For me I'm not sure I would have like to see the giant universities at Nalanda, and Taskkalika and the Sun Temples and such before they were destroyed.

I'd like to see Tenochtitlan before it was destroyed.

The Roman Empire under any of the 5 Good Emperors.

The birth of Jesus.

Any classical age big city.

And there are so many more.

If I remember correctly, the Black sea was an interior sea untill something like 5,000 BC. It only joined the Mediterranean sea when the level of oceans have raised so much that it surpassed the range of hills between Greece and Turkey, thus creating the Bosporus strait and filling the Black sea. I'm sure it was a terrific event to witness.

I would have wanted to witness the Palestinian Nakba of 1948 and shoot myself between the eyeballs before living in a world were Religious extreme extremism, which is foreign to a certain land, is widely overlooked and accepted, and where mass genocide is called "the right to defend oneself". A world where a Child's brutal death is demeaned by claiming that he was used as a human shield. A land that was stolen from the hands of it's rightful owners for the sole reason of hiding inexplainable atrocities. A location where both sides are massacring each other in the name of one God.

I just can't believe it's the 21st century and still in some relatively neighboring area to my country, nationality is determined by religion and belief, and Democracy is done by forcing immigration upon the unwanted.

It's just impossible for me to pick just one event. I don't think I would have wanted to participate in much of history (although having my signature on the Declaration of Independance would be incredible), but I would have liked to witness much of it. Here's a short list that's not at all complete:

-Columbus' 1st voyage to the New World.
-The building of the Great Pyramid at Giza.
-Jefferson writing the Declaration of Independance.
-Lectures of Socrates.
-Ceremonies at the 1st Temple in Jerusalem during Solomon's rule.
-Many, many, many battles & sieges including Cannae, Gaugamela, Masada, Tyre, Syracuse, Hastings, Thermopylae...the list is endless.
-Hebrew Biblical events such as creation, the Exodus, siege of Jericho, Abraham sacrificing Isaac, etc....just to see what really happened.
-The spread of Chrisianity in it's 1st decades.

Ugh! Honestly, the list for me is endless.

If I remember correctly, the Black sea was an interior sea untill something like 5,000 BC. It only joined the Mediterranean sea when the level of oceans have raised so much that it surpassed the range of hills between Greece and Turkey, thus creating the Bosporus strait and filling the Black sea. I'm sure it was a terrific event to witness.

Possibly the source of the great flood stories of antiquity.

I would have wanted to witness the Palestinian Nakba of 1948 and shoot myself between the eyeballs before living in a world were Religious extreme extremism, which is foreign to a certain land, is widely overlooked and accepted, and where mass genocide is called "the right to defend oneself".

You want to go back in time just to have a better time & place to commit suicide... Thanks for that uplifting insight.:rolleyes:


...where a Child's brutal death is demeaned by claiming that he was used as a human shield. A land that was stolen from the hands of it's rightful owners for the sole reason of hiding inexplainable atrocities. A location where both sides are massacring each other in the name of one God.

I just can't believe it's the 21st century and still in some relatively neighboring area to my country, nationality is determined by religion and belief, and Democracy is done by forcing immigration upon the unwanted.

Sounds like it belongs in another thread.

Lebanon needs to get it's own problems worked out before it worries about others, but, again, this is a topic for another thread.

You want to go back in time just to have a better time & place to commit suicide... Thanks for that uplifting insight.

Wow, your opinion matters so much, it's so fulfilling. Now that's I'm witnessing a world where Israel actually exists, if I had lived in the 1940s I'd for sure know that "it's not going to get better".

Lebanon needs to get it's own problems worked out before it worries about others.

Yeah since Lebanon exists in another planet, in another universe, and in another dimension. Trust me, 2 thirds of the Lebanese problems are the Palestinian immigrant militia and Hezbollah (the Iranian-backed nation within the Nation) Not to mention that we can't have a proper standing army (or we'd be crushed by another foreign stimulated devastating civil war) because we happen to neighbor, which happens to have the full privilege to defend itself, a privilege we can't possibly have.

Lebanon is a goddamned sh**hole, and it wouldn't have been so if it didn't neighbor that fortress of a country.

If I remember correctly, the Black sea was an interior sea untill something like 5,000 BC. It only joined the Mediterranean sea when the level of oceans have raised so much that it surpassed the range of hills between Greece and Turkey, thus creating the Bosporus strait and filling the Black sea. I'm sure it was a terrific event to witness.

Great idea. :D

Living right near the Black Sea myself (about 200 km from it, but Romania does have Black Sea access) I find this amazing... Especially since I remember how as a kid I was walking with my father in some hills in the "Vrancea" region of Romania and I was picking up sea shells on top of the hill!! :D Considering Mount Ararat is quite close to the Black Sea, and the great flood is generally thought as being older than 6,000 years, all the details seem to fit! :eek:

I would have very much enjoyed to live in Baghdad during the reign of someone like Harun al-Rashid.

I would've liked to have been present...

- When Atlantis was created :) (c. 50000 BC??? 1 million BC??? in fantasy world???)
- When the Trung Sisters rebelled against China (40-43 CE)
- When Quang Truong (Vietnamese, c. 1790) beat the **** out of Manchu China
- When Bach was writing his madly insane musical pieces (c.1715)
- When Leonardo was doing his madly insane stuff (c.1510)
- The voyages of Zheng He (c.1400-1430)

Year 33, Jerusalem.

The Crucifixion has the unique quality of being a staggering event to an aware witness both in the case of it having happened, or the contrary.

1. The election of Pericles
2. The resurrection of Christ
3. The conversion of St. Paul
4. The inauguration of the Forbidden Palace by Zhu Di/Yongle.
5. Man on the Moon.
6. The end of WWII.
7. The writing of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen and signing it.

Year 33, Jerusalem.

The Crucifixion has the unique quality of being a staggering event to an aware witness both in the case of it having happened, or the contrary.
But then you would have went to hell since Christianity weren't even born yet.

But then you would have went to hell since Christianity weren't even born yet.

False, Christianity doesn't believe that anyone before Jesus Christ went to hell. In fact, Christianity says Jesus, during the 3 days when he was dead, freed the souls of all the people from hell that didn't belong there.

Istanbul at its Prime
The Creation of the Nile about 13-17 thousands year back
Battle of Agincourt, Quebec, the Pyrimids etc
Ending of WWII in New York, Paris and London
The Fall of the Berlin War
What happened to the Dinosaurs
The sinking of the Titanic
The First Haj
Elizabeths 1588 speech
the excuetion of Louis the ???
Cornation of a strong Chinese, European, pope and Muslim leader

The battle of Trafalgar.....of course. :)

The Roman invasions of Britain.

Battle of Hastings. (how did Harold die?)

Battle of Crecy.

Battle of Agincourt.

I would love to see the Mongol invasion of Europe.

The legend of King Arthur, who was it based on?

Isandlwana, Rorke's Drift.

Overlord, Midway, Barbarossa, Kursk.

I could go on and on.

I would kill to be able to take a peek at living dinosaurs.
Other than that.... witnessing Caesar's rise first hand, writing a play with Shakespeare, 5 days of drinking with Rochester, sharing a crate of wine with Churchill, the usual...

Actually, what I want is a remote that allow me to play all of human history, and I'll just fast forward any bit I don't want to watch.

You been watching Click havent you

Seeing dinosaurs would be cool wouldn't it?

As for human history, having a chat with Aristotle would be good.

Witnessing the building of Aya Sophia.

Viewing (from a distance) Mt Vesuvius or Krakatoa erupting.

Being able to read the "books" in the Great Library of Alexandria before it burned.

As for human history, having a chat with Aristotle would be good.

That would be a lot of fun, wouldn't it? I can see it now:

ME (in terribly accented, slow, stilted ancient Greek): ΄ο στρατεγοs αρξει το στρατευμα ειs τον πεδιον.

The general will lead his army onto the plain.

ARISTOTLE: ?

ME: πλειστοι στρατιωται εμειναν εν ταιs σκηναιs.

Very many soldiers remained in the tents.

ARISTOTLE: ??

ME: ΄Αι Περσαι επειθον τουs παιδαs λεγειν την αληθειαν.

The Persians used to persuade their children to speak the truth.

ARISTOTLE: Your Greek sucks. English please?

ME: !?


Quite a polyglot, that Aristotle.

It's interesting to note that, in a few months of studying ancient Greek, I've learned the word for soldier, general, 2 words for army, and army camp, but I haven't even the foggiest idea how to say "hello." I suppose it makes some sense to dispense with the pleasantries--they won't help you read Xenophon very well--and its true that soldiering was very important to the classical era Greek citizen, but it still seems quite odd. Indeed, I wonder what Aristotle would have thought of people over 2000 years in the future learning his language in such a strange way.

I would have loved to have witnessed the brutal horror and astonishment that Genghis Khans' warriors and himself imposed on the less fortunate.

Romanian revolution, Christmas 1989.

London on VE Day

Sherman's March to the Sea

Fall of the Berlin Wall

More to come as I think of them...

I just want to go back to a time when there was uncertainty, a mystery of what is in our world, that feeling that there is something out there, something new and undiscovered, and it only needs to be found....

Forget effing aliens.

False, Christianity doesn't believe that anyone before Jesus Christ went to hell. In fact, Christianity says Jesus, during the 3 days when he was dead, freed the souls of all the people from hell that didn't belong there.

Maybe Christians where you come from. :p

I would love to witness the Normandy Invasion. My uncles fought there. I'd want to see them in action.

Romanian revolution, Christmas 1989.

How could I forget about that?? :eek:

Being able to read the "books" in the Great Library of Alexandria before it burned.

That was the first thing I thought of when I saw this thread. Alexandria was one of the greatest repositories of ancient knowledge in the world...especially that 30+ volume set that was essentially a complete history of the Ancient and Classic Mediterranean.

Moment of decision to founding Istanbul.(Byzas)
Darius' suicide.
Raid times through the great wall.
Attila forgives the pope.
Viking warships during combat.
Sanheribs conquest over Phonicea.
Burning of Hagia Sophia and after rebuilding seeing Justinians face.
Conquering Istanbul.
Cathy at her visit Pashas tent.
Termophylae
Munich under Swedish control.
The wedding of Henry 8 and Anne Boleyn.
WWI at Çanakkale.
Saddam get caught in a hole.
I dont know,I just want to see all things like a movie..

Everything, everywhere.

As a bonus, that would make me essentially immortal, except that I would eventually run into the Wowbagger Paradox.

Specifically:

Tenochtitlan on the eve of contact with the Spanish
Rome at its height
The Somme
the first cities in Mesopotamia

Wow, your opinion matters so much, it's so fulfilling. Now that's I'm witnessing a world where Israel actually exists, if I had lived in the 1940s I'd for sure know that "it's not going to get better".



Yeah since Lebanon exists in another planet, in another universe, and in another dimension. Trust me, 2 thirds of the Lebanese problems are the Palestinian immigrant militia and Hezbollah (the Iranian-backed nation within the Nation) Not to mention that we can't have a proper standing army (or we'd be crushed by another foreign stimulated devastating civil war) because we happen to neighbor, which happens to have the full privilege to defend itself, a privilege we can't possibly have.

Lebanon is a goddamned sh**hole, and it wouldn't have been so if it didn't neighbor that fortress of a country.
How typical of a Middle Eastern opinion: just blame it on everyone else, God forbid you take responsibility for your own destiny.

Everything, everywhere.

As a bonus, that would make me essentially immortal, except that I would eventually run into the Wowbagger Paradox.


What's that? Is that when you are alive at the time you're born?

In (I think) Life, the Universe, and Everything, one of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Book, he introduces a character, Wowbagger, who through an unfortunate accident with a particle accelerator and a rubber band, has become immortal. Now, the galaxy is not; it ends up collapsing in on itself. This is not a problem for Wowbagger, since time travel is quite a common occurence. Extreme boredom is.

So he takes it upon himself to travel throughout the galaxy and insult every creature that has ever existed - in alphabetical order. But this could lead to a problem, depending on how time travel works.

Now, the universe isn't really going to collapes on itself, probably, but it will just keep expanding until it is a thin hydrogen cloud of uniform density and temperature, thanks to entropy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics. There is probbaly no way around this. So even if an organism gained immortality, it couldn't really last forever in any meaningful way.

It occured to me once that one could get around this by time travel, and thus never be at that point of the universe's lifetime, because it would be possible to travel to another point. But this would only buy you a few trillion or so lifetimes. Because, if you lived, became immortal, and then traveled back to the very beginning once the universe started winding down, you would still only have 100 billion years or so. Then you would have to travel back, again, once the universe winded down again (in your timeline). Keep doing this, and eventually, at any given time in the life of the universe, you will exist in several trillion places at once, and it's going to get pretty crowded.

I have no idea how the physics really work, I am sure that there is some problem with what I described. But it might work at the level of a planet - if I am around to see everything, it's going to get crowded with all the billions of me there are running about.

How typical of a Middle Eastern opinion: just blame it on everyone else, God forbid you take responsibility for your own destiny.

Just to be the Devil's Advocate, some Muslims seem to think they are taking responsibility for their own destiny, and I don't like the steps that certain Middle-East radical organizations have taken.

I would love to be present or witness the following:

1: Mankind making first contact with another sentient species from beyond our solar system (imagine the profound universal implications of that?)
2: Mankind's first mission outside of our solar system using "warp drive" or equivalent.

I doubt I'll be alive to see either though. So if I had a time machine. I'd go ahead, most certainly.

:)

The Bolsheviks executing the royal family.

Any event more then 6000 years 1 day ago. Finally put this god damn debate to rest.

The Bolsheviks executing the royal family.
Checking for Anastasia? Hate Imperial swine? Blood lust?

So many things would be awesome, it would be awesome to see as many extinct things as possible, so long as they're interesting.
Classical civilizations at their height.
Battles
Places of mystery.
Build me a damn time machine :mad:

Fall of the Berlin Wall


Am I so old? :(

The European Enlightenment.

Any event more then 6000 years 1 day ago. Finally put this god damn debate to rest.

:lol:

I would love to do that as well. How about I select ancient Sumeria in addition to the Great Library?

I'd like to see Tenochtitlan before it was destroyed.

If I remember correctly, the Black sea was an interior sea untill something like 5,000 BC. It only joined the Mediterranean sea when the level of oceans have raised so much that it surpassed the range of hills between Greece and Turkey, thus creating the Bosporus strait and filling the Black sea. I'm sure it was a terrific event to witness.

Both ^^ would be awesome. As would ancient Egypt, Rome and China.

Numerous battles and the dinosaurs too! But of all those from history, I would probably choose Tenochtitlan, Cuzco or Tikal at their height.

EDIT: IIRC Macroscope was all about visting the past. Great book.

I missed the 2006 Puppy Bowl. :(

Without a doubt if I had the chance to witness one event in history it would be the Moon landing.

The last dodo bird. So I can kill it and eat it.

Witnessed:

Battle of Salamis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Salamis)
Battle of Grunwald (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Grunwald)
The building of the great pyramid of Giza - with the capability to fast forward
The crucifixion of Jesus

Participated in:
Moon landing

Berlin, early 1930s. Probably because I just read Christopher Isherwood's autobiography (Christopher and his Kind). Sounds like he had fun there.

Plus, if you time it right, you can assassinate the leader of the NSDAP.

i wouldve liked to have been at the beginning of this thread :)

lol jk

id probably pick the sermon on the mound

It's just impossible for me to pick just one event. I don't think I would have wanted to participate in much of history (although having my signature on the Declaration of Independance would be incredible), but I would have liked to witness much of it. Here's a short list that's not at all complete:

It's not in order of importance either. Just random.

The Library of Alexandria before it was burned
The building of the forbidden palace :king:
The voyages of Zheng He
Fall of the Berlin Wall
Lowering of the Hammer and Sickle (:D :D :D )
Tiananmen Square (:cry: )
London in the 1800's :king:
Make war alongside Simon Bolivia
The innauguration of Ronald Reagan (:D :D :D )
Paris under Napoleon :king:
The American Revolution

See what the Buddha really taught, or if Jesus really existed.

Seeing dinosaurs would be cool wouldn't it?
Provided you weren't running for your life from carnivorous ones. Or at least being well armed with a similarly armed group of men.

------------------------

Constantinople at the time of Justinian and Belisarius.

Any cities on the Italian Peninsula at the height of the Roman Empire (preferrably Rome).

Jan III Sobieski's victory over the Ottomans at the Battle of Vienna.

The building of the Pyramids.

Perhaps study in the Library of Alexandria.

Invest thousands of dollars in a little known internet site (at the time) known as "Google". :goodjob:

Invest a similar amount in a newly formed company called Microsoft. :goodjob:

People I'd like to have met (not in chronological order):
-Jan III Sobieski
-Gaius Julius Caeser
-Alexander the Great
-George S. Patton Jr.
-Benjamin Franklin

These are the top ones, though there are many more.

See what the Buddha really taught, or if Jesus really existed.


Which He did. There are historical accounts by the Romans, Josephus, and others that the man existed. Whether or nor He is God is opinion.

I'd like to accompany the Ottoman Armies in the fall of Constantinople... And then, fast forward to meet Suleiman The Magnificant.

- The Battle of Narva, that way I can walk over to the Russian General and say "Hey, look over there..."

- The first time the Soviet National Anthem played... so beautiful. I don't care if you hate communism, you should atleast admit that the anthem itself is wonderful and holds the ideals that real communism holds.

- As the Russians near Berlin, in the room where Hitler is hiding... and just f*cking laughing.

Ill love to see the assasination of Frans Ferdinard.
The Storming of the Winter Palace
The Fall of Bastile
Destruction of Carthage
The First Sack of Constantinople
Changan During the Tang Dynasty
A Speech of Martin Luther
Elizabeths Speech
The Rose Revoloution
The Mongol Hordes ridding in action
Salah-Adin's Siege of Jerusalem
The Cornation of Kang Xi, Elizabeth and a Pope
John Paul II when he prayed at the mosque
Battle of the Nile
A Shakesperean play
The 1908 San Fransico Earthquake
The list goes on....

- The Battle of Narva, that way I can walk over to the Russian General and say "Hey, look over there..."

Which Battle and why look over there?

Which Battle and why look over there?

The Battle of Narva was a huge Russian defeat in the Great Northern War...

The Russians outnumbered a Swedish force 4-to-1 and still managed too lose when King Charles of the Swedish hit them with a surprise.

Me: Hey, look over there (points...)

General: What do you want, I dont have time for... Ah Sh*t.

Well it aint their fault. There was a huge blizzard and the Swedes manage to get a suprise attack bcause snow was blowing into the eyes of the Russians. Even if you said look over there they could not see a . .. .. .. .. Also, Russian was still in civ terms heavily out tech by Sweden

a lot of these things involve blood and carnage :ar15: :run: lol.

I would like to watch:
A caveman discover fire.:)
Alexandria, circa 1 AD
General Howe's surrender
Saddam Hussein being captured
Saddam Hussein being hanged
Napoleon watching a ship slowly fade into the horizon ... From St. Helena


I'd like to see Tenochtitlan before it was destroyed.

Me too. The irony is that by going there, you most likely destroy it by accidentally spreading disease.

Only if you were currently infected with smallpox.

I would have liked to see the Trinity test.

There's plenty of things in my field which would have been amazingly cool to participate in; CP-1, for example (the first sustained man-made nuclear fission chain reaction). There's plenty of other things in history that would have been incredible to see, and still not fully appreciate: the Americans pledging their lives, fortunes, and Sacred Honour to a free and independent United States sits foremost in my mind.

But to witness the Trinity test... well, I'd still never fully comprehend what it meant, but it was certainly a life- and world-changing moment.

Me too. The irony is that by going there, you most likely destroy it by accidentally spreading disease.

Smallpox doesn't exist outside of Atlanta and Russia anymore.

I would like to watch:
A caveman discover fire.:)

Which one of the thousands of times when it happened? ;) The fire was NOT a breakthrough. It was not invented by a random cavemen and spread to his relatives, friends, etc. Fire exists in nature, it's not a human invention. And learning how to use it took tens of thousands of years.

Actually, it wasn't invented by "cavemen" - not that the term actually means anything in reality, but even so it was around long before Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons.

I know, that's exactly my point. It existed long before humans came along. :)

I know, I wasn't really criticizing you, just the use of the term "caveman" has always kind of bugged me.

Smallpox doesn't exist outside of Atlanta and Russia anymore.

Thank you, this allowed me to get my smallpox booster before it was too late.

:splat:

I would love to be present or witness the following:

1: Mankind making first contact with another sentient species from beyond our solar system (imagine the profound universal implications of that?)
2: Mankind's first mission outside of our solar system using "warp drive" or equivalent.

I doubt I'll be alive to see either though. So if I had a time machine. I'd go ahead, most certainly.

:)

That would be most interesting, but American Civil War general. Try to end the war earlier, save Lincoln, prevent WWI etc.

God, there are to many to list...
To name a few:
D-Day June 6, 1944
The talk between the pope and Atilla the Hun (what did the pope say??)
Battles of Thermopolye, When Mongols took out the Great Wall and the invasion of Europe by them.
Battle of the Bulge
That's just to name a few. If i could, I'd like to have witnessed everything in history. Oh well.

Sixth Floor, Dallas School Book Depository, Dallas, Texas at 12:15 PM on November 22nd, 1963.

May 2, 1967 last leafs championship.

The talk between the pope and Atilla the Hun (what did the pope say??)


"I'll give you a cookie if you go away"

Thank you, this allowed me to get my smallpox booster before it was too late.

:splat:

Americas supply of the virus is safely gaurded at the cdc. Youre more likely to be killed by a russian strain.

There would be a few times & places to would like to see

1) The Hanging Gardens of Babylon - 500BC. As there is actully no record of it from native sources - you would think it was worth writing about...

2) Great Library of Alexandria - 75BC. I would just love to see how it looked. I might try to pinch a couple of texts now lost to the modern world (But I would have to learn how to read classical Greek first)

3) Rome, 250AD. Would be wonderful to see one of the greatist cities at it's height.

Fighting to the death in any one of these battles which I greatly admire:
300 Spartans (On Spartan side, course)
First Crusade, Battle of Jerusalem. (Muslim side)
Third Crusade (I think): Battle of Acre (On the Muslim side)
Battle of the Alamo (Texas side, of course!)
Battle of Iwo Jima (American side)

In non-war:
When Moses split the Red Sea
When someone woke up and noticed Jesus's body was gone. (I never exactly got the details of this, how did the part go again?)
The first hajj
Columbus discovering America
Building of Stonehenge
Building of the Pyramids
The destruction of the first Death Star. (:p)

Battle of Iwo Jima (American side)

When someone woke up and noticed Jesus's body was gone. (I never exactly got the details of this, how did the part go again?)


The Americans won that battle and I don't think it was a close one either.

It depends on your religion or lack of. ;)

The assassination of Phillip II, to try and find out who was really behind it.

The fall of constantinople 1453. (the ending of the middle ages! :( )

I'd like to see asteroid hit Jukatan peninsula about 65 million years ago, preferably from orbit :D.

I would have liked to see the Trinity test.
But to witness the Trinity test... well, I'd still never fully comprehend what it meant, but it was certainly a life- and world-changing moment.

Also, seeing Ted Taylor lighting a cigarette (http://trashotron.com/agony/reviews/dyson-project_orion.htm) from nuclear test with a mirror would have been chilling (search Ted Taylor from link if interested).

I would like to se the creation of the universe. Big Bang.

Being able to read the "books" in the Great Library of Alexandria before it burned.

...good one

actually, i was thinking... i would like to be in the modern atrocities like the Holocaust or the Nanking Massacre so that i could SAVE PEOPLE, rescue them, get them out of the hell, whatever it takes so i can save at least one life.

that woulod be worth the risks.

lol now the non-violent (sorta) ideas r starting 2 come now lol