[radrd]

If you were able to go back in time to any point, what would you change (one for each category)...

A. For yourself?

(This one has to be purely selfish and just make your present life better as a result, though it might benefit others to some extent).

B. For a group of people or for another person?

(This one might benefit you to some extent, but mainly this should benefit someone else or a group of people of any size).

My answers:

A. Sold all of my tech stocks in 2000 right before they all took a dump.

B. Made sure Adolf Hitler never made it out of WWI alive.

Your capabilities to alter the past have no limits for this question.

 

[JMT]

A. Would not have sold my stock options at $55.00 (Our stock is hovering in the low 80s right now).

B: 9/11....enough said.

 

[elrod-tom]

A: Would have begged, borrowed and rolled pennies to buy Microsoft stock back in 1986, when my buddy was practically begging me to do so for my own good. Had I spent the $$ back then that I spent on fast food in a year, I'd be a millionaire now.

B: I'll have to take 9/11 too...that was a good one from JMT

 

[bangraman]

A. I'd have told myself to stay at home with my then girlfriend on a certain night 14 years ago instead of going out.


B. Somehow convince cavemen that the regular human concept of religion was bunk, before they started developing such concepts.

 

[kelly]

A. I think it'd be fun to go back to 1992 and squat all the good web site names and sell them for millions. I considered doing that back then.

B. I'm not sure all religion can be stopped but surely travelling back in time and destroying the nomadic Jews would have eliminated the development of the "portable God" and put an early stop to Judeo-Christian development.

 

[KR...]

1. I wouldn't change anything since how do we know it wouldn't make things far worst, perhaps we are all better off for making those stupid mistakes and not taking those chances, you never know right?

2. see above

 

[williamgoody]

1) Nothing, Things could be better for me, but they certainly could be worse, and are for a lot of people. I've learned a lot from my mistakes and have really no regrets.

2) 9/11 not withstanding, they are many, many events that have happened in the past that were tragic. Too many to pick out one.

 

[Mr.PD]

I would go back to when I started college. Then not go out drinking so I wouldn't meet my first wife, then I would finish at this college and go on to get a degree as a design engineer.

The item in history that I would like to have the power to change would be slavery in America. If somehow I could convince the people at the time to not buy slaves or to make the buying of slaves illegal, I would do that. That is the one issue that has created the most and longest lasting grief here in the U.S. for all our citizens.

 

[dohminator]

yeah, and if you did that, there would be no black people in the US because there wouldn't have been a reason for them to be over here.

I'm not arguing that slavery was a good thing, but I am stating what would happen.

I don't think I would change anything.

To change even something small in the past could have dramatic effects on us.

If I hadn't gotten fat in the 2nd grade, then I wouldn't have gone through the hardships that made me a better person today. There is no garuntee that I would be happier either.

 

[radrd]

Great answers so far. 9/11 is definitely a good pick.

 

[fractus2]

9/11

 

[RYCeT]

I'm tempted to change some of my past but I better left it alone 'cause that's what made me what I'm today and I got no regrets. Stop thinkin' about the past guys, this is present and you'll always can change your future.
Learn from the past, do better on your present and hopefully you got the futures you wanted

 

[Mr.PD]

Quote:

Originally posted by rycet I'm tempted to change some of my past but I better left it alone 'cause that's what made me what I'm today and I got no regrets. Stop thinkin' about the past guys, this is present and you'll always can change your future. Learn from the past, do better on your present and hopefully you got the futures you wanted

If I may I would like to add one thing to this most excellent advise.

Wake up and think about where you are and where you want to be.

I realized that I didn't really want to continue in my career after it was too late to reasonably make a change. Oh, I could still do it, but it would be hell now.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

I agree with many of the choices that have already been listed (Hitler, 9-11), but specifically, what would you have done about 9-11? I mean, don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want that to happen as much as the next guy, but we had a certain solidarity as a country after that for quite a while, the likes of which will never be seen otherwise. I would have convinced the failsafe team to actually shoot those planes down (if possible -- but then again, it was said that there are no limits, so presumably I could bring back proof so that they know what is going to happen otherwise). A lot fewer people die (only the passengers on the planes, but we still get scared into waking up that we still have enemies of the "insane" variety.

And who knows? Maybe the next time, because we aren't scared into being ready, they succeed in wiping us all out...that would suck. In other words, how do we know that 9-11 not happening does not lead to something ultimately worse (which is what KR said).

I'll stick with trying to change the future, fighting the good fight, etc.

As for personally -- I would sabotage my computer so that I never found Head-Fi. I'd be a lot richer. Or maybe I'd just invest in stocks with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight. Like that guy in the Yahoo story.

 

[blessingx]

I'm skipping A, though it would probably have something to do with kissing Beverly Walken in fourth grade.

1) Stopped Arch-Duke Ferdinand from being executed by Gavrillo Princip. WW1 doesn't happen. WW2 (which is really just an extension) doesn’t and Hitler keeps on painting (assuming he’s born, etc.). Division of Middle East doesn't occur. The political climate there is likely very different. Al Quida’s hatred for Saudi and Egyptian governments never happens. Hatred towards US doesn’t grow. No 9/11. Other places like Rwanda aren’t setup the same so that disaster plays out differently, etc.

WW1, not WW2, is when the world changed. Just look at photographs.

Who knows how it really goes, but likely US may not have as much power, which has other ramifications.


2) Get the Constitutional Convention in 1787 to confront the slavery issue and not delayed to 1808 …or at least keep Madison from confirming the 20 year ban of addressing the issue in 1790… (which was finally confronted 70 years later and with a war anyway). Somehow get Benjamin Franklin's and the Quakers requests to end slavery through and call South Carolina’s and Georgia’s stand (real or bluff) while the revolutionary spirit was alive (as big as eliminating slavery was, it was less an "impossibility" than taking on England). Begin the nation as a true free state (well non-landowner’s and women's vote would come soon and it had no earlier "moment" as far as I know).

If I had three choices the Native Americans would have held that spot, though not sure which moment. Probably sometime around the Revolutionary War as Britian treated them much better than we did after taking over.

Dohminator, there were a lot of free Blacks in early US as slavery took off. You're right though about everything having ramifications.