If you jump into your time machine (weren't we supposed to have these by now??), where would you go - to the past or the future, why? Who or what would you like to see? For me, I'm a history girl. I have no desire to see what the world will become, I want to see how it got us to here. There are so many times that fascinate me. I would love to be a fly on the wall during the Continental Congress. I'd love to be a part of the Tudor court (either Henry VIII or Elizabeth). I want to see who built Stonehenge and why - to meet the Druids - to be there when the first Europeans came to the US. I'd love to meet Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. How about you?
Based on the assumption so often seen in the movies that by travelling back in time we could change history, I'd take the selfish approach of going back to my childhood and making one or two changes that I believe would change who I was to become. If it was purely as an observer, I'm not sure I'd want to travel in either direction. I've never been particularly interested in history, and I really don't want to know what the future has in store for us.
I think my only concern would be with catching some disease like the plague... As long as I could go back in time and know that I wasn't going to be killed by a disease - or a person! - I'd love to go back to Hollywood in the 20's and meet all the silent film stars... it'd be amazing to hang out with Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd...
I would go back in history to just to see how things were back then. It would have to be during the summer, I need central heating during the winter.
I would not travel into the future beause I fear that it will not take us long to ruin the world. I would not want to arrive in a post-nuclear world or a world where the ice caps have melted, the sea levels have risen and there is a shortage of fresh water. I don't want to see how many more species have disappeared, and what, if anything, remains of the human race. In the past I would love to talk to some of the great poets, writers and artists.
I agree with Ruth, it would be great to talk with excellent authors and the books they have written. I would especially like to talk with those who have written books of the Bible.
I would either want to go in the very distant past or the very distant future. I would love to go back and see the foundation and creation of America and experience how it was in those times. The distant future intrigues me as well because of how quickly technology is evolving. We come out with new and amazing things everyday and it will be amazing the things we can achieve in the future.
I would most definitely prefer travelling into the future, with less risks of altering the time stream resulting in a different present. Not only because of this but also of the monetary gain possible from merely looking up lottery winning numbers or executing similar ways of gaining money from traveling into the future. I would also love to see my accomplishments and learn advanced future technology. I would even just love to see what the future holds for a moment.
I'd visit both the past and the future. It would be a shame if you owned a time machine and only used it for one trip. There are so many eras to explore in the past, and yet the curiosity of what the future will bring intrigues me... Now I want a time machine.
If I had the money for one of those "past life hypnosis sessions", I would love to visit myself in a different incarnation!
I do think that there are alternate realities; or something that we perceive as such. Sometimes, many people seem to have the same memories of something that didn't ever happen, like Nelson Mandela dying in prison years ago, or Billy Graham being dead for several years now. Those of us who remember these things seem to have a lot of similar memories about what happened, which should not be unless it was many people seeing the same events happening. Sometimes, these discrepancies seem to happen only in our own lives, and can be as simple as a pen or set of keys vanishing, and then reappearing again either in an odd place, or sometimes, right where we have been looking for them the last 3 days. There are cars that disappear, or even turn into a different vehicle altogether. I remember that one happening to me, as well. I was driving alone down a strange road, and it was dark. The car came up behind me and followed me through several turns, and I was beginning to be afraid that it was something sinister. Then, I looked up again into the rear view mirror, and the car was just gone. No side roads. No headlights turning into a driveway, or pulling off the road. Just gone. There are so many people who remember Mandela dying in prison that it has a name: The Mandela Effect. I am adding a link that has not only posts from people who remember about Mandela and Billy Graham dying; but also people who remember other well-known people who have been thought to have died, and didn't. One person asked the question of whether anyone who had these other memories had ever had a near death experience. I thnk that this is possible in my case, and maybe even more than once. In 1991 , I was in a horrific car crash that should have killed me, or at least mangled me beyond recognition. I remember being totally amazed that I WAS still alive, because I thought I was dying right then, too. However, I walked away from that crushed up mess of a Yugo, and with not much more than a sore back and neck. Afterwards, I remember wondering if I had actually died in that wreck, and was now somehow into another timeline where I didn't die. Or, maybe I was really dead, and now just thought that I was still alive. It was a very strange feeling, and lasted for quite a while after the accident. http://mandelaeffect.com
Or poor Abe Vigoda, who is still alive, long after most of everyone believed him to be dead. There is even a website devoted to his status. I haven't had those kinds of memories but there have been things that I have remembered clearly that I later learned were wrong.
I've never heard of the Mandela effect before, but this feeling is something I understand well. I think part of that is because I just can't imagine a world in which I don't exist.