You've just killed your past self (RAR)

[Elheru Aran]

Now, my entire support structure is just gone... I can never see any of my friends or family again unless I want to show up and explain things to them which... actually given my friends and family that is viable.

Well, I'd listen, except I didn't know you back then. Some of our mutual friends would, though I don't know how much useful support any of them would have been able to provide.

Well, SDN was around. I know, I was there. Actually met one of my girlfriends through it, strangely enough (though the less said about that the better). I expect I might shit-post less

[Simon_Jester]

Yes, but I wasn't around. I'm referring specifically to a subset of people, many of whom used to post on SDN but no longer do, who are at least Internet-friends with both him and me.

I'm not going to comment further on who they are.

[Elheru Aran]

No, that's fair enough. I'm sure I may have Internet-known a few of them during their time here as well. I don't know how I would be able to help Alyrium, if at all, but I'd do what I could if SDN is even a thing since new timelines may be in play here.

One thing is for sure, my current worldview is a long way away from what I had in 2004. I was still moderately homophobic, still kind of hung up on a lot of religious stuff, still fairly conservative... hell, I voted for W in the 2004 election. I think (or at least, hope) that I'd be better adjusted now.

[FaxModem1]

I was enlisted a decade ago. I'm going to have problems no matter what I do. I have visibly aged, I've had corrective surgery and an ear piercing since then, and I'm not in the peak shape I was in at 20 years old. So, I get to deal with either impossibly trying to look like my younger self and fitting in the military again. That will lead to a military interrogation about time travel and the next decade of history.

That, or I'm the run from the military and civilian law enforcement for either being AWOL(if I hide the body) or murdering an enlisted grunt(if I don't)

Q is going to get a barrel of laughs out of what my life has turned into.

[Lagmonster]

Ten years? Q gets viciously obliterated if it's the last thing I ever do. My sons are nine and two.

[Bernkastel]

Sure, and that's what makes it more interesting. Dropping you 10 years in your own past where everything is the same except you makes everything too damn easy. Half of us could waltz into our past lives and the rest could easily start a new life with the free ID and memory alterations, you'd just end up using the notebook to load up with info for getting filthy rich.

If you don't know what timeline you're getting dropped into then that notebook becomes gold, you'll have to think really carefully about what info you want in there. Which could be a whole RAR! unto itself, what info do you need in the notebook so that you don't end up dead or in the loony bin?

Hmm, I'm certainly interested in that idea.

[HortonX25]

Hmm, I'm certainly interested in that idea.

Honestly, I'm surprised Q doesn't take one look at your avatar and thinks he's hitting a little bit far above his weight class with you...

Really, do you HAVE to take the place of your younger self here? Doesn't seem to be anything in the OP asking for it. As I doubt I could realistically pull it off well and not get noticed. Personally, I take records on stocks and most likely use the time I have to become very very rich. Though it's likely that knowledge wouldn't be useful for too long, thanks to butterflies, which a lot of these ideas really don't take into account, even the slightly change, IE buying one stock can have massive effects on the future and as you go more and more along the chain, things get...very distorted shall we say?

Also, define "Any action with the intent of getting you killed", if you eat like a king, would that cover it and mean once you died from natural courses you'd get reset or is it only things like shooting yourself and intentional suicide? As even then, you could probbaly kill yourself, reset the time line and carry on living forever and ever until you got bored, going down that route...

Edit: Ignore the triple post. Removed -Dalton

[Simon_Jester]

I was enlisted a decade ago. I'm going to have problems no matter what I do. I have visibly aged, I've had corrective surgery and an ear piercing since then, and I'm not in the peak shape I was in at 20 years old. So, I get to deal with either impossibly trying to look like my younger self and fitting in the military again. That will lead to a military interrogation about time travel and the next decade of history.

That, or I'm the run from the military and civilian law enforcement for either being AWOL(if I hide the body) or murdering an enlisted grunt(if I don't)

Q is going to get a barrel of laughs out of what my life has turned into.

Honestly, your best bet might well be to turn yourself in immediately, which makes you an intelligence asset if nothing else. Then again, they may randomly decide to waterboard you.

Really, do you HAVE to take the place of your younger self here? Doesn't seem to be anything in the OP asking for it. As I doubt I could realistically pull it off well and not get noticed. Personally, I take records on stocks and most likely use the time I have to become very very rich. Though it's likely that knowledge wouldn't be useful for too long, thanks to butterflies, which a lot of these ideas really don't take into account, even the slightly change, IE buying one stock can have massive effects on the future and as you go more and more along the chain, things get...very distorted shall we say?

You don't have to, but the way the scenario's set up makes it difficult to do anything else, if you think you have a realistic chance of success. Especially given the ambiguity about what it means to say Q won't create false memories involving "your past self." I mean, if I move to a new city with fake ID, do I have any references who 'remember' me in my new identity? It's very hard to start a totally new life without someone prepared to vouch for you. There's a reason the Witness Protection Program is a program with federal agents involved and so on, not just the government printing off new ID and saying "good luck, kthankxbai!"

[HortonX25]

Honestly, your best bet might well be to turn yourself in immediately, which makes you an intelligence asset if nothing else. Then again, they may randomly decide to waterboard you.

I really doubt they're going to swallow a story about you involving time travel. He most likely gets waterboarded.

[Bernkastel]

To clarify, you can create whatever memories you need for your new identity, though you won't be allowed to go overboard with that. As for memories concerning your past self, this refers all memories of past you up to the point they were killed by 2016 you.

[General Zod]

Hmm, I'm certainly interested in that idea.

Honestly, I'm surprised Q doesn't take one look at your avatar and thinks he's hitting a little bit far above his weight class with you...

Really, do you HAVE to take the place of your younger self here? Doesn't seem to be anything in the OP asking for it. As I doubt I could realistically pull it off well and not get noticed. Personally, I take records on stocks and most likely use the time I have to become very very rich. Though it's likely that knowledge wouldn't be useful for too long, thanks to butterflies, which a lot of these ideas really don't take into account, even the slightly change, IE buying one stock can have massive effects on the future and as you go more and more along the chain, things get...very distorted shall we say?

Also, define "Any action with the intent of getting you killed", if you eat like a king, would that cover it and mean once you died from natural courses you'd get reset or is it only things like shooting yourself and intentional suicide? As even then, you could probbaly kill yourself, reset the time line and carry on living forever and ever until you got bored, going down that route...

[/quote]

The stock market isn't that fragile. In order to have any kind of massive impact on a given stock you need to have the purchasing power of a massive hedge fund, or a lot of individuals need to be working in a concerted effort to take it down. If all you want to do is make a few million records of key stocks would be plenty. An alternative would be heavily investment in crypto-currencies like Bitcoin or Litecoin before they become popular or taking advantage of the gold market and other commodities where the kind of volumes that get shifted aren't going to be affected by a single trader.

[Simon_Jester]

To clarify, you can create whatever memories you need for your new identity, though you won't be allowed to go overboard with that. As for memories concerning your past self, this refers all memories of past you up to the point they were killed by 2016 you.

"Memories you need," just to be clear, are memories belonging to OTHER PEOPLE, right? So FaxModem can cause everyone to remember that a thirty year old guy named Fax Modem (or whatever) is alive and has a job and was a good employee for them three years ago and so on. But he can't cause people to forget that there was a twenty year old enlisted trooper named Fax Modem. So they'll still be going "gee, I wonder where Corporal Fax went."

Well then, the only real problem for Fax is how to avoid getting caught for the murder, since he can't fake up an alibi. If he's already on a military base this is hard; if he isn't, less so.

[Bernkastel]

Yes, that's right. You've got it.

[The_Saint]

Let's see.... 2006 puts me ... hmmm....

If I take the "assume my own identity" route I have a quick growing beard to lose and a receding hairline to get back, few scars and recurring injuries to deal with but otherwise I could probably physically assume my identity. With a bit of fudging I could probably even sort out some social/personal/financial/relationship problems without too much hassle. Add in some stock buying, lotto numbers and advanced warning of bitcoin et al should take care of everything else.

If I don't take the "assume my own identity" route then for those people worth worrying about I hide the body, leave a relevant "goodbye note" and disappear. To all who mattered I had much earlier declared that if I ever went "suicidal" I would just pack up and "start over" somewhere else ... which in a morbidly roundabout way I would be doing anyway.

My biggest questions for Q are: have I stayed in the same time line but at an earlier point? If so, what happens when I reach October 2016? Do I warp back to 2006 again, disappear(die) or carry on?
If I'm not in the same time line, is it likely I'll ever be able to get back 'home'?


Looking at this scenario and my life makes me realise Q is a sod, if I consider assuming my own identity: 5 years ago I can work with, accelerate some decisions, save myself some trouble. 15 years ago ... would be an order of magnitude more difficult but I could solve some big problems, prevent some heartache and get myself into a mighty fine position.....
So ... why 10 years?

[Ziggy Stardust]

Given that every single scientific or forensic survey anyone can possibly do will reveal that the dead body and the living me are exactly the same except for ten years of aging, why not go to the authorities? Sure, the FIRST reaction may very well be to arrest you and figure out what's going on, but there's pretty much no way they can end up convicting you (hell, why not ask Q for some additional evidence that exonerates you or further proves the time travel aspect?). Even if they can't figure out HOW it happened, it would be pretty clear once they start looking at things in detail that you are a version of yourself from the future. Especially once you start correctly predicting major events (again, you could ask Q to fill the notebook with a detailed catalog of world events in multiple fields/countries in the year or two after you go to the authorities, with a level of specificity not possible to randomly guess). You will not only be the first confirmed time traveler, but the first confirmed contact with an extraterrestrial lifeform. Why not become a celebrity and change the fucking world?

[General Zod]

Given that every single scientific or forensic survey anyone can possibly do will reveal that the dead body and the living me are exactly the same except for ten years of aging, why not go to the authorities? Sure, the FIRST reaction may very well be to arrest you and figure out what's going on, but there's pretty much no way they can end up convicting you (hell, why not ask Q for some additional evidence that exonerates you or further proves the time travel aspect?). Even if they can't figure out HOW it happened, it would be pretty clear once they start looking at things in detail that you are a version of yourself from the future. Especially once you start correctly predicting major events (again, you could ask Q to fill the notebook with a detailed catalog of world events in multiple fields/countries in the year or two after you go to the authorities, with a level of specificity not possible to randomly guess). You will not only be the first confirmed time traveler, but the first confirmed contact with an extraterrestrial lifeform. Why not become a celebrity and change the fucking world?

Nothing good can come from talking to the police. Even if they accept the fact that you have the same DNA as the dead guy, they don't have to believe anything else and they can bury you in prison for the rest of your life. The rest of the stuff is basically immaterial to the fact that you murdered someone else that just happens to have the same DNA as you.

[Raw Shark]

Man. This thread got really weird really fast.

[Simon_Jester]

Raw Shark, this thread was weird before we were finished reading the title.

[FaxModem1]

The opening of this scenario involves time travel and murdering your younger self. No matter what someone said, this was going to be a very odd conversation. It could only get weirder if someone on this board was a necrophiliac or a cannibal.

[Raw Shark]

Raw Shark, this thread was weird before we were finished reading the title.

Point.

[Cykeisme]

Just to throw something out there..

If you want to go the route of taking the place of your past self, I think the best way to do it is to not do it immediately.
"Setting up a new identity" is not mutually exclusive with "taking your past self's place".

To explain the ten years of aging, if you're in your early thirties like me (or even easier if you're beyond that), you can just disappear and lay low for a year or so. When you show up again, after people haven't seen your younger self for a year, the difference may be less jarring, and when you offer a vague explanation that you've had a really tough year while you were missing, that could help explain the aging. The sheer dissonance at your difference in appearance would probably lead anyone to want to believe that explanation.

Showing up immediately would be pretty jarring for people who knew me, since I obviously look older (though perhaps not too much due to Asian aging), especially since I've put on about twenty pounds of muscle in the last four years.

On the other hand, laying low for a year without help might be hard to do without getting in trouble with the law, but the offer also included help with setting up a new identity can be used to help with laying low!
So you can just use the new identity temporarily for a year or so, before heading back to take your old self's place. You may or may not want to let people know that you are still alive (even though you're actually not, since your younger self was killed) to avoid an inconvenient missing persons search to take place.. but don't return until you're ready.

[FaxModem1]

Unless you have a case like mine, and the government will be hunting you down immediately for disappearing, in which case laying low for a year and then resuming your identity isn't really possible, unless I somehow organize a bunch of people to take the fall as my kidnappers or something.

[Alyrium Denryle]

Given that every single scientific or forensic survey anyone can possibly do will reveal that the dead body and the living me are exactly the same except for ten years of aging, why not go to the authorities? Sure, the FIRST reaction may very well be to arrest you and figure out what's going on, but there's pretty much no way they can end up convicting you (hell, why not ask Q for some additional evidence that exonerates you or further proves the time travel aspect?). Even if they can't figure out HOW it happened, it would be pretty clear once they start looking at things in detail that you are a version of yourself from the future. Especially once you start correctly predicting major events (again, you could ask Q to fill the notebook with a detailed catalog of world events in multiple fields/countries in the year or two after you go to the authorities, with a level of specificity not possible to randomly guess). You will not only be the first confirmed time traveler, but the first confirmed contact with an extraterrestrial lifeform. Why not become a celebrity and change the fucking world?

Nothing good can come from talking to the police. Even if they accept the fact that you have the same DNA as the dead guy, they don't have to believe anything else and they can bury you in prison for the rest of your life. The rest of the stuff is basically immaterial to the fact that you murdered someone else that just happens to have the same DNA as you.

Actually, you can probably have your cake and eat it too if you know all the good forensic counter-measures. Giving yourself a nice head wound will cover up the blood. Wipe down the murder weapon etc. What are they going to do? Find your own DNA on you?

Alternatively "I dont know what happened, I found myself in an unfamiliar place and saw a guy lying there. I tried to help and it turns out is was me in my 20s."

But no...you dont talk to the police. You talk to the CIA. You are an intelligence asset now.

[Simon_Jester]

Yeah. It may be possible to bareface out the "I killed my past self" thing because that would, in most people's minds, cause a paradox. It's not a likely enough hypothesis to be strongly investigated if there are reasons to think it's not true.

[Ziggy Stardust]

It depends somewhat on the limits of what Q is willing to give you in terms of corroboratory evidence that time travel was somehow involved. But, as a general rule, it seems unlikely to me that investigators would ignore all of the forensic evidence that you and the deceased person are the same and just lock you up. Even if they don't take time travel seriously as an idea, that's still a pretty huge mystery for them to unravel, and one that will only get more complicated the more scientific tools they bring to bear to figure it out.