removed, so i wouldn't know what we would discover. So then the continent really would not matter. Maybe as a part of a viking expedition to the middle east, living out my days as a elite mercenary (Varangian Guard) to the byzantine emperor. Or as a part of a spanish expedition to the americas.

Other scenarios/eras i would like to live in: The goldrush in klondike or in the beginning of the oil industry. doing everything to get ahead of my competition. bying up smaller companies, manipulating the stock markeds, hirering professional buerocrats to influence bills and legislations. Gaining total monopoly in the states before turning to the the overseas markeds. then dying alone and friendless in my ivory tower. My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!

 

[LovecraftianMonstrosity]

Definitely the future. I think it might actually be a bit exciting/scary in a way, and cause me to change completely because so many things will be possible then that are just not possible now. It would have been nice to have witnessed the birth of life for example, but I think it would be transformative in every way to even visit for a very short period in the future. Even if the stay was impermanent I think the benefits would be amazing. I think I would come back completely changed as an individual and be better for it while having a more positive impact on the present.

 

[Mole]

Definitely the future. I think it might actually be a bit exciting/scary in a way, and cause me to change completely because so many things will be possible then that are just not possible now. It would have been nice to have witnessed the birth of life for example, but I think it would be transformative in every way to even visit for a very short period in the future. Even if the stay was impermanent I think the benefits would be amazing. I think I would come back completely changed as an individual and be better for it while having a more positive impact on the present.

If we go to the future, there is no coming back.

Worse, when we go to the future, everyone we know is dead.

And to come back to the present from the future is pure fantasy, because coming back to the present is made impossible by entropy.

What is important is that the fantasy of going to the future and coming back to the present, only tells us about our own psyche.

And yet the last thing the fantasists will do is to analyse their own psyche, evaluate their own psyche, and integrate it into their daily lives.

Such fantasy is pure narcissism and who would trust a narcissist?

 

[Z Buck McFate]

I think I'd travel to the past and take an invisible vantage point of 'a week in the life' of my ancestors- both to get a sense of what they were like, but also get a sense of what the time period was really like. Historical accounts can only do so much, and I think ultimately movies/fiction about past time periods somewhat makes us lose touch with how we'll never really know. I'd have a really hard time narrowing down which ancestor I'd visit though, if I could only pick one. I know the ancestor from whom my last name comes (I'm sure there's a correct term, don't know what it is- beyond 9th great paternal grandfather) came to the US around 1645, and was among the first to move into a settlement near Plymouth- that might be the one I'd choose.