Poll of the Day > So lets say you have this time machine...

(+) Yeah! (+)

... that can transfer your current mind (with all your memories) into your body one year in the past...

And you just pressed DA BUTTON!!!

What would you do (once you get into the past that is)?

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No. My life isn't any different a year ago outside of minimal restrictions for COVID and I'm a year older.

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I don't remember anything of what I did a year ago so I'd probably just do the same things I did then.

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I dont have that time machine.

I have this time machine.

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Going back one year is pretty much useless. Could I trade that time machine for the fuel I need to run my actual time machine, that can physically travel anywhere in time and space and which allows for paradox-free timestream manipulation?

Because that thing's just been taking up space in my garage for years now.
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Rick, is that you?

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I would do most things similar. Just save up a little more money, maybe cash out my 401k. Then invest everything I can spare in cryptocurrency during the slump in March. I could at the minimum triple my investment. Then invest in YFI immediately and sell at the high point, roughly giving me 60x my initial investment. Then retire, wait for travel restrictions to lift, and possibly open a coffee shop if I wanted something to do.

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Well I'd be smart enough to get some winning lotto numbers before I use the machine so I'll be quitting my job and going on a shopping spree.

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I would spend more time doing important things.

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Go on TV and predict a few events from the past year, including COVID, then use that newfound fame to make a completely bullshit prediction people will believe because I got the other things right. And write a best-selling book about my psychic abilities and hopefully use that to get myself a tv show, then use that newly-acquired fame to run for congress where I'll introduce a bill to recognize the whippet as American's national dog.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Going back one year is pretty much useless.

Not if you remember lotto numbers or if something preventable happened in the past year.

Honestly, going back a year is in many ways more appealing than going back quite a few years.


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would seem pretty pointless, unless you're saying "how would you prevent coronavirus from being a problem" (basically 12 monkeys)

it would probably be impossible to convince anyone of anything. the best you could do I guess would be to try to get to wuhan and somehow disrupt the first contamination (and then end up becoming patient zero yourself...)

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Avoid giving Pizza Hut a second chance

Work that ridiculous overtime at work for that covid hazard pay

Dont accept small job offers from weirdos at Home Depot

Take my son for more walks before the cali air gets s*****

Thats all that comes to mind right now

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Zeus_LLC posted...

Not if you remember lotto numbers or if something preventable happened in the past year.

Almost no one remembers those sorts of things just off the top of their head, though. And the context of the question sort of implies you're just sort of impulsively going rather than having time to try and memorize a bunch of lottery numbers before you go.

As for preventing things, you're kind of limited to preventing minor things in your own life, because larger events likely have more inertia than any single person can realistically deflect. The sort of people who say things like "I'd travel back and stop 9/11!" usually don't consider things like a) authorities aren't likely to take vague warnings from anonymous callers all that seriously, and b) if you start giving really intricate details or fail to disguise your own identity, you're probably going to find yourself investigated as an accessory to find out how you knew so much. And "I'm a time traveler from the future" probably isn't going to fly.

But honestly, my comment about it being pretty much useless was more an observation on my own life. There's almost nothing I can personally do to dramatically improve the last year or so of my life (or even the last 5 years of my life, honestly, if I could go back that far). To make the really dramatic changes, I'd probably have to be able to go back at least 20 years.
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

Almost no one remembers those sorts of things just off the top of their head, though. And the context of the question sort of implies you're just sort of impulsively going rather than having time to try and memorize a bunch of lottery numbers before you go.

Pretty sure I can take 30 seconds to google some winning numbers before pushing the button and risk the chance of a butterfly effect if it means I'm soon to be a millionaire going into Covid-19.

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i'll warn the world about corona, no one would listen but i'll become a prophet

also just earned an extra year of gaming

also also lottery

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ParanoidObsessive posted...

Going back one year is pretty much useless.

Pretty much. 20, 25 years now that's a huge dangling carrot I'd take for sure.

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Yeah, one year is not enough. If I had some way to go back to the early 90s with full knowledge of all of my stories and other ideas, as well as certain knowledge about a couple stocks in late 97, and that I should take care of a certain other issue sooner rather than later, and maybe I'd use the machine to right so much of a new life. Maybe save other lives in the resulting timeline.

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use my knowledge of the future to financially profit off of securities investments and real estate (be More liquid to buy now).


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WhiskeyDisk posted...

Pretty sure I can take 30 seconds to google some winning numbers before pushing the button and risk the chance of a butterfly effect if it means I'm soon to be a millionaire going into Covid-19.

Topic says you've already pushed the button, so unless you did it before entering this topic, you pretty much can't.
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become rich in stick market

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ParanoidObsessive posted...

Topic says you've already pushed the button, so unless you did it before entering this topic, you pretty much can't.

Ehh in wouldn't though.
There's no reason to, and I'm definitely not impulsive enough to do it.

Lottery numbers off the table? Pressed impulsively with no prep? TF is the point? So I can relive a bunch of stuff that happened in the last year?

Entity13 posted...

Yeah, one year is not enough. If I had some way to go back to the early 90s with full knowledge of all of my stories and other ideas, as well as certain knowledge about a couple stocks in late 97, and that I should take care of a certain other issue sooner rather than later, and maybe I'd use the machine to right so much of a new life. Maybe save other lives in the resulting timeline.

bitcoin is all you need

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Wanded posted...

bitcoin is all you need

That is a hard pass.

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I'd ask Leah instead of Addison.

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ParanoidObsessive posted...

The sort of people who say things like "I'd travel back and stop 9/11!" usually don't consider things like a) authorities aren't likely to take vague warnings from anonymous callers all that seriously, and b) if you start giving really intricate details or fail to disguise your own identity, you're probably going to find yourself investigated as an accessory to find out how you knew so much. And "I'm a time traveler from the future" probably isn't going to fly.

You could also hire people to physically stop the hijackers on one of the planes, or hire a group to stop the hijackers on all of the planes. Keep in mind that their plan wasn't terribly sophisticated.

Other methods, like phoning in a bomb threat the day of the flight, would probably just delay 9/11 (maybe by a year) and get you in trouble, unless you only intended to let one plane go through and stop the others.... although even that probably wouldn't corroborate your story enough to get you off the hook.


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Zeus_LLC posted...

You could also hire people to physically stop the hijackers on one of the planes, or hire a group to stop the hijackers on all of the planes. Keep in mind that their plan wasn't terribly sophisticated.

Other methods, like phoning in a bomb threat the day of the flight, would probably just delay 9/11 (maybe by a year) and get you in trouble, unless you only intended to let one plane go through and stop the others.... although even that probably wouldn't corroborate your story enough to get you off the hook.

Could be a weird morbid comedy... "Hitler caused 9/11"; two separate time travellers stop Hitler and 9/11 and it causes a really weird anomalous future

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I would try not to change anything as best I could. And try to make sure the same things happened. The only thing I might change is something to do with my health insurance when I start my ART job in the military. Other than that, make sure nothing changes...
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