Going back in time and changing your life?

meebs · Dec 23, 2005

ok lets say hypothetically you have a chance to go back in time to a certain point in your life.

would you do it and why?

this was inspired by another thread on the cf polls but id love to hear your opinions on it.

how would you think this would affect peoples life etc etc. You can cover this from any direction you want. even science.

I'll say now this is one of my favorite subjects ever. (ie - regarding alternative realities).

EDIT:

me said:
Ive have thought about this a lot. ive made such bad decisions in life that for the most part id change them. saying that... some have those decisions may have benifited others for the better (and some of them for worse?) and who knows if my life would have really improved. I guess i look at it from many angles.

dont let me say any more - or i'll be going off into the realms of science fiction and theories!

FreezBee · Dec 23, 2005

jellybean said:
ok lets say hypothetically you have a chance to go back in time to a certain point in your life.

would you do it and why?

Interesting subject

But with reference to your quoted post, if you were to go back in time to change something, you would loose the reason for making that change, and therefore at some point of time you might again want to go back in time to change something, which might have you ending up with exactly the life you happen to have had!

- FreezBee

meebs · Dec 23, 2005

Hmmm...not if i remember that reason. plus becuase i would cause a loop - this would likely bring about an alternative reality.

my quote above was an example. id love to expand it further but im trying to think a way of writing about it. (i think of stuff then nearly forget straight away )

The Seeker · Dec 23, 2005

Have you ever seen Butterfly Effect?

Seriously, I don't think I'd go back in time and change anything, even if I could, because you never know exactly what the consequences of those changes might be. I couldn't live with myself if I somehow caused the death of another human being by meddling with the past. Further, what if you somehow changed the past in a way that meant you were killed at some point between when you decided to go back and the point you changed things.

That's me though, ever the optimist

meebs · Dec 23, 2005

The Seeker said:
Have you ever seen Butterfly Effect?

Seriously, I don't think I'd go back in time and change anything, even if I could, because you never know exactly what the consequences of those changes might be. I couldn't live with myself if I somehow caused the death of another human being by meddling with the past. Further, what if you somehow changed the past in a way that meant you were killed at some point between when you decided to go back and the point you changed things.

That's me though, ever the optimist

i always wanted to see that!

hmm... i'll bump this for now (see if others are interested).

five · Dec 23, 2005

My experiences have made me what I am and I'm fairly satisfied with who I am.

Cat59 · Dec 23, 2005

I've always thought that if I could go back in time, I'd go to the point where my son was brain damaged after birth and shout at everyone till they did what was needed to prevent it.
But there again, that would change the rest of his life and my life and that of my family so drastically, that I don't really know if we would have all ended up better off or worse off.
Now if you also had the ability to let me see the alternative universe created as a result of the meddling so I could decide which universe to accept and which to reject, it would be useful.
But I guess then I'd see something else I wanted to change, (because I won't go through 17 years without some disaster or the other) and I'd have to see another alternative universe to choose the best again...
Hmmm
Think I'll leave things as they are...

five · Dec 23, 2005

Going back in time to change an event is pretty paradoxical anyways. If you go back in time to change the event and succeed, you will not go back in time to change the event.

Personally I don't think the past or future actually exist.

meebs · Dec 24, 2005

five said:
Going back in time to change an event is pretty paradoxical anyways. If you go back in time to change the event and succeed, you will not go back in time to change the event.

not paradoxical if you retained all you memories from your future "other" life. and throw in the alternate universes

Personally I don't think the past or future actually exist.

oh yes? explain

umm welcome to cf bye the way.

meebs · Dec 24, 2005

Cat59 said:
I've always thought that if I could go back in time, I'd go to the point where my son was brain damaged after birth and shout at everyone till they did what was needed to prevent it.

sorry to hear about that

But there again, that would change the rest of his life and my life and that of my family so drastically, that I don't really know if we would have all ended up better off or worse off.
Now if you also had the ability to let me see the alternative universe created as a result of the meddling so I could decide which universe to accept and which to reject, it would be useful.
But I guess then I'd see something else I wanted to change, (because I won't go through 17 years without some disaster or the other) and I'd have to see another alternative universe to choose the best again...
Hmmm
Think I'll leave things as they are...

You think about the alternate universe theory anyway, that every descision you make here, you make an alternate descision in another place (by that i mean the other universes). What is the real difference of changing your descisions anyway, because quite simply you go elsewhere.

Then again if we all had this power we'd all be meddling with time/space/laws and nature of the universe

And i dont think humanity as we are now could do that right now!

five · Dec 24, 2005

jellybean said:
not paradoxical if you retained all you memories from your future "other" life. and throw in the alternate universes

oh yes? explain

umm welcome to cf bye the way.

Lets think of it this way: When you move from one point to another in the 3-dimensional world, you are not where you were. That is to say that you have not left a trail on every point of that 3-dimensional world where you have been.

While it's possible that an imprint is left in 4-dimensional spacetime, I find it highly unlikely. So once a movement has occurred in 4-dimensional spacetime, it is no longer in the place that it was.

Time as a 4th dimension may, in fact, be just an artifact of mathematics to help explain the nature of spacetime. Where in reality we could be looking at something that is more of a rate of change within the 3 spacial dimensions we're used to. If this is the case then it wouldn't be possible to travel to the past or the future because neither exist. We can remember the past because it happened, but it certainly no longer exists.

meebs · Dec 24, 2005

^ i know what your saying but i disagree slightly, i just dont know how to put it yet...

Stormy · Dec 24, 2005

I do not think the idea should be to try to erase our mistakes, but rather accept them, learn from them, and grow.

I would not be me if you took away all the lessons that life has taught me.

No I do not wish to change anything.

meebs · Dec 24, 2005

Stormy said:
I do not think the idea should be to try to erase our mistakes, but rather accept them, learn from them, and grow.

I would not be me if you took away all the lessons that life has taught me.

No I do not wish to change anything.

the point is that you HAVE learned from these mistakes you never lose the memories from previous life (i shoulda made this obvious from the OP).

heh - im only playing erm..opposing argument here. i dont know if i agree with you all but you have sensible answers!

meebs · Dec 24, 2005

five said:
Time as a 4th dimension may, in fact, be just an artifact of mathematics to help explain the nature of spacetime. Where in reality we could be looking at something that is more of a rate of change within the 3 spacial dimensions we're used to. If this is the case then it wouldn't be possible to travel to the past or the future because neither exist. We can remember the past because it happened, but it certainly no longer exists.

right i think i can say it

How can we have a memory of something that no longer exists? Also i always think one action leads to another - for certain events to happen in space, events are needed before hand before that later event can happen. things are always changing, the universe never stops. it even happens on the tiniest time scale, so actions are always occuring.

according to some theorists we cant travel into the past because change has happened so much since the last event that too much chaos has enetered into the system.

also we ARE travelling into the future. you may think im mad but honest we are doing it right now, its a normal thing

if you mean "skipping" into future events, who knows?

five · Dec 24, 2005

jellybean said:
right i think i can say it

How can we have a memory of something that no longer exists? Also i always think one action leads to another - for certain events to happen in space, events are needed before hand before that later event can happen. things are always changing, the universe never stops. it even happens on the tiniest time scale, so actions are always occuring.

according to some theorists we cant travel into the past because change has happened so much since the last event that too much chaos has enetered into the system.

also we ARE travelling into the future. you may think im mad but honest we are doing it right now, its a normal thing

if you mean "skipping" into future events, who knows?

What do you mean how can we have a memory of something that no longer exists? Do we have memories of the future, or do we have memories of things in the present? Our brain remembers an experience that has happened. Just because the past doesn't exist doesn't mean it didn't happen. It was the present at one point, but things have changed since then.

What I mean when I say that the past doesn't exist is that there is no past to go back to when you want to go "back in time," just as there is no future. Theories regarding time travel require impossible amounts of mass and energy to create a wormhole between two points in time, but it would be an effect of the dailation of time that is actually causing this, not that you're actually going from one point in time to another.

I'm getting a little more techincal, I think, than this thread should be about..since it's really kind of a morality question

"" · Dec 25, 2005

jellybean said:
ok lets say hypothetically you have a chance to go back in time to a certain point in your life.

would you do it and why?

this was inspired by another thread on the cf polls but id love to hear your opinions on it.

how would you think this would affect peoples life etc etc. You can cover this from any direction you want. even science.

I'll say now this is one of my favorite subjects ever. (ie - regarding alternative realities).

I would. I can think of 2 things, no 3 things, I would go back in time for if I could.

1. I would go back in time to share one more moment with my husband... more than a moment, an evening. There are many reasons, all of them good ones, but I'll keep those in my own mind rather than share them here.

2. I would go back to the time when I was 14 years old, living with my parents, and life was so easy. Instead of spending so much time on the phone, planning an outing with friends, I'd go spend time with my mom and dad, and my younger brother and sister. Whenever I talk to them now about those times, they only remember me being gone all the time. I'd like to change that.

3. I'd go back to the day that Jesus hung on the cross, so that I could see it in person. Not because I'm morbid, but because it would serve as a solid reminder to me, in that it would be so burned into my memory that I wouldn't forget. So often I get wrapped up in things of this world, and I forget what He did for me. If I could always remember, every moment of my life, in a way that reminded me of how good I have it (how blessed I am) then perhaps I would spend less time worrying, or wishing things were different, and more time being thankful.

As an extra #4 (and a rather silly one... I thought it would be fun to add in a ridiculous reason for going back )
I'd go back to the time when I ws 16 years old, and my first boyfriend had me so wrapped around his finger that I thought of nothing but him. He later turned out to be not so good for me, so I'd be wiser this time, and instead of being his girlfriend, I'd be his friend. A friend can tell you when you're acting a fool. I'd tell him, and perhaps he'd have been better able to tell me when I was acting like one too, instead of the both of us acting like fools together.

meebs · Dec 25, 2005

five said:
What do you mean how can we have a memory of something that no longer exists? Do we have memories of the future, or do we have memories of things in the present? Our brain remembers an experience that has happened. Just because the past doesn't exist doesn't mean it didn't happen. It was the present at one point, but things have changed since then.

What I mean when I say that the past doesn't exist is that there is no past to go back to when you want to go "back in time," just as there is no future. Theories regarding time travel require impossible amounts of mass and energy to create a wormhole between two points in time, but it would be an effect of the dailation of time that is actually causing this, not that you're actually going from one point in time to another.

I'm getting a little more techincal, I think, than this thread should be about..since it's really kind of a morality question

actually this thread was designed so you can look at it from many angles. go tech if you want, but err try to keep it simple (in reading terms). . My answer still stands (from my tech point of view) - i know what you were saying though.

For an event in the current point of time to happen, there MUST have been other events in the past. Technically in time/space terms (i beleive time exists) that event is still there.

who knows, we follow (what we perceive as time) from a linear perspective, following one set direction. But if you wanna get into the subject that time itself has many directions, some people perceive time as going in another (from our POV) as going backward.

im going OT in my own thread

meebs · Dec 25, 2005

Adiya said:
I would. I can think of 2 things, no 3 things, I would go back in time for if I could.

1. I would go back in time to share one more moment with my husband... more than a moment, an evening. There are many reasons, all of them good ones, but I'll keep those in my own mind rather than share them here.

2. I would go back to the time when I was 14 years old, living with my parents, and life was so easy. Instead of spending so much time on the phone, planning an outing with friends, I'd go spend time with my mom and dad, and my younger brother and sister. Whenever I talk to them now about those times, they only remember me being gone all the time. I'd like to change that.

3. I'd go back to the day that Jesus hung on the cross, so that I could see it in person. Not because I'm morbid, but because it would serve as a solid reminder to me, in that it would be so burned into my memory that I wouldn't forget. So often I get wrapped up in things of this world, and I forget what He did for me. If I could always remember, every moment of my life, in a way that reminded me of how good I have it (how blessed I am) then perhaps I would spend less time worrying, or wishing things were different, and more time being thankful.

As an extra #4 (and a rather silly one... I thought it would be fun to add in a ridiculous reason for going back )
I'd go back to the time when I ws 16 years old, and my first boyfriend had me so wrapped around his finger that I thought of nothing but him. He later turned out to be not so good for me, so I'd be wiser this time, and instead of being his girlfriend, I'd be his friend. A friend can tell you when you're acting a fool. I'd tell him, and perhaps he'd have been better able to tell me when I was acting like one too, instead of the both of us acting like fools together.

wow! thats cool yes there are things similar i would have liked have changed. My actual focal point is 13 years old, and regarding my education. On my profile i state i have dyslexia (and a related disorder). Now to a point you cant tell (cos i can reasonably post well here). This was caught at uni this year which is nearly too late as this year is the last time my LEA will pay for my education, if i fail - no more college unless i get quite rich

Id bug my teachers at that point so that id get tested, if that didnt work (VERY likely, it didnt get caught at school simply cos they didnt care! im serious - other people didnt get caught either) then i would work out ways and stragegys myself (esp in math!). the whole point is, either at some point after that it gets caught and also i go to university earlier and study that subject that i love most: physics and astrophysics. i simply cant do the math cos i dont get help (when i got one to one help, rarely, they taught me how to do the math myself - i was good at it, but not from reading textbooks). i could have followed a career in physics.

its embarressing to admit it all though. i deeply regret my life. another thing is that i cant join the territorial army, because of a bad mistake i did

though the ones who say, how would this affect the timeline? your right - if this is the ONLY time line, peoples lives would be changed somewhat (if at all?).

heh - one final thing like you, except for differing reasons: id see if the events of Jesus really did happen

Cat59 · Dec 25, 2005

jellybean, I keep thinking about that Red Dwarf episode when the future selves and the past selves battled
I didn't understand the outcome then and I don't now!
I would be very careful if I had a time machine if it came without a "preview" feature that allowed me to see the outcome of my meddling...
It should have digital enhancement and stereo too...
But thinking more about this, going back in time and altering my life would have such a major impact on everyone else, I'm not sure I could morally justify doing it without their consent.
And not knowing the outcome would mean I would be unaware of who was affected positively and who affected negatively and who to ask or consult.
Would I have the right to alter other peoples lives without their say so?
Hmm
Gets more complex the more I think about it

Going back in time and changing your life?

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