Moral Dilemma and Time Travel

[Lord Poe]

Let's say you've been given the chance to go back and inhabit your body from 20 years ago. However, you are warned that you will die if you try to change or warn anyone of any significant historical event or disaster. What would you do?

Would you fail to warn anyone about the Challenger explosion,
or even 9-11?

How about Hurricane Katrina?

[LongVin]

Got to go with let the events happen you don't know how history is going to get fucked up by changing important things.

Plus no one would believe you they would just think you are a nutjob.

"I'm from the future! You must stop the shuttle launch its going to blow!"

"Yeah sure buddy. How did you even get in here anyway?"

"FUTURE! STOP THE LAUNCH!"

"Security!"

As you are getting beaten in the backlot by big burly security guards the shuttle blows up which they will just assume is a concidence of course since you apparently die from this beating you can't tell them about anything else to possibly raise your credibility.

-------

Now of course I would take twenty years of stock market history and go and play the market. Plus invest in real estate that would become up and coming neighborhoods in the late 90s early 00s back in the 80s when it was dirt cheap.

[dworkin]

Let's say you've been given the chance to go back and inhabit your body from 20 years ago. However, you are warned that you will die if you try to change or warn anyone of any significant historical event or disaster. What would you do?

There's no way in hell I'm going through being a teenager again and not changing history, at least my own. I mean, what's the point?

The oppotunity to watch all my mistakes through the lens of my now wiser self? No thankyou.

[Nova Andromeda]

--I always wanted a reload button.

[Patrick Degan]

To quote David Xanatos about the feasibility of changing the past: "You won't because you can't. Time travel's funny that way."

[Sriad]

Let's say you've been given the chance to go back and inhabit your body from 20 years ago. However, you are warned that you will die if you try to change or warn anyone of any significant historical event or disaster. What would you do?

There's no way in hell I'm going through being a teenager again and not changing history, at least my own. I mean, what's the point?

The oppotunity to watch all my mistakes through the lens of my now wiser self? No thankyou.

Unless your teenage years were a "significant historical event or disaster" you should be fine. Yes, I know they felt that way...

I haven't lived quite long enough to have time to take full advantage of this, (I would have definately wanted to put money on the Twins to win the World Series in 1991, or the Red Sox to go all the way to the end after they were down 0-3 but was only 10 in 1991, so few gambling agencies would have taken me up on it.), there hasn't been quite the number of massive stock market fluctuations needed for me to make a large fortune in just that area... If I had advance warning I'd definately take the time to memorize a set of high-jackpot Powerball numbers with no winner from shortly after I turned 18, and important stock trends from then to the time of my relocation. (definately hold on to Google stock for about 4 months after opening, definately DON'T invest heavily in Enron, etc.) I guess that one COULD build up a pretty massive fortune in short order with $80 odd million in seed money and advance stock knowlage.

So that's what I'd do. Build up a massive fortune by winning a large, otherwise unclaimed lotto jackpot shortly after 18 (I assume this would slip under the Major Historical Events radar; how many lotto winners have their names written deep in history?), take the earnings to the stock market, and use my significant fortune to effect good in the world, rather than get killed trying to stop Historical Event X.

[Zero]

If you wanted to stop something, you wouldn't warn anybody, you'd make threats. Annonymous threats.

[Dark Primus]

20 years... naah I don't think so. But lets say 6 months and I do it.

[wolveraptor]

Since there would be no way to get people to believe you, you'd die for no reason, and so the endeavor would be pointless. I'd just let history be as it was.

[Darth Servo]

Got to go with let the events happen you don't know how history is going to get fucked up by changing important things.

Plus no one would believe you they would just think you are a nutjob.

"I'm from the future! You must stop the shuttle launch its going to blow!"

"Yeah sure buddy. How did you even get in here anyway?"

"FUTURE! STOP THE LAUNCH!"

"Security!"

As you are getting beaten in the backlot by big burly security guards the shuttle blows up which they will just assume is a concidence of course since you apparently die from this beating you can't tell them about anything else to possibly raise your credibility.

You COULD send an annonymous tip to check the o-rings.

[LongVin]

Got to go with let the events happen you don't know how history is going to get fucked up by changing important things.

Plus no one would believe you they would just think you are a nutjob.

"I'm from the future! You must stop the shuttle launch its going to blow!"

"Yeah sure buddy. How did you even get in here anyway?"

"FUTURE! STOP THE LAUNCH!"

"Security!"

As you are getting beaten in the backlot by big burly security guards the shuttle blows up which they will just assume is a concidence of course since you apparently die from this beating you can't tell them about anything else to possibly raise your credibility.

You COULD send an annonymous tip to check the o-rings.

Still you would die and in all likelyhood they would be like "WTF is this some weirdo sending letters to us about O-Rings" and throw it out.

[Stile]

Still you would die and in all likelyhood they would be like "WTF is this some weirdo sending letters to us about O-Rings" and throw it out.

This is all well and good except that they had been warned repeatedly by the engineers that the o-rings would fail in such conditions. If you don't listen to the people who designed the freakin thing, would you listen to an anonymous tip??

The movie "The Final Countdown" kind of adresses the thread's question. The officer that was displaced and shown at the end of the movie was presumably rich but he didn't stop any of the various disasters that happened in the 39 years since the Pearl Harbor attack.

[aerius]

Would you fail to warn anyone about the Challenger explosion,
or even 9-11?

Somehow I don't think NASA or anyone related to them will take hints from a 7 year old kid. As for 9/11, not much I can do there either. Some anonymous Canadian telling people that the terrorists will crash planes into the WTC and the Pentagon? I'll get laughed at even harder than the UFO whack-a-loons.

How about Hurricane Katrina?

Not much I can do there either. I might be able to convince a few people to leave New Orleans but that's about it.

I don't think there's much I can do to warn people about historical events or change the way they happened. Best I can do is save a few people if I'm in the right time & place, and I'm going to die for that.

[The Grim Squeaker]

I wouldn't be alive 20 years ago, but 17 years ago I'd be born .
I wouldn't be ready to die, despite any desire to stop an assasination (for example), I would convince my parents not to move to Israel and ... warn of another private family issue (I'd prefer not to say what it is).
Is using future knowledge of the stock market allowed, or is it also an instant death cause?

[Sarevok]

I would not feel guilty about not altering history and saving lives in the process. It is because if I prevent a major disaster from happening it alters the timeline significantly. My knowledge of other future disasters is no longer useful and I can no longer prevent them. People will die regardless of what I do. So I would rather enjoy starting over again with 17 years of hindsight rather than kill myself to prevent a big disaster.

[Civil War Man]

Even if I tried to warn anyone, like many people here, I wouldn't be taken seriously. I mean, I was 2 when the Challenger blew up, and on September 11th I was still in high school.

It'll be a few years, well after I'm out of college, before I have enough experience to be considered an authority in whatever field. Maybe if you sent that version of me, in his body, complete with his credentials, back in time, this hypothethical would have any meaning.

[lance]

If I did decide to try to stop 9/11 I would send a letter that read

"Me and my arab, mainly Saudi Arabian, compadres are going to hijack several airliners armed with boxcutters and crash them into the world trade center, whitehouse, pentagon and nothing can stop us!"
That should get some attention.

[drachefly]

I will die if I try to warn people? Well, WHEN? We all die eventually...

[RedImperator]

I can see the result of me trying to prevent 9/11. I send a detailed letter to the FBI about the circumstances of the attack, including the names of the hijackers. It gets dumped in the crank file. 9/11 happens. On 9/12, Federal agents show up to have a nice long chat about how I was involved with the 9/11 plot, the only concievable way I could have known so much about it in advance. When I tell them "time travel", I spend a year or ten at Hotel Guantanamo as an American al-Queda operative.

[drachefly]

9/11 would be hard to prevent through official channels because what are you going to do, tell people to go do their jobs?

But remember we have 20 years to work with. 15 years until 9/11. With that kind of time, you might be able to find people with appropriate influence, or BECOME one, inside the airline industry.

Supposing you're going to go and try to change something despite the deadly consequence, what would you focus your efforts on preventing? What's the worst thing that happened in the last 20 years that you think you could prevent?

Are there any catastrophes of little enough historical significance you think you could prevent/mitigate them and get away with it?

[Noble Ire]

I will die if I try to warn people? Well, WHEN? We all die eventually...

I think he probably means the Langoliers will come around promptly to eat you.

As to the question, no, I wouldn't. My efforts would likely fail, and even if they didn't, in all probability, things would end up being worse.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Let's say you've been given the chance to go back and inhabit your body from 20 years ago. However, you are warned that you will die if you try to change or warn anyone of any significant historical event or disaster. What would you do?

Would you fail to warn anyone about the Challenger explosion,
or even 9-11?

How about Hurricane Katrina?

Twenty years ago, I was almost six years old. About the most I could do is use the knowledge I learned the first time around to improve my lot the second time around. All while trying mightily to act in a way that would draw undue attention to me, and not exceed the limitations of my child's body, and not to linger on all the things I lost from the first time around. And, as I like living, I would keep my mouth shut about anything of even modest historical significance.

Then again, growing up is such a trying experience. I would very likely tell my would-be benefactor to bugger off and ask someone else.

[Solauren]

NO.

I use my knowledge of the future to make big money in the stockmarket (especially if I can somehow bring back my laptop and have a few days to prepare) and lottery numbers to make huge amounts of money, and influence world events, thereby possibly stopping them, but not directly

[Uraniun235]

Let's say you've been given the chance to go back and inhabit your body from 20 years ago. However, you are warned that you will die if you try to change or warn anyone of any significant historical event or disaster. What would you do?

Being that I'm only 20 years old, I'm reminded of Kirk's line from Star Trek: Generations:

"I can start all over, and do things right from day one!"

Honestly, I'd be selfish and just take the opportunity to help myself and my friends as much as I could.

[Enigma]

I'd go and try to get my parents to invest in Microsoft, Mitel, Nortel and JDS. As for telling anyone of any pending disasters, I'll tell some friends and pretend I am a fortune teller.