Global savepoint ? When would you reload ?

[Azem.Ocram]

If I could change anything in the 20th Century, I would delay The Great War by saving Archduke Ferdinand, allowing him to federate the Austrian-Hungarian empire. Then, I’d keep Russia out of The War (it’s unlikely to be able to be prevented), and make sure the Central Powers don’t piss off Britain and America. WWI without Russian, British, or American involvement would have resulted in France’s defeat. Then, I’d advise Austria-Hungary to take France’s Colonies and leave Paris alone (though even Hitler left Paris intact) and avoid charging too much in war reparations (like France did in our timeline). Eventually, Austria-Hungary and Germany would form a traditionalist, aristocratic EU, probably as a Federation and not the weak confederation the EU and UN are in this timeline. England would eventually trade and work with mainland germanic-controlled Europe though I don’t know if the central power would strengthen like the USA or weaken to the point of being like the EU.

Seeing as Europe would in effect be stuck in the 19th Century, I guess I would use my wealth, knowledge, and power to propel the USA into the Atomic Age and Information Age through private sector research, though that might turn the USA into a worse corporate-controlled oligarchy than it is in this timeline, most likely with less technological development than this timeline (since war is the biggest fuel of research). If I traveled to the point of divergence at my current age, I’d likely die of old age before the Information Age.

EDIT: Of course, I’d have to make 2 jumps to do that, which is against the rules.

 

[Nobody]

I got made redundant in 2010, I wish I could go back and take my redundancy money and buy bitcoin.

 

[Birdjaguar]

If I could change anything in the 20th Century, I would delay The Great War by saving Archduke Ferdinand, allowing him to federate the Austrian-Hungarian empire. Then, I’d keep Russia out of The War (it’s unlikely to be able to be prevented), and make sure the Central Powers don’t piss off Britain and America. WWI without Russian, British, or American involvement would have resulted in France’s defeat. Then, I’d advise Austria-Hungary to take France’s Colonies and leave Paris alone (though even Hitler left Paris intact) and avoid charging too much in war reparations (like France did in our timeline). Eventually, Austria-Hungary and Germany would form a traditionalist, aristocratic EU, probably as a Federation and not the weak confederation the EU and UN are in this timeline. England would eventually trade and work with mainland germanic-controlled Europe though I don’t know if the central power would strengthen like the USA or weaken to the point of being like the EU.

Seeing as Europe would in effect be stuck in the 19th Century, I guess I would use my wealth, knowledge, and power to propel the USA into the Atomic Age and Information Age through private sector research, though that might turn the USA into a worse corporate-controlled oligarchy than it is in this timeline, most likely with less technological development than this timeline (since war is the biggest fuel of research). If I traveled to the point of divergence at my current age, I’d likely die of old age before the Information Age.

I missed this by 46 minutes. I'd go back and prevent the start of WW1. Of course we won't know the unintended consequences, but what the hell. Then I would divert Rush Limbaugh and Roger Ailes into college professor careers.

 

[Peuri]

Interesting question. I've often wondered about this:

Change the 2000 Bush Gore election the other way. Ironic because I voted for Bush back then on his education reform platform, but looking back now I think there was an inflection point shortly thereafter on climate change and fiscal policy that we could have gone the other way and we'd be in a better place now.

But since that was already taken, and I can only go back to 1960, I don't know... Try to start a worldwide abstinence movement? Imagine if there were only 2 billion people on the planet. Stop Mao's culture revolution? Bush jr's Iraq war?

 

[tetley]

I'm thinking just before black monday 1987, so I could short a few stocks. I happen to think that is very historically significant. And maybe place a bet on the Redskins to win Superbowl.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Cambridge, 1908. Explain to John Maynard Keynes the long term consequences of actions taken under his guidance to save capitalism through market intervention. Convince him that he would basically prove Marx right, in that the accumulation of capital into ever fewer hands leads inevitably to the violent collapse of any market based economy so that he will apply his considerable genius towards structuring an egalitarian economy and then use his considerable influence to bring that about when capitalism collapses in the late 1920s.

That what you are looking for?

I've given this a little more thought and this would really work out nicely. With the great depression being the death knell of market driven economics instead of having Keynes patch it back together and a fair distribution of wealth system coming into place I could turn my attention to harnessing nuclear power before the internal combustion engine becomes ubiquitous and entrenches fossil fuels to destroy the environment. Abundant clean energy pumped into an egalitarian economy would produce the holy grail of 'prosperity for all' and preserve the environment at the same time. Sign me up.

 

[metatron]

Let's assume you can go back in time to the date of your birth minus your current age.

Ok... minus... carry the one...

Oh great, that's... well, let's say "moderatly useful".

But hey, i could meet my avatar.
...
...
Oh, no, that's such a J-thought.
J, i blame you!

Speak of the devil:

Interesting scenario... I can go back to the 50s,

Yeah, lucky you.
I get to bang my head against the steering wheel of a car parked next to the A4 with Sophie and Tom Cruise debating what Jebus said about murder, while you get to have fun.
Great.

 

[Ironsided]

I’m just going to say I wish I was old enough to go back and help Rousseau smack Voltaire upside the head.

 

[Arakhor]

edit: althought I can go back to 1912 so no collapse of the Austo-Hungarian Empire, no World Wars, no idea how it would've worked out although it couldn't have been worse than what actually happened

You're a lot older than I thought. I can only manage 1940 or so, so maybe I could stop the Suez Crisis or Margaret Thatcher coming to power, but if you could do 1912, you could stop the partition of the Middle East after WWI, secure future oil stakes for the UK, rather than the US and/or even stop the Saudi royal family gobbling up Arabia (at the expense of the moderate powers there).

 

[GoodSarmatian]

I'd like to remind y'all that the change should have an impact on the course of history. Rosseau punching Voltaire will only make philosophy books more amusing for exactly one paragraph and if you're buying bitcoin you should have a plan to manipulate the market.

I get to bang my head against the steering wheel of a car parked next to the A4 with Sophie and Tom Cruise debating what Jebus said about murder, while you get to have fun.
Great.

You're old enough to assassinate Reagan, Gorbatschow, Kohl or Deng Xiaoping.

 

[Zkribbler]

Change the 2000 Bush Gore election ... there was an inflection point shortly thereafter on climate change and fiscal policy that we could have gone the other way and we'd be in a better place now.

This was my first thought too. Bush the Dumber pulled out of the Kyoto Treaty, the first major international attempt in fixing the ecology. President Gore would have taken us in the opposite direction.

Fiscal policy took it's first missteps under Reagan in 81. Then got worse under Clinton, and went berserk under Bush the Dumber. I voted for Bradlry over Gore in the 2000 California primary due to Gore's entanglement with monied interests, so I don't know if he'd have reversed course, but he certainly wouldn't have been as bad.

 

[Azem.Ocram]

I cheated in the 2nd scenario, going back in time twice as far as the thought experiment allows.

 

[Hrothbern]

Global then

Climate
I guess it will be the most devastating human induced disaster since the plague... or bigger.

Kind of tough luck for us all that
A. the buffer capacity for CO2 and warmth of the oceans and atmosphere is relatively too small
B. the rate of population growth was relatively too high
C. the rate of our fossil energy consumption was relatively too high
D. the science development to counter with renewables was relatively too slow

So we have only a small window in time to adress the issue
A. unchangable
B. was seen as a souvereign responsibility
C. everybody wants more, more, more.
D. the only factor to change with a time machine

In the 60ies-70ies the time was ripe to recognise the issue and "somehow" it just disappeared as important from the global agenda in the 80ies.
We missed a window of opportunity.
We needed after the science successes of Oppenheimer and later the Space Project a new massive project on Climate and sustainability.

But why did it not happen ?

And where to push the button to change that back in time ?
The supra-national structures from the shock of the crisis and WW2 were already eroding in the late 70ies by increasing short term selfishness from national governments on the back of the Big Corporate culture. The Seven Sisters (oil companies) even leading the way of multinational eroding.

If bringing back to the past of modern solar technology is forbidden,

I really think that the only effective way left would be to blow up and set on fire everything having to do with crude oil. From oil sources to oil mammoth tankers.
Consequent keeping that way oil prices high enough to encourage other energy technologies to be researched and industrialised.

I fail to think out a more democratic solution.

 

[AmazonQueen]

You're a lot older than I thought. I can only manage 1940 or so, so maybe I could stop the Suez Crisis or Margaret Thatcher coming to power, but if you could do 1912, you could stop the partition of the Middle East after WWI, secure future oil stakes for the UK, rather than the US and/or even stop the Saudi royal family gobbling up Arabia (at the expense of the moderate powers there).

Either that or I'm very bad at maths, checks, no, I'm getting old.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Either that or I'm very bad at maths, checks, no, I'm getting old.

I went back further than you can, and it wasn't as far as I could. You aren't getting old.

 

[AmazonQueen]

I went back further than you can, and it wasn't as far as I could. You aren't getting old.

Obviously I am getting old, its just a matter of if I've reached old yet.
Since people tend to define young and old in relation to their own age I'd agree I'm not old, but the children at the school I work at wouldn't.

 

[Kyriakos]

That would not lead to stuff changing here; but it would hasten dissolution of yugoslavia by many decades.
Anyway, i was joking.

 

[Lohrenswald]

Obviously any human in their right mind would say "before we split off from Bonobos",

au contraire

 

[Silurian]

Go back to 1910 and talk to HG Wells. Tell him that I am from the future and ask him to do a second Time Machine Story with future events especially WW1, stock market crash in 1929 etc but be vague about exact dates nations and climate change now. Then by the 1960s so many things in the book would have happened people would start looking forward to avoid climate change.

 

[Kyriakos]

Bonobos are dumb, a waste of space and have weird fetishes with frogs. Furthermore, humans didnt split from bonobos; the common ancestor theory means some non- human non-bonobo thing was the split-point.