If you had a time machine where would you go?

[Bettina]

If time travel were possible, there is no reason you couldn't go back in time and change something. For example, I am standing in front of a newly painted white house. I change the arrow of time and go back one month to see a painter just getting ready to paint that very house white.

 

The paint was already purchased by the owner of the home who is away on a one month vacation. The painter doesn't know the color until he opens the cans and before he does, I switch the colors from white to red. I go back to my time and see a red house now instead of white.

 

Bee

[ydoaPs]

if you changed the cans before he painted, the house wouldn't be white when before you time travelled.

[ydoaPs]

from a thread a long time ago:

 

i THINK i may understand why you are always saying that the grandfather paradox is not a paradox.

 

a moment cannot be changed. the fact that you are alive now tells you that you will be unsuccessful if you should ever travel back in time to kill your father.

 

if you go back in time' date=' you will have been there the one and only time it came around. it isn't like you missed a play, so you caught the next one and kept it from proceeding as usual.

 

even though "now" is different to everyone, "now" cannot be changed by future events. what happened happened and what didn't happen, didn't happen. nothing will ever change that.

 

am i right or way off?

 

edit: my last post was just to bump the thread in case anyone else knew anything about the subject.[/quote']

 

That's the simple version' date=' yeah. Kudos.

 

People tend to try and process the sequence of events in some kind of logical order, which usually ends up being "the order in which the traveller commits actions", rather than the order in which the actual events occur.

 

They then find that logic falls apart and they can't resolve the problem, so they slap a paradox label on it (instead of realising that linear logic won't account for things like effect preceding cause, et cetera.)[/quote']

[Cloud]

I'll try and stop the roman empire from collapsing.

History would change for good (in theory)

 

That - or the dinosaurs.

I would take grenade launchers just in case - but I might upset the fabric of time.

(ironic since I want to do that - in respect to the roman escapade).

[ydoaPs]

I'll try and stop the roman empire from collapsing.

you could try, but it wouldn't work.

 

History would change for good (in theory)

no, it wouldn't

[Daecon]

Go back and start this thread first!

[bobosmokey]

I would make sure there is no slavery

[padren]

If the time machine had a "slide" function where you could look out the window and see time going faster/slower...instead of just popping out at a point in time, I'd take the thing a good distance out and watch Andromeda and the Milky Way collide over the course of an hour or so from my perspective.

 

I'd also like to watch the formation of various nebula in the same manner.

[blike]

I'd probably go forward a few thousand years and see where we're at, what religion is up to, what science is up to, etc.

[RyanJ]

I'd probably go forward a few thousand years and see where we're at, what religion is up to, what science is up to, etc.

 

 

I wounder what sort of technology will be arround in x000 years... considering the rate of technological advancement it would probably be quite impressive

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Jones

[frostbite]

I wounder what sort of technology will be arround in x000 years... considering the rate of technological advancement it would probably be quite impressive

 

Cheers' date='

 

Ryan Jones[/quote']

 

yeah... that would be nice.. seeing flying cars.. gadget etc. whoah.. i wonder what world would it be. hmm.. sounds like the world in "THE IMPOSTOR"

[dr.syntax]

I think it`s a great question. I would go back to a month or so before I was born. I would do so to make sure my birth went right. I was born Caesarian under extreme duress to my mother and me. And from then on I would avoid all the harmful to myself decisions I made and take advantage of all the missed opprotunities and such. Things like that. ...Dr.Syntax

Edited September 11, 2009 by dr.syntax
spelling

[Mr Skeptic]

I'd go to the future and bring back a laptop with all the scientific knowledge I could, and also info on who won what games.

[Baby Astronaut]

I'd go back and make The Peon blink just as that camera shot went off for the avatar.

 

I would also like to go forward and see how the universe ends... see the start and end of everything sounds good to me

I'd visit the restaurant at the end of the universe.

 

 

(in only a towel)

 

I'd go back in time a couple of thousand years and give the Virgin...

You'd catch her in the doggy style

 

 

Originally Posted by yourdadonapogos

 

a moment cannot be changed. the fact that you are alive now tells you that you will be unsuccessful if you should ever travel back in time to kill your father.

So if 5 billion people tried going back to kill daddy, they'd all fail?

 

Pretty big odds there.

 

 

Originally Posted by Sayonara³

 

People tend to try and process the sequence of events in some kind of logical order, which usually ends up being "the order in which the traveller commits actions", rather than the order in which the actual events occur.

 

They then find that logic falls apart and they can't resolve the problem, so they slap a paradox label on it (instead of realising that linear logic won't account for things like effect preceding cause, et cetera.)

We'd have to assume everything is predetermined. The future already exists, our plans, and we have no control over it. But that's if the present would've "already" happened by a future event.

[ydoaPs]

Originally Posted by yourdadonapogos

 

a moment cannot be changed. the fact that you are alive now tells you that you will be unsuccessful if you should ever travel back in time to kill your father.

So if 5 billion people tried going back to kill daddy, they'd all fail?

 

Pretty big odds there.

Yes, as evidenced by you still being alive.

 

Originally Posted by Sayonara³

 

People tend to try and process the sequence of events in some kind of logical order, which usually ends up being "the order in which the traveller commits actions", rather than the order in which the actual events occur.

 

They then find that logic falls apart and they can't resolve the problem, so they slap a paradox label on it (instead of realising that linear logic won't account for things like effect preceding cause, et cetera.)

We'd have to assume everything is predetermined. The future already exists, our plans, and we have no control over it. But that's if the present would've "already" happened by a future event.

 

Bold does not follow.

[Sisyphus]

Does responding to a thread 3 1/2 years after the next most recent post count as going back in time?

[Baby Astronaut]

Bold does not follow.

The future events are set and can't be altered. No free will.

 

Does responding to a thread 3 1/2 years after the next most recent post count as going back in time?

Actually, I came back 18 years from now in order so that I didn't quote a 22 year old thread in the future

[Sisyphus]

The future events are set and can't be altered. No free will.

 

I agree with ydoaps: the latter does not follow. Your decisions control your life. They don't "alter" the future, they make it. But if you think about the meanings of the word "alter" (i.e. being the force behind a difference in something between two points in time) and "future," altering the future doesn't make any sense as a concept.

[Ophiolite]

Does responding to a thread 3 1/2 years after the next most recent post count as going back in time?

I was going to say much the same thing, but I'll probably say it last week instead.

 

After that I want to see Theia hit the proto-Earth. From a safe distance of course. That was one hell of a bang.

[Baby Astronaut]

I agree with ydoaps: the latter does not follow. Your decisions control your life. They don't "alter" the future, they make it. But if you think about the meanings of the word "alter" (i.e. being the force behind a difference in something between two points in time) and "future," altering the future doesn't make any sense as a concept.

Then we simply disagree.

[Mr Skeptic]

Then we simply disagree.

 

Once you realize that "free will" must be composed of a combination of chance (which can hardly be called "will") and deterministic rules (which can hardly be called "free" in the sense most people would like), it makes more sense. Saying the future is predetermined simply means that the chance component is just an illusion. But why would randomness make you free, would it not be more like a decision made by flipping a coin (ie not yours), yet you are still bound by it.

[Baby Astronaut]

Once you realize that "free will" must be composed of a combination of chance (which can hardly be called "will") and deterministic rules (which can hardly be called "free" in the sense most people would like), it makes more sense.

And how would I come to realize that? By accepting what's been proposed, but hasn't been proven?

 

Here's Wikipedia's entry for deterministic....

 

...the view that every event, including human cognition, behavior, decision, and action, is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences.

 

However since it hasn't been proven, it's just speculation.

 

Thus mine is just as valid...

 

Every purposeful human cognition, behavior, and action, is causally determined by the human's decision at that very instant.

[Mr Skeptic]

And how would I come to realize that?

 

Oh? Is there an alternative?

[Sisyphus]

And how would I come to realize that? By accepting what's been proposed, but hasn't been proven?

 

Here's Wikipedia's entry for deterministic....

 

...the view that every event, including human cognition, behavior, decision, and action, is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences.

 

However since it hasn't been proven, it's just speculation.

 

Thus mine is just as valid...

 

Every purposeful human cognition, behavior, and action, is causally determined by the human's decision at that very instant.

 

And what causes the "human's decision?" If it's something, that's "prior occurences." If there is nothing causing it to be one thing or the other, that's random by definition.

[Baby Astronaut]

Oh? Is there an alternative?

If nothing's been established, how can there be alternatives to it?

 

And what causes the "human's decision?"

We don't know.

 

If it's something, that's "prior occurences."

Maybe, but right now it's just a possibility.

 

If there is nothing causing it to be one thing or the other, that's random by definition.

Well I made no claim, but if you want my opinion it's likely caused by personal will at the very instant the decision is to become action.