this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2024
32 points (100.0% liked)

Asklemmy

1454 readers
52 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_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
top 25 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de 14 points 3 weeks ago

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)

[–] refurbishedrefurbisher@lemmy.sdf.org 14 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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

[–] huquad@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 weeks ago

Turn the fuck back around!

[–] EABOD25@lemm.ee 12 points 3 weeks ago

I'd definitely pull a Biff Tannen

[–] moonlight@fedia.io 11 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.

[–] Aggravationstation@feddit.uk 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?

[–] moonlight@fedia.io 4 points 3 weeks ago

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

[–] chaosCruiser@futurology.today 3 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.

[–] moonlight@fedia.io 1 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.

Oh, in that case… I guess you might need to bring anthrax with you and eradicate the early humans when they were all still conveniently in one continent.

[–] bizarroland@fedia.io 9 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.

[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 3 weeks ago

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

[–] schwim@lemm.ee 5 points 3 weeks ago

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

[–] chaosCruiser@futurology.today 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.

[–] CCMan1701A@startrek.website 4 points 3 weeks ago

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

[–] MrAlternateTape@lemm.ee 3 points 3 weeks ago

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.

[–] Eryn6844 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] python@programming.dev 1 points 3 weeks ago

Hell yea, punch that kid before he can derail the timeline

[–] vk6flab@lemmy.radio 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I'd go back 30 seconds before you hit submit on this question and take your keyboard away from you.

Seriously, this is a question that's essentially "What if?" which has been debated by philosophers, argued by historians, fantasized and written about in countless books and displayed in libraries and museums around the planet.

What on earth did you think this question would add to the fabric of society?

[–] EABOD25@lemm.ee 22 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

You know you could have just downvoted and moved on. Instead you chose to suck the fun out. You're a fun-sucker.

Every party needs a pooper and I guess that poopers you. Party pooper

[–] vk6flab@lemmy.radio 1 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

The word you're looking for is "curmudgeon".

What I was actually trying to do is encourage a discourse that furthered society, rather than rehash a trope such as the one found at the source of this thread.

I'm not confident that this will actually eventuate here, but I'm hopeful that someone will pleasantly surprise me.

[–] Octospider@lemm.ee 18 points 3 weeks ago

tips fedora. Ah, a fellow articulate. I too galavant through Lemmy in search of stimulating discourse. Unfortunately, I am met with conversation that is most superfluous. Heh. You've probably correctly surmised my IQ is higher than most.

Good luck fellow intellectual. Let us further society.

[–] NakariLexfortaine@lemm.ee 5 points 3 weeks ago

How about instead of coming in and being a dick in someone's thread, you post things to encourage what you're looking for?

No, it must just be easier to smell your own shit in the garden than finding a toilet.

[–] EABOD25@lemm.ee 4 points 3 weeks ago

Nope. The words I was looking for is fun-sucker and party pooper. Let people have fun lol

[–] Cube6392 2 points 3 weeks ago

20,000 bce. tell the first person to come up with social hierarchy to fuck off