A Conversation for Ask h2g2

One-time machine

Post 1

Icy North

If you had a time machine which could only work once (important), would you set it to go forward into the future or back into the past?

What is the single most useful thing you could do with it to benefit mankind?

smiley - tardis


One-time machine

Post 2

paulh, vaccinated against the Omigod Variant

Hmmmmm.

Bring a recording device to a piano concerto by Mozart?
Warn Captain Smith of the iceberg that the Titanic is approaching?
Teach Julius Caesar to play computer solitaire?
Demonstrate to Sir Walter Raleigh that tobacco smoking causes lung cancer?
Bring a rocket with enough explosives to destroy the asteroid that extinguished the dinosaurs?


One-time machine

Post 3

Rev Nick - dead man walking (mostly)

Try to have lunch with the local city authorities and advise them that those tremors are something to worry about.

And after Pompeii, try the same with the folks in Herculaneum ...


One-time machine

Post 4

Pink Paisley

Presumably, I'd be stuck wherever I went with my once only jump?

I'm staying here then.

PP.


One-time machine

Post 5

Traveller in Time Reporting Bugs -o-o- Broken the chain of Pliny -o-o- Hired

Traveller in Time smiley - tit watching Terra Nova (Television series)
"Making some more limiting assumptions;
--Not more things with you then you can carry
--The time machine smiley - tardis is a once only

Meet Da Vinci, Archimedes or some other out of the box thinkers. Would like to have a chat with one of those guys (Perhaps first kick start their language). (Edison, Faraday, Volta . . . )

With some primitive survival skills any modern human should be able to play 'magician'smiley - wizard in most of the more primitive cultures.

Or as a last thing to do in your life,
Go to the Cambrian era, help the life kick start with some complex DNA. "


One-time machine

Post 6

paulh, vaccinated against the Omigod Variant

Trouble is, even if you went to a luxurious place/time like Louis XIV's Versailles, chances are you'd be one of the peasants or servants. You'd find out pretty quickly that the King ate with his fingers, bathed maybe once a year, and smelled just as bad as everyone else...


One-time machine

Post 7

bobstafford

Travel to far back could be a problem, I don't think we could communicate in english much further back than 1500. That would pose about the biggest problem, the next is religion and the proper observance, they burnt heretics smiley - run

Talk about stick out like a sore thumb smiley - erm



One-time machine

Post 8

paulh, vaccinated against the Omigod Variant

I know enough basic Latin to get by, but no one nowadays is sure how it was pronounced. You'd be sure to stick out as an outsider as soon as you opened your mouth.


One-time machine

Post 9

Pink Paisley

No need. Just speak loudly in English. They are bound to understand!

PP.


One-time machine

Post 10

paulh, vaccinated against the Omigod Variant

Won't you change history by introducing English words and phrases into their vernacular? smiley - winkeye


One-time machine

Post 11

Rev Nick - dead man walking (mostly)

Since the "machine" will only work once, you're where-ever for the rest of your time. So would you be much worried about change past or future history?


One-time machine

Post 12

Icy North

If that's the case, why bother doing anything for the next generation?


One-time machine

Post 13

Rev Nick - dead man walking (mostly)

Because you can?


One-time machine

Post 14

Mr. X ---> "Be excellent to each other. And party on, dudes!"

This isn't a well-considered answer or anything, but at this moment, having recently seen Black Sails, which is an awesome show, I would totally go back to the Caribbean in 1710 and become a pirate!

smiley - pirate


One-time machine

Post 15

Mr. X ---> "Be excellent to each other. And party on, dudes!"

The next generation will get along just fine without me. What with their replicators, and their tricorders, and their transporters, and their Heisenberg Compensators, and their positronic androidators...

smiley - pirate


One-time machine

Post 16

Pink Paisley

Remember to take a supply of penicillin with you Mr X.

PP.


One-time machine

Post 17

paulh, vaccinated against the Omigod Variant

"The next generation will get along just fine without me. What with their replicators, and their tricorders, and their transporters, and their Heisenberg Compensators, and their positronic androidators..." [Mr X]

They will reject much of what we believe in, then, when intimations of mortality start appearing to them, they will start to realize that our generation maybe had some things worth preserving or even listening to. smiley - yikes

Of course, no generation is monolithic [cue "Also Sprach Zarathustra"}

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9iCHKhBU5s


One-time machine

Post 18

Baron Grim

I'd invent Mayonnaise.

A2043398


One-time machine

Post 19

Baron Grim

http://h2g2.com/entry/A2043398


One-time machine

Post 20

Mr. X ---> "Be excellent to each other. And party on, dudes!"

smiley - doh

Grab some relatively cheap objects, go forward 300 years, then sell your priceless antiques (and all in their original packaging! Wow!) to a few private collectors, and live like a king! smiley - islandsmiley - pggb

smiley - pirate


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