If you could time travel - Past or Future?

Cushtie

I was listening to something recently on the radio about excavations of Burial Chambers in the Boyne Valley. It got me thinking about what it would be like to live in another time. Either past or future.

So just for fun. If time travel was possible would you like to go 500 or 1000 or whatever years into the past or the future? And why.

I would like to go into the past to see how accurately (or not) we have told the story of our past.

(I don't know if this thread has been done before, if it has Mods can bin this one)

Pauliedragon

I'd go forward to when society is civilised.

frag420

Cushtie wrote: »

(I don't know if this thread has been done before, if it has Mods can bin this one)

If I were you I would travel back in time and check to see if this thread has been done before...

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

It has been done several times before - like back to the future.

Usual question is, do you go back knowing all you know now? If you change the past while there, you may have no present or future and thus cease to be in the past too.

TheValeyard

The time travel thread posted next June is far superior.

Definitely the future. See what kind of technology we have. What society is like

kubjones

Backwards.

I'd like to see how much of an effect religion did or didn't have on society.

Would also like to take a few yokes and head to Sodom and Gomorrah for a weekend wha!

Hector Bellend

Pauliedragon wrote: »

I'd go forward to when society is civilised.

Human society will never be truly civilised.

We're too stupid and ignorant as a species for that to happen.

DEFTLEFTHAND

I've always have had a fascination with the 1930s, 40s and 50s for some reason.

The cars, the fashion, the movies, music, the language.

Hector Bellend

Probably future.

However i'd consider going back to see if any light could be shed on any mysteries\conspiracies that exist today.

DEFTLEFTHAND

Hector Bellend wrote: »

Human society will never be truly civilised.

We're too stupid and ignorant as a species for that to happen.

It's just nature, instinct.

It's something that no animal, human being or otherwise, will ever evolve out of.

There will always be conflict.

Apiarist

Future. I (still!) want my flying car and holidays on the Moon.

SimonTemplar

I always thought "time travel tourism" would be fantastic. Like, spending a long weekend in 1920s New York or 1960s London. That's why I love to go to places like Venice where the place has barely changed over the past few 100s of years.

Having said that, I've love to browse through wikipedia from about 10 years from now assuming it still exists.

M.T. Cranium

Future, better chance of getting repairs done if the thing breaks down.

AndyBoBandy

Future, on a Friday afternoon, just forward a few hours...

Guess who is winning the Euromillions that night!!

shakeitoff

It would be amazing. Anyone with an interest should listen to the Irish history podcast where he describes the journey undertaken by the first Irish person to step foot in China. There is something so enchanting about the vast openness and delving into the unknown that I find so intriguing. Even the rest of Ireland would have been uncharted territory for a villager back then. Imagine going through all of Europe, travelling through the middle east and then into Asia back in the 1300's. Insane.

But the reality was life was probably fairly mundane at best despite the romanticism you can associate with it. If you were just some farmer in France with a decent supply of food and good shelter, life would have been one dimensional to say the least.

Anyway with all that said, if push came to shove, it be future time travel and get the euromillion numbers.

Jimbob1977

Go into the future and buy a Sports Almanac.

Great idea for a movie.

Dakota Dan

Jimbob1977 wrote: »

Go into the future and buy a Sports Almanac.

Great idea for a movie.

You saw that in back to the future last night?

branie2

Both

EPAndlee

I'd go back and win the lotto a few times

tara73

Past. New York in the 70's.

Mongfinder General

1 January 1980. That was a mad, bad decade.

branie2

Back to Lourdes, France during the time of the visions of Bernadette

Kuva

Climate change & Pollution gonna wreck the future

Malayalam

In all honesty there's a bit of me that would be scared to go very far into the future, I imagine it might be quite dystopian with AI and pollution and augmented humans and hardly any unspoilt nature, etc. That's a dark thought! Enough of that. I will go back, Bob, to a time when faraway places were quiet, undiscovered, and unbearably exotic and the smallest things were fascinating because we had not yet had our imagination dimmed with knowing and seeing too much - I shall be Dame Alexandra David-Neel traveling Tibet on horseback and meeting shamans for afternoon tea.

Try_harder

Lets go back to the first settlers in Ireland!

OU812

I need some parameters

Is this a one trip one way one time deal? Then no.

However, if it’s multiple times then I’d do it. Go back and play the winning lotto numbers on a bit rollover.

Then take that some of that money and buy 1970s US dollars and go back to the 70s and make extremely large investments in all the major tech companies especially Apple and Microsoft (google don’t come until later).

There’s an ex that I’d like to tell my younger self not to waste 4 years on. But that would mean I’d most probably not have been where I was when I met my new wife. So I’d probably have to leave that alone.

I’d like to go back and have some influence in 1916. Leave some clues for Collins on what was to come with the London treaty and after.

I’d Love to see the proper old west. And Boston around the revolution.

There’s a reason they made timecop though.

Kuva

Malayalam wrote: »

In all honesty there's a bit of me that would be scared to go very far into the future, I imagine it might be quite dystopian with AI and pollution and augmented humans and hardly any unspoilt nature, etc. That's a dark thought! Enough of that. I will go back, Bob, to a time when faraway places were quiet, undiscovered, and unbearably exotic and the smallest things were fascinating because we had not yet had our imagination dimmed with knowing and seeing too much - I shall be Dame Alexandra David-Neel traveling Tibet on horseback and meeting shamans for afternoon tea.

Yup, this, actually I left out the continued unchecked population growth, one cant go anywhere now without some gobsh1te there already, it can only be wound in by a disease now. A modified 1916 Spanish flu is sitting in a lab in the US. Let it out.

Or maybe this new fungus will let rip...
https://www.wired.com/story/the-strange-and-curious-case-of-the-deadly-superbug-yeast/

Malayalam

Kuva wrote: »

Yup, this, actually I left out the continued unchecked population growth, one cant go anywhere now without some gobsh1te there already, it can only be wound in by a disease now. A modified 1916 Spanish flu is sitting in a lab in the US. Let it out.

Or maybe this new fungus will let rip...
https://www.wired.com/story/the-strange-and-curious-case-of-the-deadly-superbug-yeast/

No no, Hold on with your fingernails to the end as the cliff crumbles! Do not go gentle into that good night. I would love this planet to last and get better as it is so phenomenally beautiful here.

But yeah, you're right, it'll most probably be a microscopic thing that does for us... and I don't want to time travel forward to see it.

AndyBoBandy

I’d also go back to the early days of the internet and register loads of internet domains like;

Google, Twitter, & RTÉ.ie

I’d also go back to May 25th 2005 when Liverpool were 3-0 down at half time and put my life savings on them to win the game on penalties. And with the winnings from that match, I’d put half of it on Leicester City to win the Premier League & Donald Trump to be the U.S. president within the next 15 years, and the other half, I’d invest in Apple shares.

Id also go back to when Charlie Haughy was a kid and give him a huge kick in the balls.

thomil

Definitely backwards. There's so many events I'd like to witness. The Krakatoa and Tambora eruptions (from a safe distance, of course), the Apollo missions, I'd love to join Carl Sagan and the Voyager team at the JPL when those first clear images of the gas giants came in, to relive the excitement of seeing the Berlin Wall come down, and so many more.

And of course, I'd love to spend more time with my parents, and have all the conversations with them that I never had a chance to have.

As for the future? Well, what IS the future? How do I know which one of the myriads of decisions I will make between now and the end of my time on this planet are the "right" ones? Will my travelling "forward" trigger some kind of paradox? Sorry, too many variables for me.

Besides, I get way too much enjoyment out of unravelling the riddle that is my own future. Skipping ahead and spoiling the whole thing? Now where's the fun in that?

jcorr

Back to 1916 - 1921. What a time in Ireland to be alive.

mcgrath1992

I'd time travel 3 months into the future just to get my hands on red dead redemption 2 quicker...I'm a simple man to please:pac:

soups05

there you go, it worked. btw trump does win, the English do leave the EU which then collapses under the weight of the influx of refugees but in the end Ireland leads the way into a bright future by showing how to integrate others into a modern society.

to the eternal annoyance of some quarters the secret was the introduction of Guinness to the incoming hordes.

soups05

interesting question, I would travel forward to find out if america re-elects trump. see how the EU gets on, is the left or the right correct about the future? will England really leave? (i doubt it)

in fact, I think I will go start work on it now, will let you know what happens lol

Beanntraigheach

21st June, 1798. The Battle of Vinegar Hill.

The Redcoats approach.

When suddenly.....

DoozerT6

The past, about 1990, to meet myself when I was about 15/16 and give myself a serious talking-to on many subjects. Hopefully that would steer me on the right path to making a better life for myself in the future (ie now).

Galwayguy35

jcorr wrote: »

Back to 1916 - 1921. What a time in Ireland to be alive.

As long as the Tans didn't get you.

Galwayguy35

I'd go back to ancient Rome to see the Gladiators fight in the Colosseum and a trip to the brothels afterwards.

For my second trip it would be to see Mammoths, Sabre Tooth Tigers and Short Faced Bears.

Maybe meet a few Neanderthals as well so see what they were really like.

Galwayguy35

DoozerT6 wrote: »

The past, about 1990, to meet myself when I was about 15/16 and give myself a serious talking-to on many subjects. Hopefully that would steer me on the right path to making a better life for myself in the future (ie now).

The summer of 1990 was the best ever, great atmosphere about the World Cup.

xzanti

Past.

I love looking at old photos from the early 1900s. I always wonder what the people were really like. If they had a bit of banter between takes. They all look so poker faced. I wonder were they really trying to hold back laughter. Or were they really just dry sh1tes.

Also, I love the way they dressed back then.

I'd say they stank though.

Capt'n Midnight

You could go back a little while and buy a metric fu*kton of Bitcoins for half nothing. The trick would be that you could only sell them after you came back or you could break the time loop



There's a cartoon of two scientists having built a time machine and one asks the other "Do you want to back in time ?" and the black dude goes "nah , I'm good"

Going back in time is dangerous. There were very nasty diseases back there.
Up to half a billion people died of smallpox in the 20th century. If that sounds like a lot then consider that the global population back in 1900 was only 1.6 billion. (To scale it up to today this one disease would kill 2 billion this century.)

Back in the 1950's there was the case of a US Airforce flight from Hawaii to California. One of the pilots started off as a fit young cold war warrior, but deteoriated during the flight and had to be helped from the cockpit by the time they landed. He never walked again. Polio can be that fast. It really sucks.

Not too far back things like toilets and toilet paper and baby wipes just didn't exist. And unless you were rich life could really suck.

policarp

The third dimension is coming soon.

Dakota Dan

jcorr wrote: »

Back to 1916 - 1921. What a time in Ireland trying to stay alive.

FYP