h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The intro to this article raised several points, so here are my thoughts:

Do you believe time travel is possible? I don't have enough knowledge of physics to give a definitive answer. I'd like to *think* that one day the answer is yes. At the moment, the answer is no, because we do not have the technological know-how.

If you could go back in time, where would you go?
What period of history would you choose and why? These questions sound the same, so I'll assume the first one means 'where?' in terms of location. I have an interest in Ancient Egyptian history, so I'd like to be able to spend some time there, trying to resolve some of the things that have puzzled archaeologists for decades. This is assuming that the time machine somehow allows you to understand different languages. I'd also like to go to the 'Marie Celeste' to find out what really happened. I don't think there's any one period of history that I'd like to spend time in. I've always lived in the 20th Century, and I like our clothes, 'conveniences', way of life. I'd probably hop between periods to get a taste of what life was like then.

If time travel is possible, wouldn't it have always existed? No, how could it have? We don't have the technology for it now and we didn't have it in the past. People from the future would be too wise to make a trip to the past and leave the technology lying around.

Are we, as a species, ready for time travel? Generally speaking, no. There are two many 'sensation seekers' who would go back in time to mess around with history. Time travellers would have to promise not to do this. Aside from which, according to some thought on the subject, if you change the past, the time you came from will no longer exist. This would mean that, at best, you 'return' to a time that wasn't your own (you might not even exist). At worst, you would be stuck in the past.

Is there anyone in particular you would like to meet? Leonardo da Vinci. I'd love to know where he got his futuristic (for those days) ideas from. Time travel, perhaps? I'd ask him to make a copy of his codex, so that I could give a set of his technical drawings to Richard as a present. I'd also like to meet Nostadamus and find out what he meant by all those predictions, if they meant anything at all (which I often doubt).

Would you prefer to travel into the future? How far would you go? I'm not sure that it would be possible to travel to the future. What happens in the future depends on what we do now. There are infinite (or as very nearly) choices that can be made by ordinary people as well as by statesmen. We might be able to go forward to *a* future, one that *might* exist if everything just chugs along as it is now. But we wouldn't be able to go forward to *the* future, because nobody can know what decisions will be made or what actions will be taken.

Is there anything in particular from the past that you would like to change? From the past in general, no. See my response to 'Are we ready for time travel?' From my own past? Part of me would like to change my 'A' level choices when I was at school, but if I did that I might not meet and marry Richard. Life wouldn't be the same without him (but would I know or care?). Other than that, I've made career choices that I regret, but that's about it.

A few typos. It should have been 'Too many sensation seekers', and 'infinite choices (or very nearly)'. And did Leonardo get his ideas from time travellers, not time travel.

Oh, and I'd like to go back and found out what really did happen to the 'Princes in the Tower'. Did Richard III have them killed? And who was the 'Man in the Iron Mask'? And... And...