If Time Travellers existed, who would they be?

[bob bobato]

If Time Travel were possible, which historical people(s) would you say are Time Travellers, and why? It doesn't only have to be the cliched inventor-ahead of his time (a la Da Vinci), but it could be anyone at all. Someone who said things that were oddly prescient, or did things that turned out to be useful centuries later, or a horrible catastrophe that was suddenly ended through the sudden appearance of some random person, and so on. It could even be an entire country, who's culture seems oddly out of time. It's a very open ended thread.

 

[Perfection]

They'd go back in time to stop the Nazis from starting WWII, but in a weird twist of fate, they'd actually become the Nazis and cause it themselves!

 

[Dragonlord]

Nostradamus springs to mind immediately...

 

[Love]

Nero.

...

 

[flyingchicken]

Tourists and tour guides, obviously.

 

[SG-17]

Nero.

...

Ha.

They wouldn't be historical figures if they were smart, they would just be average people observing.

 

[Mowque]

Ha.

They wouldn't be historical figures if they were smart, they would just be average people observing.

Wouldn't some go rouge?

 

[Dann]

IMO if time travellers do exist they'd make sure they aren't "noticed" when changing history to their liking.

There are several time periods in our reality where it looks suspiciously like someone has tampered with the timeline and changed its direction. The Ming not seizing the moment for overseas expansion but suddenly running their naval superiority to the ocean floor and turning inwards for example...

 

[Sharwood]

Nostradamus springs to mind immediately...

You mean the political satirist that never predicted anything in his life, and whose life was nothing like it's described?

Merlin was supposed to be from the future and to age backward, for what it's worth. Almost certainly not an historical personage though.

I'd have to go with the Count of St Germain: the man who lived forever and knew everything.

Other likely travellers could be Lee Harvey Oswald - think of the damage Kennedy could have caused - John III Sobieski and Jesus, among others.

 

[warpus]

Why Sobieski?

 

[Sharwood]

Why Sobieski?

Is he not the one that helped defend Vienna from the Turks?

 

[warpus]

Is he not the one that helped defend Vienna from the Turks?

Yeah, he lead the troops and died defending Europe.. but why would that single him out as a "potential time traveller" ?

 

[Sharwood]

Yeah, he lead the troops and died defending Europe.. but why would that single him out as a "potential time traveller" ?

Because "he died defending Europe." Maybe the Turks were gonna win and destroy Western Civilisation. Not that that's all bad....

 

[Love]

Ha.

They wouldn't be historical figures if they were smart, they would just be average people observing.

Who know what would happen to rome if he didn't burn the place down?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Tourists and tour guides, obviously.

That makes me suspect you've read Robert Silverberg's novel Up the Line that is about a guy who works as a tour guide, taking groups of tourists on one and two-week trips to ancient Byzantium.

 

[PiMan]

Jules Verne

 

[Sharwood]

Wouldn't some go rouge?

I just noticed this. That would explain Bill Gates. Went back in time with his advanced computer knowledge and buiit an empire.

Jules Verne

Most of his science fiction wasn't very accurate in its predictions.

 

[BananaLee]

Maybe he was like the Mecanno man, purposely inserting mistakes in the instructions to test the mettle and intelligence of young British children.

 

[Sharwood]

Maybe he was like the Mecanno man, purposely inserting mistakes in the instructions to test the mettle and intelligence of young British children.

Maybe it's even more devious. Maybe PiMan is himself from the future, a future where Verne's' predictions have in fact finally come to pass.

 

[Masada]

Doctor Who came back in time, to invent himself in a TV series, Doctor Who...