history

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-01-17 08:53pm

you have a time machine. you can change one thing at any time in history. what would you change and why? what effects would this cause?

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2003-01-17 08:59pm

My wealth level. Cause I am an evil and greedy bastard.

Honestly, if I can only go back once, I wouldn't try to change anything big because I can't fix any problems my meddling could cause.

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-01-17 09:02pm

Id change a personal mistake I made as a 19 year old.

The mistake at 19 would allow me to pass a physical.

That probably is not what you were looking for, but Id be scared to mess with history beyond my own.

Zoink · Post by **Zoink** » 2003-01-17 09:27pm

I would stop the impact 65 milion years ago... just to see what would happen.

Seggybop · Post by **Seggybop** » 2003-01-17 09:39pm

Initiate industrial/scientific revolution in the Roman Empire

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2003-01-17 10:40pm

I'd tell Kaiser Friedrich III to listen to his german doctors, maybe he would have lived a few more years and initiated an alliance with Britain and, consequently the U.S., thereby avoiding the horrors of the 20th century.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2003-01-17 10:43pm

I'd do some stock trading in the past and have a nice 9 or so digit bank account bequeathed to me in the present. Selfish, sure, but I don't want to go and change something major in history, only to find that it made things all the worse.

Hmm, speaking of changing history... I just got an idea for a good parody article... *opens Word*

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2003-01-17 11:14pm

Personal history: I'd go back about 4 years and explain to a very close friend of mine, in detail, the series of mistakes she would make between about March of 1999 and October of 2002 that would end up nearly killing her. Hopefully, she wouldn't repeat them.

World history: Go back to 1944 with a laptop computer stuffed full of WWII and early Cold War history, including PDF copies of top secret documents that had been written the day I arrived. Go to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Insist on seeing the President. Convince FDR to order Ike to cut Patton loose and capture Berlin in 1944, before the Russians get there.

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-01-17 11:19pm

Problem with all of these responses are if they'll think you're a lunatic or not or, in the case of the Roman Empire, will they think you're a witch/Jew/whatever.

Just wanted to say that.

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2003-01-17 11:22pm

Go back far enough(say 1970ish or so...buy stocks) to establish myself near godlike wealth.

Trying to screw with World history has too many consequences of what might happen, that honestly outside of what I can control, I'm not touching.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2003-01-17 11:39pm

Shinova wrote:Problem with all of these responses are if they'll think you're a lunatic or not or, in the case of the Roman Empire, will they think you're a witch/Jew/whatever.

Just wanted to say that.

The computer would be pretty solid evidence I wasn't completely insane. Maybe I'd bring two so they could take one apart and realize it's utterly beyond their technological capabilities. And having copies of documents signed and stamped that same day, or documents still being typed up, would lend credence to my claims of being from the future.

If all else failed, sending a telegram to the White House with these words on it would, if nothing else, get their attention:

How is Dr. Oppenheimer enjoying Los Alamos? If the weather gets too hot, perhaps he'd like to visit Oak Ridge, or perhaps even Manhattan. If he ever visited Washington, do you suppose he'd stay at 235 U street?

Whether that gets me a meeting with the president or beaten to death and dumped in Lake Superior by FBI goons is a good question.

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2003-01-17 11:42pm

Change? I'd change nothing. I am perfectly happy with the way history turned out.

Instead, I'd go to the future, buy an almanac, and make a fortune on gambling in my own time, ala Back to the Future.

SyntaxVorlon · Post by **SyntaxVorlon** » 2003-01-18 12:36am

Most of the stock stuff, like telling your young self the scores in games or the price indecies, only works for about 5 weeks. By that time the police are on to you as you have insider info, or if you are found innocent, then everyone starts listening to you.
I would have gone back in time with a fully loaded, flame retardant spewing fire truck to Alexandria and stopped the fire started by Caesar, the TWIT!

Arrow · Post by **Arrow** » 2003-01-18 04:08pm

I would give Sir Francis Drake an Iowa class battleship to use on the Spainish armada, just for the hell of it (TOOTHPICKS!). But I'd also have give George Washington and the Continential Congress a modern US battlegroup just to keep things even during the Revolution!

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-01-18 04:13pm

Enforcer Talen wrote:you have a time machine. you can change one thing at any time in history. what would you change and why? what effects would this cause?

Tell Pilate to spare Christ and instead simply lock him in prison. Without the martyrdom of Christ the religion probably would never have grown beyond cult status and have spare us some of histories worst atrocities.

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2003-01-18 04:31pm

I would not change anything. Without knowing the consequences my actions in the past would have on the future, I would not want to risk making things worse.

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2003-01-18 05:05pm

Tell Pilate to spare Christ and instead simply lock him in prison. Without the martyrdom of Christ the religion probably would never have grown beyond cult status and have spare us some of histories worst atrocities.

I doubt it. I assume you are referring to such things as the Crusades. Those atrocities were almost always politically motivated, and Christianity was merely a convient excuse. They would happen anyway, in one form or another, with another thin veil over them.

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2003-01-18 05:17pm

HemlockGrey wrote:
Tell Pilate to spare Christ and instead simply lock him in prison. Without the martyrdom of Christ the religion probably would never have grown beyond cult status and have spare us some of histories worst atrocities.
I doubt it. I assume you are referring to such things as the Crusades. Those atrocities were almost always politically motivated, and Christianity was merely a convient excuse. They would happen anyway, in one form or another, with another thin veil over them.

Most wars are population related. I've heard papers on the Crusades being related to population pressure on both sides of the war, and that the Holy Land merely provided an excuse. I don't know how good the research was, though, since I'm not a history major.

Tosho · Post by **Tosho** » 2003-01-18 06:02pm

Go back to the 1812, meet Napoleon and give him a few of Iowa class battleships and superaircraft carriers (along with blueprints for more) telling him that the RN would have no chance against these allowing him to cut off Britain's trade routes, conquer the Iberian penninsula once and for all and forcing Britain to the negotiation tables nullifying the need for the continental system and invading russia. I'd stick around modernizing Frances's army, make an airforce, encourage research into feilds such as nuclear weapons, and make sure Napoleon has a second son.

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2003-01-18 06:07pm

I would travel forward in time. To a time when I can join the culture and just do whatever I wanted.

No more messing with ugly servers and screaming to stupid fools that calls me and not the damn helldesk…

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-01-18 06:22pm

HemlockGrey wrote:
Tell Pilate to spare Christ and instead simply lock him in prison. Without the martyrdom of Christ the religion probably would never have grown beyond cult status and have spare us some of histories worst atrocities.
I doubt it. I assume you are referring to such things as the Crusades. Those atrocities were almost always politically motivated, and Christianity was merely a convient excuse. They would happen anyway, in one form or another, with another thin veil over them.

Of course there were other factors. In fact religion was not the motivating factor at all. What it did do was provide long term direction and focus for the need for war. Instead of lots of little wars that were short lived we got some of the worst wars in history because the religious angled allowed and encouraged atrocities unthinkable against their fellow christians.

And leaving the Crusade's aside there are the Inquisition, witch hunting, and any number of other wars motivated at least in part by religion.

InnerBrat · Post by **InnerBrat** » 2003-01-18 09:04pm

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
I'm a big believer in chaos and all that - changing one thign can have major effects on today's world, and there's no way of predicting what.

Also, I think that every crap thing that's happened in history had at least some good results..

jaeger115 · Post by **jaeger115** » 2003-01-18 10:01pm

I'm leaving history alone. I don't feel comfortable fucking with the results. But if I was given a chance to change something in my personal history, it would be:

Go back to when I was in 7th grade and force my younger self to work harder at mathematics so he'll take algebra in 8th grade. Then I'll be able to take PreCalculus today and not Honors Integrated 3.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-01-18 10:24pm

I'd go back and nuke the ancestors of humanity and leave that little region of africa a precambrian wasteland. This species has failed completely and entirely and does not deserve the technological superiority it has.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-01-18 10:28pm

now that is a depressing thot. why would you go and do that?

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