I always think it would be cool to visit some historical moment. Then I remember I’m not white and that I would not be having a very good time.
You’ve just got to pick carefully. Race (as in skin colour as the determining factor for group identity) was invented in the 17th century, so before that you’re just a foreigner like the rest of us would be. After that, yes, avoiding Europe and European-inspired places is recommended.
At least a century after the 15th Millennium but at least a century prior to the 25th Millennium.
I think I’d go paleolithic. Pre-agricultural, on the move finding food, being in nature. It’d be dicey obviously but like whatever, if you die you die. I feel like the physical activity, adrenaline, living in community, being in nature… Would just be nice. I feel like I probably wouldn’t be depressed anymore eventually. Like who would have the time?
Also damn can you imagine seeing like 4000 lb armadillos and shit? Living among a bunch of now-extinct megafauna seems like it would be both thrilling and terrifying. Honestly I’d probably die by trying to Disney princess with a twelve foot tall deer or some shit.
I like how you just verbed the fuck out of Disney Princess.
Not human prehistory. That one would suck, I’m in no way built and trained as a hunter-gatherer. Either some civilisation, pre-humans or a recent era, then.
From the wording I’m assuming limited control of where I land, So I can’t airdrop in behind a world leader or into a vault, but I can choose a region.
Gilded age is tempting, for classic “change history” reasons, and because I could kickstart semiconductors early and make a buck. The disadvantage is I’d be destitute on arrival, and my education, while extensive, is undocumented there, so maybe I’d die in a coal mine anyway. Perhaps I’d pick England and try to chat up Bertrand Russel, he could vouch for my knowledge after a quick conversation and might even be a good choice to explain my situation to.
If I’m going ancient civilisation, probably Rome. I could find some sort of industry to start and even just my clothes will be valuable. The Incas would be cool to but if I’m being adventurous I want more time to prepare.
Pre-human, maybe New Zealand. I’ll eat local forage and hunt moa until I eventually die. It’s better than starving, and I don’t have to worry so much about large predators.
Not sure about pre-human NZ, I’d be worried about the Haast’s Eagles wanting to turn me into a tasty snack.
IIRC they couldn’t really lift an adult man very well. At that point, I can deal with them by carrying a pointy stick whenever I’m under open sky.
Plus at least with Rome you have running sewage and democracy / a republic system somewhere in there
By the way, this would be a great fit over here. https://lemmy.sdf.org/c/hypotheticalsituation if it’s not indexed already.
California in the 1960’s. Being a hippy during Woodstock sounds like the ultimate experience I missed out on just because I didn’t exist at the time
1: Ten seconds from now, I have shit to do.
2: A week ago. “I bet you a billion dollars that sub implodes…”
3000
Holy cow, a million years into the future!
For no raisin?
As recent as possible to have modern medicine; I like not dying from a flu…
Whenever I had the flu, I just went through it. Maybe some medicine to feel less sick, but nothing to actually prevent it from killing me.
We all have an immune system that is used to combating the flu.
The germs you’d get in contact with from a basic lack of hygiene, that’s what will get you.
Note that I’m a healthy 30-something person, so the flu is not much of an issue for me. I don’t want to disminish its deadlines on people with lower immune systems, but they would suffer in environments with bad hygiene even worse.
That was mostly a general statement rather than specifically about influenza. People often died from things that we don’t worry about in the modern era. Stuff much worse than influenza that we don’t need to worry about today we’re devastating back then, like smallpox. Perhaps I should have used smallpox as an example, since this is a disease that literally doesn’t exist anymore.
I’d like to see a lot of things in history but not sure I’d like to live in those times. I’d go back to 1980 because a bunch of cool stuff happens in the 1980s and 1990s that I could fully enjoy and exploit.
Few hundred years into the future, interested to see what people get up to
Four hours from now, because then I’d be off work for the day.
It said era, so I assume “modern” could just as well land you in 2006 Iraq.
I mean, it’s also time travel, not location travel, so I’d be most likely to end up in space and die almost instantly.
Depends what reference frame you’re using. If you’re following an inertial frame backwards through time you’re most likely to end up deep inside the Earth, actually, because that would put you in a sort of orbit.
I don’t think that’s any better.
It’s not. The good news is it’s sucking you in like a high pressure opening doesn’t, and at least your end isn’t falling, so that’s probably not how the magic works.
The other trope-based possibility is it leaves you roughly where you geographically are in your new era. That’s limiting as hell if you’re somewhere with a short history like I am, which I guess is another argument to go recent.
The real answer
So you’d basically be gone for 4 hours? Not that I would recommend it but do you have a bathroom at your company?
Think big, how about 28 hours so you’re off work for the weekend instead of just the day?
1 hour into the future so I can eat lunch early and avoid the dangers of going to some new reality I don’t have the skills or resources to deal with.
1 week into the past so that you can put a bet on some event that you actually still remember, and avoid the dangers of the distant eras
My highschool days. Wouldn’t change a thing either, except I wouldn’t start smoking cigarettes.
But you aren’t turning into your younger self, surely it’s back to the future rules.
You take away the cigarettes from your Younger self.
I believe in the multi-verse approach to backwards time travel. Solves the grandfather paradox. When you go back in time you branch to a new timeline. So if you went back to your high school days, you would be in a world where a version of you exists as a youngster and version of you exists in parallel as the guy who travelled back in time. You’d be two different people and you could talk to your younger self without creating a paradox. When travelling forward in time you stay on the same timeline. Quantum mechanics theorizes that’s what happens.
30 years ago, to start creepily leaving teenage me notes to make better decisions
