Time Travel - past or future?

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A friend and I got into an argument, inspired by a part of Paul Auster's "Oracle Night", over time travel.

He thinks (much like Auster) that most people, given a one time opportunity to travel in time, would go to the past. He argued that most would want to witness and experience historic eras (like the Athens of Socrates), visit their ancestors or have a heart-to-heart with Einstein.

I thought most would want to travel to the future, that curiosity about events that have yet to unfold is much greater than one about historic times, fascinating as they may be.

So, given the chance, where would you choose to go?

* - keep in mind this was not a discussion about the scientific possibility of time travel, and the well known "killing your ancestor by accident" or "we would have already been visited by someone from the future" issues. This is for the sake of debate only - *

 

I would have thought most would go back in time to set things up so they could be rich/powerful or whatnot. Might work with going forward as well though and check up on lottery numbers or bring back some nifty technology and make a killing. Hmm, tough question really.

 

Future is too risky. Even if all was well in the future, the likelyhood of you ending up in a world where you would be the equivalent of a middle-age barbarian jumping into our time would be too great. Also, you would probably find out way too many things you did not want to know about matters concerning yourself somehow. That is, if you didn't remain there to begin with. And I do not think it a wise choice to jump into the future permanently without even knowing what future will be like.

Past is easy in that you know what happens there. You carry all the advantages without virtually any disadvantages. You don't risk your current life that way. Forgetting everythig about paradoxes etc, past holds a great many things for a present-day human to use. It has its own downsides as well of course, bad hygiene, brutality of the unvilized humans of that time etc, depending how far you went.

Ultimately it really comes down to the alternatives I would have in my disposal. If it was a glance, I would choose a distant past over very distant future, but I'd try both I think. If it was to actually step into that time and live it, then it would be the immediate past (the last 20 or so years) only, I would not visit the future that way.

I don't have anything in the past I'd wish to prevent. I've lost no-one I loved enough to believe it was my duty to affect it. So probably my motivation would be the selfish type. Lottery. That is the only thing that can significantly increase the quality of my life (and the lives of my friends and family) now afterall.

 

I'd probably jump back 100 years maximum and attempt to play a role in a major event (i.e. World War II) with my knowledge of modern technology and my study of history. I think I could do some good and possibly save lives.

Or if I feel very selfish I'd go back and put HEAPS of money on a sporting event where I know the outcome exactly and bet for that exact outcome (therefore making heaps more money) and enjoy my life of luxury thereafter.

 

I would go and assassin several people through the history I don't like. Hitler, Churchill, Stalin, Gorbachov, Jeltsin, and more.

Then I would take over a small nation and make it my own personal utopia.

 

Definitely past. A chance to correct past mistakes, pick winnig lottery numbers, discover the truth about the countless mysteries of millenia gone by, etc.

 

Future for certain, perhaps 100-150 years. I'd love a chance to see what is to come so that I could prepare myself and my family. Hopefully be able to pick up some old records of lottery numbers and stock prices from the first couple decades of the 21st century as well.

 

Definitely the past, even if only for my personal edification and not meddling. You create your own personal future every minute of every day.

 

Ask me again on November 3rd.

 

Neither, I think. Not that I really like the present world, but I don't think the past was any better, and at the rate things are going I REALLY don't want to know what the future looks like.

 

Definately the past. The historian in me would love to see what life was like at the pinnacle of the Egyptian, Greek and Roman civilizations. I would also love to see how the Egyptians managed to build those pyramids .

 

Definitely future. The past is done and doesn't particularly rouse my interest. I'd rather go forward. The unknown is infinitely more intriguing. Will we be living in giant self-contained floating cities or will we have already blown ourselves all to hell?

 

Oh yeah, I would also kill This guy when I had the first chance, before he influented people with his opinions. Just read his D&D article!

 

Caleb, why kill Churchill? If anything he was responsiable for England not falling to Germany.

 

Definately future. I would go into the future for about 50 years and see how the world evolved. This way I can be sure to have kids in the future. If the future is one big war or global warming came to a boiling point or whatever other disaster, I wouldn't bring any children in this world who will suffer greatly.

On the other hand, maybe someone wise and great stepped up in the future and peace and tranquility reigns the future. In that case I would think about having children and perhaps raise them in the best way possible.

Or if there was a great nuclear war and I would meet a vault dweller on my journeys and I'd wield turbo plasma rifles and shooting Super mutants. That'd be cool to

I'd have to see and judge

 

That is a brain tickler.

The future, with all of its endless potential. Space stations, being on the moon, learning how far the limits of science have been pushed. The things I could see. The things I could do.

But the past, with so many great men and women. Talk with Napoleon about ideal battle plans. Meet Joan of Arc to see what makes a true believer. Greet Jesus, and talk to him personaly. Visit Ghandi, and see how the man really worked. So many great people that you could learn from, and so many sights that you could see.

I think that I would have to go with the past. But I wouldn't interfere. I would greet, I would converse, but I would not effect how things were to turn out. I really mean that. Even if I could prevent WWI or WWII, I wouldn't. They, as tragic as they were, are too much of our past.

I would enjoy being on the Titanic as the band played its last song. I would like to visit an arabian market. I would meet the native inhabitants across the worlds, prior to contact with Europe.

So, past.

 

Past. There's too many things that have gone wrong with life, to pass up on a chance to fix them.

 

Go to the future, copy some technology to take back to regular time. I would also check some major sporting events, and bet on them in regular time. Like in Back to the future. Perhaps I would also steal some omni-powerfull weapon and take over the world. Ahh, the dreams...

 

I don't see that there is any provision in this time travel scenario for magically being able to converse with inhabitants of any region and/or time. This would make travel to the distant past much less informative, unless you happen to speak latin perhaps.

Even traveling to the future would prove more useful for one who spoke a number of current languages. I don't see any new languages popping up in the next century or two, but an existing one could become much more prevalent than it is today.

As I recall, the protagonist in H.G. Wells "The Time Machine" was a linguist and had to learn the language used in at least one time that he visited. Fortunately, the language had evolved exactly as he had theorized. Convenient, eh?

This is another reason that I would choose to visit the future.

 

Definately the past. I would just keep going back and back till I found the truths about life itself.