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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Your time machine awaits
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Chapelhead
I am
# 21
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Posted
21 October 2015 is the date that Marty McFly and Dr Emmett Brown travel to in the future in Back to the Future 2 which, as I write this, is either tomorrow or yesterday, depending on which way through time you are travelling.
If you had a time machine, when and where would you go? Would you want to discuss foreign policy with Attila the Hun, or swap recipes with the Borgias? Perhaps shout, 'Duck' to King Harold, or say something amusing to Queen Victoria.
A couple of 'features' of this time machine:
- It has a range of 1,900 years, so asking itinerant preachers of the first century about cheesemakers is out.
- Like all good time/space machines, this one magically allows you to converse with whoever you meet, so language won't be a problem.
When would you go, if you could go anywhen?
[ 20. October 2015, 18:01: Message edited by: Chapelhead ]
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At times like this I find myself thinking, what would the Amish do?
Posts: 9123 | From: Near where I was before. | Registered: Aug 2001
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
You need one more feature: the machine needs to supply you with perfect camouflage for your environment. Otherwise, the first thing you need to address before picking up those tickets for the opening night of HAMLET in 1603 is a ruff, hose, and a doublet. And there would be no point in bringing your cell hoping for a selfie; you'd be at the stake as a wizard in a twinkling. And how tedious it would be, being the only white man at the court of Kublai Khan. Even your perfect Manchu dialect would not save you from comment about the sweat pants, tee shirt, and eyeglasses.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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LeRoc
Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216
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Posted
Part of me just wants to move forward in, say, 10 year steps, to see what will happen.
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I know why God made the rhinoceros, it's because He couldn't see the rhinoceros, so He made the rhinoceros to be able to see it. (Clarice Lispector)
Posts: 9474 | From: Brazil / Africa | Registered: Aug 2002
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Sipech
Shipmate
# 16870
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Posted
I know this is Heaven, but for a serious point I'd go back to late 18th century America, find those responsible for the 2nd amendment to the US constitution and bring them forward to show them Columbine, Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech and several others, just to show them the consequences of what an enshrined "right to bear arms" brings about.
[/rant]
Then I'd probably go and listen in on this conversation between Paul Dirac and Richard Feynman.
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I try to be self-deprecating; I'm just not very good at it.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TheAlethiophile
Posts: 3791 | From: On the corporate ladder | Registered: Jan 2012
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
I haven't seen the movie(s) so I don't know if this is a one-time thing (do I have to live in the era I choose) or do I get to move from one to another? I'd love to meet Shakespeare and see one of his plays, but that would have been a horrible time to live. There are many composers I'd love to meet and attend concerts of them conducting their own works, e.g., Wagner conducting the Ring!
I agree with Sipech -- not to leave out the 2nd amendment necessarily, but I wish they had been a little more specific about that whole militia thing not meaning any yahoo can have an assault weapon.
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
I have a long-held ambition to write a biography of a minor Victorian poet. Unfortunately for me, she had a love affair lasting two-ish years round about 1889, and I don't know who she had the love affair with. This pretty much scuppers the biography.
I would travel back to 1889 to meet her with her lover.
Actually, the thought of meeting her at all is a splendid one.
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Sandemaniac
Shipmate
# 12829
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Posted
I'd like to see just how fast Harold Larwood really was.
Just not from the other end...
AG
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"It becomes soon pleasantly apparent that change-ringing is by no means merely an excuse for beer" Charles Dickens gets it wrong, 1869
Posts: 3574 | From: The wardrobe of my soul | Registered: Jul 2007
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LeRoc
Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216
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Posted
quote:
North East Quine: I have a long-held ambition to write a biography of a minor Victorian poet. Unfortunately for me, she had a love affair lasting two-ish years round about 1889, and I don't know who she had the love affair with. This pretty much scuppers the biography.
I would travel back to 1889 to meet her with her lover.
Most time travel stories that start out like this end on the paradox where you become the lover you wanted to write about ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
[ 20. October 2015, 18:44: Message edited by: LeRoc ]
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I know why God made the rhinoceros, it's because He couldn't see the rhinoceros, so He made the rhinoceros to be able to see it. (Clarice Lispector)
Posts: 9474 | From: Brazil / Africa | Registered: Aug 2002
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Chapelhead:
A couple of 'features' of this time machine:
It has a range of 1,900 years, so asking itinerant preachers of the first century about cheesemakers is out.
Ha. I can still explore Roman London. And then stop off in medieval Oxford to see what it's like, on route to the first performance of "The Tempest" in November 1611.
And then going shopping in turn-of-the-century London in, say, the summer of 1900.
Actually I do also want to see the Crystal Palace and the Great Exhibition in 1851 - I've wanted those for years.
I feel I ought to be more adventurous and nominate a few places abroad, but these are all things I've had for a while on my wish list. If ever I meet The Doctor, I'll at least have some ideas for suggested trips.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Adeodatus
Shipmate
# 4992
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
There are many composers I'd love to meet and attend concerts of them conducting their own works, e.g., Wagner conducting the Ring!
I hate to say this, but I'm not sure he ever did! The conductor at the Bayreuth premiere in 1876 was Hans Richter. But yes, I'd love to see a lot of music performed in the era it was written - Mahler, Wagner, Beethoven, Mozart - and then go back and hear Palestrina, Tallis, and Josquin as they were originally performed. (And see just how right - or wrong - modern "historically informed performances" are!)
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"What is broken, repair with gold."
Posts: 9779 | From: Manchester | Registered: Sep 2003
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Leorning Cniht
Shipmate
# 17564
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Chapelhead:
Like all good time/space machines, this one magically allows you to converse with whoever you meet, so language won't be a problem.
Do I get to learn / keep my knowledge of the languages? Because I rather have a list of old languages that would be fun to converse in.
I've a list of famous people I'd like to meet, too, although I'm not sure that modern sensibilities would stand up to meeting one's heroes and discovering that they were very much people of their time.
But if I'm to pick one destination, I'll go with dropping in on King Alfred from time to time, and finding out how much of the King Alfred mythos is myth.
Posts: 5026 | From: USA | Registered: Feb 2013
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Chapelhead
I am
# 21
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
You need one more feature: the machine needs to supply you with perfect camouflage for your environment. Otherwise, the first thing you need to address before picking up those tickets for the opening night of HAMLET in 1603 is a ruff, hose, and a doublet.
Fairy nuff. The time machine also provides you with camouflage (and a few doubloons, groats, or whatever you need to buy a ticket).
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At times like this I find myself thinking, what would the Amish do?
Posts: 9123 | From: Near where I was before. | Registered: Aug 2001
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by LeRoc:
quote:
North East Quine: I have a long-held ambition to write a biography of a minor Victorian poet. Unfortunately for me, she had a love affair lasting two-ish years round about 1889, and I don't know who she had the love affair with. This pretty much scuppers the biography.
I would travel back to 1889 to meet her with her lover.
Most time travel stories that start out like this end on the paradox where you become the lover you wanted to write about
![[Hot and Hormonal]](icon_redface.gif)
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
Explore L space. Specifically, get the stuff that was just about to burn at Alexandria (obviously too late for the Caesar episode, but the other ones). Get the druid wooden records burned by Patrick, the documents lost in Mesoamerica, the Thomasine texts in India - I suppose the time span doesn't allow for the books the first Chinese Emperor got rid of. Offer the book hoarders of Timbuktu a safe place from the biblioclasts.
[ 20. October 2015, 20:40: Message edited by: Penny S ]
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Adeodatus:
quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
There are many composers I'd love to meet and attend concerts of them conducting their own works, e.g., Wagner conducting the Ring!
I hate to say this, but I'm not sure he ever did! The conductor at the Bayreuth premiere in 1876 was Hans Richter. But yes, I'd love to see a lot of music performed in the era it was written - Mahler, Wagner, Beethoven, Mozart - and then go back and hear Palestrina, Tallis, and Josquin as they were originally performed. (And see just how right - or wrong - modern "historically informed performances" are!)
Thanks -- I did wonder about that after I typed it.
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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Adeodatus
Shipmate
# 4992
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
quote:
Originally posted by Adeodatus:
quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
There are many composers I'd love to meet and attend concerts of them conducting their own works, e.g., Wagner conducting the Ring!
I hate to say this, but I'm not sure he ever did! The conductor at the Bayreuth premiere in 1876 was Hans Richter. But yes, I'd love to see a lot of music performed in the era it was written - Mahler, Wagner, Beethoven, Mozart - and then go back and hear Palestrina, Tallis, and Josquin as they were originally performed. (And see just how right - or wrong - modern "historically informed performances" are!)
Thanks -- I did wonder about that after I typed it.
I was surprised, given that (a) he was a noted conductor and (b) he was such a control freak. So now we use the time machine to persuade him! (He did conduct some of his own earlier stuff - apparently he was brisk.)
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"What is broken, repair with gold."
Posts: 9779 | From: Manchester | Registered: Sep 2003
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
If you are popping into the Library of Alexandria just before it is burned, what would be the harm in hauling a few of the lost works of Aeschylus back?
And from here we slide over to those stories where the adventures are funded by Nazi gold, ripped of from Adolf's stash an hour before the fall of the Third Reich.
And then! What about rescuing human beings? The people who were just about to fry at Pompeii, who were in steerage on the Titanic? Nobody would notice if you popped them out, yes?
From there we can detour into the "gun for a dinosaur" effect, in which a minor tinker with the past, removing just one reptile or butterfly, may, or may not, have nasty effects further down the time stream. Many SF stories on this subject.
And, if you have come this far and are nodding your head, then! I have a story for you.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
I'd like to be at the northern edge of the Canadian prairies in the summer, watching the buffalo, pronghorn etc migrate about 1650 AD. This means we'll have horses. Hanging out with the locals after a buffalo kill. Fishing too.
Then to the west coast, near Prince Rupert for the eulachon run (fish). About the same year.
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Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
\_(ツ)_/
Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
I'd like to hear the music of Byrd, Gibbons, Tallis, Praetorius and Susato as they would have heard it and (assuming that this time-machine can disguise me as a bloke, as their choirs wouldn't have had ladies in them) sing in some of their performances.
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
That would be fascinating if slightly unsettling, as I presume the tuning and pitch would sound quite alien to our ears (despite us having heard "authentic" performances". What a lovely idea.
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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Chapelhead
I am
# 21
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Posted
Seeing 'original' performances certainly would be intriguing. On a rather more gruesome note, I would find it fascinating to see the preparation for a major Napoleonic battle (perhaps Leipzig, the 'Battle of the Nations') - although as soon as the first shot was fired I would be out of there as fast as my time machine could take me. It's hard to imagine how 600,000 men could be manoeuvred into position simply by voice, drum, bugle or written order. What does 600,000 men on a battlefield even look like?
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At times like this I find myself thinking, what would the Amish do?
Posts: 9123 | From: Near where I was before. | Registered: Aug 2001
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Enoch
Shipmate
# 14322
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Posted
It's curious,isn't it, that none of us seems to want to have a quick recce round the future - not even to see who wins next year's Grand National so that they can come back and place a stonking bet on it.
As a bit of a train nerd, I'd like to see the railways as they were in about 1910. One or two of the big London stations, St Pancras or Euston say, Birmingham New Street, York, Carlisle, Glasgow Central to find out what shade of blue they really used. To go back to 1890 would also be good to see the broad gauge before it was converted.
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Brexit wrexit - Sir Graham Watson
Posts: 7610 | From: Bristol UK(was European Green Capital 2015, now Ljubljana) | Registered: Nov 2008
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Enoch:
As a bit of a train nerd, I'd like to see the railways as they were in about 1910. One or two of the big London stations, St Pancras or Euston say, Birmingham New Street, York, Carlisle, Glasgow Central to find out what shade of blue they really used. To go back to 1890 would also be good to see the broad gauge before it was converted.
That would certainly give you a degree of one-upmanship with the Historical Model Railway Society. But how would you record the colours accurately, for their satisfaction?
(Note to non-nerds: there is a lot of debate about railway colours, even to the suggestion that engines of the same company were painted in slightly different shades by different depots or over time. This especially applies to the Caledonian and Highland Railways in Scotland, and the Midland and London Brighton & South Coast Railways in England). At least the North Western company just used black!)).
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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Sipech
Shipmate
# 16870
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Posted
I think it would be quite good to stick around Wittenberg near the start of the 16th century. I could hang around the castle church on the 31st of October 1517 with a spare bag of nails and a hammer to see if Martin Luther turned up or whether the story really is just legend.
Then I'd nip forward to Christmas Day 1521 to join in with the first reformed communion service, presided over by Andreas von Karlstadt.
For the future, I wouldn't want to go too far forward. I might visit my nieces and nephews in their autumn years (if they live that long) and see how they turned out in life.
Yet the prospect that maybe things didn't go well for them might prevent me. The prospect for heartbreak by going to the future is one that I think might make a lot of people hesitate.
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I try to be self-deprecating; I'm just not very good at it.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TheAlethiophile
Posts: 3791 | From: On the corporate ladder | Registered: Jan 2012
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sipech:
I think it would be quite good to stick around Wittenberg near the start of the 16th century. I could hang around the castle church on the 31st of October 1517 with a spare bag of nails and a hammer to see if Martin Luther turned up or whether the story really is just legend.
What if you had a pair of pliers to wrench the nails out of the door, so his notice was never seen? ![[Devil]](graemlins/devil.gif)
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Enoch:
It's curious,isn't it, that none of us seems to want to have a quick recce round the future - not even to see who wins next year's Grand National so that they can come back and place a stonking bet on it.
Very early in this thread, LeRoc mentioned going into the future!
I would be a bit afraid to go into the future and maybe learning sekrit information. Not because I can't keep a secret, but because I'm terrible at lying. But then, it might be nice to go forward about...oh...a little less than two months to see a certain movie coming to a theater near me. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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Rosa Winkel
Saint Anger round my neck
# 11424
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Posted
I'd go and see Iron Maiden in each of the tours they did in the 80s. A few gigs from their early days in the 70s as well, including in the Ruskin Arms.
A bit of 1970-1975 Black Sabbath would be nice as well.
Seeing Liverpool win our first European Cup, or the second, or the third, or the fourth.
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The Disability and Jesus "Locked out for Lent" project
Posts: 3271 | From: Wrocław | Registered: May 2006
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Pine Marten
Shipmate
# 11068
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Posted
Ooh, so many to choose from! I'd also like to see Shakespeare at the Globe (carefully avoiding the Beargarden next door ![[Frown]](frown.gif) ), and of other theatrical things I would go to see Nijinsky in the Ballets Russes in 1911 or so, to see how good he was - I'd so love to see Scheherezade, the Faune, Spectre de la Rose
The other thing I would definitely do is have a l-o-n-g chat with Richard III and attend his coronation. Don't know about witnessing Bosworth, though, it would be too painful to watch...
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Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. - Oscar Wilde
Posts: 1731 | From: Isle of Albion | Registered: Feb 2006
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:
(Note to non-nerds: there is a lot of debate about railway colours, even to the suggestion that engines of the same company were painted in slightly different shades by different depots or over time. This especially applies to the Caledonian and Highland Railways in Scotland, and the Midland and London Brighton & South Coast Railways in England). At least the North Western company just used black!)).
This is a very nerdy note but there is real debate about how black LNWR black really was! Maybe it was an effect of the carefully applied and toned red and white lining but it was referred to as "Blackberry black" and more than one observer said that it had a bit of red or purple in it. Railway colours did vary in any event, as batches were made using different pigments from time to time.
The Brighton Line's "Improved Engine Green" was a shade of ochre, but most sources reckon that was because William Stroudley, who was Chief Mechanical Engineer and therefore God on that railway, was almost totally colour blind.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
A very large issue is not only language or appearance, but race and gender. Would Richard III talk to an Asian woman? What about Winston Churchill? I bet not. Would your American/Liverpudlian/Australian accent instantly and permanently put them off? People in the past did not have our vast exposure to recorded sound and image; if you don't sound like a person of that place/time/status then you might get instantly snubbed. A case can be made that we have as a species become less tribal over the centuries. Go back, and you are an alien in many more ways than you are counting on.
It might be easier to pop into the =head= of someone there. This gets you out of the problem of fitting in/having money/talking weird. You are just riding along, in the head of one of the peasants at Golgotha on the crucial day, seeing what he sees, hearing what he hears. You don't get to speak or act, but this is possibly to the good. Do we want to meddle with the past? Hand Jesus the Uzi that some advocate?
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Drifting Star
Drifting against the wind
# 12799
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
Do we want to meddle with the past? Hand Jesus the Uzi that some advocate?
Ooh yes - and watch him turn it into a ploughshare!
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The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Heraclitus
Posts: 3126 | From: A thin place. | Registered: Jul 2007
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Sipech
Shipmate
# 16870
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Chapelhead:
The time machine also provides you with camouflage (and a few doubloons, groats, or whatever you need to buy a ticket).
That's handy. I was planning to circumvent that by going to the spice aisle of the supermarket, get some black peppercorns, cinnamon sticks, cloves, nutmeg, saffron, etc. and then I could be rather rich in the days before modern globalisation.
Posts: 3791 | From: On the corporate ladder | Registered: Jan 2012
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georgiaboy
Shipmate
# 11294
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Posted
Is one allowed to participate in/interfere with the historic action? If so, one can imagine - grabbing the arm of John Wilkes Booth in Ford's Theatre
- or blocking the doors of the Texas Book Depository
- being present at the Chicago Tribune the day the 'Dewey Wins' headline appeared
- riding with Hannibal to find out why he turned back
- scarfing up all the Mozart autograph scores sold by his widow
- and there are so many more!
I'll stop now, but the list could go on and on and on and ...
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You can't retire from a calling.
Posts: 1675 | From: saint meinrad, IN | Registered: Apr 2006
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Sipech
Shipmate
# 16870
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by georgiaboy:
Is one allowed to participate in/interfere with the historic action? If so, one can imagine - grabbing the arm of John Wilkes Booth in Ford's Theatre
- or blocking the doors of the Texas Book Depository
- [snip]
Allowable, possibly, though it does make you think about consequences. Oddly, I think only Red Dwarf addressed this is anything approaching a reasonable way, where they had JFK assassinating himself because of the consequences of what would have happened had he lived.
It makes you wonder. What if history has already been altered, but far from engineering a utopia, future humanity found that seemingly positive changes had much bigger, negative consequences down the line. Subsequently, the history we have ended up with is simply the least bad, a living out of utilitarian expediency. In this world, the worst atrocities of history have had to happen, in order to avoid worse, unimaginable, horrors that would have unfolded if we'd prevented the rise of Hitler, Pol Pot, Genghis Khan, etc.
The thought that makes me go a bit ![[Ultra confused]](graemlins/confused2.gif) ![[Help]](graemlins/help.gif)
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I try to be self-deprecating; I'm just not very good at it.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TheAlethiophile
Posts: 3791 | From: On the corporate ladder | Registered: Jan 2012
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Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
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Posted
I think I would go back in history just a little way - get to a Led Zep concert, or maybe see Jimi at the IoW. And hear the "I had a dream" speech.
There are lots of things I would like to change, but I am not sure I could justify any of them, not knowing what the implications would be. I might encourage Nick Clegg to have sided with Labour in the coalition though. Or acquired pictures of Camerons Pig incident, and distributed them BEFORE the election.
But then I would go forward. I would take it slowly, to see how long until I died, to see the good stuff coming up. The problem is, I hold out very little hope for the future at the moment, so it would be a risky move - I expect that I would actually see more pain, more suffering, anguish that I couldn't cope with.
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Blog
Music for your enjoyment
Lord may all my hard times be healing times
take out this broken heart and renew my mind.
Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
If you are popping into the Library of Alexandria just before it is burned, what would be the harm in hauling a few of the lost works of Aeschylus back?
Absolutely. The whole purpose being to get the lost stuff. And Sappho. And all the rest.. all the winning plays that we don't have.
And I forgot Malmesbury Abbey for the science writings from before the Conquest. The reast of the monasteries as well, I suppose, but consulting the Cotton catalogue to ensure no glitches. And the house where some of those saved books burned.
We'd never be able to convince anyone they were real though, as the carbon dates would all be wrong. Though the absence of radioactive elements might help.
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
No, they'd be deplored as frauds at the outset. Consider how very difficult it is to get the high foreheads to accept a new Shakespeare play, or a new painting by Titian. You'd have to go public with it (see Asimov's "The Ugly Little Boy") and have a gang of witnesses watching you pop into the Time Bubble and reappear with an armload of curiously new-looking scrolls.
I have tinkered with this material.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
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Posted
The thing is, with a hypothetical time machine, it is not clear what effect the travelling would have. Maybe reality would change to accept the new items.
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Blog
Music for your enjoyment
Lord may all my hard times be healing times
take out this broken heart and renew my mind.
Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001
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Jay-Emm
Shipmate
# 11411
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Posted
That's when the reason the Operetta was lost turns out to be that someone stole it from a locked room (to take back to the future).
Back in the alternative universe model, now wondering how fast changes 'spread'. And if you should plan a series of cheats, that minimised interference.
Posts: 1643 | Registered: May 2006
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
The paradoxes of TT are legion. If you change the past and the future changes, will you then be able to invent TT?
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Dafyd
Shipmate
# 5549
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
Would your American/Liverpudlian/Australian accent instantly and permanently put them off? People in the past did not have our vast exposure to recorded sound and image; if you don't sound like a person of that place/time/status then you might get instantly snubbed.
I believe that without mass media accents were even less homogenised in Europe than they are now and foreigners with barely comprehensible accents started three days walk away.
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we remain, thanks to original sin, much in love with talking about, rather than with, one another. Rowan Williams
Posts: 10567 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Feb 2004
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
I am acutely conscious that nearly everyone I would be interested in meeting would be horrified at the sight of me. I am sitting here in a red checked shirt and a pair of khaki overalls; I am nearly six feet tall, female and Asian. There is no slot where I can be allocated, throughout time and space, except within my lifetime and on into the future.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
A very large issue is not only language or appearance, but race and gender ...
Very fair point, BC - that's why I wanted the machine to disguise me as a bloke.
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Leorning Cniht
Shipmate
# 17564
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sipech:
What if history has already been altered, but far from engineering a utopia, future humanity found that seemingly positive changes had much bigger, negative consequences down the line. Subsequently, the history we have ended up with is simply the least bad, a living out of utilitarian expediency.
Asimov, "The End of Eternity"?
Posts: 5026 | From: USA | Registered: Feb 2013
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Piglet:
quote:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
A very large issue is not only language or appearance, but race and gender ...
Very fair point, BC - that's why I wanted the machine to disguise me as a bloke.
Women can be "invisible" though. If I went back to Victorian times, I'd dress in widow's black and be veiled; the perfect all-concealing disguise.
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Schroedinger's cat:
But then I would go forward. I would take it slowly, to see how long until I died, to see the good stuff coming up.
This is one thing I wouldn't do - go forward in the immediate future. Supposing you found out you or a loved one were going to suddenly die in a traffic accident well before old age, or develop cancer and be dead by Christmas?
I think if I did go forward it would have to be at least 50 years after I could reasonably be presumed dead. I wouldn't want to know how it would happen or when.
[ 22. October 2015, 11:35: Message edited by: Ariel ]
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
... Supposing you found out you or a loved one were going to suddenly die in a traffic accident well before old age, or develop cancer and be dead by Christmas?
Those scenarios would make it far too tempting to do something that would change the future (rather like Marty McFly's parents being prevented from meeting in BTTF).
**shudder**
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
Oh, NEQ. You'd probably still stand out like a sore thumb. I know I would. Women, even men, my height are surpassingly rare in the past. Even now, for the mere cost of a plane ticket, I can fly to Hong Kong and walk down the street, towering head and shoulders above 90% of the pedestrians. Observe the people in a street scene on TV sometime. They walk, they move, like 21st century people, people with trainers, who had good nutrition, who had their hips replaced or their chiropractors adjusting their necks. Plato and Socrates did not walk like that.
And there is an entire separate issue revolving around moving and manipulating in clothing. It takes skill and training to manage a floor-length skirt with train, a veil, a hat, and the attendant gloves and fan. It is near the end of October, so this is easy to demonstrate -- find a costume and wear it. Try to climb the stairs, or step outdoors in that hat. Or, for the gentlemen: mooch a pair of stiletto heels. Try and walk across the room. (Support yourself on the wall, or you'll break your ankle.)
Do you wear glasses? Can you get them on, under the veil and hat? To merely sit down in a hoop skirt is a dicey thing, and let us not even discuss going to the bathroom in it. (Google on this; there are some keen tips that will thrill you.) If you are not careful a stray breeze will flip the crinoline up and flash your drawers (crotchless!) to the hilarity of the masses.
No, there is much more to moving unobtrusively in a culture than merely looking the part. Watching it on TV or movies deceives us. (It would be worth fishing up Sir Richard Burton's accounts of traveling in disguise to Mecca. He did it, so it can be done.)
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
I am 5ft 5in so not too tall to fit into a Victorian street scene. I would not be a wealthy woman, with trail and fan, but a respectable lower middle widow. The sort of lady in reduced circumstances who lets out a room to a respectable gentleman. No extravagant hoops for me! The corsetry would be tedious, but I think I could do it. My hat would probably bristle with hatpins, but my hat and veil would stay on.
There might be a pang or two if keen observation leads me to conclude that my entire PhD thesis is in fact a steaming pile of horse manure, but I think it would be worth it just to walk down Union Street, Aberdeen, in the 1880s.
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Kitten
Shipmate
# 1179
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Posted
It probably sounds a little ordinary but I'd love to go back to about a year before my father died so that I could have one conversation with him as an adult (No further than that though as I wouldn't want to accidentally let him know of his impending demise before he knew of it himself).
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Maius intra qua extra
Never accept a ride from a stranger, unless they are in a big blue box
Posts: 2330 | From: Carmarthenshire | Registered: Aug 2001
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