Your Time Travel Plans (Not Tourism)

[Zachstar]

Hello everyone, I had been thinking about this idea for days now. A topic to discuss and share your ideas on what would you do if you were standing in front of a machine that can take you anywhere in the past.

I am talking about the quantum theory of time travel BTW. Universe Creation instead of say. "Back to the Future" so if you kept your parents from um.. Getting together you would do nothing more than whatever contamination to the timeline you expect later on. No vanishing or flying trains or 80s cars...

Not a topic to discuss how time travel "isn't or is" possible either please. Just have fun and discuss how you would "survive and prosper" in a known yet unknown world.

Some rules just so things do get crazy.

No obviously and blatantly unlawful stuff.. Lets keep it clean If you wanted to prevent a crime go tell the cops of that time period for instance. Naturally in your story you will be an alien in most nations but that cant be helped. No robbing or violence please.

No cheating. The longer you stay and do things the more and more the timeline becomes contaminated from what you expect. No building evil empires based on having a sports almanac. Be realistic you WILL have a fictional impact. If you take the patent book. What patents are relevant not just "ya sold it got a billion and protected by the feds now lol"

No causing disasters... I don't want to hear that your fictional actions cause a fictional dam to break or a reactor to fail. Causing mass misery that wasn't there before isn't fun to read about. Be creative.


Some things to keep in mind...

#1 Nobody knows you. There is no papers you can hand in to identify yourself as a time traveler. (That is too easy) So basically atleast in the US you would have to fictionally live without citizenship and its benefits. No ID no SSN how do you get past this handicap? Or if you do get fictionally arrested (For something minor like being pulled over for speeding) do you dare at that point try to explain that you are from the future?

#2 Again the longer you are in this fictional universe the more you do or affect. The more your expected timeline changes. For instance say you used the lotto numbers and won big. You try again next month but because the announcer is announcing a different amount or talking about a big win last week he has changed the way he put the balls in or other actions that will make every lotto list you have from your old future useless from then on. Knowledge of events will only keep you with funds for a short time before contamination ruins it. You have to rely on your other assets such as patents for longer term.

#3 Keep this emotionally simple. In this story you are single and out of touch with your family. Don't do complicated things like tearful goodbyes or other stuff this is because you want to experience a time period and you don't mind leaving the present to do it. This is what if not of course any real plans for time travel.

If I write much more I will likely bore you to tears anyway so lets see what y'all would do!

EDIT: For some reason many people seem to not be getting it and think this is just another time tourism thread. Please read the OP folks.

 

[FADEC]

My stays would be short and would not affect anything:

I would visit the Cape and watch Alan Shepard, John Glenn, the Saturn V and STS-1 lifting off the pad

EDIT: and of course the rollout of the Boing 707, 727, 737 and 747! Epic moments.

 

[Zachstar]

My stays would be short and would not affect anything:

I would visit the Cape and watch Alan Shepard, John Glenn, the Saturn V and STS-1 lifting off the pad

EDIT: and of course the rollout of the Boing 707, 727, 737 and 747!

While I wont entirely throw out the "portal" idea or a way of returning. Don't you think that is rather say.. Boring? No offense but I was hoping for something more long term as in say atleast a year. That way it's not about short romps and laughs but survival and being able to prosper.

 

[FADEC]

Don't you think that is rather say.. Boring?

NO! :lol:

No offense but I was hoping for something more long term as in say atleast a year. That way it's not about short romps and laughs but survival and being able to prosper.

I am a rather boring person actually. I have no idea why to stay longer instead of just watching historic moments. Maybe I would talk to a few persons to experience how they talked and what they thought. But one year? Mhhh...

 

[Belisarius]

Go back to 1968 and try to get a date with Brigitte Bardot, Ursula Andress or Tamara Dobson.

 

[Ghostrider]

Well...
First of all, I'd pick a time period I know about - like a lot: economic climate, fashion, mannerisms and so on. I'd also pick a time when it would be relatively easy to forge a new ID (before biometrics and databases it could be done with much less hassle). Ideally, I would pose as an immigrant in the US in the early 1910s, the immigration authorities would probably forge it for me! Then, armed with knowledge about what's going to happen in a few years, I could go about setting up a plan to profit off the Wall Street crash and move to some nice place abroad, ready to come back as soon as WW2 breaks out.

As an alternative, I could come back exactly when WW2 ends. Tons of displaced people, lots of records destroyed, nameless dead everywhere and no pesky DNA tests. I could take any identity and profit from the reconstruction business, and the budding space age and computer age to come. The everyday notions we take for granted would be priceless in that timeframe.

As much as I'd like to go back to the late '70s, DNA tests would be about a decade to come. Such a shame.

 

[garyw]

It would have to be 36AD Jerusalem and sit there and watch history occur. What really happened during those few days? What were the events leading up to it?

 

[Artlav]

I would have toured the history, with a note book.
Naturally, it should go from future to past - get to sometime recent enough not to stand out, find out what's happening, find out how people were a hundred years ago, jump hundred years ago, repeat.

In the end, after much adventures, i'll get back home to the right universe (if the machine can't target specific universe it's not worth the trip), and publish the most accurate history book, expecting huge profits... But getting only weird stares.

 

[Zachstar]

Well...
First of all, I'd pick a time period I know about - like a lot: economic climate, fashion, mannerisms and so on. I'd also pick a time when it would be relatively easy to forge a new ID (before biometrics and databases it could be done with much less hassle). Ideally, I would pose as an immigrant in the US in the early 1910s, the immigration authorities would probably forge it for me! Then, armed with knowledge about what's going to happen in a few years, I could go about setting up a plan to profit off the Wall Street crash and move to some nice place abroad, ready to come back as soon as WW2 breaks out.

As an alternative, I could come back exactly when WW2 ends. Tons of displaced people, lots of records destroyed, nameless dead everywhere and no pesky DNA tests. I could take any identity and profit from the reconstruction business, and the budding space age and computer age to come. The everyday notions we take for granted would be priceless in that timeframe.

As much as I'd like to go back to the late '70s, DNA tests would be about a decade to come. Such a shame.

Why is DNA tests an issue? Not saying that as if I am disagreeing it is just DNA is used in criminal cases even today and very rarely for ID unless of course they want to find out who the daddy is (JERRY JERRY :rofl

I would be too afraid to try an existence in pre WW2 America. WW2 changed ALOT in the social climate and late 40s is about the earliest I would dare try to exist personally.

So if I am understanding correctly. Having an ID in a post time travel environment is very important to you (Well I guess it would be if you wanted to run business based on knowledge you know and bring)

Thanks now things are getting interesting!

Another point I forgot to make. Loopholes are ok just don't rely on them too much other than the ID issue. Perhaps some way to use the "I don't know who I am anymore and need help" Post time travel I don't know if that will cause a gov to issue an ID in the fictional past but it is a thought.

---------- Post added at 07:02 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:01 AM ----------

I would have toured the history, with a note book.
Naturally, it should go from future to past - get to sometime recent enough not to stand out, find out what's happening, find out how people were a hundred years ago, jump hundred years ago, repeat.

In the end, after much adventures, i'll get back home to the right universe (if the machine can't target specific universe it's not worth the trip), and publish the most accurate history book, expecting huge profits... But getting only weird stares.

That's a way to use it using the portal method but any chance you can pick a certain era of the past (Even if it is very recent) and describe how and why you would want to live there?

---------- Post added at 07:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:02 AM ----------

It would have to be 36AD Jerusalem and sit there and watch history occur. What really happened during those few days? What were the events leading up to it?

You have a reason and a date now how will you survive? It is not like you can sell patents you would have to have things built to make you money without attracting attention that can get you labeled as something that could cause you to be arrested in the fictional timeline or worse.

That would make far past even harder to survive than near past.

 

[Ghostrider]

Why is DNA tests an issue? Not saying that as if I am disagreeing it is just DNA is used in criminal cases even today and very rarely for ID unless of course they want to find out who the daddy is (JERRY JERRY :rofl

You would be surprised how many tests are carried out if enough money is at stake. The tests do not cost that much anymore, in the '80s it may have been expensive but nowadays many private labs offer them.

I would be too afraid to try an existence in pre WW2 America. WW2 changed ALOT in the social climate and late 40s is about the earliest I would dare try to exist personally.

Yet wars and large population displacements (migrants and refugees) offer you the best chances to get yourself an identity from scratch. It's easy to hide in the crowd.

So if I am understanding correctly. Having an ID in a post time travel environment is very important to you (Well I guess it would be if you wanted to run business based on knowledge you know and bring)

Not just that: in any industrialized society you need ID to open a bank account, have taxes filed, get a paycheck, driving license and everything. Going back in time to be a homeless vagrant ain't my cup of tea. My plan isn't to go there and save Sarah Connor, then survive through some nuclear fire. If I'm going back in time to live in the past, it means I don't have anything in the present worth a damn and I'm trying to rebuild my life in an environment I can exist in.

By the way, do we get there like in The Terminator in our birthday suits or can we bring limited equipment?

 

[agentgonzo]

I'd duck around with it. Either go to Egypt around 1350BC and drop a rolled-up bit of parchment with a picture of a helicopter on it into a random urn in a tomb in the valley of the Kings... or chissel the C-code of a Hello World program into stonehenge...

 

[Artlav]

That's a way to use it using the portal method but any chance you can pick a certain era of the past (Even if it is very recent) and describe how and why you would want to live there?

No point in the past is worth living in. Only use it can have is to find out what history really was.

And the only history ambiguous enough is far away.

If i'm to follow the method i said before, then by the time i get to the first interesting time (which is middle siberia, circa 700AD), i would already have a pretty good idea what to expect, and what to look like.

But if i'm to start from now straight there, there would be need to some cheating, at least to be able to quickly get out and back to avoid capture.

The problem is, we have no idea what was there back then. Best i could do is to study the language from ~1200, get acquainted with the gods of the time, get a vague idea of who was where among the royalty, and what tribes to expect where. But nothing of what we know now could be relied upon - the gods may be invented in the mid-1600s, the royalties known now might be largely unknown at their time, what people looked like no one knows, what the languages were, no one knows.

To avoid these uncertainties i need a way to get in and out, or a way to stay hidden. Assuming i can't get a cloaking device with me.

Unfortunately, i can't target any populated area for lack of knowledge, and i can't target something random lest i arrive into wilderness or among the tribes, who would shoot at sight for fear of their villages being discovered by rivals.

So i'll have to target a known population center, something in europe or china, and expect to find my way from there. China seems a better choice, being more civilized, and me being an obvious foreigner. Chinese language is also said to be not very changeable, so modern one could be taken for badly learned local. In that case i'll be a traveller lost around there, and hope for hospitality. If i can take stuff with me, i can try to be a trader from europe, also somewhat lost.

From there on, it all depends on the story. If i'm in luck, i would get to know the locals and know the nearby world. Surviving on trade or craftmanship at first. Hopefully, i'll learn enough about what is going on north to go there next time.

Second part of the story would be the trip to siberia, and whatever happens there. And here be dragons.

 

[kevin580]

Back <----- Launch of Apollo 11.
Forward -----> Be first man on mars.

 

[Ghostrider]

I apologize if I'm mistaken but I believe the OP wasn't thinking about time tourism (I would love to see Apollo 11 lift off, spend a month in London when it was about swing and not bling, mix up with the Bromley Contingent and so on) but more about going back to a period in time and live in it as well as possible. Sort of like an expatriate, but in time instead of space. A "timexpat" for wish of a catchy term. A bit like in classic Trek episode "All Our Yesterdays", you're going back in time not to have fun but to move there.

Therein lies the catch: you're pretty much limited in your choices. First of all, you need to pick a place (sorry, time) you can fit in so forget about the Middle Ages: you could be the coolest historian around but you don't speak the language and even if you do, you'll sound like a Greek tourist in Manchester. And then, what are you going to do there for a living?

You need a time period where your skills are relevant. I see there are some German engineers with a through knowledge of computing and rocketry here, if I were in their shoes I'd hide among the paperclips and surface in the US after WW2. Cutting edge science? Check. Strategic importance? Check. No records to speak of? Check. You could push the space program to higher peaks and then hire yourself out to any aircraft builder. And be just in time to revolutionize computing, too.

You've got to take your gender, ethnicity and orientation in account. A woman may not like going back to before women's rights, but she may dare and try to be Coco Chanel's rival.

Going to live in feudal Japan as a Westerner would be risky. There's only one Miura Anjin, after all, even for a modern Japanese ending up in the Keicho era would result in getting no-head of himself pretty quickly. Even a European in medioeval Europe would stand out like Freddy Krueger's glove in a manicure shop.

Just out of curiosity, how far back in your own timeline could you go and still function, as the person you are today? Check out BBC's "Life on Mars", it's a good take on time travel and related culture shock.

 

[T.Neo]

Me? I'd forgo all this silly human history stuff- wars, and famines and diseases and streets covered in excrement, and go back to prehistory- go back and see the things, that we know of today only by their dead bones.

Ok, so you'd need to take all your food with you (pretty much; you wouldn't want to kill many animals, and there's no telling if the plants of the period are edible), as well as other camping supplies- such as a means of purifying water, shelter, and fire. And of course something to defend yourself in the case that some animal decides to attack you. You couldn't stay there indefinately, so obviously you'd need a means to return to your own time(line).

Stepping on a bug, felling a tree or even removing a couple of animals probably won't do much; Earth's biological and geological history are pretty much dependant on either big events that happen dramatically, or big events that happen over thousands of years, and minor history (such as language morphology, historical events, and even who is born and where) isn't really dependant on whether some anonymous troodont had it's lunch at 12:00 or 15:00 on the 30th of March, 70 458 323 BCE...

Going back to the time of the Great Auk, Thylacine or Dodo would be pretty interesting, too. A dinosaur would really be out of place in the modern era, but those organisms could more-or-less survive in the world we have today.

It was on the islet of Stac an Armin, St Kilda, Scotland, in July 1840, that the last Great Auk seen in the British Isles was caught and killed. Three men from St Kilda caught a single "garefowl", noticing its little wings and the large white spot on its head. They tied it up and kept it alive for three days, until a large storm arose. Believing that the auk was a witch and the cause of the storm, they then killed it by beating it with a stick.

After reading that, even though it is so historically remote and dealing with a species that is not even alive today, I have an image burned in my mind of this poor bird, tied up, being beaten to death by these idiots. Sqwawking, flailing, helplessly...

Because they thought it was a witch. As is our crazy world.

Maybe if I had a time machine, I'd go back in time and beat them with a stick...

 

[garyw]

You have a reason and a date now how will you survive? It is not like you can sell patents you would have to have things built to make you money without attracting attention that can get you labeled as something that could cause you to be arrested in the fictional timeline or worse.

That would make far past even harder to survive than near past.

that wouldn't be my concern. I'd be more worried about the language. My Latin is very rusty and I don't know any of the languages of the period. Even in the UK there would only be a few places that spoke anything remotely resembling modern English.

 

[Ghostrider]

Not only that, but the Latin you learn today would have little in common with the Latin spoken back then. We have no audio records from back then. Prononciation could be different, and any modern Latin speaker would find himself standing out, like someone speaking with Received Prononciation in the outskirts of Liverpool.

 

[Zachstar]

You arrive with what you can carry. Nothing too complicated here folks.

And yes this isn't "Time Tourism" this is trying to live in the era you are going to.

 

[T.Neo]

And yes this isn't "Time Tourism" this is trying to live in the era you are going to.

Trying to live? Live?

Aw c'mon, I never said I was a Time Tourist, I maybe wanted to stay for 10-12 days and do legitimate scientific research...

 

[Ghostrider]

Yeah, live. Like in, you're stranded there. Since we can carry some equipment, it would be nice to imagine what a "timexpat survival kit" would be like...