Thought Provoking Question of the Day (5)

[pigoo3]

Ok...it seemed like with the last Thought Provoking question a lot of folks wanted a Time Machine...thus a Time Machine question. Lol

If you had to travel 100 years into the past or 100 years into the future, which would you choose?

 

[badshoehabit]

That's a real conundrum. Is it just a look, or are we stuck there?

I fear for what our world will become with politics the way they are now - a descent into 1930s fascism, denial of climate change, rich getting richer and the poor suffering still - and am actually glad I won't live to see much of it. Equally 1919, immediately post-WW1, was a tough time to live (in the UK at least) - poverty, unemployment, no antibiotics, no NHS, few rights for women, short life expectancy.

Will the future be the dystopia of Blade Runner? I have never forgotten E M Forster's 1909 short story 'The Machine Stops' which I read when I was 15. Its prescience is remarkable: the fiction is becoming the reality. Hail Alexa! If you've not read it, there's a free download. The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster - Free eBook

We can study the past, especially the recent past, through film, photographs and contemporary writing but we can't 'see' the future with any certainty. Because the future will bring enormous advances in combatting illness and disease, I guess I would go forward.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

I like the adage "What goes around, comes around" so 100 years from now is going to look like 100 years ago with more technology. Same problems, same attitudes, same divisions. Given that choice, I'll just stay right here.

 

[pigoo3]

That's a real conundrum. Is it just a look, or are we stuck there?

Yes...that would be an important consideration. Let's say it's temporary (30 days, 60 days, etc.)...just a short visit to experience what life was like (100 years ago) or will be (100 years in the future).

- No going back in time to buy 1000 shares of stock...and cashing in when you return to 2019.
- No impregnating a female 100 years ago...and creating some sort of paradox.
- No assassinations of evil world leaders before their time.
- etc. etc.

You're just there to experience what life was like.

- Nick

 

[dtravis7]

100 years into the past for sure.

 

[toMACsh]

I'd say go back. There wouldn't be multiple clones of One More Thing.

 

[harryb2448]

Nick my friend you need a full time job urgently to get away from all this 'if only' nonsense that plagues us in our old age!