If you had to decide whether to go forward 1000 years or back 1000 years, which would you choose? Assuming you could retain all memories but take nothing with you, would you go back in time and advance civilization at a "blinding pace" or go forward to see what’s what?

We're going backwards in time. Remember, entropy tends towards maximum decay. Since we're every improving ourselves, our society, our capabilities - the entropy arrow is obviously pointed in the opposite direction.

The reason is that we're caught in a wormhole that's looped itself and is literally upchucking it's contents (our vast section of the universe warped to a small fraction of an inch) back into the cosmos (much bigger than the universe - the Russians have always been bigger).

We don't see it because of relativity. Everything is relative, including time.

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Ok, enough of that.

I'd go back a 1,000 years, where fleas propogated plagues among humans, where peasants (most were peasants) were subject to being killed at the whim of noblemen and where the clergy engaged themselves in the same power struggles as the landholders.

On second thought...

hmmmm...

I think I'd go to the future. Once there, I'd check out the archives and find out who won every major sporting event in the early 21st century.

Then I'd come back to my present time, bet on the winners and live in comfort.

Hmm... back in time where things really weren't fun, or forward in time where you don't know if anything is left at all...

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Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?

There's the rub. Take a chance and go back where you can change things (hopefully for the better) or go forward to who know's what...

the first question a prospective traveler should ask is "can i return to my starting point?"

if the answer is 'no' I'd go backwards - I know I can live then, and probably make a difference

If the answer is 'yes', I'd definately go forward. I pretty much know what happend, I want to know what's GOING to happen

No question, I'd go forward in time. How could I pass up the chance to live in a bending robot's closet?

But--but--but I don't want to go a whole 1000 years back! Only about 450!

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Just go back and live a really long time...

You probably end being burned at the stake for being a witch.

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An idea is not responsible for the people who believe in it.

I wouldn't hesitate to go forward in time. Even if you managed to play Connecticut yankee in King Arthur's court, you would be going back without modern medicine and sanitation. You'll be taking a chance in either direction, but travel to the future could take you to the stars. Going to the past would get you an early grave.

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I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?

Disclaimer: Avatar is not an official NASA image and does not imply any specific interplanetary or interstellar capability.

The Leif Ericson Cruiser

Your thinking is too linear. I want to go sideways in time and be the first person to see what is there. Besides I live in Georgia and a 1000 years ago I would be stuck in a pine forest and if it was a 1000 years in the future I would still be stuck in a pine forest. So that is why I must travel sideways in time just to see if I can get out of this pine forest.

I'd go back. Ideally about 2,000 years so I could see brochs in use, or about 5,000 years so I could see our stone circles being built and used.

1,000 years would stick me into the Norse era here. That'd be interesting, and there'd probably be a lot more Pictish stuff around for me to look at than there is these days. A couple of brochs may still have been in use too. They'd certainly be in better condition than these days. I'm just thinking out loud now, so I'll stop.

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This is a whole bunch of hoohee!!!! buuut... for what it's worth....

i'd like to go back to Dealey Plaza and prevent the assassination....

R I P JFK

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clear skies

"HELLO HUMAN. WE ARE THE ROBOTS. WE OWN THE FUTURE. YOU WILL SERVE US UNTIL YOU DIE. HAVE A NICE DAY."

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"A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right." -- Thomas Paine

Being intelligent is not a felony. But most societies evaluate it as at least a misdemeanor. -- Heinlein

Creationists make it sound as though a "theory" is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night. -- Isaac Asimov

That's a great idea. With such a perspective, you could trace the development of boiled peanuts!

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As long as I could get back, and if I could move around in the past at will, I'd forgo the financial rewards of future knowledge for knowing what really happened back then.The idea of getting to know the original scientists is just too darn tempting. That combined with experiencing the real starts of the cults that later became major religions would be more satisfying than monetary rewards.

That reminds me of a passage in Slaughterhouse-Five OR THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.:

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Good point! Let's assume (for the sake of argument) that you could NOT return.

I think that going back would be so rewarding that it would have to be the choice I would make. Imagine the difference it could make if you taught people something as simple as washing their hands before eating. I haven't been able to teach my 13 yr. old son that lesson yet, but anyway...

I don't deny that I would love to visit other planets/colonies in the future (if we don't blow ourselves up before we get there of course) though.

I'd go forward and get some of those immortality pills and a nice space ship and have a really good look around. But I'd pack a big lunch in case there's nobody left.

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Life is like a box of chocolates. All of your choices are bad for you.

My wishlist:

1) Adopt a dinosaur as a pet. Possibly a raptor.

2) Shake the hand of Elvis... on stage. With my space/timeship zapping in right in the middle of his show.

3) Pull a prank on H.P. Lovecraft, by having a score of men dress up in fakey tentacle costumes. Then, in the middle of the night, in the dark, we swarm him and freak him out.

4) Make sure to "tap into" the line of Alexander Graham Bell's first telephone. I would thusforth set the record as the world's first crank call.

5) I would meet Albert Einstein, tell him I'm from the future, and then hand him a comb, before mysteriously zapping out. Then I look at future photos to see if he got the hint. (Not that I think that wild hair is bad, but I do like messing with people).

6) I would visit Medieval France, bringing a little TV. I'd make sure to get an audience with the King of France, and then show him that little part from "Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail"... you know, that scene with the Frenchman. I would have a back-up plan involving running like hell, and getting to my time machine.

Phew. That's it for now!

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"A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right." -- Thomas Paine

Being intelligent is not a felony. But most societies evaluate it as at least a misdemeanor. -- Heinlein

Creationists make it sound as though a "theory" is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night. -- Isaac Asimov

Depends on where you let it go..and how well you like your neighbors. If I *hate* them, then yea, a raptor would b egood. If I merely despise them, I'd get one of the big herbivores and teach it to use the neighbor's yard as a bathroom.