Hypothetical question re time travel

[meggers5]

I was at the dentist last night and had a lot of time for ridiculous musings.

Say you could time travel and you could stop a horrible event from happening (the plague, WWII, the Crusades, etc). You had that power. Would you do it, not knowing whether or not something much, much worse would happen instead, if it had played out differently?

Would you take your chances, or let history play out as it already had?

[wambam]

Better the devil you know than the devil you don't

[Deleted]

Slavery? Holocaust?

I don't know.

Butterfly effect and all. You can't tell what would've resulted.

[papie]

Nope. You just don't now what could have happened instead.

[candyland]

No, because I might not get to have a life.

Haven't you seen Back to the Future?

[lust2hart]

I'm LOLing at the "hypothetical" qualifier in your title.

To answer the question, no, I wouldn't. I would really really want to, but I wouldn't.

[meggers5]

Jan 29, 2015 14:13:24 GMT -5 lust2hart said:

I'm LOLing at the "hypothetical" qualifier in your title.

To answer the question, no, I wouldn't. I would really really want to, but I wouldn't.

What, you don't time travel on the regular?

[ohyouknow]

DH were just talking about what would have happened if GW Bush wouldn't have been elected and Gore had been president instead. It's an interesting thought.

[sequins]

No, the first rule of being a time lord is non-interference. There are too many variables involved to make that decision.

[knx9211]

Jan 29, 2015 14:22:32 GMT -5 sequins said:

No, the first rule of being a time lord is non-interference. There are too many variables involved to make that decision.

I came here to write this, but my response was very poorly worded, so I'll just steal this one.

[knx9211]

Although this question will always remind me of this:

[Nonny]

No, but I would go back in time and eat at a couple of restaurants from my childhood that closed when I was in college. First up, a sandwich and potato salad from the little German deli, followed by a hamburger, fries with extra seasoning salt, and a blueberry coke from the hamburger shack.

[snipsnsnails]

Yes, if I could stop certain things, I would. There are some things I consider to have been such catastrophic atrocities, that I would risk "the future" by stopping them. Things that come to mind are the Holocaust and the Chernobyl disaster.

[sangria]

I would go back and stop my 50lb weight gain of 2009. That shit was a catastrophe.

[BeagleMama]

No, I've seen what could happen if Biff had the sports almanac.

[sharknado]

[Eagles]

Jan 29, 2015 14:30:33 GMT -5 atlas said:

As a viewer of too much Doctor Who, I would not change those "fixed points" hah.

Though it might be interesting to save like 1 or 2 people.

[livinitup]

As a fan of sci-fi, everyone knows that you can't time travel to prevent a horrible tragedy without causing a BIGGER one that is much, much worse.

It has been theorized that you can time travel if you do little to no changes. But this goes horribly wrong too as people never ever stop themselves from making big changes that GO HORRIBLY WRONG.

[luckyval]

I'd go back and teach Hitler how to paint. I think the world would have been better off.

[Ohhmm(bligo)]

Buckbeak.

[Ohhmm(bligo)]

Jan 29, 2015 16:53:10 GMT -5 loonylunalovegood said:

Jan 29, 2015 16:49:04 GMT -5 Ohhmm(bligo) said:

Buckbeak.

PRIORITIES

[pelirroja]

I'd be tempted, but I don't think I would change anything. I'd be too afraid that the repercussions would be worse than the event I had changed.

[sergey]

I'd head to Florida, 2000, with a pair of scissors.

[Deleted]

I'd go back and win the lottery when it was 550,000,000. #shallow

[Saint Monica]

www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/539/transcript

[lexxasaurus]

No, that leaves too much room for things to go awry. I like the idea, but I couldn't actually do it.

[Nonny]

Jan 29, 2015 16:49:04 GMT -5 Ohhmm(bligo) said:

Buckbeak.

Buckbeak never died, they'd already gone back and saved him before the executioner got there.  It was a paradox. #Overinvested.

[CurlyQ284]

[frenchies]

Jan 29, 2015 15:49:38 GMT -5 luckyval said:

I'd go back and teach Hitler how to paint. I think the world would have been better off.

I thought he did paint...?

[smock]

Jan 30, 2015 1:24:42 GMT -5 frenchies said:

Jan 29, 2015 15:49:38 GMT -5 luckyval said:

I'd go back and teach Hitler how to paint. I think the world would have been better off.

I thought he did paint...?

Yeah, but he sucked and it gave him the sucky painter rage.