If you could meet any five people, who would you meet?

[Ultimate Steve]

Note: This might be more suited for Forum Games. But it technically isn't a game.

 

The title is really self explanatory. If you could, right now, meet any five people, who would you choose to meet?

Assume you can speak any language. The people on your list don't necessarily have to be still alive. You can do your list over living people, dead people, both, or make separate lists for living and dead people.

 

Me: (of the living people)

1. Elon Musk. Self explanatory.

2. Joey Tempest. The guy who wrote The Final Countdown, my favorite song ever!

3. Martin Molin. Lead songwriter/musician of Wintergatan, the band responsible for the viral video "Marble Machine" as well as my second favorite song ever, Starmachine 2000, and my fourth favorite song, Emerson (the unreleased demo).

4. Any moon astronaut. First choice Alan Bean, second choice Buzz Aldrin.

5. Felipe Falanghe. The creator of Kerbal Space Program.

 

Me: (dead people)

1. David Bowie. (AGH, Starman is stuck inside my head again!)

2. The Grandma I never met. I was told she is very similar to me in a lot of ways.

3. Aristotle, so I could tell him that the Earth was round, and to bamboozle him with how we ended up going to the moon.

4. That guy who invented the wheel.

5. Wilbur and Orville Wright. (Well, If I met one, may as well meet the other) again to bamboozle them with stories of space travel.

Edited April 6, 2017 by Ultimate Steve

[The Raging Sandwich]

1. Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins

2. The President

3. Jim Lovell

4. Peter Cullen

[Ultimate Steve]

44 minutes ago, The Raging Sandwich said:

1. Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins

2. The President

3. Jim Lovell

4. Peter Cullen

Agh, I forgot about Mike! He would definitely be my sixth, if not replacing Buzz/Bean.

One of my favorite captioned photos:

[NSEP]

1. Any Astronaut

2. Any WW2 Veteran

3. Any Airplane Pilot

4. Anyone with a bad view from the public nowadays.

5. Anyone who is family with a historical character.

 

Extra (but s/he dead)

Any Ancient Roman Citizen.

[Bill Phil]

All of my heroes passed quite a while ago... I can't think of anyone living that I'd want to meet.

[NSEP]

32 minutes ago, Bill Phil said:

All of my heroes passed quite a while ago... I can't think of anyone living that I'd want to meet.

I know those feels. I would like to meet JFK or Neil Armstrong but they arent alive anymore. Wich is sad. But people have to die someday. Thats the way life is.

[Dartguy]

Buzz Aldrin (or another moon astronaut)

Carl Sagan

Jim Clark

Ayrton Senna

My mom's grandparents

[tater]

Living...

 

 

 

@NSEP, most of those are possible, but WW2 vets are getting more rare, you better hurry. Look for local meetings of ww2 vets, they happen. I used to go to the annual 8th AF luncheon here in town, and shared lunch with many aircrew and ground crew. Interesting guys.

[monstah]

17 minutes ago, Dartguy said:

Ayrton Senna

Wow, surprising! He was my childhood hero; I was nine and watching the race when he died  I think maybe Kuerten was for the current generation what he was for mine?

 

This is a tricky one. Lets see. I'll assume I can chose dead people too, and also that I have a Babel fish, or some Comprehend Languages scrolls, or whatever. In no particular order:

• Any human who has been to space (preferably one who has been to the Moon, even just on flyby)
• Any ancient Greek well-versed in pre-modern scientific thinking
• Any citizen who is:
  1. from any place with a culture vastly different from mine, say, Ethiopia or Tibet;
  2. inclined to scientific and philosophical thought and argument (regardless of scientific knowledge); 
  3. concerned with mankind and the future of this planet;
  4. religious, and willing to have a respectful discussion about their beliefs with an atheist (that is, me)
• Arthur C Clarke
• HP Lovecraft

[Noobton]

Only 5 is too hard, but Assuming I can speak any language

1. Sun Tzu

2. Alexander

3. Newton

4. Einstein

5. Carl Sagan

[monstah]

Bonus round, five specific people still alive:

• Zach Weiner (from the SMBC webcomic - hopefully, wearing clothes)
• Carolyn Parco (formerly NASA, member of teams for Voyager, Cassini, Huygens, New Horizons; together with Sagan, insisted that there were cameras on the Voyager probes)
• Morgan Freeman (A.K.A., "God") (ever watched or heard an interview with him? That man is astonishingly interesting, intelligent and concerned. And charming as hell, to boot)
• Elon Musk (from... oh, you've heard of him, right? The Boring Company, yeah!)
• Kirk Hammet (Yeah, yeah, I know! "Metallica sucks", "they're idiots", "they're in it for the money", "their music has been crap for over 20 years", I've heard all of this before. Screw it, I find this guy cool )

[Just Jim]

Mine are all dead authors... but at least I don't need a Babel Fish... lol.... 

1) HP Lovecraft

2) Frank Herbert

3) Edger Allen Poe

4) Samuel Clemens

5) William Shakespeare

[monstah]

1 minute ago, Just Jim said:

2) Frank Herbert

I always feel so guilty I've never read him. I think I even have Duna in my shelf, borrowed from my dad, along with, I dunno, a metric ton or two of unread books

[DarkOwl57]

1: Sebastian Vettel

2: My friend via Minecraft @SparkyFox

3: @Just Jim

4: Any previous President (Or current (Bleh))

5: uh.... erhm....... Jeff Gordon, because he was the first driver I started rooting for in my first NASCAR race (The Fall race at New Hampshire, 2011)

1 hour ago, Dartguy said:

Ayrton Senna

(This is if I can speak any language... right?)

EDIT: This said Living...... dernit

Edited April 6, 2017 by DarkOwl57

[monstah]

Just now, DarkOwl57 said:

1: Sebastian Vettel

5: 

F1 buffs, are we?  

I confess I've watched less than a handful of races since the nineties. I was shocked after Ayrton, then I lost interest when I became a teenager (and the races were on friggin' Sunday morning, who's going to wake up for that? ) 

[DarkOwl57]

Just now, monstah said:

F1 buffs, are we?  

Maaaaaaybe Started watching in 2015, but my first full season (Minus Japan and Germany) was 2016. After Australia I can't wait for this season though

2 minutes ago, monstah said:

I confess I've watched less than a handful of races since the nineties.

I try to watch every race. Between that and NASCAR, TIVO (which is supposed to have unlimited space) has been getting maxed out about every week

3 minutes ago, monstah said:

I was shocked after Ayrton, then I lost interest when I became a teenager

Never saw Ayrton Heard he was a Bad-A though

3 minutes ago, monstah said:

(and the races were on friggin' Sunday morning, who's going to wake up for that? ) 

Ah the beauty of DVR

[Brent Kerman]

1. Elon Musk

2. Scott Manley

3. Felipe Falanghe

4. Any Moon Astronaut

5. @Kuzzter , @Just Jim , or @KSK

[tater]

The OP says living, which is why I haven't answered... Some would perhaps look like other lists here, though I have met several astronauts, including a few Apollo ones, and a bunch of ww2 pilots...

I suppose I'd want to meet people to have interesting conversations with. 

Sam Harris

Elon Musk

Jeff Bezos

Neil Stephenson

... I'll leave this one blank for when I remember who else would be fun to talk to for a while.

[Just Jim]

14 minutes ago, DarkOwl57 said:

3: @Just Jim 

 

1 minute ago, Brent Kerman said:

5. @Kuzzter , @Just Jim , or @KSK

Awww... thank you!  But honestly, I'm kinda boring in real life... 

[DarkOwl57]

Just now, Just Jim said:

 

Awww... thank you!  But honestly, I'm kinda boring in real life... 

hahaha

[Just Jim]

22 minutes ago, monstah said:

I always feel so guilty I've never read him. I think I even have Duna in my shelf, borrowed from my dad, along with, I dunno, a metric ton or two of unread books

hehehe... it's Dune, actually... your inner kerbal is showing!  lmao!  

Seriously, I have to warn you, the Dune series is very hardcore intellectual Sci-fi, along the lines of Lovecraft, and can be rather overwhelming at first. But trust me, once you get into it, Dune is very addictive!

Edited April 6, 2017 by Just Jim

[monstah]

8 minutes ago, tater said:

The OP says living, which is why I haven't answered

And so it does. Am I blind or dumb? 

Just now, Just Jim said:

hehehe... it's Dune, actually... your inner kerbal is showing!  lmao!

LOL! It would seem so, but that's actually the translation of the title to Portuguese   ("Duna" is the translation of "dune" as a word)

[DarkOwl57]

Just now, monstah said:

And so it does. Am I blind or dumb? 

Pretty sure 90% of us put at least one dead person in our list XD

[Just Jim]

1 minute ago, monstah said:

LOL! It would seem so, but that's actually the translation of the title to Portuguese   ("Duna" is the translation of "dune" as a word)

Is it?  That's too funny!!!  

OK, so if it has to be living people, I'll go with

1) Steven King

2) Clive Barker

3) Brian Lumley

4) John Carpenter

5) ...not sure yet.... 

[tater]

Dead is hard, because choosing just 5 is so very hard, I'm torn between great figures from the past, and a few mundane people I happen to be related to, but lack information on (a few great, great grandfathers, since I have trouble getting past them in the family tree, lol, so I could ask for names, etc going back farther).

Living is hard, because I want interesting people, but with just 5, I want people I have little chance of getting to meet... the list I posted is bad in that regard, because with some small effort, I could likely meet many or indeed all of them. If by "meet" it means get lengthy one on one time, then the list becomes better (meeting people is easy, sit down time is a little harder).

Edited April 6, 2017 by tater