If you could go back in history...

[Rejistania]

Bush was not the best president, even I get angry at him sometimes, but if Gore was President, America would be doomed.

True.

Id have to see some proof.....

You don't want to remember the dollar disaster? I know 8 years are a long time, but has the Dollar Disaster completely slipped your mind? Presidents don't encourage the use of milliard and other long scale names to make the hyperinflation seem less bad.

[Leach Islands]

stop the EU from forming

[Robarya]

stop the EU from forming

How would you expect to do that? I think that an European co-operation was more or less an unavoidable development in the aftermath of World War II, due to the balance of power decisively shifting from Europe to the US of A and Russia.

[Leach Islands]

Let Germany keep france and end WW2 before D-Day, problem solved

[Atreath]

Plan B:

I'd take the alias 'Steve', go back and seduce Adam.

You could just go back and edit the relevant bit of Bible.
Or supplant Moses and make a good set of laws.

A better Idea. And what I would do personally:

Kill abraham or prevent his birth. It would solve a lot of problems.

[Robarya]

Let Germany keep france and end WW2 before D-Day, problem solved

I would have liked to see NS Germany win --or at least survive-- WW II too, but sadly that was highly unlikely after the failure to defeat Russia in 1941-1942.

[Lunatic Goofballs]

Plan B:

I'd take the alias 'Steve', go back and seduce Adam.

You could just go back and edit the relevant bit of Bible.
Or supplant Moses and make a good set of laws.

That could work too. And it could be considerably less... awkward.

[Osgarna]

See, the problem is that it's impossible to change history (not to mention all the problems with free will that time travel poses). People generally only think of the case where you kill an ancestor or yourself or something as creating a paradox, but it is much easier than that. For example, if I missed the bus because it came early, I might want to go back in time to make the bus arrive later so that I catch it. But if I do that, I won't have missed the bus because it won't have come early, so it will never occur to me to go back in time and slow the bus down. The same applies to preventing any other event. Therefore, since a paradox arises with any attempt to change the past, it must be impossible.

Assuming I could change something however, I'm still not sure that I would. It would be to hard to predict the results of the alteration.

[Ferrous Oxide]

See, the problem is that it's impossible to change history (not to mention all the problems with free will that time travel poses). People generally only think of the case where you kill an ancestor or yourself or something as creating a paradox, but it is much easier than that. For example, if I missed the bus because it came early, I might want to go back in time to make the bus arrive later so that I catch it. But if I do that, I won't have missed the bus because it won't have come early, so it will never occur to me to go back in time and slow the bus down. The same applies to preventing any other event. Therefore, since a paradox arises with any attempt to change the past, it must be impossible.

Assuming I could change something however, I'm still not sure that I would. It would be to hard to predict the results of the alteration.

Umm... you know this HOW? Time travel is completely unknown.

[Osgarna]

See, the problem is that it's impossible to change history (not to mention all the problems with free will that time travel poses). People generally only think of the case where you kill an ancestor or yourself or something as creating a paradox, but it is much easier than that. For example, if I missed the bus because it came early, I might want to go back in time to make the bus arrive later so that I catch it. But if I do that, I won't have missed the bus because it won't have come early, so it will never occur to me to go back in time and slow the bus down. The same applies to preventing any other event. Therefore, since a paradox arises with any attempt to change the past, it must be impossible.

Assuming I could change something however, I'm still not sure that I would. It would be to hard to predict the results of the alteration.

Umm... you know this HOW? Time travel is completely unknown.

Logic!

[Peach marmalade]

id go back in time and prevent tupac being shot...the first time. maybe then rap wouldnt have taken such a terrible turn...*shivers from lil wayne*


but, eh, for serious, id go back in time and probably prevent Jim Jones from being the sociopath he turned out to be, some how....hopefully not in his death. but somehow.

[Mirkana]

Not to be a stickler. But the ancient State of Israel is not the modern State. I am sure you read the Talmud to quite an extent. You are aware of exactly how genocidal the old Israelites were right? As well as militarily aggressive. I believe they genocided/ethnically cleansed no less than 3-4 people, because "God commanded them to." You really want to give those people access to high class military grade material?

That's almost worse than giving Hitler nukes, only difference being Hitler is in modern times. The Israelites in ancient times. I realize you want to perhaps save your people from undue harm to come in the future. However to be fair, the means don't really justify the end. However couldn't this also be solved by removing the Sanhedrins role in the death of Jesus Christ? I am sure a LOT of massacres and persecutions of your people could have been averted had the Jewish High Council not arrogantly played such a big role in the death of the person who would later become the Messiah to the most practiced religion in the world.

But the Jews are always right. Duh.

More accurately, G-d is always right.

Anyway, my plan was to give the weapons to the Zealots, not the ancient Israelites. See, I don't know if whatever technology I could introduce would be enough to defeat a strong, unified empire anyway. But the Judean revolt occured in the middle of a Roman civil war. Once Vespasian's army is toast, there may not be another to take its place. By the time the Romans get their act together, Israel will by fully independent.

Oh, one more thing. I wasn't exactly planning on giving the Zealots gunpowder, longbows, and the scientific method, and then just leaving. I was more thinking of taking charge myself.

[Allrule]

Kill that guy who killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand. No WW2, no Hitler, no Holocaust. What wouldn't be to love if that happened?

[Jordaxia]

if I could go back in history, I would stop this thread ever being created. But then how would I be inspired to make my time machine to do just that? oh gods.

[Osgarna]

if I could go back in history, I would stop this thread ever being created. But then how would I be inspired to make my time machine to do just that? oh gods.

You just earned a big, shiny medal.

[Heinleinites]

If I could, I wouldn't. My subjective judgement of what would make history "better" wouldn't be worth the risk that I might break the universe.

I'm going to go with this. People always seem to think that an alternative will be 'better' but who's to say that this timeline might not be the best of all worlds, and that every other alternative is so much worse?

These kind of threads always remind me of that Ray Bradbury story where the guys go back to hunt dinosaurs, and the one guy gets scared and leaves 'the path' and steps on a ant, and changes all of history so that the world is completely crap when they get back.

i would prevent the master from giving the stirup to the etruscans so there would never have been a roman empire. for oh so many reasons.

The Master? I think you're confusing Doctor Who with actual reality. The first dependable representation of a rider with paired stirrups was found in China in a Jin Dynasty tomb of about AD 322. The Etruscan civilization had run it's course by roughly 396 BC, with them ceasing to be a political power by roughly 500 BC. Plus, even if the Etruscans had had stirrups, I highly doubt that was the sole cause of the rise of the Roman Empire

[Greed and Death]

Kill John Maynard Keynes. not because he is bad, but because those who claim to be Keynesian have no clue what he meant. Sort of like fundies and Jesus Christ.

Then all the Keynesians will carry around icons of Keynes that shows the manner in which he was killed.

Kill him in 1928.

[JuNii]

If you could go back in history what event or catastrophe (personal or not) would you try to prevent from happening, and why this event?

take a film crew... and go to the age of the dinosaurs and make the ultimate Dino-mentary

and if I can go multiple times, then film the entire dawn of life.

[Heinleinites]

Id have to see some proof.....

it's foolish to demand proof that a hypothetical situation would have turned out the way the person positing it says it would when there is no way to test it and see. Sure, you can argue it up and down and back and forth, but 'proof' will not be forth-coming.

[Rhodmhire]

Bush was not the best president, even I get angry at him sometimes, but if Gore was President, America would be doomed.

Id have to see some proof.....

That is all the proof we'll ever need, ever.

[Bavin]

Bush was not the best president, even I get angry at him sometimes, but if Gore was President, America would be doomed.

True.

Better Gore than Palin *Shudders at the thought*

[Minnas]

Wat? I have a feeling I'm not getting something here...

You seldom do.

[Galloism]

Wat? I have a feeling I'm not getting something here...

You seldom do.

Hush you.

[Minnas]

If I could back in time I would change this very moment.

Why is it that I can almost taste your sadness?

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

If I could back in time I would change this very moment.

Why is it that I can almost taste your sadness?

...

Who are you?