What would you do if you could travel in time?

[Ard al Islam]

I would travel back in time to become a companion of Muhammad.

Also, I would travel to various points in history and say some "predictions" about the future, all under the name Al-Hakim(The Wise). This would confuse modern historians as to why many different people named Al-Hakim made predictions about the future that were correct. Some examples:

Going to ancient Perisa and telling Cyrus "You think your nation is powerful, but in 2 millennia the most powerful nation will come from a land unknown to you, the child of the nation which will rule the south of yours, and the enemy of the nation which will rule the north of yours."

Going to Rome and saying to whoever the emperor may be "This nation will be the strongest, but you will face undefeatable adversaries in the North and in the East, and your empire will divide, and the Western half of your nation will be conquered by those Northerners and the Eastern half by some other men from the East.

Or telling Sparta "The Persians will defeat you, but a man from your confederation of Greek city-states will unite you, conquer all of Persia, and then his empire will split into 4 on his death. Then, a man from a land beyond the East will conquer more than any man ever has, and he too will die, and his children will die, and his empire will also split into 4."

I'd also tell Kennedy to duck.

[Hansdeltania]

If it was some really compact time machine, i.e. nothing bigger than a PC, I'd use it to go back two or three minutes to prevent awkward situations from arising.

[An Alan Smithee Nation]

Make history funnier.

[The Free Joy State]

Make history funnier.

And, lo, An Alan Smithee Nation sets off on a mission to debag major political figures as they make their inaugural speeches!

[Neanderthaland]

I would travel back in time to become a companion of Muhammad.

Never meet your heroes.

[Page]

I wouldn't mess with time, the butterfly effect is real and who knows what the slightest change could lead to. In contemplating my own past I once realized that going with my friend to a LAN party 14 years ago triggered a series of events that lead to my life today, and that had I not gone to that LAN party I would be living on a different continent, not married or married to someone else entirely, and probably would be a very different person overall. That's the furthest back I can definitively trace the cause and effect chain of my life but for all I know, it goes back even further for me, and even before I was born. My parents would never have met if both my grandfathers didn't have a problem with alcohol and a bad divorce. My maternal grandfather wouldn't have come to America if World War 2 played out differently. It's a long chain that goes back to the start of the universe, and that's just my life.

I mean you just holding a door open for someone with their hands full back in the 1600's might create a new timeline where Brazil is the world's sole superpower and there are no smartphones.

[The Blaatschapen]

Assume that you found a time machine that gives you the ability to travel into either the future or past in any part of the world. You can use this time machine as often as you would like to. The machine allows you to change the past if you want to, and it also allows you to simply observe it. However, you can not bring things to the present from another time period. The machine doesn't change you while you are travelling.

What would you use the time machine for? Would you try to change the past? Would it be moral to use the machine to change someone else's past?

If I had this time machine, I would first use it to travel to the Roman Republic to be able to see it. After that, I might use it to try to change my past ideas or some of my actions when I was younger if I could.

I cannot bring things to the present from another time period. But I can bring things from the present to another period then?

I'll do a few things. Besides the obligatory sports betting in my past, I'll also travel forward in time. Say, to the year 3000, and go there. If it is shit, move forward again, unless humanity is gone. The goal is to go somewhere that has massively better healthcare, technology and societal standards.

In one specific case, if the Y-chromosome has died out somewhere in the future, move to that period and hope that while they've (obviously) found a solution to the problem, that I might still be of help.

[Konolas]

I wouldn't mess with time, the butterfly effect is real and who knows what the slightest change could lead to. In contemplating my own past I once realized that going with my friend to a LAN party 14 years ago triggered a series of events that lead to my life today, and that had I not gone to that LAN party I would be living on a different continent, not married or married to someone else entirely, and probably would be a very different person overall. That's the furthest back I can definitively trace the cause and effect chain of my life but for all I know, it goes back even further for me, and even before I was born. My parents would never have met if both my grandfathers didn't have a problem with alcohol and a bad divorce. My maternal grandfather wouldn't have come to America if World War 2 played out differently. It's a long chain that goes back to the start of the universe, and that's just my life.

I mean you just holding a door open for someone with their hands full back in the 1600's might create a new timeline where Brazil is the world's sole superpower and there are no smartphones.

I would go back so you wouldn’t make this comment in turn creating a paradox

[The Blaatschapen]

Also, in the future, I can finally figure out one of the main questions that plagues Ovisity.

Do androids dream of electric sheep?

[James_xenoland]

Go back and shoot myself just before going back.. just to troll reality.

[Valentine Z]

Make history funnier.

And, lo, An Alan Smithee Nation sets off on a mission to debag major political figures as they make their inaugural speeches!

Sneak behind Hitler and make bunny ears with your fingers.

[Sapporo Hyperspace Riftgate Laboratory]

I'm going to live an accomplished person, probably become a billionaire at 12.

[Bear Stearns]

Would love to visit various historical periods and events.

Tbh I could see myself permanently living in 2004.

[Indian Genius]

I would take the young Stephen Hawking to the present and get him vaccinated. Then, I will take Albert Einstein to the present and 20-year old Hawking to the present. And then, tell them that Time Travel has been invented. Then talk with them about the Theory of Everything, and ask them to work on it. Then, I will go back to 326 BCE to see who won the battle of Hydaspes, if Alexander wins I would tell him about the present and give him real guns and soldiers so that he goes ahead into India and fights against Magadha. And if Porus wins, I will kill him. Then, I will come back to the present to one week after taking Hawking and Einstein to the present, and see if they have got the Theory of Everything. And then, go back to big bang time, and click a picture of it, both radio and photographic image. And then, take it to Hawking and Einstein so that they can do their work more easily.

[Hirota]

Come back in time and write this to confuse my past self.

[Neko-koku]

Get rid of the centralized Chinese state and expand the sphere of the NE Asian race to Sub-Saharan Africa, SEA, Americas and Oceania by 1400.

Hail East Kekistan!

[Ethel mermania]

Off the top of my head,

John wilkes booth never makes it to fords theatre.
Hitler gets into art school. (But I keep my eye on that boy)
Sirhan sirhan misses
A couple people in my life get more timely medical interventions, and dont die when they did.
I say yes to Wanda's request for a threesome.

That's enough for now.

[New haven america]

Probably pull a Professor Paradox and screw up the machine so badly that I get trapped in the timestream and go insane, but finally find a way to escape after 100+ years and travel the multiverse.

[The New California Republic]

I wouldn't change anything because I don't know what effects it may have. But if I could observe without my presence there making any difference whatsoever, then there would be lots of things that I would do. Probably too many to list.

[Alvecia]

Probably what I would have already done

[Andsed]

Probably slip sleeping pills in Gavrilo Princip sandwich. Also kill Conrad Von Hotzendorf.

[Rojava Free State]

Nothing cause if I did I might fuck up the present

[Rojava Free State]

I would travel back in time to become a companion of Muhammad.

Also, I would travel to various points in history and say some "predictions" about the future, all under the name Al-Hakim(The Wise). This would confuse modern historians as to why many different people named Al-Hakim made predictions about the future that were correct. Some examples:

Going to ancient Perisa and telling Cyrus "You think your nation is powerful, but in 2 millennia the most powerful nation will come from a land unknown to you, the child of the nation which will rule the south of yours, and the enemy of the nation which will rule the north of yours."

Going to Rome and saying to whoever the emperor may be "This nation will be the strongest, but you will face undefeatable adversaries in the North and in the East, and your empire will divide, and the Western half of your nation will be conquered by those Northerners and the Eastern half by some other men from the East.

Or telling Sparta "The Persians will defeat you, but a man from your confederation of Greek city-states will unite you, conquer all of Persia, and then his empire will split into 4 on his death. Then, a man from a land beyond the East will conquer more than any man ever has, and he too will die, and his children will die, and his empire will also split into 4."

I'd also tell Kennedy to duck.

So basically you would warn everyone about the mongols?

[Pretty Much God]

I go back in time and step on the first fish that crawled onto land, and see what happens.

[The New California Republic]

Nothing cause if I did I might fuck up the present

The OP says that this form of time travel can let you just observe without affecting events if you want it to, so no risk of changing things.