Time machine...Do you go back or forward?
 

If someone invented a time machine, but it was unidirectional, would you go forward or back in time? Where would you go? When?

I'd go back.

Maybe 100 years, maybe more.

Enough that I could use modern technology to become ruler of the world.

Lottery numbers, baby!

Back to the 50's when SCCA racing was still on the streets and anyone with a few bucks and desire could race. Seems like the cars and drivers were just cooler.

Going back to live the "if I only knew then, what I know now..."

Would not have sold the 68' firebird 400. damn fine car.
Microsoft....a stock I would buy...
The first wife would not have been the first wife.....
And the 16,356 other bad choices would have gone the other way.

I'd go sideways

Since 5 out of 6 people who have voted want to go back in time, I think that makes a pretty strong statement about what we think about the prospects for the future - sofar. I'd like to go back to the 18th or 19th centuries when exploring could still be done by individuals.

I might have voted forward on accident. :o

I think I would go forward. I get to come back right (if not disregard my vote I wouldn't go either direction). That way I could look like an investment genious going forward (works either direction, right). I would like to know where I end up living, what career I end up doing, does the image in my head that is the coolest porsche ever come to fruition? Or do I learn how to turn a 3.2 into a 500 HP hydrogen powered engine. I'm still relatively young at 27 and have a lot to figure out.

I would like to see a Ball game in a lot of those old parks when baseball players were still men. I love the romantisized view of the post ww2 era and would like to see it. So it is a tought choice, but going forward gives me insight and direction that I do not have riht now.

I voted future before I read the unidirectional part; seems like anything small thing you did would affect the world that you returned to.

Since you're going to stay, I'm with legion on this (exept I'd go a year farther back than he did)

I always wanted to know what 100 million years ago was like.....hard to even imagine.

Go Forward!!! You can pick up any history book and get an idea of what happened in the past but the future is a complete unknown. That's where the excitement will be.

eff excitement. time travel is plenty exciting enough.

i would go back 7-8 years in time and plagerize the entire HARRY POTTER story. CHACHING! short time = safe. hate to go to far back when everyone was prejudice against us friendly chinese folks. hate to go to far forward when everyone is prejudice against us friendly world dominating chinese folks.

I would bribe the art school to admit Adolph Hilter.

Beautiful!

Sounds like a neat movie idea.

I'm going back. I got laid more then.

If time travel will ever be invented, then it already has been. Aside from that, I'd go forward, as someone said you can read history books for the backward part. Then I'd see whats hot (in my expected lifetime) and come back and invest in it now. I also like to see 10, 100, 1,000 even 10,000 or more years in the future.

I'd go back and marry my wife when I first met her, not 7 years later.

"unidirectional".... Think tires guys...... Nobody's coming back.

Back to ´73 and picked up a brand new RS or two.
Oh, and invested every penny in Microsoft..

Think they'd accept Bush also? :eek: :rolleyes: SmileWavy

I would go back three years in the past, and buy a car cover for my 911. Like that, maybe its paintjob would not be ruined by now. And for sure, I would not use rubbing compound on my clearcoat.

Aurel

I'd go back about 8 minutes and roll a new pot of coffee instead of just reheating this morning's stuff.

I'd go back and reserve every friggin' domain name I could think of.

Was just watching Millenium strangely enough.

As for me,

I really would like to have met my dad at my own age
See Joy Division in Amsterdam
Talk to Richard Feynman, Nikola Tesla, Buckminster Fuller

stuff like that

Let me be a science geek for the moment and point out that time travel into the future is possible. If you could travel near the speed of light (~186,000 miles per sec) time would slow significantly for you relative to us back here on earth. After you returned from your trip it would seem that a relatively short time period had elapsed - and you would find that a longer time period had elapsed on earth. You'd have essentially traveled into the future (Einstein's special theory of relativity). Unfortunately time travel into the past is impossible and leads to problems with causality (what if you killed your parents before you were born, etc.).

That’s what I was originally thought, but then remembered that the army or air force sold P51 mustangs and B-17 bombers after world war two really cheap. So I would probably go back to the 40's and buy a whole pile of both of those and then enjoy the road racing of the 50's.

Assuming that the scientific issues have been worked out it would be really hard to make that decision.

There's so much that we could learn about the past. If you are thinking from a monetary point of view there's amazing antiques/artifacts that you could make money on (James Dean's 550). But the future is so full of mystery, you never know what's around the next corner, and of course there's untold money making opportunity.

I recently saw a B movie called Time Machine (or some obvious title like that). Physics professor in the early 20's proposes to his girlfriend, gives her a ring, she gets shot about 5 minutes later walking in the park while they are being robbed of her new wedding ring. Prof goes nuts for a few months, builds a time machine. Travels back minutes before she gets shot, proposes again, they take a different route. She dies again minutes later by getting run over by a wagon while he's in the store buying her flowers. Decides to go forward in time to find the answer why he can't change the past. Goes to the year 2020, finds we're trying to colonize the moon by blasting caves in it. Nuclear blast throws the moon off orbit, crashes into earth. Prof jumps in time machine, knocks head on date wheel thingie and (knocks himself out), date wheel advances 18,000 years forward before he regains conciousness...stupid but interesting after that...

Future.

Oh, yeah, all of the above. "Love will tear us apart"... live...sigh.

Why limit yourself? Do both!

JoeA

In the top 5 of best songs ever.

I'm with Skipdup...."Show me the money!" Only one way to go...forward!

why would you go into the past, that's boring, you already know what happened.

i'd be more curious about what happens ahead. btw, you can't go into the past because it already happened and it's gone. you can however, travel into the future....

Depends...if I go back in time, can I also regain my 25 year old body, or would I have to retain the worn out carcass I now inhabit? Of course, I'd like to retain the knowledge I've gained over these years...

Joe, You'll split in half.

Im of the belief that time travel ahead is not possible because you sort of change your own future by simply knowing what it is.

websters definition of the word: UNIDIRECTIONAL-In only one direction; referring to a data channel that only transmits one way.

Guys you're NOT coming back!