Time machine

greencreeper · 08-10-2006, 11:31

Recently purchased on Ebay and in good working condition <unfurls sheet>

Two goes each:

Where in time in your life do you want to go, why, and would you observe or change time?

What historical event, minor or major, do you want to travel to, why, and would you observe or change time?

08-10-2006, 11:55

The grassy knoll in Dallas approx 30 mins before Kennedy was shot.

Would I interfere?

Yes

Reasons:
I believe kennedy had the vision and the drive to have made the world a better place. He was a hard and fair man, he didnt like war, and was active in abolishing the unfair treatment of blacks in the US.

If I didnt interfere,
I would have looked out for a second gunman, and hopefully been able to prove once and for all the Kennedy was killed not by Lee harvy Oswald, but by members of the CIA.

**Hugh** · 08-10-2006, 12:29

Go back to when the Versailles Treaty was being drawn up - get them to withdraw the punitive "war guilt" clause, which economically crippled Germany, and (imho) probably led to the rise of Hitler and WW2.

and if that failed -

Munich, September 1919 - assassinate Hitler on this way to "German Workers Party" meeting, when he went as an informer, but left wanting to join it and take it over, thus entering politics.

greencreeper · 08-10-2006, 12:33

In my life, I'd go back to my school days - and leave.

In history, I'd like to have been present when the Berlin Wall came down. Or maybe tell Abe Lincoln to avoid the theatre.

Jules · 08-10-2006, 12:40

There are so many things I would like to change in history, the wars the tsunami, 7/11, Titanic, the list is endless.

In my own life I would not have married the psycho, no hang on I wouldn't have had my son then and he was worth every hell filled moment with ex husband so I think I will just stick to changing the bad things in history

**Russ** · 08-10-2006, 12:48

Which event in time would I go back to? Certain events over a 3 year period from about 2000 years ago

And I'd take a camera just to shut you lot up

Jules · 08-10-2006, 12:53

Now they are pictures I would love to see

marky · 08-10-2006, 13:04

I want to post something inteligent, but a little voice keeps saying LOTTERY

Anonymouse · 08-10-2006, 14:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by greencreeper

In my life, I'd go back to my school days - and leave.

A lot of people would say that, i.e. do something to change your life in an attempt to make it better - correct a mistake, for example, or somehow warn yourself not to be such a prat. But it would be a futile effort. As Terry Pratchett correctly pointed out in Night Watch, you had to have been the prat you were then to become the older, hopefully wiser person you are now.

Not that it helps. There was a crucial decision I made in 1985; I'd received an unsolicited offer from Sheffield Polytechnic for a 3-year (or 4, with a year's industrial placement) HND course - computer architecture, telecommunications, fibre optics, software engineering, holography. It sounded great. But I didn't take it because I didn't think I'd get enough of a grant; in terms of my dad's earnings, we were apparently on a borderline as regards one or two things Mum had applied for (and only got a fraction of) while I was at 6th form college.

I didn't know HND grants were mandatory, nor that I'd have got a bit extra for living away from home. I could have had an HND in 1989, when employers were screaming for them, instead of 1991 (I worked to get my HND for 2 years, then they moved the goalposts and started screaming for B.Sc graduates). Who knows where I'd have been by now?

greencreeper · 08-10-2006, 15:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anonymouse

As Terry Pratchett correctly pointed out in Night Watch, you had to have been the prat you were then to become the older, hopefully wiser person you are now.

Or the bullies' plaything then, to be the mess you are now. It's the same argument that fathers who knock their kids around use - it's character building.

09-10-2006, 20:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Russ D

Which event in time would I go back to? Certain events over a 3 year period from about 2000 years ago

And I'd take a camera just to shut you lot up

not everyone here needs photographic evidence.

**Graham M** · 09-10-2006, 21:13

I'd love to see what he REALLY looked like though. I can tell you this, he wasn't white

DocDutch · 09-10-2006, 21:16

I'm with Timewarrior and foreverwar but with Hitler I would just go to the frontlines of ww1 and shoot him there.

Kennedy just take out the 2nd gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald didnt hit him at all, and the 2nd gunman was around some fences so easy picking then.