on edit:

OR

try to refine the Constitution and parts of the Bill of Rights.

Is it naïve to think the country would be different today?

150 years ago to follow Joseph Smith around. 1,400 years ago to see if a mountain really moved, 2,000 years ago to see what was up with Jesus, 2,500 or so for Buddha, a little more for Moses and 6,543 years to "find" Adam and Eve.

Then when all the results are in perhaps humanity can get over the whole god delusion and evolve an inch or two.

That's how religion survives.

For instance:

What a great reason for time travel! I'd for sure check out Benny at the Carnegie, and drop in on a young Louis Armstrong playing the clubs with his Hot 5's. But if I could go to only one historical concert I'd probably pick something that wasn't recorded. Maybe go to Germany in 1876 and sit in on the premier performance of Brahms' 1st Symphony...

Yessir. Musical time travel would be heaven.

See the same place through different decades or centuries...while trying to avoid getting burned at the stake by contemporaries for wearing funny clothes, taking photos etc.

a better daughter, sibling, wife, mother, and friend.

To find out where the heck they came from and who their parents were! Other ancestors I'd like to visit and ask them why they did stuff - like Charles Crow who threw a black man out of his church because he'd been preaching to the slaves whose masters wouldn't let them come to church. The previous minister had allowed this slave to do that but Charles Crow wouldn't have it. Of course, Charles Crow left the church in South Carolina because they would not allow their ministers and deacons to own slaves. Then once he was established in Alabama he started the Alabama Baptist Convention which led to the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention - both organizations have been racist since their formation.

I'd really like to ask Charles Crow how he could call himself a Christian while being so hateful. I wonder if he'd change his ways if someone told him how much hatred his teachings brought to the South and to this country.

Or I could just invoke the "grandfather paradox" by simply killing the asshole and hope it didn't wipe out my entire family. It would certainly change history if Charles Crow hadn't lived past the age of 20.

and not meet my husband. or throw his ass out after the 3rd date, like i should have.
not all bad, but sure is not ending well.

though, I'd be tempted to do something bigger (like stop the Kennedy & King assassinations...)

Just go back & tell my old self to dump my ex-wife before we got married. A failed engagement is a lot better than a failed marriage, and would have saved me years of heartache, embarrassment and many thousands of dollars. (And, not from alimony)

To travel with a Time Lord would be awesome!

to wait for her.

I'm guessing you've never lost a loved one. I'd give anything to be able to see my dad again or my mom before her dementia.

And probably how old they are. In any case, what's with the rude reply? I guess you haven't lost loved ones either.

He said your guess would be wrong.

It wasn't rude.

Then you said again you guessed he'd never lost a loved one.

That was a little rude. Or confused.

It certainly wasn't clear what I was wrong about. He/she responded to a post entitled "I would have thought the obvious reason...." and respond with nothing but "I would be wrong" indicating that the response was attributed to "I would have thought...". Had he/she been referring to what I had guessed he/she would have normally responded that I guessed wrong. Since we can't read people's minds there's only language clues. Of course, there wouldn't be any having to interpret anything if he/she would just have bothered to be clear.

And yes, anyone that wrote a post about why people would want to time travel and mention financial gain as if that's the biggest reason (and their own reason) why anyone would I would think had never lost a loved one otherwise it seems pretty sad and crass to put money at the top of their own list much less everyone else's.

referring to. no mind reading needed.

had I taken the OTHER choice -- at any given time, we have choices, we make one, but what about the other? The one not taken. How would things have turned out?

Just for fun. Be afraid to change much. Could make it worse.

I would like to see the art of Persia. I would like to see the ancient cultures of South America and see their architecture in their good years. Actually I would like to see all the stories of mankind from the beginning -- a crazy time lapse I guess!

probably around 11 or 12

just to be once again with those i loved

i don't really think i'd do much different. maybe one thing. but mostly just to be with loved ones i've lost

Along with Lenin, Stalin, and the rest of the Bolsheviks.

Curtailing countless millions of deaths, and the greater suffering caused by that asshole...
All with a single bullet.
*nods*

If Hitler hadn't risen to power, would somebody even worse taken his place? After World War 1, Germany was beaten and down & out as a nation, so if Hitler hadn't risen to power, somebody else could very well have taken his place.

in a juke joint.

like ensure the failed hostage rescue mission was a success and that George Will doesn't get a hold of Carter's debate prep notes?

Long story.

I'd love to find out why Stonehenge and the pyramids were built.

The wait and this tepid beverage are killing me.

I was 17 when my Dad died, and my parents were not a priority. It would be nice to get to know him.

-re-did my middle school and high school years by keeping in more touch with my friends, asking girls out more, and fighting back against my bullies.
-re-lived the days when the Raiders were good.
-re-lived the era of 90s music (since that is most of what's on my iPod).
-took up pee wee football and other sports aside from t-ball when I was a kid.
-stopped myself from finding paid online dating sites and paid porn sites.
-stopped myself from getting "parts" on my forehead whenever I saw the barber as a kid, and started using hair growth/strengthening products during high school when I first noticed my hairline receding.
-stopped myself from buying so many hats (I have at least 2 dozen).
-gotten a downstairs apartment room instead of an upstairs room so that I would've been free to make more noise, and so that I'd have an easier time lugging my bike around.

With someone other than Sylvia .

You too?

Wait... maybe she's still around. Anyone here managed to keep up with Sylvia?

or the 7 wonders of the ancient world. The Valley of the Kings and Angkor Wat when they were young.

To see my great grandparents as newly weds. That would be a nice start

but it'd be fun (and reckless) to visit the the DaVinci's, or Newton's or Mozart's of the eras, and explain in great detail how something like an internal combustion engine works, or atomic power, or sketch out an electric guitar for them. Just to see their reactions. (I know, I know. We'd all be dead now as a result.)

October 17, 1986 and stay home all night.

The first one is that I would have told my mom to fuck off when she was helping me with my college selection. She guided me towards schools that SHE would have liked and I was unable to express my own concerns.

This is more recent, but I made some mistakes with someone who I loved very much (as in I never felt that way about anyone else before). I'd love to time travel to correct those mistakes and (hopefully) I'd still be with him.

Other than that a few career mistakes would be corrected too.

to see the world as it was in reality before humans spoiled it

there's a thing i can't remember what it's called but let's call it island naivietie

it's where you go to a place and they've never seen humans and you see the world as it was meant to be seen, thick with life, FRIENDLY LIFE, that doesn't fear you

long story i encountered it on an unspoiled island offshore africa and really saw what it was like where birds etc didn't look at you with fear and suspicion

to see the beauty of the world before the 5 percent who are sociopaths spoiled it for everyone...it opens your eyes

we could have had everything & we lost it to the 5 percent who only live for money and rape, not in theory, in reality, we really did, it isn't like you have to go 100 years in the past, go 5 years in the past

we are killing are a beautiful planet and we will never know what we threw away to make a few billionaires

I would find out who the Somerton Man was. I'd solve a lot of unsolved murders. I hope my time traveling machine makes theremin noises and has spiraling shapes on it.

and to help Sally Hemmings understand she can leave. Jefferson was a genius, but he sure had dickish moments

the 60% ratio wasn't selected at random. Without it the US would most likely have split apart and been gradually recolonized by the Europeans over the next generation. Not that the 3/5s thing isn't morally reprehensible by today's standards, but believe it or not, the compromise was actually a pretty big step forward toward the eventual ending of slavery.

to the exact time I was there on each previous trip and populate the world with lots of versions of me.

I saw this time travel problem mentioned once on The Artful Detective (a.k.a. Murdoch Mysteries).

Zeppelin
Beatles
Doors
Hendrix

So on and so forth.

And other things like that.

John must have sensed something in that 15-year-old. Is it true that both Aunt Mimi and Julia were there-or was just made up as a story for the film "Nowhere Boy"?

If I have to go "down there", so be it (I probably deserved it), but PLEASE let me go back in time to find out what REALLY happened. . .

1. What REALLY happened to Glenn Miller & Amelia Earhart?
2. What was life really like during the period of Colonial Williamsburg 1770's (LOVE that place -- visit it yearly for 30 years).
3. What was it like when my homeland, Ukraine, was being settled.
4. What were my parents and their families like before they were forced out of their homeland?
5. What made my brother hurt so much that made his so mean and cruel?

I want an HONEST, unbiased (through G-d's eyes) opinion, not just a travel. I want to know the trust. I figure by then, I should be able to handle the truth.

to the time when fishing was stupid good. You know, just to experience it.

I think I've come close in this modern age to that experience anyway. But I'd like to have it every day till I grow old and die. Ever catch bluegills? Northern Pike? Bass? Crappie? Walleye? Catfish? I would like to fish in Ohio in 1750 with my modern day equipment. Hell, 1970 I could clean up. Fun.

That would be my second choice after chatting with the Buddha. But I'd want to take along something like an AK47 or fully auto shotgun or something. Not willing to turn into Dino Chow for the experience.

the advantages of going Back in Time and I wonder just how chatty would Buddha be

he was pretty willing to talk to anybody, if the stories in the Pali Canon are true. Problem is, we'd need to learn to speak Pali, and that's a dead language. Not sure how much we could communicate in-depth with facial expressions, gestures and body language.

I am scared of horses. No way I'd want to see a dinosaur!

I think that would kinda ruin it for me, frankly.

All yall down there. Shut up; you look stupid with feathers.



[font size="1"]<== Yes, you especially [/font]

and Yes, I know it is birds that have evolved from the dinosaur. Magnificent Creatures.

Try to find out if there's anything to his teachings or if he was deluded or just another charlatan or whatever. I wouldn't try to change the course of history, though. I haven't figured out the Grandfather Paradox yet.

All kidding aside about dinosaurs, old jazz singers, etc., etc., etc., all of us have thought, at one time or another, "I wish I would have..."

Now let's throw a time machine in there. If you could choose to go back to a particular age, time, place and family, and carry with you the collected memory and knowledge you have now, what would you do? (The family you choose has to be the same ethnic background as yours and not more famous or rich than yours...for instance, you can't say "I want Caleb and Mary Jo Deschanel as my parents because it would be cool to have Zooey Deschanel as a sister." Which it would be, but that doesn't count.)

I would choose to go back to the age of five, in a 1940s Southern California city with a large high school, to a nice leftist family not containing the mother who invented helicopter parenting. I would have gone for a Ph.D. in either electrical or aerospace engineering then joined the Air Force when the Air Force was still doing cutting-edge research.

God knows I needed it.

Very few of which I want to make public knowledge.

and how different cultures emerged, evolved and why.

Only one, and it has to do with my own behavior, and hurting another person's feelings.

The choices you make in the present, the NOW, are all that matters.

I've played with time travel, but my experiments mostly failed. Every time I killed a Hitler or Stalin, something much worse happened. I've returned to too many radioactive wastelands and dead civilizations. Catching mutant rats for dinner and dying of cancer in the cold is no fun. Especially when you expected to return to a nice comfy bed.

You'll notice Doctor Who never messes with the worst stuff, so I suspect he's experienced the same.

Damn Gottfried Leibniz and his best of all possible worlds.

Still, dinosaurs are really cool.

It's too bad they were beginning to frighten greater powers.

while they were working out the definitions of 'freedom' and such:

1. People should be able to vote regardless of gender or ethnicity or how much property they own. Yes, really, Mr. Jefferson & co.... Women should vote.

2. Abolish slavery immediately and ensure that segregationist policies cannot be put into place. This will save lots of trouble.

3. Acknowledge that the Native people of North America have territorial rights - and do not break treaties with them.

4. Please define what "right to bear arms means" means, in terms of the specific types of 'arms' for which one has a right to bear (single-shot muskets, axe, sword..etc).


That's a pretty tough sell for 18th century minds, but it's worth trying

Phase 1) Video tape the lottery numbers being revealed next year.
Phase 2) Buy your friend lottery numbers that match the video you made.
Phase 3) Change the timeline enough over the course of the year to change the drawing.
Phase 4) Buy a ticket for yourself with the new winning numbers
Phase 5) Watch the video that has the winning numbers they have (losing numbers).
Phase 6) Reveal the fake video by showing them the real drawing
Phase 7) Reveal the lotto ticket that you bought has winning numbers
Phase 8) Give them the winning ticket

Fling stuff between timelines.
Shoot a water balloon and send it into the future to hit someone that you lead into the spot it will hit.

Just to see what the ancients knew.

One of the great tragedies of ancient history, memorialized in myths and Hollywood film, is the burning of the great library at Alexandria. But the reality of the Library's end was actually a lot less pyrotechnic than that. A major cause of the Library's ruin was government budget cuts.

Yes, I'd go back and ask my grandmother a ton of questions. And I might even go back to when my mother was a child and see what kind of relationship she had with my grandmother.

Later...

I would take Jim Henson to a hospital the minute he felt bad. I feel the world lost out on so much when he died.

Meet up with my mom who was a teenager then. We would go to her favorite 5 and dime store at Christmas time and buy everything her heart desired.

and try to get Janis Joplin to do *anything* else that day.

Seriously, though -

If time travel were possible, we'd already have it! Think about it...

Though no, I wouldn't do such a thing...

However, to tell the truth, I think some would use it to fix some huge mistake or accident. Particularly if it involves someone dying or getting sick.

If such a thing was going on with me, I'd probably use that for that and only that. Financial gain is tertiary for me.