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If you could travel back in time….

  • 20-03-2024 10:20am
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 48 Sterlingwork


    If you could travel back in time, what era would you go back to and what if anything would you do ?



«1

Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 896 ✭✭✭taxAHcruel


    I do not think I would "do" anything. Many people when asked what they would change about their own life if they could go back answer "nothing" because everything in their past made them the person they are today. The good and the bad. So they would not want to change anything. I feel the same way in general. Our world today such as it is is made up of everything that came before and so I would not change a thing. Especially as even the most well intentioned change could potentially have dramatically harmful unforeseen effects.

    However if the travel back in time was purely for observation with no interaction of any kind - that would be very appealing. There is so much I feel would be worth going back to see. The actual building process of the pyramids. A fly on the wall through many of the events of the alleged Jesus, if he existed at all. Many famous speeches and concerts just to be in the crowd feeling the actual feels. Watch live the missing Doctor Who episodes as they were actually broadcast :)

    The list would be huge.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,438 ✭✭✭✭EmmetSpiceland


    Another issue with the “doing” scenario is that you wouldn’t be able to communicate if you go back more than a few hundred years.

    You could, of course, learn the language of the time but that could always end you up in Michael Moorcock’s ‘Behold the Man’ type situation and you’ll be the one up on the cross.

    “It is not blood that makes you Irish but a willingness to be part of the Irish nation” - Thomas Davis



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,396 ✭✭✭whomitconcerns


    Dara o'Briain put the problem well


    https://youtu.be/BVxOb8-d7Ic?si=7VyM0Pe7yy3OFMsI



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,742 ✭✭✭✭bodhrandude


    Would go on a music tour through the years, stop off in 1966/67 to witness Pink Floyd at the UFO in London with Syd Barrett, 1972 to see Hawkwind perform the Space Ritual with Robert Calvert, Lemmy and Simon King et all and a whole bunch of other classic groups and festivals, would definitely stop for a gawk at Woodstock 1969.

    If you want to get into it, you got to get out of it. (Hawkwind 1982)



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,695 ✭✭✭✭castletownman


    Mine may be mundane, but I always thought it'd be cool to go back in time to my local town from say 80-100 years ago. See how much things have changed, go to the precusors of the pubs I drink in today, take a walk down the country roads to my homestead. Maybe encounter my grandparents when they were younger.



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  • Moderators, Music Moderators Posts: 12,875 Mod ✭✭✭✭iamstop


    I would have went to see James Brown when he played Oxygen cicra '98.

    I would have went to see Prince when he played in Dublin circa '05.

    I would have bought that Weather Report record from that house the Tuk Tuk driver brought me to in Kuala Lumpur circa '07.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,472 ✭✭✭✭Grayson


    This is such an Irish answer. I'd go to the same pub I go to today :)

    Btw, I know I'm slagging you a bit but to be fair it would be interesting.


    As for the OP, if you put in the caveat that through some magical means you would be safe, could disguise yourself/blend in, and could communicate, then you'd get a lot more varied answers. Because otherwise my wish to see ancient Rome, or Ancient China or to see dinosaurs, would be a bit of a death wish.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,417 ✭✭✭Archeron


    A few years ago a video appeared online of my local area in the eighties, seemingly from a camcorder from a car and they drove right through the whole area and town. I was fascinated watching 😁



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,326 ✭✭✭Musicrules


    I'd go back to Austria in the late 19th century and become a friend of Adolf Hitler. I'd be nice to him and try to get him to go with me to join some clubs and to take up some hobbies. Things like dancing and Gaelic Football. We'd go travelling around Europe but just to meet people of other cultures and religions. We'd become friends with some Jews and write a book together, called Meine Liebe.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 65 ✭✭JustAPoorDreamer


    I would go back two decades almost to when I bought my house and make sure I buy the one 2 houses up not the one I bought. I would then have nicer neighbours each side of me instead of just one side and be able to do what I want to do. Instead I have a tight ass one side who does not want to spend a little to make the houses look nicer.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,066 ✭✭✭gym_imposter


    1998, no later than July , made a different decision



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,841 ✭✭✭✭Donald Trump


    I'd go back to last Friday. With the winning Euromillions numbers. Get me half of that 130m yo-yos.


    Would be a small step towards me bond problems at least



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24,450 ✭✭✭✭One eyed Jack



    I’d travel back to the era of the Antebellum South. I’d fit in well as an Irish immigrant. I’d probably even write a book about it which would become the next best favourite book of American readers besides the Bible! 😁

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antebellum_South

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gone_with_the_Wind_(novel)



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 174 ✭✭mactheknife19


    I like a lot of the music one's mentioned above ( Queen at Live Aid would be the one for me), but I wish we could go back to the birth of the mobile phone and social media and put rules around it. Age limits and proof of identity in particular. I'm so grateful that phones and social media were not part of my childhood. I feel so sorry for kids today and the issues they cause.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,092 ✭✭✭Hyperbollix


    I'd have lots of terribly intellectual answers for this one but in all honesty I'd go back to 2008/09 and throw 1000 quid on Bitcoin.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,138 ✭✭✭Gregor Samsa


    I’d go back to 2 minutes ago and think of a better answer to post on this thread.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 74 ✭✭PP Lee


    I would go back exactly a week ago and stop myself from doing something really really dumb…oh, and I’d also bring the Euromillions numbers with me like a previous poster suggested. I could do with retiring early.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,313 ✭✭✭✭cj maxx


    Go back to 1997 . And make very different decisions . Personally and professionally . Ah well 😢



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,188 ✭✭✭standardg60


    Any time new lands and inhabitants were being discovered, with Colombus, Magellan, Livingstone etc. The wild west in America. Must have been an amazing experience, the world is much smaller now.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,551 ✭✭✭AllForIt


    I'd go back to the stone age to see if I could find anyone who identifies as non-binary.



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  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    Take a map of all the major natural resource finds in the last 100 years, Even for things like water and what ever car batteries are made out of.


    Go back, buy the land rights !



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,313 ✭✭✭✭cj maxx


    I’d bring a machine gun and ammo and meet Strongbow when he arrives .



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,909 ✭✭✭✭Galwayguy35




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,066 ✭✭✭gym_imposter




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,909 ✭✭✭✭Galwayguy35


    The last Ice Age.

    Europe was like one big safari park back then.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,902 ✭✭✭TokTik


    Go back maybe 20 years and spend more time with and do more things with my father before he passed away in 2018.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,313 ✭✭✭✭cj maxx


    Not trust what people tell you and keep MY money for myself



  • Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 13,105 Mod ✭✭✭✭JupiterKid


    Travel back to San Francisco 1967 for the Hippie Summer of Love. 🌞🌞🌈☮️☮️

    Then to Woodstock 1969 to see if it really was all it was cracked up to be. 🎸 🎸

    Maybe take in a Led Zeppelin gig circa 1973 at their prime.

    No way would I travel back to an era when flush toilets weren't around!





  • My 40s was a pretty cool period, my older relatives were alive, and were interesting people, there are questions I’d still like to ask my mother and revelations I’d like to share with her, well that is if we could have rolled forward and get a glimpse into some of the exciting times we are living in now! I’d love to hear that generation’s take stuff that has happened.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,288 ✭✭✭black & white


    I’d love to have seen a Roman Legion in battle such as Pharsalus or Cannae, or one of the major battles during the Napoleonic wars. From a safe vantage point obviously.



  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 9,769 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manach


    One should not change the past, but perhaps record it better. The reason why much of classical and medieval era Irish history is present and not erased were due to the Four Masters (Franciscan friars) who gathered records before they could be destroyed. So, gifting them a large stack of pens and parchment might serve and save.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,086 ✭✭✭Charles Babbage


    You could bring a drone and watch from above.

    Perhaps it would be interesting to see the sieges of Constantinople by the Arabs and later by the Turks, or the siege of Baghdad by Genghis Khan.



  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    I think I'd take myself back to 1955, meet up with Marty McFly. Place a few bets, then time travel to mutiple Beetles, Stone Roses, Oasis early gigs then time tavel home to my new little house in the Maldives. Buying a few shares in Amazon, Google, on the way past.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 470 ✭✭lmk123


    this is 100% my answer, it’d be class.

    For other reasons I’d also pick December 2015.



  • Moderators, Music Moderators Posts: 12,875 Mod ✭✭✭✭iamstop


    I'd tell younger me to do back stretches every day.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,222 ✭✭✭✭Strumms


    I’d steer clear of wars and anything traumatic. I’m a music fan, love my gigs so I’d love to have a machine to travel back through time and experience the greatest gigs. Two off the top of my head…

    The Rollings Stones - Brussels 1973… released all their classic albums and were arguably at the peak of their live power. Have a soundboard or FM bootleg of this and it is, and they were fûcking incredible…..

    The Clash - New York 1981… released all the classics again and were at their apex of performing and songwriting around this time..

    Gigs by The Smiths, Jimmy Cliff, The Beatles ( curiosity ) and lots of other favorites.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,336 ✭✭✭HalloweenJack


    LA in the 70s, was a wild and exciting time in music and cinema.

    Somewhere in the Balkans/Austria-Hungary in the late 19th/early 20th century. A truly fascinating period of time.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,393 ✭✭✭✭dulpit


    Ah Boards. Where a thread about time travel has a bash at the Trans community within 21 posts…

    On topic: How far back could you go with English as your language and still be able to converse I wonder? Is there a language that can get you back the furthest? Has Arabic changed much? Or Mandarin? Or are all languages essentially unintelligible compared to what was spoken more than a couple of hundred years ago?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,808 ✭✭✭Badly Drunk Boy


    Icelandic hasn't changed too much in that past 1000 years, I think, apart from new additions to the vocabulary.



  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    interesting, but I'd add minus the smell of the guts and gore and the sound of heads and bodies being smashed to pieces.

    For me I'd go back to aged 18 and do the training for the job I was always meant to do on the other hand I'm not sure if I'd have stuck it out at 18 so it might have been better it happened a bit later in life.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,842 ✭✭✭Floppybits


    I am just back from a trip to Boston and while doing the tours I was thinking what it would be like to go back to that time when the American revolution was kicking off, like you say to observe, get the feeling of the people there and see what the place was like things like that.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,743 ✭✭✭✭Fr Tod Umptious


    I'd go back to September 1951 and put a diversion in place outside Foxford.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,626 ✭✭✭✭vectra


    Ideally back to the 80's but If I had a specific choice it would be 8th December 1979 when I had my first date with my now wife.
    2 things I would absolutely change,
    1) I would never had smoked. * gave them up August 1991 and never touched them since.
    2) Alcohol, Bastard of a thing cost me an absolute fortune and almost my relationship.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 30,443 ✭✭✭✭Wanderer78


    72, to confirm that the authors of the limits to growth are indeed 100% correct, and that we are fcuking up the planet, id probably be burned at the stake, but shur….



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,390 ✭✭✭Cordell


    Whatever you do, or don't do, you already did, or didn't do.

    I'd rather go forward, see what becomes of us.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,487 ✭✭✭Vote4Squirrels


    I’d go back to the 1900s and meet my grandad - great craic by all stories but he passed when my dad was only 11.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,401 ✭✭✭✭Cluedo Monopoly


    I hope you'd warm him not to invade Russia? To be happy with France, half Poland and the low countries?

    What are they doing in the Hyacinth House?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,313 ✭✭✭✭cj maxx


    I’d go back and watch Daddy playing Football . He always follows it , and the club he played for is no longer . I imagine he was a terrier type player . Unfortunately , I take after my mother !



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 36,912 ✭✭✭✭BorneTobyWilde


    I'd go back to the crucifixion of Jesus and follow him the 40 days after he rose from death



  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 27,758 Mod ✭✭✭✭Posy


    If I could go back as a fly on the wall type situation, I'd go back to the dates and places those women such as Annie McCarrick and Deirdre Jacob disappeared to see what on earth became of them. I'd also attend Trevor Deely's Christmas party in December 2000 to follow him on his walk home and see what happened to him. Even if I couldn't change the outcome, I'd be able to get answers for their relatives.

    If I could personally change things, I would go back to the mid/late 2000's and do one extra year of college to train as a teacher because I'd love every summer and Christmas off.

    If I could spend money, I'd go back and buy a few houses in Dublin back when they were about a grand.



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