If you could Time Travel,what major event would you try to stop?(POLL)

[Zguy28]

I would not change anything. It could turn out worse for a lot of people.

[Ax]

Super Bowl XVIII.

And what if doing so would have meant losing XXII and XXVI?

Or, not going back at all?

"I want my pain! I need my pain!" ~ James T. Kirk

[43brown32]

I dunno how one person would stop the concentration camps. For me, I'd go to the airport where the terrorists were for 9/11 and start ripping ass. As soon as I'd see them it'd be on like a mother****er.

One person absolutely could alter events. I think if someone had killed Hitler before 1930 the Nazi party would not have taken control of Germany. Individuals often alter History. Its not just demographics and percentages.

[Riggo-toni]

Forget the airports; gun the dudes down outside the stripclub the night before.

[DRSmith]

Question before stopping something would you get to see the outcome?

Like for instance you stop 9/11 could you see what possible good and bad the people would have done or could we see if the Taliban would have ever been removed in afghanistan?

[Thiebear]

I wouldn't change a thing. Goodness, imagine you might not ever exist. Time travel to the past is crazy. Just think of what would happen had histroy not been, well, history.

I'd be a forward looking time traveler. Never go back.

I don't think you could change time so that you never existed... because that would have made it so you couldn't go back in time???

I'm guessing using my scifi channel brain that things would happen to put things back in order again... say with my example of 51 million people saved.

thus causing and epidemic/pandemic which kills them all anyway. Or the war is started by Japan 1st etc.

[GibbsFactor]

I don't think you could change time so that you never existed... because that would have made it so you couldn't go back in time???

I'm guessing using my scifi channel brain that things would happen to put things back in order again... say with my example of 51 million people saved.

thus causing and epidemic/pandemic which kills them all anyway. Or the war is started by Japan 1st etc.

If I stopped World War II, my grandfather would have never moved down here, my mom would be raised in Pennsylvania, never meeting my dad. I would be someone completely different. :2cents:

There is no way in telling if things would balance out, what would balance out and how they would if they do. Perhaps my family is part of that epidemic. Way too many things would change. Even if you go back in time and stop one little thing from happening, the ripple effects created would change everything in humanity.

[FedexFieldInsider]

Interesting question, tough choice. I chose other. I would've like to see what would've happened if the Lincoln assassination never happened. If I had to choose one from the list, it probably would've been the JFK assassination to see if there was anyone on the Grassy Knoll and if I could ask Lee Harvey if he was doing this alone. There are thousands of other things I would've like to witness, but it would take way too much time to cover them all.

[Corcaigh]

I'd not so much stop an event as have a chat with both Jesus and Mohammed and ask them to lay out their thoughts a little more clearly so there was far less scope for human interpretation.

Or if I had to pick a single event, I chose stopping the destruction of the library at Alexandria.

[GibbsFactor]

I'd not so much stop an event as have a chat with both Jesus and Mohammed and ask them to lay out their thoughts a little more clearly so there was far less scope for human interpretation.

Or if I had to pick a single event, I chose stopping the destruction of the library at Alexandria.

:applause:

[RedlightG20]

I think some of you guys are overthinking the question. We shouldn't be debating about whether one person could honestly change some of these historic events when in reality that wouldn't be possible. It's a hypothetical question, so let's just assume the best case scenario when we do change something in the past. I mean, you can even make the argument that if your parents met one second earlier or later than they actually did, you may not be the person you are today since the world changes at infinite proportions at any given moment.

That being said, I would have done something to significantly cut down on the widspread effect of religion (i'll leave out specifics). Since the beginning of time, more people have died because of religious beliefs than all of the common wars combined. Oddly enough, religion saves far less than it kills.

[Thanos]

1. Kill the first slavetraders of Eurpoean descent looking for profit in Africa.

2. Kill James Earl Ray or warn MLK not to stay in the Lorain Motel.

3. I would try to save Anwar Sadat.

4. I would tell Britney Spears father to not impregnant her mom.

[flashback]

I've often wondered if time travel could prevent the genocide of Native Americans.

[ldysknzfn1]

It was a tough choice between JFK and 9/11 for me. I chose JFK. Let me try to explain. I would be hopeful that by stopping the JFK assasination, 9/11 would not have occurred. So a 2 for 1 so to speak. I believe if JFK had lived this country would be a totally different nation than it is today. In fact maybe globally things would be very different. I'm not old enough to remember JFK(he was killed before I was born)but after what I've been taught about him I would say that he would have made a big difference in how this country was viewed by outside nations. Those responsible for 9/11 may not have been able to pull off those things so easily or that group would have never had a reason to form perhaps.

[Zuck]

For me, I'd go to the airport where the terrorists were for 9/11 and start ripping ass.

You're name isn't Senator Craig is it? :yikes:

[GibbsFactor]

I've often wondered if time travel could prevent the genocide of Native Americans.

I don't see how it could.

You have all the Europeans meeting all the Native Americans. Multiple language and cultural differences spread out over two continents. It would be nearly impossible.

You'd have to either stop the European invasion or equip them with non-lethal force. Then, what would you do with the captured natives?

If you did succeed, you would fail to exist anyway.

[JimmyConway]

I'd make sure that Steve Bartman never made it to that Cubs playoff game.

YES! Damn Bartman. Moises should've gone up there and punched him.

[The_cavalierman]

I am surprised non of the religious folks wanted to stop Eve from munching down that apple. According to the bible everything kinds went down hill from that right?

[kuraitengai]

I'm not sure I'd mess with history at all, no matter how tempting it might be. Who knows what sort of unintended consequences might result?

Clearly, you people need to watch and read more science fiction.

"Spock... I think I'm in love with Edith Keeler..."

one of the better answers here. who knows if the world would be better by the changes, or if we would screw it up even more...

but in the spirit of things...

i like this one

Or if I had to pick a single event, I chose stopping the destruction of the library at Alexandria.

but im thinking a bit bigger. saving the knowledge of the library would be amazing....BUT, what if we prevented the dark ages? what if we prevented 500+ years where science was outlawed? imagine where the level of technlogy could be now. and if we knocked out that bad half of a millenium. if WW1 and WW2 still happened, it would have been 500 years earlier so who knows how things might have been different.

[Raub]

I'd kill Emperor Constantine in 323 AD. Hard to fathom the results. Would the Dark Ages have occurred? Would the Western world have taken steps backward for a thousand years?

[SkinsOrlando]

I want to vote the concentration camps but in an odd twist I wouldn't be here today if they hadn't occurred, so I choose other.

[rincewind]

1. Kill the first slavetraders of Eurpoean descent looking for profit in Africa.

Why not stop the Africans willing to sell their fellow countrymen?

[SkinsOrlando]

Why not stop the Africans willing to sell their fellow countrymen?

Or the arabs who were slave trading long before the Europeans?

[PokerPacker]

on Conan last night, they were doing the Celebrity Survey bit, and one of the questions was along the lines of "What do you regret not being old enough to do?" and another one was "If you could use a time machine and travel back in time, what would you do?"

to both of those, the response from Dick Cheney was "Turn in Anne Frank".

[EersSkins05]

Interesting question, tough choice. I chose other. I would've like to see what would've happened if the Lincoln assassination never happened. If I had to choose one from the list, it probably would've been the JFK assassination to see if there was anyone on the Grassy Knoll and if I could ask Lee Harvey if he was doing this alone. There are thousands of other things I would've like to witness, but it would take way too much time to cover them all.

You wouldn't stop it, you'd just want to watch it?

No JFK assassination would probably mean that the US involvement in Vietnam would've ended by 1964, and there could be a generation of young men that didn't die there. Then again, maybe the Soviet Union doesn't fall. Maybe the radical 60's don't occur, and we're left with crappy music and no civil rights movement. Unintended consequences are a *****.

On an unrelated note, I would think it would make much more sense to change something much more recent, such as 9/11, than to deal with the consequences of changing something as overarching as the concentration camps, WWII, or JFK's assassination.

Then again, even assuming you kill those 19 guys, there were probably 20 more waiting in line to be The Guys.