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I'm going back in time. Where should I go? What do I do?
Going back in time will change the Now.
Our Now will no longer be what we know it to be because what I do then will have a ripple effect that changes our present.
Knowing that I can't come back and the thread to this present will be forever severed, how far back should I go and what should I change?
Mind you that You, in all likelihood, may never be and your concerns for the present will be moot.
To when do I go?
What do I change?
ADDENDUM:
This is a fantasy outside of what we know of quantum mechanics. Assume that I have a magic talisman that can translate me to the past. The debate is premised on what should and/or shouldn't be done when I travel back in time.
elizabeth muncey 10+
Daniel Sheehan 20+
John Smith 30+
Go to the best day in your life.
"What do I do?"
Nothing, just watch, don't change anything. You wouldn't want to turn your own time into a post-apocalyptic wasteland, now would you?
Daniel Sheehan 20+
My best days seem to be good stuff stacked on good stuff stacked on good stuff. Topple that tower and what you get is a pile of chaotic good stuff.
But for my darkened days, they balance on the sharp end of the pin. All too often my survival depended on that precarious balance. The resulting chaotic pile of that horror could be unbearable and I couldn't guarantee that I'd survive it.
Craig Patterson 10+
Daniel Sheehan 20+
Even today when I watch the cartoon I go back in my mind and I'm sitting on the floor two feet away watching a dinky black and white TV nudging my brother at the joke I got and he didn't.
Don Wesley 50+
Realizing you are not serious.
When you get back we should have a fun conversation,
Will you be reincarnating, or flying back on a broom.
Until soon,
Aware of and caring about you All.
Don [From The Silent Generation - 1930's]
Daniel Sheehan 20+
elizabeth muncey 10+
Daniel Sheehan 20+
elizabeth muncey 10+
Andres Aullet 10+
cheers
Daniel Sheehan 20+
Yep, this would be a very different world without their influence.
Gail . 50+
1. 10th Amendment prohibits government from assuming ungranted power.
2. The establishment of a national band wasn't "necessary" as there were workable alternatives, thus the necessary powers could not be used.
3. When the Constitution was offered, 6 states vehemently disagreed. (VA, MA, CT, NY, NH, & RI). Their articles of ratification stated the terms under which they would be part of the union.
All of the above was the anti-federalist position. Their papers and speeches are still not advertised by government - as the Federalist papers are. Thomas Jefferson was 1 of their loudest spokes person.
The Federalist position remained unchanged from that which is listed in the failed arguments presented by the Federalist papers. An all-power central government - no state sovereignty. Common people should not have a voice in government because they need angels looking after them.
Bottom line: Constitution set aside and called a "guideline". Bill of Rights called "suggestions". State sovereignty voided. Supreme court elevated itself beyond that which constitution allowed - marking the first time in western civilization that a court usurped authority of a government. Necessary powers don't have to be necessary to be assumed and implied powers do not need to be constitutionally granted to be assumed. (Anti-Federalists never accepted the idea that courts should have the power it claimed, but they, being less wealthy, were in a minority.
It was a new government - of the $, by the $, and for the $.
It's the greatest secret the US government now holds.
edward long 100+
Daniel Sheehan 20+
I'd be existing in two places at the same time if I limit myself to the same period in which I exist. I do believe that any changes I make would resolve itself in a shorter time frame and have less impact on the over all time line.
But respectfully I prefer to remain unique.
edward long 100+
Barry Palmer 50+
Go way back to when mankind all lived in caves, before warfare was really a problem. Teach classes in peaceful conflict resolution, and hope for the best.
Daniel Sheehan 20+
That raises the point that cave drawings were used not only for recording events but also for illustrating techniques for hunting, stories of origin, and territorial boundaries.
Schools do go back all the way to the beginning of history.
Barry Palmer 50+
But if you are clever enough to find a way to go back in time, surely you could overcome a few other difficulties.
Ken brown 30+
I would go back to the age of the megafauna and get some climate and atmospheric data and some biological samples.
Daniel Sheehan 20+
Ken brown 30+
If i was to jump back,it would be better if i jumped from a cave that hasn't altered in 10 million years,that way i would be certain of arriving within the cave and have the cavefloor under me or hope to have it there,then the jump back would be firmer in probability?
Random Chance 30+
If you tell us what you are going to try and change, can you tell us NOW, before you go back, and try and change something? Something that we know ahead of time so that we can spot, monitor, or resist it, or keep it the same or go with it to see what happens?
You know, sort of like an experiment in the NOW. From back then, that NOW, to NOW, NOW?
And if you can, will it change the NOW of when it was supposed to happen, so that we won't know what NOW it will happen in?
Now must be a series. No Other Way
Daniel Sheehan 20+
Probability says that it has happened and we don't know the difference.
Gerald O'brian 50+
I don't mind disappearing. But it'd be disapointing if I disappeared because of a lame butterfly effect such as stepping on a rat. I'd rather you made a complete mess.
If I were you I'd go back about 300.000 years in the past, travel around the world and see how many different kinds of homonoids I can get pregnant.
Juliette Zahn 50+
The answer would be a maximum of half of one.... before you would be clubbed
over the head by the second hominoid.....;-)
Daniel Sheehan 20+
Daniel Sheehan 20+
Spreading my DNA among the early hominoids, in several generations everyone starts to look like me.
That’s kind of scary.
Pocahontas Water
Daniel Sheehan 20+
Gail . 50+
That one decision (McCulloch v Maryland) is the single starting point where all that is wrong with government began. It established a national bank that is the cause of all of America's (and the world's) problems today. The court assumed the role of the people (specifically taking it away from you if congress wants) and made it easy for the Robber Barons of their day to buy politicians.
Daniel Sheehan 20+
My question would be, what is the conflict that had to be resolved at that time, and what were the proposed resolutions that were offered or possible?
Gail . 50+
1. 10th Amendment prohibits government from assuming ungranted power.
2. The establishment of a national band wasn't "necessary" as there were workable alternatives, thus the necessary powers could not be used.
3. When the Constitution was offered, 6 states vehemently disagreed. (VA, MA, CT, NY, NH, & RI). Their articles of ratification stated the terms under which they would be part of the union.
All of the above was the anti-federalist position. Their papers and speeches are still not advertised by government - as the Federalist papers are. Thomas Jefferson was 1 of their loudest spokes person.
The Federalist position remained unchanged from that which is listed in the failed arguments presented by the Federalist papers. An all-power central government - no state sovereignty. Common people should not have a voice in government because they need angels looking after them.
Bottom line: Constitution set aside and called a "guideline". Bill of Rights called "suggestions". State sovereignty voided. Supreme court elevated itself beyond that which constitution allowed - marking the first time in western civilization that a court usurped authority of a government. Necessary powers don't have to be necessary to be assumed and implied powers do not need to be constitutionally granted to be assumed. (Anti-Federalists never accepted the idea that courts should have the power it claimed, but they, being less wealthy, were in a minority.
It was a new government - of the $, by the $, and for the $.
It's the greatest secret the US government now holds.
It's what's wrong today
Gail . 50+
It was most certainly a coup d'etat by the bankers and their wealthy friends.
Daniel Sheehan 20+
I won't make any promises but, what would be a better resolution of the issues that would work out to our advantage?
Rick Ryan 10+
But even under the criteria you state, I have to pose another question. If you are looking at the "best" thing you could do to change the future of the new "time thread" you will age in, I don't think you could really come up with a viable answer. Why?
Your assumption is that you are the ONLY time traveller that went back to the same time thread you are currently in. If you can do it, it's reasonable someone else(s) could too. So you won't be the ONLY one making changes to the current time thread you went back to. You have no idea what they may do to alter the new future for everybody, regarldess of what you did.
Basically, you couldn't predict the new future in the old time thread any better than you can predict the one you are in now.
That said, I'd just try to "do" (change...make a better decision about) ) whatever I thought I did "wrong" in my previous time-line...and hope for the best.
ADD: Of course, there is the theory of parallel universes created for each indiviuual. So your going back might mean you WERE the only one in "your" new universe. If that happened, then you...and only you...could be the catalyst for future change. But you couldn't be sure what that change would ultimately result in either. Too many variables if all the other people in "your" new universe are going to react to the change you created.
Daniel Sheehan 20+
I don't think the time line could support this type of temporal anomaly. The outcome would sever the time thread supporting my translation back in time and I'd wind up where I began with a null result. My magic talisman would break.
Regardless of what I thought would be the "best" action to change the time line of the past I could only be sure of a "different" outcome of the time line. For example, if I went back to Ireland in the early 1800's and introduce variable farming techniques and a blight resistant potato that would prevent the Irish Potato Famine my great-grandparents may not have emigrated to America and I (or what would be me) may have been born in Ireland. It would be a different outcome not necessarily a best outcome.
As far as changing the mistakes of my past, I have to accept that whatever time I went back to and made a significant change to the time line would alter my life experiences leading up to using the magic talisman.
There are some mistakes that I don't think I should change.
Current parallel universe theories include the concept that there are universes that the change I'd make were already made. In that case I'd arrive at that temporal causality and then continue along in that parallel universe's time line.
Daniel Sheehan 20+
It is imposible for me to go back and affect any timeline that would prevent me from being. My timeline would still have to be secure so some of you would have to exist in a consistant present.
Are you the lucky ones?