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If you could travel through time, where would you go?
Posted at 6:00 AM on July 9, 2009
by Eric Ringham
(46 Comments)
Filed under: Science/Technology, Transportation
Time travel might seem like a fantasy, but some scientists think it could become a reality. One of them, the physicist Ronald Mallett, has developed a theory of how to build a time machine. He says his idea works by using "light in the form of circulating lasers to warp or loop time," and he's getting attention from news media and filmmaker Spike Lee. If you could travel through time, where would you go?
I would like to go to the future to see how we're doing with things like: global warming, technology, a cure for some of our diseases (like diabetes and cancer) and world relations. -Mike Lang
I would go back and spend more time and get to know my grandparents better. -Kristine, Minneapolis
I would go back to the mid 70s, and do a better job with my post high school years. -Karen Anderson, Superior, WI
I would time travel into the early years of America and try to free slaves and break down color, race, gender, and sexuality barriers. -Jake, Northfield, MN
18 September 1970, just before MTC took over Twin City Lines, to collect bus schedules and bus-related documents and bring them back to the present day. -John Charles Wilson, Minneapolis, MN
I would go fishing with Hemingway and drinks some good Spanish wine. -Joel
I would return to Dallas Texas on November 22, 1963 and stop the Kennedy assassination. I believe that if he was to remain president the civil rights movement would have been less painful of a process for our country and a Kennedy presidency would have averted our involvement in the Vietnam war. Of course, as any science fiction fan knows, altering time always has unintended consequences so who knows what might actually happen. -Brian Roth, Eagan, MN
If I can make only one choice, then Jerusalem 31C.E., of course. Being a Christian, I would suppose most others would choose the same. If I could choose more, then Philadelphia June 1776. London 1615. Washington DC April 1865. Venice 1492. Singapore 1936. New York City 1945. I could easily go on. -Jared Hoke, Marine on St. Croix, MN
I don't know. The questions that I have often wondered when considering this question are. Can you go back and forward or only backward? If you can only go backward in time because the future has not happened yet, when you get to the past can you come back because from that point the future has not happened yet? If we could time travel I suppose I would go back to frontier times to learn more about the environment around us that we take for granted. -Jeremy Gray, Minneapolis, MN
I would like to go to July 2,1776 - signing of the declaration. -James Redfield, Rush City, MN
Late 1700's - Beethoven, Mozart, etc. -Sue, Brooklyn Park, MN
Love to see my dad and grandfather again. -@cbs3890
Share your reply in the comments: If you could travel through time, where would you go?
Comments (46)
Hey I was thinking about a theory, maybe people from the future are traveling back in time all the time and thats what causes things to happen maybe someone traveled back in time to save someone and caused Michael Jacksons death or Elvis Presley's death or 09/01/01. And are doing it all the time traveling to prevent certain things but end up making other things happen by accident instead.
I would save my son.
I would go back to the time of Jesus. I would be able to see for myself what kind of man he was, How would it be to follow his ministry and observe for myself the miracles. I could report back to the present if He was really resurected on the third day.
"I would go back to the time before MPR started twittering and asking for posts on these stupid questions." Ditto
I'd go forward, maybe 100 years, maybe 500. Just to see what we've progressed (or even regressed) toward. I'd really like to know that we've finally found life on other planets (or, they've found us).
If only one choice, because of the impacts it has had on my life and the world since, I'd go back to the months leading up to 9/11. Prevent that day and you prevent the war in Aghanistan, prevent the war in Iraq (at least under the timely guise of WMDs), and save countless millions of dollars and thousands of lives.
If two choices, to Jerusalem and the time of Jesus. Although I believe what I believe, I'd like to know what the best version of the truth is ...
I wouldn't have to go back very far. Just to the 2009 Minnesota State High School Class 4A Championship Basketball game so I could watch my Son, Kyle an Osseo Guard play against My Nephew Trent Lockett of Hopkins again. I can think of no better moment in life, save perhaps for the births of my children.
I have a great interest in World War II, especially the Pacific theater. I would love to see exactly what my father went through in the Philippines in 1945. I would also like to know what my father-in-law and mother-in-law were living through in Nagoya, Japan at the same time.
It's not a place or time period that I am obsessed with, but rather a man: Shaking the hand of President Theodore Roosevelt would be an impossible dream come true!
I would have a few destinations. First I would go back to the beginning of time itself. This could be the Big Bang, or the point at which God said, "Let there be light." (I expect they are the same.) My next stop would be around April in the year 4. Many scholars think that is when Jesus was born, based on astrological information that presumably the magi would have used. I might then take some short hops, such as to the Sermon on the Mount, but I also would need a translator. Would I visit the Crucifixion or Resurrection? I don't know. I might want to leave that as a matter of faith, but then I also might find the possibility irresistable. I might want to meet Mary Magdalene, and see if there is anything to Dan Brown's imagination. From there, I might want to visit Peter the Apostle (whom Roman Catholicism considers the first Pope) and Martin Luther, and get some of his thinking first hand. I think I also would want to visit Sigmund Freud, perhaps after he moved to England. And C. G. Jung perhaps around 1960 (a year before he died). There are many other people I would love to hear speak. There are some I would be sorely temped to intervene upon, such as young Adolf Hitler. Would we have had a different world had his art work as a young man been taken more seriously? If he still led the Munich putsch later on, would it be permissable morally and physcially to terminate him right then and there? Finally, I would like to meet my own grandparents, and my parents as young people. Perhaps I'd even hold the infant me for a moment. I would end my journeys by going into the future. First I would want to meet my own decendants. They wouold not be suprised, of course. Then I would end by journeying to the end of time; not just when Sol goes into nova, but when the final star winks out and is sucked into the last black hole. What happens next, I wonder? I would love to find out.
I would travel back in time and see music concerts of the greats. I would love to see a Big Band performance with Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald in the height of their careers!
I would like to go back and see what North America was like before the arrival of the Europeans. We've changed the landscape so wholly, I'd like to see what it was like before our roads and cities and agriculture and everything.
Imagine either downtown St. Paul or Minneapolis when it was just a wild river bottom, or our prairies with heards of countless bison... It kind of boggles my imagination.
If I could travel through time, there are two places I would go. First, I'd stop off in 1983 and buy about 20K worth of Microsoft stock, and then I'd go back to San Francisco and stop Bobby Kennedy from walking through the kitchen at the hotel after he gave his California primary victory speech.
That way, when I got back I'd be in a better world, and I'd be filthy rich.
What a fun question. Immediately, my mind flashed through exciting times in history – Ancient Egypt, Renaissance Italy, Colonial Virginia. Thinking of important historical figures I’d love to meet also sparked my imagination – Jesus, Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe. But then I got stuck when I remembered it might not be fun to travel to any of these places in time, because I’m a woman. How bad was life for women in these times? Would I suddenly be subject to all kinds of backwards rules that history has even forgotten?
Being a white male would come in handy – they are the only ones who could travel most anywhere in time and be welcomed with open arms. The comedian Louis CK has a great bit on this subject on his “Chewed Up” album called, “I Enjoy Being a White Male.” It would be surprising to hear anyone working on a theory to build a time machine was anything but a white male. Is that because they are the only ones who could travel freely through time? Or is it because they are more likely to have had the advantages to get the education to work on such a theory?
Back to the question at hand – where would I go if I could travel in time? At a moment I was feeling charitable, I decided I’d go back to the time of suffrage and help those brave women in the fight for women’s equality. Then I thought about traveling to a time when women already had some measure equality – like the 1960’s pop art movement, maybe I’d hang with Andy Warhol and his pal, Ultra Violet. But the time since women gained the right to vote just sounded too limiting. That’s when it struck me, I’d go to the future – maybe 100 years in the future. Life would still hopefully make a little bit of sense to someone from our era, but how fun to see all the new technology. And hopefully, women and minorities will have even more legal and cultural rights than they enjoy today. Camille S., St. Paul, MN
My girlfriend and I have talked about this at length, and the answer reveals a fundamental difference in our relationship: She would opt for Memphis 1956 - Sun Records and the birth of rock. I personally would choose San Francisco 1949. I guess however mature I get I'll never quite get over the feeling I got when I first discovered the Beats while I was avoiding school and driving through the American West.
Some many places so little time...
As a student of the History of Science there are many people I'd like to meet. But since I just finished Steven Johnson's "The History of Air" I would choose, London in late 1750's. Specifically the London Coffee House and a meeting of the "Honest Whigs". The group included among others Benjamin Franklin and Joseph Priestley. Other places, early 17th Century Italy to have dinner with Galileo. Maybe London at Christmas in 1860 to see in person Faraday's final presentation of the six lectures on "The Chemical History of a Candle."
Any or all would be a fine way to spend some time.
I would probably have to go back in time to either feudal Japan or China during the three kindoms era
If I could bring a gun, I'd go back to 1920's Germany and introduce myself to a certain Austrian paper hanger. I would make the world a better place.
I'd go back to 1791 - first I'd treat Mozart so that he wouldn't die so tragically young (imagine the music of a 60 year old Mozart!) and while I was back there it I'd hop over to the new United States and have a word or two with Madison et al. about making sure the Bill of Rights outlawed slavery.
That would be a trip worth taking.
I would want to go to the mid-1800s, pre-high fructose corn syrup, pre-television, and pre-SUV.
I would go back to the 80's and tell my mother not to give my that perm. I looked like a member of a bad hair band and unfortunately have the photos to prove it!
I would travel 15 minutes into the future, see what was going to happen, and then come back and make predictions to people around me so I would appear to be psychic. The perfect mix of time travel and cheap comedy.
I would say this even if the events of the past two weeks hadn't occurred. I would love to be able to attend a Michael Jackson concert in the mid-80s. I absolutely loved him when I was younger, but unfortunately, I was born about 15 years too late.
I would go back & try to save Paul & Sheila Wellstone and the others on that ill-fated flight.
First and foremost, I would go back 4.6 billion years to see the formation of the earth then, moving forward in time to 2 million year ago and watch the dinosaurs. Forward yet again to see the evolution of mankind, moving to and before 18 April 1955, Meet the man that discovered the physics calculations making this adventure possible, Albert Einstein... Now this would be fun.
If I could transcend time, assuming that my mode of travel would also permit me to choose a precise physical destination, I would travel to the year 1800 and challenge Napoleon Bonaparte to a duel.
I would go back to Feb. 9, 2009 and tell my daughter to go to the emergency room instead of urgent care. Maybe the ER would have taken her illness seriously and she might be alive today.
I have a minor in Medieval history, so I've always wanted to experience it firsthand. I'd especially love to go to England to see how they talked, and to talk to them in Modern English to freak them out. I really wish they had indoor plumbing, though. That would probably prevent me from staying very long.
I would like to go back to 17th century england. Between the metaphysical poets and Newton, where would one rather be? But then I think of how non-caucasians were looked upon and treated, it becomes a less-than-desirable proposition.
Here. Now.
Time is just like a measuring tape. You can think and fantasize all you want about traveling in time but in the end you'll realize that time is just a way to measure and manage events. It's so childish that a Physics professor comes up with the idea of building a time machine. Totally ridiculous.
As a fan of history as well as science fiction, I was born to answer today's question.
There are many places and times I'd love to go visit. Here are a few:
Ancient Rome, c. 100 AD. Roman Empire at its height. Pax Romana!
Ancient Greece, c 400 BC-See a Greek play! Listen to Pericles of Athens!
Palestine, c 30 AD. How could I resist trying to find, and listen to, Jesus Christ?
Florence, 1504 AD--and see Leonardo Da Vinci at the height of his powers.
And then there is the future. I would love to see Minneapolis at intervals of 100,500,1000, 2000 and even more, to watch my adopted city grow, adapt and change.
If I could go to the future, I would want to go far enough ahead to see how far we'd gone in the realm of space. Otherwise, it would be back to the early days of climbing at Mt. Rainier.
I would love to go back in time to when my dad was a young boy... to play with him at his grandparent's farm in Perry, Iowa. And to meet my grandmother Rachel as a young mother...
To meet all my grandparents as young parents.
I also would go back in time to the Civil War, to spend time with President Lincoln.
I would go back to the late thirties. While the world was limping through the depression, there were some exciting new innovations appearing in everyday life. My favorites - the movies-Wizard of Oz on the cutting edge of film making, smart comedies like Frank Capra's You Can't Take It With You, as well as Myrna Loy and William Powell's dynamic duo Nick and Nora in the Thin Man series, and then, of course, the eerie suspense of Alfred Hitchcock's early fiims. I would love to have seen them first-run in an old theater!
And... then there's the music and fashion..... what a fascinating time for pop culture!
If I could time travel I would like to go to the grass knoll in Dallas when Kennedy was killed to see if there was a second gunman.
I would also like to be in New York when George Washington was sworn in as our first president.
I'd like to witness the burning bush
that spoke to Moses to confirm my suspicion that it was marijuana.
"Where" I would go probably Thailand for a visit.
As far as time travel though, that would depend on if it was just a visit or a permanent thing
For a visit I would take a peek at the future, Just a peek though and I'd have to think about how far to go.
For a permanent trip I'might go back a give myself some advice. Or would that create a "time paradox"?
I would go fishing with Hemingway and drinks some good Spanish wine.
I would go to Paris in the 1920's and 30's. The western hemisphere's pinnacle of cultural advancement. I'd meet Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein, Edward Steichen, August Rodin, Ernest Hemingway, Henri Matisse, Paul Gauguin and many more too numerous to mention. It's not that this era had more artists it just that they have never been so concentrated in one place.
I would travel to the future to 3009. I would want to see what the world looks like and what type of technology they have in that year. But I would be worried that I could not get back to my "real" time. If time travel was possible could we change things? I'm not sure that is a good idea, because people would be chaning things all the time if they could travel back in time. How strange would it be so travel just a few days back in time and change something that you did a few days ago. Would my future self see my past self and would the interact? Would my future self tell my past self not to do something because of the consequences...would my past self believe the future self?
I would go back to the time before MPR started twittering and asking for posts on these stuiped questions.
I would definitely jump back to last Friday to enjoy that delicious blue-cheese burger I made one more time.
I would like to observe the discussions during the constitutional convention.
(Maybe the question should be "when" would you go?) But, time travel IS space travel because traveling in time would have to take into account the enormous relocation of the earth in space. (The position of the earth - say 50 years ago or so - was many billions, if not trillions, of miles from where it is today. Given the distances involved, why not "land" on Mars or a more habitable planet and see what life somewhere else could be like?
But, if I could go "somewhere" on earth, it would no doubt be to the lab of future time manipulators to have them arrested for interfering with the natural order of existence. Obviously, they've made a mess of things.
I would go back and meet my grandfather who died when my father was 14, long before I was born. I am told I am a lot like him.
I would like to go to the future to see how we're doing with things like: global warming, technology, a cure for some of our diseases (like diabetes and cancer) and world relations.
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