Time travel--which way would you rather go?

Haven't seen a deep-thought discussion of this type here in some time and thought this would be a good one for the group.

You have been granted the ability to travel in time. But while you may make multiple trips, you can go in only one direction, ever. Which would you rather visit, the past or the future? There are also the following conditions:

1. While you will visit the past your actions cannot alter the space-time continuim. IOW, you cannot kill Adolph Hitler when he was selling handpainted postcards on the street in the 1920s nor can you buy 1,000 shares of APPL in late 1996.

2. Your visits to the future cannot be used for profit. While you might find the socre of the next Superbowl, if you place a bet at the Wynn, the slip will get "lost" before you can cash in. Your stock order will not be filled. The gold you buy will not be delivered. Just call it "magic of fate."

3. Your visit is limited to what you could do as a person in this time. So while you can go to the opening of the Flamingo in 1946, you cannot walk into the White House and see Truman debate dropping the bomb. As well your actions will not change anything. You can go to Reno and beat the single-deck games the day before Thorpe does it and when he shows up the pit boss will not remember you.

IOW, this is all to just experience what life was like then, or the same in the future.

Which way would you choose?

There are too many unknowns in the future.

While there are many unknowns in the past, you can at least plan ahead.

I say, go back.


For what it's worth, there's an execelent book that delves into the posibility of going back in time, called Replay

Quote: Amazon's synopsys

Jeff Winston, forty-three, didn't know he was a replayer until he died and woke up twenty-five years younger in his college dorm room; he lived another life. And died again. And lived again and died again -- in a continuous twenty-five-year cycle -- each time starting from scratch at the age of eighteen to reclaim lost loves, remedy past mistakes, or make a fortune in the stock market. A novel of gripping adventure, romance, and fascinating speculation on the nature of time, Replay asks the question: "What if you could live your life over again?"

The book was written in 1988. One of the things the Jeff Winston does, is attempt to prevent the assination of JFK. He fails, but there are fascinating results.

If I cannot go back in time and bet on something; I'd rather remain in present day and gamble.

Quote: DanMahowny

If I cannot go back in time and bet on something; I'd rather remain in present day and gamble.

It's not gambling if you know the outcome.

I'd go forward, past my personal doom date, to see how the world turns out.

Going to the future might be too scary, so I voted for the past. BTW, I read that book years ago but don't recall much about it.

I'd do the future. I'd want to see how my children turn out and what the world is like in 57 years. By that time, I should have great grandchildren and my child will have lived the bulk of her life. And yeah, I would use it for profit. If I saw that a particular company was running all battery run cars, I'd be heavily investing in the company when I returned.

The past is the past.

Quote: boymimbo

... when I returned.

The original post specified that it was a one-way trip.

I think the OP meant you could make multiple return trips, but you could only visit the past OR the future with your ability. You are either a past traveler, or a future traveler.

I choose future. I would take small jumps at first, then make the trips further into the future until it got scary.

Oh, in that case, I'd choose to stay put. I like my life.

The past. They say the past is another country, but at least there is a guide book. I have always been fascinated by what places I live in now would look like back then. Heritage photos of my local area are great, but I want to see it live. What did London look like in 1512, 912, 112? What was it like to be on the west coast in 1860?

Its gonna be the future soon, but never the past again.

Shiiit..neither...
The past is what we already had to go through, and the future is a surprise so leave it that way...

I think I prefer traveling into the future ... one day at a time. I travel into the past with my memories, making some of it up as I go along.

Can you die on one of these trips?

I'd like to go back to the past... Back when everyone had a pair and the world didn't go to hell..

We're ill prepared to go very far into the future,
so it has to be the past. But its like Issac Asimov
said, if you could go into the past from the future,
how come we haven't seen any time travelers.

Quote: EvenBob

... if you could go into the past from the future,
how come we haven't seen any time travelers.

Timecops, naturally...

Given the restrictions, I would go into the past, and try to fill any holes in known history that I can find. (The obvious first question: what really did happen in Judea between what is now 12 BC and about 3 AD? One advantage is, I wouldn't have to live through the entire time period, but jump back and forth between specific points in the past and the present.)

Quote: EvenBob

We're ill prepared to go very far into the future,
so it has to be the past. But its like Issac Asimov
said, if you could go into the past from the future,
how come we haven't seen any time travelers.

Because we're not a "receiving universe" but possibly a "sending universe".

Time to break out my two theories of time travel:
#1 - time travel into the past is impossible because you can't just "jump" between two points in time without passing through all of the time between them, any more than you can go from one point in space to another without going through the space between them, and the time/space that is one microsecond in your past is occupied - by your own body - so you would run into it just as you would run into a wall if you tried to move through it.
#2 - if you could "travel into the past", it would work like the most recent Star Trek movie works; as far as you are concerned, everything that happened in the past up to the point where you arrived is the same, but from that point on, what was your history can change; meanwhile, as far as everyone else who was there when you left is concerned, you just disappeared.

I would travel to the past. I'd be interested in seeing all the things that never got recorded, or didn't get recorded accurately.

According to comedian Louis CK, if you're a white male, you should ONLY travel to the past.

Quote: ThatDonGuy

Time to break out my two theories of time travel:

The past and the future don't exist. Theres only
the present moment. The past is a memory of
a former present moment, and the future is
speculation of present moments to come. The
funny thing is, most Western religions focus
entirely on the past and the future, while the
Eastern religions like Zen focus on the present,
where we all live.

Quote: dwheatley

I think the OP meant you could make multiple return trips, but you could only visit the past OR the future with your ability. You are either a past traveler, or a future traveler.

Correct-unlimited sightseeing trips but in one directrion only.

I am a little suprised I haven't seen someone say the past is finite but the future is infinite.

Quote: AZDuffman

... the future is infinite.

Eternal optimist, eh?

we have no proof that either is finite or infinite...

The future is finite. Just ask the Mayans.

Quote: WongBo

we have no proof that either is finite or infinite...

If you accept that time started somewhere, or at least the earth did, the past is finite as it started from a set time.

Quote: AZDuffman

I am a little suprised I haven't seen someone say the past is finite but the future is infinite.

You can't even prove the past or the future exist. We
lived thru the last hour, I can show you a pic I took
to prove I was there. But its gone now, the past hour
no longer exists to visit even if we wanted to. The
past and the future don't exist, only the present moment
is here eternally.

The problem with all time travel scenarios except one (real travel over an infinite tree) is conditions. You can never get them right. Let me look into these.

Quote: AZDuffman

1. While you will visit the past your actions cannot alter the space-time continuim.

So you're effectively a ghost.

You can't kill Hitler? So what happens if you shoot him - that can actually be quite fun. You could buy a lot of ammo and keep shooting him, without him actually dying. Can be a great gig. And it's not just Hitler you can't kill...
The only way to close this loophole for becoming a magician is to make you literally a ghost.

Also, what's with this repeating idea that you can change the timeline and all the time-travel thrillers that sound more like comedies if you think about them? To our best current ability to interpret these things, if you were somehow able to go back in time, you would still not be able to affect anything for anyone currently existing, only for yourself.

Quote: AZDuffman

2. Your visits to the future cannot be used for profit. While you might find the socre of the next Superbowl, if you place a bet at the Wynn, the slip will get "lost" before you can cash in.

Isn't this redundant? Since you can only go one way, finding the score of the next Superbowl won't do anything for you, as you cannot go back once you've gone forward.

Quote: AZDuffman

As well your actions will not change anything. You can go to Reno and beat the single-deck games the day before Thorpe does it and when he shows up the pit boss will not remember you.

So you are a ghost - an advanced version that can feel like it interacts with objects, but all you interact with is just temporary ghost copies of itself; ghost cards dealt by a ghost dealer (again, "ghost" not in scary-woo sense).
By that logic, though, there's no reason for there not to be a ghost pit boss as well. OK... maybe the lifetime of human ghost copies is limited to about a day, is that it?

Anyway, the killer here is that you have to become a ghost, which kills a lot of the pleasure that you could otherwise get.

Quote: AZDuffman

You have been granted the ability to travel in time. But while you may make multiple trips, you can go in only one direction, ever. Which would you rather visit, the past or the future? There are also the following conditions:
1. While you will visit the past your actions cannot alter the space-time continuim.
2.While you will visit the past your actions cannot alter the space-time continuim.

In fact, there is already an easy to understand word to describe all these: dream

Quote: P90

Anyway, the killer here is that you have to become a ghost, which kills a lot of the pleasure that you could otherwise get.

Bro, just go with it for the discussion. It boils down to would you rather hang out in and see the past or futuer? I wanted it to be more than you being a hologram watching a movie but not to the point that you can affect the space-time-continuium and return to "alternate 2012" where there is no Vegas becasue somebody went to 1946, counted down decks, made controlled dice throws at craps, and burned down the Flamingo and El Crotez so bad that nothing new was ever built.

Like the producers of BTTF tell rabid fans asking how the DeLorean cooked the flight circuits but not the computer for the engine in the car, "its a movie!"

Well, I guess, if I had to do it, and if I'm allowed an unlimited number of hops, I'd go for the future. If I can't change things - at least I want to see something I don't already know.

My primary worry here would be, for near-future, World War III. I'd hate to get stuck in the war itself, or in its immediate aftermath, in that unlucky position of a ghost who can be killed, but cannot kill. Even unlimited hops are no perfect safety, since eventually humanity will become extinct (It will. No need to argue, it's the fate of every species, and we're not looking at million-year timescales either.) Before extinction, it will go into a long period of decline, one that it will not merely fail to recover from, but won't even be trying to recover, so nothing to see there either. And, as said above, it can happen right about anytime - if WW3 is followed by a religious dark age, that can just be it, no recovery, just worse and worse with every hop.

But that's a relatively acceptable risk. If you go into the past, there's very little hope for recovery, mythical Atlantis aside. Just how deep into the past can you go before the tunnel goes down with no light at the end?

The last 50 years are all yours to explore - the quality of life has barely improved at all in this time. Then there is the bad half of the 20th century. From there on, things are slowly declining, down to the industrial revolution and mass wage slavery, then a bit better, but then back to serfdom. Unless you happen to be among the lucky ones, which, according to your part about not being able to walk into the White House, and it's not only White because of the paint job, you don't.

Then you go through Black Death. Unless you skip the whole medieval period, you die very quickly, from disease (a lot more there than just plague), or famine, or war. From there it gets better as you go through the great empires - Chinese, Roman, Ottoman, Somali, Byzantine. Hopefully you are in one without slavery - but do instant language skills come with the package, because neither of these speaks Latin? Anyway, if you can control your location, you then have some sort of a safe haven in Greece, where a populous middle class consisted of helots, a condition slightly above serfdom. That's your last known island before Egypt with true chattel slavery and down all the way to primitives and ultimately apes.

Even if I could only observe, I'd still take the past. Advance holo-deck Star Trek silliness where my actions have no long term effect? Still the past. Don't care if it "exists" or not. Would be fun to hang out and see it all.

Quote: AZDuffman

Bro, just go with it for the discussion. It boils down to would you rather hang out in and see the past or futuer? I wanted it to be more than you being a hologram watching a movie but not to the point that you can affect the space-time-continuium and return to "alternate 2012" where there is no Vegas becasue somebody went to 1946, counted down decks, made controlled dice throws at craps, and burned down the Flamingo and El Crotez so bad that nothing new was ever built.

Like the producers of BTTF tell rabid fans asking how the DeLorean cooked the flight circuits but not the computer for the engine in the car, "its a movie!"

So Duff, could you travel to different locations, or would you simply be in the past or future from your present location, then have to make your way to the thing you want to observe. It would suck for the machine to be located in Las Vegas, then have you jump 300 years into the past, where you would find yourself in the middle of the desert, where there would be nothing but you and a whole lotta sand...

Despite my profession that depends heavily on computers, I always say to my friends that my personality would be more at home in my parents' or grandparents' generation, so I choose the past. So many things I would love to see from the past, starting with music. See Metallica on the Damage, Inc. tour just after Master of Puppets came out but before Cliff died. <sniff>

That's probably the first thing I would do. Lots of others though.

Quote: AcesAndEights

Despite my profession that depends heavily on computers, I always say to my friends that my personality would be more at home in my parents' or grandparents' generation, so I choose the past. .

One of the finest short stories about viewing the past. If you haven't read it, then google it.

Quote: Isaac Asimov's: The Dead Past ( April 1956 )

History.

Thaddeus Araman, Department Head of the Division of Chronoscopy, might have taken proper action if Dr. Potterley had been owner .of a large, square chin, flashing eyes, aquiline nose and broad shoulders.

As it was, Thaddeus Araman found himself staring over his desk at a mild-mannered individual, whose faded blue eyes looked at him wistfully from either side of a low-bridged button nose; whose small, neatly dressed figure seemed stamped “milk-and-water” from thinning brown hair to the neatly brushed shoes that completed a conservative middle-class costume.

Araman said pleasantly, “And now what can I do for you, Dr. Potterley?”

Dr. Potterley said in a soft voice that went well with the rest of him, “Mr. Araman, I came to you because you’re top man in chronoscopy.”

Araman smiled. “Not exactly. Above me is the World Commissioner of Research and above him is the Secretary-General of the United Nations. And above both of them, of course, are the sovereign peoples of Earth.”

Dr. Potterley shook his head. “They’re not interested in chronoscopy. I’ve come to you, sir, because for two years I have been trying to obtain permission to do some time viewing--chronoscopy, that is--in connection with my researches on ancient Carthage. I can’t obtain such permission. My research grants are all proper. There is no irregularity in any of my intellectual endeavors and yet--”

“I’m sure there is no question of irregularity,” said Araman soothingly. He flipped the thin reproduction sheets in the folder to which Potterley’s name had been attached. They had been produced by Multivac, whose vast analogical mind kept all the department records. When this was over, the sheets could be destroyed, then reproduced on demand in a matter of minutes.

And while Araman turned the pages, Dr. Potterley’s voice continued in a soft monotone.

The historian was saying, “I must explain that my problem is quite an important one. Carthage was ancient commercialism brought to its zenith. Pre-Roman Carthage was the nearest ancient analogue to pre-atomic America, at least insofar as its attachment to trade, commerce and business in general was concerned. They were the most daring seamen and explorers before the Vikings; much better at it than the overrated Greeks.

“To know Carthage would be very rewarding, yet the only knowledge we have of it is derived from the writings of its bitter enemies, the Greeks and Romans. Carthage itself never wrote in its own defense or, if it did, the books did not survive. As a result, the Carthaginians have been one of the favorite sets of villains of history and perhaps unjustly so. Time viewing may set the record straight.”

He said much more.

Araman said, still turning the reproduction sheets before him, “You must realize, Dr. Potterley, that chronoscopy, or time viewing, if you prefer, is a difficult process.”

...

“You have created a new world among the three of you ...may each of you fry in hell forever. ...”

Quote: pacomartin

One of the finest short stories about viewing the past. If you haven't read it, then google it.

Quote: Isaac Asimov's: The Dead Past ( April 1956 )

Ah! Unlike "The Feeling of Power," this is indeed one of Asimov's best works. I would agree to call it one of the finest short stories about time-viewing.

The finest story ever about time travel, though, has to be Asimov's novel "The End of Eternity." And that's saying a lot, since there are some other very good time travel stories, both in print and the visual media. One thing Star Trek did right, most times, was time travel.

Edited: a good novel I can recommend is Heinlen's "The Door Into Summer" If for no other reason that it features two types of time travel.

Quote: AZDuffman

IOW, this is all to just experience what life was like then, or the same in the future.

If that's the limitation, then without hesitation I'd go to the future. I've read enough about the past to know that I have it better today than I would have previously. And especially under the assumption that I can always get back (i.e. I exist "outside" the time I'm in, as an invisible fly on the wall), I'd go forward millions or billions of years and check out the evolution of humanity, whatever replaces us, and then how the solar system turns out.

On the other hand, if I could die during one of my trips I'd probably just stay put. Or travel forward very slowly.

Quote: MathExtremist

... if I could die during one of my trips I'd probably just stay put. Or travel forward very slowly.

Perhaps one day every 24 hours?

I think I'd go into the future anyway, but if I had to go to the past, I'd go to Florida on the 2nd Tuesday in November, 2000, take a bullhorn, wander through some predominantly democratic neighborhoods, and take them to a polling station, stat.

Sorry, AZ, as the nominal republican on the board, I couldn't resist.

Seriously, though, I'd still pick the future. I want to see how things turn out. I'd probably do a year at a time and live a day each year, perhaps Christmas or New Years day of each year.

A lot of people are picking apart the rules so here's how I see it. Correct me if I'm wrong AZ:

-You can choose to travel only forward or only backwards through time.
-You can make as many trips to any point in time, in the direction you chose, and back as you'd like, as often as you'd like, and for however long as you'd like.
-Your purpose for your trips can't be to change the past or to learn some knowledge in the future you'd apply at your home time.
-If you were to die or get injured you'd travel back to your home time unharmed.
-People in the time you travel to wouldn't treat you any differently than they'd treat any other acquaintance in their time.
-You're not an ethereal ghost of any sort, but if you were to try to affect the past then time would branch off into a new reality that wouldn't affect your home time in any way.
-You can also travel to the place of your choosing.

In the spirit of those rules, I'm going to modify boymimbo's answer a bit. I'd travel one year ahead for a day, then five years ahead for a day, then 15 years ahead for a couple of days, then 50 years, 100 years, 200 years, 1,000 years, then finally 10,000 years. If I had any reason to keep going I would.

My reasoning is that I want to be awestruck by the things we discover and things human beings are capable of. I want to see the cell phones and PCs in 15 years, the Playstation 13 in 50 years, the incredible advances in 1,000 years, etc.

I often picture what it would be like to be able to resurrect Leonardo da Vinci in our modern times and show him around for a while. Imagine showing him a lawnmower, then a car, then radio, a PC, the Internet. Seriously, imagine showing Leonardo da Vinci the things an integrated circuit can do. Imagine showing him that he has a vast archive of human knowledge available at his finger tips. I bet I'd feel the same way if I traveled 1,000 years into the future.