This is a "what if" question:

What if you would get a ticket to go with a time machine to anytime you want ,but you had to stay there a year.You could be anybody you want to be in that time except for the people that have a certain historical importancy.
What would be youre preffered time and position?
What would you want to do in that place in that time?

(ill save my prefered position and time for later :D ,unless somebody beat's me to it :lol: )

it's close between the ancient roman Empire and one of the world wars but i'll go with Rome right after the last punic war as one of the founding families.

Era is clear,somewhen in the ancient imperial rome...I think 120 A.D. under Trajan,a golden era till the soldier emperors came to power.

Which position?A member of the Senate,but as a homo novus,who has made his money in trading.

What I´d do?At first I´d walk around in Rome,visit the Colosseum, the Forum Romanum,some thermae and all the tourists stuff.Then I´d start the business,take part in senate meetings and get an audience to the emperor.In the last months I´d like to visit Cologne and Hadrian´s wall.

After reading the Stupid Wars thread, it seems that Paraguay a year after their dumb wars would be a good place for a healthy young man. Outnumbered by the women 5:1 or so...

Really, tho, I dunno. Too many times and places are appealing, it would be hard to choose. It would be easier if one could alter history with the trip, but you state the traveller will essentially be an everyman...

Originally posted by TheDuckOfFlanders
This is a "what if" question:

What if you would get a ticket to go with a time machine to anytime you want ,but you had to stay there a year.You could be anybody you want to be in that time except for the people that have a certain historical importancy.
What would be youre preffered time and position?
What would you want to do in that place in that time?

(ill save my prefered position and time for later :D ,unless somebody beat's me to it :lol: )

Will the potential timetraveller be given a crash-course in the language of the time and place where he is heading?

Will the potential timetraveller be given a crash-course in the language of the time and place where he is heading?

In the future when time machine's will exist people will have little translator chips into their brains. :scan:

Somewhere in Nebraska, circa 1600...

Ride with the Souix on a hunt, stare at the empty, beautiful plains and the endless sky above it, and live with a people that only have the next day on their minds...

Runner-up: At the front with Alexander the Great. But not as a soldier. Maybe a supply guy or something:D.

Extremely good question and tough call, but my top four right from the top of my head would be:

Chicago - 1928 - 1929
Republican party ward committee chair (everything a man could want: graft, jazz, drum-fed Thompsons, bootleg rye, an era of loose morals, and finally some DECENT ARCHITECTURE for once!)

Tenochtitlan - calendar year 1519 - a minor advisor in the court of Montezuma (Cortez arrived that spring, and reached the city in November, so I would get to see pre-contact, contact and post-contact Aztec society in one fell swoop).

Egypt, a hierogylphic scribe, during any year that would allow me to watch the construction of a particular Pyramid. Added bonus of thousands of gorgeous women walking around barely clothed.

A navigation officer, with Sir James Cook's ship Resolution, January 18, 1778-1779. He "discovered" Hawaii on the 17th, then completed a round trip, coasting by my native Vancouver Island and Alaska to return to Hawaii by the 17th of January 1779. Although pulling this off would be a nice trick, since I would have to somehow "join" the crew and leave it again in mid-voyage.

I would demand a smallpox vaccination before heading off to the second one!

But, quite frankly, I would probably give ten years off my life and a few million I don't yet have for the opportunity to take a trip back to any one of roughly 500,000 different times and places.

R.III

There are several possibilities for me... but
imperial Rome during the age of Antoninus Pius would be a great option, as the city was at the peak of its glory...

Anyplace would be good, but my first choice would have to be Boston 1775. Second choice would be someplace in the Roman Empire, but I'd want to do a little more reading about that. Third would be a member of the 101st airborne from May 1944 to May 1945 (Assuming I am one of the ones not killed or injured).

Originally posted by knowltok2
Anyplace would be good, but my first choice would have to be Boston 1775.

Damn, now I have a top five. I'd be a printer, btw.

R.III

I *like* Richard III's suggestion of Chicago during Prohibition. I'll take it if I can't get my first choice.

My preference, though, would be the Congress of Vienna in 1815, if I could be a nobleman from one of the minor German states. Not enough political clout to influence the negotiations, but a high enough title to be invited to all the parties. You want to talk about music and architecture, all due respect to Chicago but it wouldn't hold a candle to Vienna in the Baroque Age. And plenty of food, wine, and eligible young noblewomen looking for dance partners.

Of course, I'd want to have access to some penicillin shots afterwards.

To be honest, I'd take almost any era, any location, as long as I could be rich. Once you have the money, the fun will follow.

Some time during the regency period. Sory, I just have a thing for frilly shirts and wigs :p

I think for me it would have to be Dublin 1916. As long as I would be allowed to bring a huge supply of arms and munitions with me.

I would go to some fishing pond... it isn't much harder with a stick and reed instead of a rod you know ;)

In actuality, I would go back, back into time... back into the date 1915, in the Russian Cavalry. Would've loved to be in ANY cavalry though...

I would like to be a phoenician merchant or one of the relatives of Marco Polo.
It would be cool to be a persian satrap as well.

Rome is a good one, but if I only have one chance I would like to go back to the time of Jesus' adulthood.

Just follow him around and see what this dude is REALLY all about.

Two choices:

1) One year or so in the past so I could sell Northern Telecom short. :)

2) Several hundred million years into the past to watch the "Dinosaur killer" asteriod hit the earth. I've always been into special effects. ;)

/bruce

humm it's a tough one but I think I'd like to come back in time to here in the southwest in the 1800 - 1850 timeframe and be an explorer like John C. Fremont for example, and see some of these locales as they were back then before being over run with people.

How about transport to Mongol circa Genghis Khan's conquest of the whole europe asia.

Feel the power of Genghis Khan and the shout of Mongolian grassland warriors. Witness the skills of these warriors.

Before leaving, containminate the timeline by teaching Genghis Khan technologies since the modern time :lol: Of course, i'll have to learn a lot. When I come back, i'll be the history most famous scientist. By then, the world is united, and probably have time transport technology.:goodjob:

So get the truth!

Even that I can think of a number of amazing historical eras and sites to visit and see in the front seat, if I had ONE ticket to a time machine, there’s only one time/place I could choose.

One week before the end of the bets to the biggest lottery prize ever given.

Regards :) .

what about being a roman patrician under caligula's rule? :groucho:

What would you do if you were transported to a neolithic village in Mesopotamia with your actual knowledge?

I would teach them how to write with a fonetic alphabet for example and a lot of things.

Probably there would be legends about me and after a few hundreds of years i would be the god of the city or a mythical heroe.:goodjob:

Bbut there would be written trecords to corroborate my existence.

Ancient Rome maybe, but as a patrician, not a pleb! Ancient Egypt may also be interesting...

Simple. I would go to Jerusalem during the Passion of Christ.

I would be in Ancient Rome at the Turn of the First millenium, probably a pleb. I find that a patrician is too decadent to exist as.

Also I would probably want to be a minor courtier in the times of Chandragupta Maurya, i.e., in the Golden Age of Indian History:goodjob: :king:

I'd go back to May of 1977. I'd see Star Wars the day it hit the theatres.

I'd then go to every toy store I could and buy as much Star Wars action figures as possible. I'd then carefully store them. Then when I got back to the present I would sell all those puppies for obscene amounts of cold hard cash on Ebay and laugh all the way to the bank a very rich man bwhaaahahahaahahahahah.....................:mwaha: [dance]

Originally posted by Moff Jerjerrod
I'd go back to May of 1977. I'd see Star Wars the day it hit the theatres.

I'd then go to every toy store I could and buy as much Star Wars action figures as possible. I'd then carefully store them. Then when I got back to the present I would sell all those puppies for obscene amounts of cold hard cash on Ebay and laugh all the way to the bank a very rich man bwhaaahahahaahahahahah.....................:mwaha: [dance]

actually that's a pretty good idea

Hell, if that is possible, there are a lot of things more valuable than Star Wars stuff. Try the Honus Wagoner (I think that's his name) baseball card. I think that today there are only three of them in existance.

A couple of high quality Roman coins might be a sound investment as well.

Sailing with the Vikings in 800 a.d.
Wine Women Gold, and no moral hangups

Originally posted by Ozz
Sailing with the Vikings in 800 a.d.
Wine Women Gold, and no moral hangups
Same as that woman's large, muscular, angry, drunk boyfriend...:eek: ;)

no wait that's her mum

Originally posted by knowltok2
Hell, if that is possible, there are a lot of things more valuable than Star Wars stuff. Try the Honus Wagoner (I think that's his name) baseball card. I think that today there are only three of them in existance.

A couple of high quality Roman coins might be a sound investment as well.

You guys are thinking small. :)

Just go back to before the .com bubble burst and sell Northern Telecom short.

Or even better, go back to the 40's and put some money in a safe investment and let compound interest do the rest. :)

/bruce

Or even better, go back to the 40's and put some money in a safe investment and let compound interest do the rest.

or what about a week before the oil crisis? should earn you some hard cash to.

Even better ,nick some painting's from famous artists ,or just buy them ,some master painter's had to sell their painting's for low prices just to survive.

I would pick the time of one of the great religious leaders of the world. The one that I identify with the closest being Jesus. The only problem I can think of is that ppl say the calendar is off by as many as 20 years?!?!?!

I back one year in time and:

Meet myself back then and help myself with my academic work and chosing lottery numbers and in avoiding a speeding ticket and predict/warn of September the 11th...


The year 2001 A.D in North-East England is also an environment free of danger...which is also an advantage :D

If the stay was for less than 1 year, there are many times/places I would like to see. However, I like creature comforts and cannot image spending a year without in-door plumbing and hot & cold running water. :D :D

So, guess I would pick Las Vegas in the mid to late 50's. :cool: :beer:

i would be the russian soldier in the last days in the war....
killing nazi pigs doing nasty stuff:satan:
putting nazi buildings into fire
putting nazis into punschment camps
stealing all nazi loot
and getting into hitlers bunker and doing funny things with hitlers corpse

Originally posted by philippe
i would be the russian soldier in the last days in the war....
killing nazi pigs doing nasty stuff:satan:
putting nazi buildings into fire
putting nazis into punschment camps
stealing all nazi loot
and getting into hitlers bunker and doing funny things with hitlers corpse

Thank you for sharing that with us, phillippe :crazyeye:, I especially cared for that last bit. I won't sleep tonight now, owing to nightmares about you having your way with the Fuhrer....

i mean well that i would chopped of hitlers head and played some football with it:cool:

and getting into hitlers bunker and doing funny things with hitlers corpse
:eek: .......

i mean well that i would chopped of hitlers head and played some football with it

we all hope that's all you'd do. although that seems a bit bloody.

freaky people here

hey its just a joke!:mad: :mad:


oh another thing i made 3 goals with it::::crazyeye: :crazyeye: :crazyeye:

Lol @ Phillipe :lol:

Typical West-Flemmish Humor. ;)

I think I would go back in time to sort all the mistakes and to do all the things I should have done - yes it's boring.

Also, i would give myself the correct numbers to biggest lottery payout ever and then I wouldn't be sitting here I would be on holiday after leaving school before a bored myself with A-Levels

Actually hitler ordered his body to be burnt so red army impersonating time travellers couldn't mutilate it (so that ends that one)

Personally id have to go back to a time where I get to shoot my grandad (nothing personal of course) - I just have to know if the universe stops.

Alternatively id kill a major figure in history and see how it turns out - possibly muhammed or Hitler

(see the theme running through my destinations :))

Incidentalyl the expansion for civ3 has been relesed - go to general now

I'm so happy :D

I'd go to November 15, 164,724 to see what the furuter holds or I might go and figure out that the earth was blown up sometime in it's history and just die in the void of space. :(

My number one would be:

1. June 1940 Battle of Britian and hanging out with Adolf Galland JG26 (I believe). Would also like to be there when he test flew the Me-262 was 1943 or 44 can't remember at this hour.

2. A legionairre in the time of Christ, pity I couldn't be the one to spear him. I want a spear of destiny an immortaility, as well as front row seats to his sacrfice. I guess you could say I have a crucifixation.

3. 1096 the First Crusade and the Seige of Antioch, it doesn't get much more blood thirsty than that. For those who like a good read Book of Days by Stephen J Rivelle. Fictional story based on the First Crusade.

All I can think of for now :)

1 October 1066 - just to advise harold not to rush in....
Being serious, I'd LOVE to know what really happened at that battle.

2 1918, Vienna, to kick a certain Austrian housepainter's ladder away.....

3 Guadelajara, 1970 - "Sir Alf, what ever you do DON'T take Bobby Charlton and Bobby Moore off when we're 2-0 up...."
Arguably this decision led fairly directly to the economic failings of the early 1970's, the Miner's strike of 73/74, UK accession to the EU and the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979. perhaps the most influential sporting call of all time.

Originally posted by bigfatron

2 1918, Vienna, to kick a certain Austrian housepainter's ladder away.....



Just imagine how bitter the psycho bastard would be then!

R.III

My choices:


1) Be a minor court functionary in China, ~2500 BC. Find out
if Chinese civilization developed independently of Fertile
Crescent or not.

2) Be with Saul on the trip to Damascus ~70 AD. Again,
want to know what really happened.

3) Santa Cruz Valley, AZ around 1500AD. I want to see
what southern AZ looked like before the cows destroyed it.

Wilkey

I'd choose to go to the time, when the city Teotihuacán was a its heyday. Not in any special position. I'd just want to see how people's lives were in such a huge city we know so little about.

Originally posted by Ohkrana
3. 1096 the First Crusade and the Seige of Antioch, it doesn't get much more blood thirsty than that. For those who like a good read Book of Days by Stephen J Rivelle. Fictional story based on the First Crusade.

I agree 'Book of Days' is a good read. :goodjob:

As to my time travel destination, I'd choose Manzikert (eastern Anatolia) in the year 1071 and try to convince the Byzantine Emperor Romanus to make peace with the Seljuk Turk Sultan Alp Arslan who ironically wanted a truce because he was not confident of victory - then again Romanus would probably have had me executed as a Turkish spy. :eek:

Classical Athens, to chat up the likes of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. That would be cool.

Looked to long on Rafael's "School of Athens", hein? ;)

O A.D. The Levant
A jouney to this time would
bring megreat learning and perhaps the saving of a few souls.

If not that I'd go to 14th century Venice or Holland and tip of a few merchants.:king:

I would go to constaninople during the time of Justanius and join the legions and die conquering the world.

i'd go 4000 years into the future and see how the human race has progressed.

My thoughts are either everyone is happy and peace rules, or a stray nuke or a thousand has blown the earth apart.

I'd go to fall and buy Play the World. then bring it back here and burn copies for te people at CFC (Not 'poly) .... well for a price of course ;)

my choices

1) In Egypt whe the building of pyramid starts I wnt 2 be part of building the pyramids or the pharoah who's in charge of it


2) In Israel the time of Roman empire i wnt to be a gov of Roman empire or emperor to conduct some reforms

3) Age of colonization may e Spain or other Europea powers

4) Napoleon Era Emperor of Austria to conquer land that napoleon could not maintained

5) 1815 Congress of Vienna to be Metternich to have nice diplomacy of each European Power and have good share on land to be annexed by Austria

6) 1914-1918 an Austrian Emperor to have developed modern weapons fo strong defence and conduct reforms

7) 1914-1918 British diplomat conduct peace effort to avoid WW1

8) 1920-1945 part of Trapp Family singers to bring joy to the Austrian people

9) 1900-2000 part of British Monarchy to conduct reforms

I would like to be a officer in the CSA in 1862-1863 or better yet ride with Wade Hamtpon the Thrid (I belive he's the one in the civil war).

Poltava 1709

"Sire, do not call your cavalry back! Keep charging!"

...later

"Oh, thank you, Karl, I'd love to be the gouvernor of half of Russia. And that state marriage to 15 Turkish princesses is quite alright too..."

Cordoba in Andalusia, as a Jew, Philosopher and Writer. I am arleady a Jew and Philosopher BTW...

and you write good stories in story and tales.....:)

No. I make good NESes and HUGE errors in my Civ III games loosing a lot of units with no reason that I could see.

Where would I go? Ancient Rome, 60BC. Julius Caesar is consul, and the city is literally stacked with some of the greatest minds and personalities in history: Cicero, Cato, Pompey, Crassus, Bibulus, Brutus, Mark Anthony, young versions of Augustus, Vergil, and others... It would be some fun stuff! :D

If I could pop into another year for a day or two, I would like to go to 72BC and meet the actual Sulla when he was dictator of Rome. :lol:

Napoleonic Era

I'd go back to the time of Jesus and see firsthand what happened back then rather than read the hype :mischief:

if allowed, the 1000 years in the future, most advanced country (maybe Mexico, maybe China, but definetly not the US :rolleyes:.)

if in the past, then ancient Egypt, middle of the Old kingdom.

2 1918, Vienna, to kick a certain Austrian housepainter's ladder away.....(bigfatron)

Just imagine how bitter the psycho bastard would be then!

R.III
Exactly!
Instead I would have been waiting in the lobby of the Vienna Opera House when young Adolf for the third time turned around and walked out of the building instead of going to that job interview for the position as scenographer.

I'd put a reassuring hand on his shoulder and say: "Adolf, me lad, the boss already likes your work. He wouldn't have set up this meeting if he didn't."

So Adolf would go in, get the job as scenographer for the Vienna Opera, spend his life working in the opera he loved designing the sets and find a nice girl to marry and get a couple of kids to beat up for misbehaving, just like most of his friends. He prolly would occasionally say nasty stuff about Jews to his friends and family.
In general, he would turn out not much worse than most people in bourgeois Vienna.

I would like to be a doctor attached to the medical school in Montpellier at the time of the Albigensian crusade, which occured at the height of the trobadour culture down there.
I'd like to ge at the ford near St Gilles in the evening of 15 Jan. 1208, to see who really killed the papal legate Pierre de Castelneau after negotiations between him and count Raymond of Toulouse had broken down. It triggered the crusade.

As a medical doctor of the Salernitan school (Salerno, southern Italy, founded around 1000 AD), that Montpellier grew out of, I would quite likely have spoken and read decent Arabic. (Some of the staff were muslim and Arab.)

This would have made it possible for me travel and practice all around the Med. I would have gone to the Imperial court of Fredrick II on Sicily, kept an eye on the Crusade in southern France, the wars to establish the north Italian city states as independant from Imperial Power, and closely monitored the conflict between emperor and pope.
And I could have followed Philippe Auguste of France as an army doctor at the battle of Bouvines 1214, when the French beat the combined armies of Germany, England and Flanders.

A phoenician exploration ship (as third or fourth commander?)?
Palmyra 272 AD (as a member of the lower upper class ;)) ?
Or Alexandria during Byzantine time (as a trader) ?

oh, and there are loads more, :)

mfG mitsho

the Punic Wars.

Exactly!
Instead I would have been waiting in the lobby of the Vienna Opera House when young Adolf for the third time turned around and walked out of the building instead of going to that job interview for the position as scenographer.

I'd put a reassuring hand on his shoulder and say: "Adolf, me lad, the boss already likes your work. He wouldn't have set up this meeting if he didn't."

So Adolf would go in, get the job as scenographer for the Vienna Opera, spend his life working in the opera he loved designing the sets and find a nice girl to marry and get a couple of kids to beat up for misbehaving, just like most of his friends. He prolly would occasionally say nasty stuff about Jews to his friends and family.
In general, he would turn out not much worse than most people in bourgeois Vienna.
That's just so... beautiful... Sniff...

Such what-if scenarios really makes one think eh?

Me I'd go back to convince the Mongol Horde not to turn back just because their khan died, and lie to them that a land of unimaginable riches lies just beyond Europe. :mischief: (Technically I won't be lying. The Mesoamerican empires are indeed just beyond Europe - across the Atlantic. :lol: And besides, I'll be there just a year, right? By the time they found out they've been tricked, I'm outta there already. :D )

Or alternatively, go back and take over Zheng He's fleet. With such an enormous fleet, I'll become the most bad-ass pirate the world has ever seen. And for one year, I'll raid, pillage and plunder all that I set eye upon. :evil:

Or alternatively, go back and take over Zheng He's fleet. With such an enormous fleet, I'll become the most bad-ass pirate the world has ever seen. And for one year, I'll raid, pillage and plunder all that I set eye upon. :evil:
They'd probably castrate you beforehand though... ;)

1960. Die my hair black, learn how to play the drums, become a Beatle and change the world forever.............

You'd probably have to move to where I live first though :D

So you're from Liverpool?

mfG mitsho

Near to it yes, they played near where I live quite a bit before going to Hamburg