Which Tyler Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 ...you've no idea if you dreamed up a future [meaning 20 years of life] or have actually time traveled back into your younger self. What do you do next? Write the Harry Potter books; and lots of music - plagiarism be damned. ETA: actually, 20 years probably isn't enough to get Potter out, dammit - still, lots of music, and sports betting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Scot A Ellison Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 I'd be 23 and recent college graduate. Not entirely sure. Probably be terrified that any action I would take at that point would prevent my children, who in this hypothetical would be clear in my memory, from being born.Bale,It's worse than losing them because they would exist only in our minds. It would be as thought they had been erased. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnionAhaiReborn Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 First and foremost, I'd use my knowledge of upcoming solar eclipses to keep myself from being burned at the stake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paddington Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 I'd be more confident, maybe studied something different, probably studied harder. Would have invested more. edit: lots of things, I am not sure how much is changeable. Uninteneded consquences Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry of the Lawn Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 Yes, no more need for school if I'm going to be a multi-millionaire. I take all the money I have and place bets on the teams I know will win the Super Bowl, at the beginning of the season...wait I'm only 19 now, so I get someone to place the bets for me or I just wait a year and a half. Take most of that money invest in Google, Amazon, AOL companies I know I can make money with and also know when to get out. I impress my friends with these songs I "just made up" like Lose Yourself, She Will Be Loved, Call Me Maybe, etc, Then when they make the movie Hot Tub Time Machine, Craig Robinson can pretend to steal "Let's Get It Started" from me :P I'd do everything I can to prevent the Star Wars prequels from being made. and seriously, I'd try to put right what once went wrong, Princess Diana, JFK Jr., Columbine, 9/11..., but also have to do it in a way that I would not end up in an insane asylum or locked up for life in a government bunker or something.I admire the broad scope of action and events you'd undertake to change. Thats some superhero stuff, man.I'd go the other route, predicting diaasters but also trying to stop.them like in Final Destination, and I'd be really creepy and weird about it so someone would be inspired to write a horror novel about the weird kid with Nostradamus like powers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Scot A Ellison Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 Actually, it's interesting to see how different my perspective is on this exercise post-children. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arch-MaesterPhilip Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 Would this be like a Groundhog Day kind of deal where you keep repeating the twenty years until you get them right? Or is it more like a personal quantum leap kind of thing? Anyway I'd be thrilled to get a chance to avoid most of the regrets I have now. I would have applied myself in school, transferred to the co-ed school after freshman year of high school. Warned myself that diabetes was coming and kind of get myself ready for that. Gone away to college and found something I was passionate about. Not been a miserable coward with women. Probably have been a big gambling degenerate. Let myself have more fun and just enjoy life. That sort of thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3CityApache Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 I'd be 23 and recent college graduate. Not entirely sure. Probably be terrified that any action I would take at that point would prevent my children, who in this hypothetical would be clear in my memory, from being born. Grieve because I would miss my daughter. :( This. It's first that comes to mind - that I would be crushed my daughters never existed. On the other hand, I'd be 20 again, after first year at the university, which was probably the sweetest time of my life, prior to kids. I'd probably be totally perplexed, not even knowing my future wife yet and being hopelessly in love with a girl from the class. I'd want to fix my relationship with her, finally knowing how to do it, only I couldn't, not to prevent my children from being born. Man, it would be a challenge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Scot A Ellison Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 This reminds me if Alan Moore's point from Watchmen. The existence of every single one of us, as consicious beings, is miraculous. Our existence is so unlikely, so difficult to bring about, that it means that the death of the meanest among us is a tragedy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weeping Sore Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 I would do everything exactly the same except that I would join this forum earlier so I could take part in Naked Hatted Avatar week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sj4iy Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 ...wish I could go back 20 years in the future with my children and husband because my life in middle school sucks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hutch Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 Convince everyone that 9 year old me is a wizard. Nostradamus reborn! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lany Freelove Cassandra Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 It's hard to answer. I would change my major (I was finishing up the degree I started while in the army) husband #1 was about to leave me, and I would be better prepared for it. I often wonder if I would go through with the wedding to husband #2 or not. When I got pregnant, my initial reaction was to break up with him as he didn't want kids (mine were fine as they were older, spent time away, with their dad) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nichole Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 Start crying because who wants to be 13 again? I also would also be pretty mad I would be dealing with the braces and acne again. I also might try to be more active and social during my teenage years, stay in college when I'm 18 and not date that total loser I met when I was 19. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serious Callers Only Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 Rage that i never memorized lottery numbers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S John Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 Hmm, lets see. It'd be 1994, so the first thing I would do is use my knowledge of the future to make sure there are no photos of me in god-awful 90's shit like MC Hammer pants or neon windbreakers like there are in my current reality. I would immediately need to burn my 1994 wardrobe and start from scratch. Then, I'd definitely pull a Biff and bet on sport events for which I know the outcome until I'd built myself a tidy little fortune. I'd also be 10 years old so knowing what I know now about life I would make myself start learning things that would be cool to be good at as an adult but that when I was an actual kid I was out smashing GI Joes together in the mud instead. Things like martial arts, guitar, a foreign language, stuff like that. Maybe have tried harder in basketball, which I used to be reasonably good at. I just didn't have the discipline for that stuff as a kid, but maybe with 30 years of remembered life experience you'd be able to apply yourself. Cause if you'd started those things 10, by 30 you'd be close to expert status. Hell, by the time you got to high school you'd be good enough to impress all the girls at school and that is really the important thing here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Scot A Ellison Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 S John,The real question is whether your presence in the earlier timeline with knowledge of future events would ripple so far as to affect those games that you have memories of. The future memories would only work so long before there would be significant alterartions in the timeline. Hence, all the parents mourning for the children they remember who will never be.Addtionally, is this a 20 year moebius loop where you fall asleep and wake up to do it all over again with memories of the prior itterations? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arch-MaesterPhilip Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 So essentially it is like Groundhog Day? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S John Posted October 28, 2014 Share Posted October 28, 2014 S John,The real question is whether your presence in the earlier timeline with knowledge of future events would ripple so far as to affect those games that you have memories of. The future memories would only work so long before there would be significant alterartions in the timeline. Hence, all the parents mourning for the children they remember who will never be.Addtionally, is this a 20 year moebius loop where you fall asleep and wake up to do it all over again with memories of the prior itterations? I think that knowledge of future events may affect very personal things, such as having children. But I don't think anything I could do would affect the fact that the Dallas Cowboys won the Super Bowl in 1994 or that Bill Clinton was going to beat Bob Dole in the 1996 election. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sci-2 Posted October 28, 2014 Author Share Posted October 28, 2014 Interesting how many people are willing to bet they time traveled, rather than just dreamed up a life that was fictional. I probably won't be able to change any major historic events, even if I tried (e.g. stop 9/11). Well, depending on what you remembered you might be taken seriously - the best hope is offering predictions for scientific discoveries that can be proven 20 years ago. Of course, once people know you have this anomalous knowledge you can kiss normal life goodbye. Grieve because I would miss my daughter. :( I think this is one of the most interesting/touching answers, along with others who mentioned waking up to realize their kids didn't exist. Reminds me of what movie with Nicholas Cage & Tea Leoni... This reminds me if Alan Moore's point from Watchmen. The existence of every single one of us, as consicious beings, is miraculous. Our existence is so unlikely, so difficult to bring about, that it means that the death of the meanest among us is a tragedy. Good point - there's a quote like this about how every death must been is as a tragedy lest we regard life itself as the tragedy. Can't seem to find it though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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