I'll choose to go back a few minutes so I can stop myself from getting sucked into the time portal...

Four hours from now, because then I'd be off work for the day.

Smart dudes posting to jump to pre-Bitcoin times coming in 3-2-1

I always think it would be cool to visit some historical moment. Then I remember I'm not white and that I would not be having a very good time.

1: Ten seconds from now, I have shit to do.

2: A week ago. "I bet you a billion dollars that sub implodes..."

1990s A.D. so I can enjoy the great music whilst also being able to see the birth of Linux.

My highschool days. Wouldn't change a thing either, except I wouldn't start smoking cigarettes.

It's crazy that every point in history has its own blend of "suckitude" that don't want to deal with.

1491 to the soon-to-be landing point of Christopher Columbus. I would bring an arsenal of modern day weaponry and then arm and train the natives in anticipation for when his ships appear on the horizon.

OK... where in the world would I pop up?

If where I live, in Paraná: 1300 then. I'd be teaching the local Kaingang: a few farming techniques, a bunch of food-preserving techniques, writing and paper making. Ah, and gunpowder too, so they can use it against the Spaniards coming from Asunción and the Portuguese from the coast. Past that I'd... marry a local girl and try to live a happy life? Language would be a struggle though, because even if I knew 2023 Kaingang or Guarani that doesn't automatically makes me know some older variety of the language.

If anywhere in the world: Republican Rome, around 150 BCE. I know basic Latin so it wouldn't be actually easier to adapt than the above. I'd probably find some craft to live from, either in a taberna selling food or blacksmithing. I actually know a few Roman recipes (thanks Apicius), I could even give them a bit of modern twist; they should already know pizza (Virgil mentions it) but a modern style pizza bianca would be new. Perhaps I should leave a note to the Julii that, if one of them conquers Gaul, he should watch out for potential killers.

I think I'd go paleolithic. Pre-agricultural, on the move finding food, being in nature. It'd be dicey obviously but like whatever, if you die you die. I feel like the physical activity, adrenaline, living in community, being in nature... Would just be nice. I feel like I probably wouldn't be depressed anymore eventually. Like who would have the time?

Also damn can you imagine seeing like 4000 lb armadillos and shit? Living among a bunch of now-extinct megafauna seems like it would be both thrilling and terrifying. Honestly I'd probably die by trying to Disney princess with a twelve foot tall deer or some shit.

30 years ago, to start creepily leaving teenage me notes to make better decisions

As recent as possible to have modern medicine; I like not dying from a flu...

At least a century after the 15th Millennium but at least a century prior to the 25th Millennium.

Early 1990s. Become the stockmarket god!

1 hour into the future so I can eat lunch early and avoid the dangers of going to some new reality I don't have the skills or resources to deal with.

California in the 1960's. Being a hippy during Woodstock sounds like the ultimate experience I missed out on just because I didn't exist at the time

Not human prehistory. That one would suck, I'm in no way built and trained as a hunter-gatherer. Either some civilisation, pre-humans or a recent era, then.

From the wording I'm assuming limited control of where I land, So I can't airdrop in behind a world leader or into a vault, but I can choose a region.

Gilded age is tempting, for classic "change history" reasons, and because I could kickstart semiconductors early and make a buck. The disadvantage is I'd be destitute on arrival, and my education, while extensive, is undocumented there, so maybe I'd die in a coal mine anyway. Perhaps I'd pick England and try to chat up Bertrand Russel, he could vouch for my knowledge after a quick conversation and might even be a good choice to explain my situation to.

If I'm going ancient civilisation, probably Rome. I could find some sort of industry to start and even just my clothes will be valuable. The Incas would be cool to but if I'm being adventurous I want more time to prepare.

Pre-human, maybe New Zealand. I'll eat local forage and hunt moa until I eventually die. It's better than starving, and I don't have to worry so much about large predators.

Lame answer but I would pick the closest time I could back to my time as I could.

I don't think I could survive without modern day technology and I really don't want to try.

If going into future is an option maybe. That would probably be my next best option if I couldn't pick a past time within the last 50 years.

3000

By the way, this would be a great fit over here. https://lemmy.sdf.org/c/hypotheticalsituation if it's not indexed already.

I don't really want to miss my family for that long. Maybe I'd go back to when my kids were babies and become a live-in nannydad? I could see that getting weird though.

If I didn't have that level of control but I absolutely had to go somewhen, I guess I'd either go a few decades in the future to see how it shapes up, or to the neolithic era so I could finally find out a bunch of things we'd never otherwise have known. That era seems like it was pretty cool, and I happen to know enough baseline science to actually recreate some of my favourite amenities.