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I'll make more options.  

  1. 1. I'll make more options.

    • JFK Assassination
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    • Albert Einstein last words
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ZetaX

ZetaX

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At first I would like to have more details on this time travels. Are they purely observative¿ Can they change the past¿ Can they be used to set up a scientific experiment that e.g. runs in an eternal 500 year time loop¿ What kind of paradox resolution do you choose¿

I also don't see why those two questions are interesting; JFKs possibly has political ramifications, but Einstein likely just said some last words not any different from that of any other person. It is almost completely excluded that he had some new insights on physics, nor are political/spiritual/etc. views of dying men relevant.

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Faark

Faark

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So if you can't change anything that means you don't really "go back", but have some kind "spyglass" into the past, that can watch anything though may also has constraints like "only within c*timediff"? Well, that would mean goodby privacy... everyone with enough cash could find out all your evil secrets. It would make a reporters job incredible easy, whereas especially celebrities would have a hard time with absolutely everything they ever did being "on tape" for everyone.

Ofc this assumed this tech is freely available. I'm sure a lot of guys would do everything they can to keep this a secrete and use it for their own interests only.

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Canopus

Canopus

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Posted (edited)
I would step on a butterfly and ruin everything in the present.

As he said, they can't touch anything

Excelent taste in webcomics by the way.

Anyway in order to answer your question i think we need more information. For example could we see the moment in the past only in real time? Or also faster or slower?

Edited by Canopus
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OtherDalfite

OtherDalfite

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As he said, they can't touch anything

Excelent taste in webcomics by the way.

Anyway in order to answer your question i think we need more information. For example could we see the moment in the past only in real time? Or also faster or slower?

Well, if we can look back, we could record it with a very high definition camera, then play it back as long as we like. If we got to the point where we could look back any time we want, we could just view things from alterior places.

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Scotius

Scotius

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I would go back to 10th of april 2010. Russia. Above Smolensk airport. Inside Polish Government plane carrying our President, First Lady and 96 V.I.Ps - including Commander of our Air Forces, various senators and representatives etc. And then i would finally learn which dumb jerk ordered pilots to try to land on old, badly maintained airstrip without modern navigational systems. In heavy fog. Against regulations and common sense. Predictably crashing the plane and killing everyone onboard, crippling Polish government, causing worst administrative crisis in our modern history and creating a huge rift in our society over who should be blamed for that disaster.

Sorry. It's still sore spot of epic proportions.

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Savage117

Savage117

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There's a rather decent SF novel by Stephen Baxter that explores similar issues ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Light_of_Other_Days

I was just about to suggest this book, one of my favorites, must have read it five times or more in the last two years.

@Warhorse: How dare you! Not mentioning Arthur C. Clarke had a part in the creation of this book, blasphemy!!

Seriously though, it is a good book and it touches on many of the different consequences of the "fishbowl effect", that’s what they call it in the book, and what we could find out about ourselves with time viewing. I think I'm gonna go read it again.

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Sternface

Sternface

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Posted (edited)

Here's a time-travel paradox for you:

If one were to travel backwards in time, would this not violate the conservation of matter? Wouldn't you in effect be adding mass to the Universe in the from of you and your machine? Unless something weird happens and it somehow becomes 'endothermic.' But still, that's quite a bit of energy that needs to be 'lost.' It would be like 1000kg or so of anti-matter/matter annihilation.

Ooo. Maybe you would somehow create anti-matter by doing that? This is where my knowledge of physics ends .:confused:

P.S. Maybe that is what dark matter is! A whole bunch of ill-fated time travelers. :sticktongue:

Edited by Sternface
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WestAir

WestAir

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I am not a fan of the 500 year limit on your theoretical machine. My very first, natural instinct was to say "Travel back to time 0 and observe the birth of the Universe in the big bang, and see just how much I can observe through the dense soup of matter."

With 500 years on that limit, the single most interesting event I could watch [With enough pop-corn, of course] is either the French Revolution or the Colonial War (and birth of the US). Other historical events I'd like to watch is Amelia Earhart's last flight, the V-J Kiss in Times Square (Pure entertainment more than education), and maybe bits and pieces of the fall of Prussia. It's really not that interesting a period because it's the single most documented period in history. Events I'd love to see beyond 500 years extends to the nature of the Universe. The first primate, the extinction of the Dinosaurs, the birth of mans first actual language; None of which can I do with a 500 year limit on the machine.

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