this post was submitted on 09 May 2025
65 points (97.1% liked)

Asklemmy

48175 readers
858 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy πŸ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Assume you have all the luxuries of a modern life in your Tardis (toilet, hot showers, TV, books, game console, ...) which doubles as a mini self-sufficient apartment with it's own energy stores and generation.

Where in history would you go if comfort wasn't an issue?

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] lordnikon@lemmy.world 25 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The end of time and the edge of the universe to have a good meal at the restaurant.

[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 weeks ago

It might just be a bistro

[–] xor@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

i’d go to the first nuclear bomb test, after it went off i’d say they just created a rift in time, and i came back to stop them from destroying the world through paradoxes….

Just make sure you don't accidentally become your own grandparent.

[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Put on fake ears and paint yourself green

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] quediuspayu@lemmy.world 14 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The middle of the carboniferous, imagine forests growing for millions of years and wood not decaying. There should be mountains made of wood.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Go back to before multicellular life evolved so nothing will bother me

[–] chaosCruiser@futurology.today 8 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

I’ll visit past me and leave some letters that contain useful information. You know, don’t trust those people, avoid doing this mistake, know yourself etc. would be interesting to see how that timeline diverges from my own.

Actually. now that I’ve opened this door, might as well try influencing world history on a larger scale. How about I visit certain key moments where a dangerous person almost died, but survived to cause massive harm later down the line. Would be really interesting to see how history plays out after nudging Hitler a little bit closer than to that suitcase. History is just full of special moments like that.

I wouldn’t be a passive observer. I would actively change things to see what happens.

BTW, I believe in the many words interpretation of quantum physics, so all possibilities are equally real and they all exist simultaneously. No matter how hard you try to fix things or how badly you mess things up, that disaster branch was already there, always will be.

[–] MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

If you like fiction (and Stephen King for that matter), you should read 11 22 63. Main character goes back in time to change past events and things... sort of work out. It has a cool take on time travel and course of events in general, I was a big fan of reading it.

There is also a mediocre tv adaption of it as well if you're not into fiction, but I didn't finish it.

[–] Arkhive@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 weeks ago

Some other books that handle time travel in fun ways and play with explicitly making changes to the past.

  • Asimov’s The End of Eternity (might have gone without saying)
  • Jack Finney’s Time and Again (read it as a kid, so might not actually be that good, but it’s illustrated which is fun!)
[–] Rom@hexbear.net 2 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

I would give John Hinckley Jr some shooting lessons.

[–] chaosCruiser@futurology.today 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Exactly! That’s the sort of time travel I’m talking about!

Next stop: 1095, the office of Alexios I Komnenos. Who wants to see what the world looks like without the crusades?

[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I wouldn't mind being there at the end of the children's crusade, at the edge of the Mediterranean, as scores of kids wait for it to part. I'd just be there with a table and a chair, selling them Yo-yos

Bring some ice cream too. Those kids will never be the same after that.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] StarlightDust@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

I've given this a lot of thought but I'd love to meet oppressed historical figures. I'd love to see people autonomously standing up for themselves like at Stonewall and The Battle of Cable Street. I assume that they are both more brutal than anything I can imagine but it blows my mind to realize how many people came together.

I'd love to see the parts of town where the post-WW2 "slum clearings" took place. Gentrification is having a real impact here at the moment and its a shame. We recently lost a shabby 80s community centre and the building that replaced it never got the community back. Honestly, I just want to walk around here before the cars arrived.

A stranger thing that I would want to see is the old wood-paneled stock on the Metropolitan line of the London Underground in service at its peak. I generally would just want to explore transport systems as a whole. Getting to ride a 1910s tram on the street would probably feel surreal.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] dan1101@lemm.ee 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'd go watch the pyramids being built, should be very interesting.

[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 weeks ago

That'd take a long time unless you skip ahead a few years every now and then

[–] VirusMaster3073@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)

I would stop my kid self from taking the concerta I was prescribed and instead get him to drink a cup of coffee every morning, and would also give him advice for when he stops being a Christian and his parents go apeshit and try to desperately bring him back into the fold.

Also I would prefer to use a DeLorean

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] knighthawk0811@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

first things first.

i would relax in my new Tardis, with all the needed luxuries, and take that in for a while. take care of me

[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

"what would you do if your basic needs were met?"
"chill the fuck out"

seems like a solid answer to me no joke

[–] AnnaFrankfurter@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 weeks ago

Absolutely nowhere. I'll spend rest of my life enjoying myself in the tardis.

[–] golden_zealot@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I would probably look at a few interesting years I am aware of, but after a while I figure it would devolve into "I dunno man, what the fuck was going on in 1111?"

[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 weeks ago
[–] SpiceDealer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

"Take care" of Christopher Columbus.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] RebekahWSD@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Go back to various ancient cities and just sit in the equivalent of the town square and watch a day go by. See the food! So many lost recipes. See the clothing??? We only know what the wealthy wore for the most part, I want to see what the majority of people ate, drank, wore, what their homes looked like. What did they do to pass the time??

[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

right? walk a mile in the average person's footsteps.

Though I'm now imagining some weird guy bursting into my house in strange garb, just as I'm about to go to work, excitedly pointing at my vacuum cleaner, and the bills on my table, and exclaiming "this is brilliant!"

[–] RebekahWSD@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Haha, I'd ask! If it's a tardis, it should be translating and making me look like I fit in, yeah? At least clothing wise. I'd be a pale weirdo in a lot of places, but it should work! I'll ask if I can visit, and bring them...wine works, right? That's pretty ancient and won't raise questions. That I'd answer with "it's a gift from far awaaaaaaay" very awkwardly.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] possiblyaperson@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'd love to see the future, because I really am hopeful for humanity to move beyond all this bullshit to some post scarcity utopia :)) Failing that, I'd probably go watch Phineas Gage's big moment, because, woah.

[–] WhatsTheHoldup@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 weeks ago

I don't think you'd want to go into the future after the point time travel was invented because then other time travellers will have been messing with the timeline back and forth a million ways.

[–] Dillenger69@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'd love to witness the Chixilub impact. Or Pompeii, or any huge natural disaster. The bigger the better. I'd also like to figure out how the moon was actually created. Then see the sun swallow the earth at the end.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] PatheticGroundThing@beehaw.org 4 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I'd go back and see if I can find Jesus. See what he looked like, what he actually said at his sermons, and what happened after the crucifixion.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] t_berium@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

I'd go as far back as possible and see how things came to be. And to the time our sun was born and later when our moon was formed. And I'd visits the time and watch earth meeting it's end.

[–] ArgumentativeMonotheist@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'd check out and record all of the Biblical/Qur'anic big moments at a prudent distance, probably (barring the times of Noah, lol). Then I'd die in the time machine as I try to come back to my time and share with others cause God wants belief in the unseen and through uncertainty, maybe. πŸ˜…

[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Write your own bible with the truth, distribute it to safe locations like Constantinople, Alexandria, and Baghdad.

[–] ArgumentativeMonotheist@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Somehow I would be stopped, I feel it. And regardless, they'd corrupt my writings even if I was careful and entirely honest, and the lumpen would eat it up. Oh well. πŸ€·πŸ˜…

[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago

'"Live and let live" he writes. Father, does that mean "Die and make Die also applies?"

[–] Carl@hexbear.net 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

I wanna visit the Indus Valley Civilization and see what they were about. If I'm not changing history I'm just gonna be a temporal tourist, hosting a livestream where I ask Romans where the best fast food is at and stuff.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Lanske@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

Shoot Trump's dad

[–] Andrzej3K@hexbear.net 3 points 2 weeks ago

I would like to see the Hot Club de Paris with a shot of absinthe and a big fat joint

[–] hahattpro@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I did what supposed to be done in Red Alert lore and see what happens.

The world without Tesla, Edition, Einstein. I guess we are running on magic now.

[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 weeks ago

Wait I thought it was just a world without Hitler

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

I'd go back and preserve all the missing Doctor Who episodes. :)

[–] FireWire400@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I'd stay where I am and just travel back before the internet existed/was widely adopted

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 weeks ago

Definitely the future. Probably like 500 year increments.

load more comments
view more: next β€Ί