If you could go back in time once...

[Ridge]

Why backward in time? Go to the future and study before returning to the present.

In the past, your future knowledge would get you some good medication, institutionalization, and possibly electric-shock therapy.

In the future, you will be considered backward and harmless due to your ignorance.

Back in the present, your new awareness of the future, used in a quiet and judicious manner will provide you with affluence and influence.

IMO, time travel is as silly as what-if history. I've read one (only one) book by Harry Turtledove. I prefer more orthodox fiction.

[Ronin13]

Bring some good books. According to birthdate, Obama was conceivedi in 1960.

No I didn't stutter... before they even met.

True, but you could preempt the act of conception long before 1960.

Can't conceive if you're not alive...

Just make sure it wasn't also Frank Marshall Davis that banged the commie chick from KS.

That's why I'd break my rule: "No women, no kids." There are very very rare exceptions, this would be one of them.

[ruthabagah]

lotta good stuff.... Kill hitler: maybe. He was totally evil, but so many good things also happened after WW2 that I am not sure if we would be better of without him.

Now, going back to 622 and eliminate a certain prophet of the "religion of peace", is kind of tempting....

[rondog]

Well, let's see......invest in Microsoft, buy gold and silver by the truckloads, buy certain lottery tickets, stop Stevie Ray Vaughan from getting on that helicopter, stop Lynyrd Skynyrd from getting on that airplane, get Frank Zappa to get a prostate exam, those would be good starters.

[jhirsh5280]

Well, let's see......invest in Microsoft, buy gold and silver by the truckloads, buy certain lottery tickets, stop Stevie Ray Vaughan from getting on that helicopter, stop Lynyrd Skynyrd from getting on that airplane, get Frank Zappa to get a prostate exam, those would be good starters.

I don't know about Skynard or Zappa or Vaughn but the first part. I'd go back and invest in IBM, Microsoft, Starbucks, Apple etc...

if investing we're off the table I'd go back to Nazi Germany, pre WWII and kill Hitler.

[Ronin13]

if investing we're off the table I'd go back to Nazi Germany, pre WWII and kill Hitler.

On the investment note- I'd have a message somehow sent to me one week after I go back that reveals I have a fortune in gold and other various successful investments... that way future me finds it and my investments don't cause a ripple effect.

I don't get why everyone is talking about preventing WWII if they could travel through time... bear with me here, but there was some good that came out of it, we had vast innovations emerge (atomic age begun, advancements in transportation and weaponry), it pulled us out of the depression, and most importantly (IMHO) it taught us some very valuable lessons, such as how isolationism doesn't work, never utilize appeasement to avoid conflict, and weather will always mess with your airborne operations. Okay that last one was a paratrooper joke.

[jhirsh5280]

On the investment note- I'd have a message somehow sent to me one week after I go back that reveals I have a fortune in gold and other various successful investments... that way future me finds it and my investments don't cause a ripple effect.

I don't get why everyone is talking about preventing WWII if they could travel through time... bear with me here, but there was some good that came out of it, we had vast innovations emerge (atomic age begun, advancements in transportation and weaponry), it pulled us out of the depression, and most importantly (IMHO) it taught us some very valuable lessons, such as how isolationism doesn't work, never utilize appeasement to avoid conflict, and weather will always mess with your airborne operations. Okay that last one was a paratrooper joke.

I thought about this after I posted. Granted a lot of great innovation came about during the war, however 6 million of my grandfathers fellow tribesmen would probably have liked to live out the rest of their lives in relative peace. Not to mention all of our fellow countrymen who paid the ultimate sacrifice. There was so much good and so much bad that happened in the span of the war.

[GilpinGuy]

stop Stevie Ray Vaughan from getting on that helicopter

Oh man, you just brought back some memories man. I still remember where I was when I heard he passed away. He was my freaking guitar idol (I was a blues guitar player in my youth).

[Mtn.man]

Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures.

[n8tive97]

When my ex wife got married on the bridge in Texas, I would jump......