Within the confines of reality, assuming I'm just a particularly lucky individual in the world as it is right now? I'm an English professor at a public university. Since we're talking about ideal...
Within the confines of reality, assuming I'm just a particularly lucky individual in the world as it is right now?
I'm an English professor at a public university. Since we're talking about ideal circumstances most of the reasons I'd want to leave the United States are irrelevant to me, so I'm probably fairly close to where I am right now, in a beautiful portion of the upper midwest. I live relatively far from the university, out away from all other people except the other residents of my communal living space, consisting of my partner and many of my friends. This living space is a place actively pointed toward creating creative community. A perfectly open art collective with people I trust, but still with the option to choose solitude.
Complete fantasy?
I live with that same partner and those same friends in a quiet church in a fantasy pre-industrial Scotland, living a life of study. We have easy access to the good things about modern life: my needed medication, a computer and internet connection, free access to books, the million advances in hygiene, etc. These things are tucked in a private room of ours, able to be accessed at will but preserving the rest of that environment. Let's just wipe out the barriers of prejudice and economics, so it's this idealized rural paradise. I spend most of my life studying arts of all kinds, and occasionally collaborate with the people around me on creative projects. But mostly we chill out, enjoy each other's company, and appreciate art till we die.
I've gotten into my own head about all the ethical problems with having these things and not sharing them with the people around me, so I'm going to cut it off there lest I spend an hour trying to figure out a version of this where I'm not an asshole.
Oh, also communism for both categories. I would say fully automated luxury gay space communism, but that kinda defeats the "pre-industrial" bit.
To be honest, I'm quite happy with my life right now, but what I want right now is to have enough passive income to support my family. I also want enough not to worry about supporting my future...
To be honest, I'm quite happy with my life right now, but what I want right now is to have enough passive income to support my family.
I also want enough not to worry about supporting my future kids (planning on having one soon). Right now I worry at how much it's going to cost me in the near future, especially for their education. It's becoming really expensive nowadays.
Rich enough for money not to be a concern, poor enough for money not to be a concern. I'd most certainly drop everything I'm doing to dedicate myself completely to philosophy and logic. Going all...
Rich enough for money not to be a concern, poor enough for money not to be a concern.
I'd most certainly drop everything I'm doing to dedicate myself completely to philosophy and logic. Going all the way from undergraduate to PhD.
I'd also have apartments all over the world, so I could spend a few months in each. Places like NYC, Chicago, London, São Paulo, Naples, Sidney and Barcelona.
I definitely relate to the first sentence. I'd want enough money to be relatively stable in terms of finances, but not too much that I'd be worrying about it all the time.
I definitely relate to the first sentence. I'd want enough money to be relatively stable in terms of finances, but not too much that I'd be worrying about it all the time.
I’m pretty much taking the path of a software engineer even though my heart is in making electronic music... In an ideal world, my parents wouldn’t mind me going into music full time (yessir, most...
I’m pretty much taking the path of a software engineer even though my heart is in making electronic music...
In an ideal world, my parents wouldn’t mind me going into music full time (yessir, most third world country parents don’t give you any leeway in terms of choosing a career).
Every now and then, I listen to tracks that I love on expensive audio gear I’ve splurged secretly without my parents’ knowledge and sigh because I know that in another life I would’ve chose music any day over any any other field...
Timeless void in which everything I could possibly want is provided. Since that seems kind of unreasonable, I'd like to better be able to sublimate myself into whatever I wanted to work on without...
Timeless void in which everything I could possibly want is provided. Since that seems kind of unreasonable, I'd like to better be able to sublimate myself into whatever I wanted to work on without having to manage my neuroses, putting a gun to my head, putting myself against a wall with a deadline, more of a ideal headspace then a living space.
I'm going full on peaceful socialist star trek future here. WORK A four day 6 hour work week under a UBI system or a non-monetary system. Id love to do manual labor but my body doesn't like it any...
I'm going full on peaceful socialist star trek future here.
WORK
A four day 6 hour work week under a UBI system or a non-monetary system.
Id love to do manual labor but my body doesn't like it any more so I guess I could keep doing IT support.
One volunteer day doing some type of community (re)building would probably get my manual labor fix in.
HOME
A well built (sound insulated) 1 bedroom with an office/den area apartment for me and the cats in a major city so I could take public transportation and have lots of diversity around me.
RECREATION
Digital recreation would include some light computer gaming along with finishing my book series.
Outside would be hiking every other weekend, maybe even some camping here and there.
Right on about the sound insulation! I feel like in the future, the crappy sound insulation most multi-unit dwellings currently have will be viewed with the same sort of disgust that we now view...
Right on about the sound insulation! I feel like in the future, the crappy sound insulation most multi-unit dwellings currently have will be viewed with the same sort of disgust that we now view the original drinking fountains where people often put their mouth directly on the spigot.
It's totally a profit over quality problem. Why take time and make something that will last when you can put up two cheaper versions in the same time frame for the same price. The upkeep on the...
It's totally a profit over quality problem. Why take time and make something that will last when you can put up two cheaper versions in the same time frame for the same price. The upkeep on the two cheaper units will absolutely destroy your bottom line, but that's a problem for which ever sucker buys them from you.
I have been thinking about this a lot recently. I don't have many specifics, but here are the few specifics that I do have: I would like to have between $500,000 to $20,000,000 USD in wealth. This...
I have been thinking about this a lot recently. I don't have many specifics, but here are the few specifics that I do have:
I would like to have between $500,000 to $20,000,000 USD in wealth. This is the range of money that I know I can live off the interest from indefinately.
I need to either be self-employed or run my own business, which would have to be a worker cooperative. I feel myself slowly dying in the corporate environment.
I want to spend a significant period of time living a nomad life style. It is something I have dreamed about since I was kid, and I'd like to know one way or another if I enjoy it.
Definitely me, minus the children. I would live in some generic upper-middle class home (but without a lawn), probably in the US or UK to share the issues most of the people I presumably interact...
there are people who really do want to settle down with a single significant other in a large suburban house and raise 2 to 3 children.
Definitely me, minus the children.
I would live in some generic upper-middle class home (but without a lawn), probably in the US or UK to share the issues most of the people I presumably interact with have with their nations and since that seems ideal to me (if most of the people I talk online to are English speakers living in the US or Europe, i would want to be one of them) ,with enough income to maintain it, myself and to buy hardware that only needs to be replaced every 5-10 years, support the youtubers and sites I enjoy (donate to Tildes, Wikipedia, many YouTube channels and game developers on patreon and even new social media competitors like WT.social since I firmly believe that if we want a Internet that prioritizes us we're gonna need to pay for it) and play all the games I enjoy like HoI4 and Eu4, Undertale, Deltarune, SMM 1&2 Detroit: become human, etc.
I would have the free time to learn what I find important like economics, civics and geopolitics which seem like very important fields to learn if you want a good understanding of politics which to me is the most important field since politicians are the ones making the rules of the world and things I enjoy like software development, since making sites or games is definitely what I would want to do in my personal utopia.
A girlfriend would be great, although I still have next to no idea what would 'my ideal GF' would be like other than 'vaguely introverted' and 'vaguely attractive' (this is the part where I inevitably need to clarify that I'm lonely, 14 and have next to no knowledge of love or relationships).
If we're going to link this to reality, my job would be probably software developer at a small to medium-sized tech company, probably a company competing against a large social media platform like Twitter or YouTube (maybe Tildes in 5-10 years from now if this seriously takes off and doesn't face major issues) and I would probably live in a condominium somewhere around my city (São Paulo)
Everyone's thinking about somewhat realistic goals, so I'll come a little out of left field. I want to live in a large automated capital-ship, millions of years further advanced than anything...
Everyone's thinking about somewhat realistic goals, so I'll come a little out of left field.
I want to live in a large automated capital-ship, millions of years further advanced than anything humanity has ever developed in low earth orbit with my wife and have a bunch of kids with her. I also want to have powers that enable the both of us and our kids to live as long as we wanted, and also imbued us with superhuman intelligence. Then I want to take over the world and rule it as a benevolent dictator. I would most likely have to make an example by blowing up an uninhabited island and destroying the incoming ICBMs that would try to destroy my ship in retaliation. Hopefully most of the larger and more rational nations would surrender after realizing how hopeless their situation would be in an all out war with me and I could get the whole thing over with minimal loss of life.
I'd immediately set to work reversing the damage to the ecosystem, re-allocate resources to eliminate poverty and starvation, and heavily fund innovation to let us leave the earth, with the eventual goal of every human leaving permanent settlement of the planet for good, leaving it as a gigantic nature preserve and living museum that people are free to visit, but cannot stay. Everyone would eventually live in gigantic, utopic space stations orbiting the planet or in similar stations orbiting other celestial bodies.
I'd put a stop to war and most forms of physical human suffering by directing humanity in singular purpose though my superior, superhuman intellect and foresight and crushing rebellions led by opportunistic would-be warlords. I'd build up our military just in case there's something more powerful than me out there, but they'd stay at the borders of our space, because I generally want people to be free from oppression in their day to day lives. I'd let small local councils govern the daily decision making processes of every day life, and only step in with my authority if they stray too far from the course, or I sense corruption. After 10,000 or so years, I imagine I would get bored of this, and I'd set up a resilient constitutional republic to rule in my place, using my superpowers to design the most efficient and corruption-resistant form of government ever created, but still with enough central control to direct the combined might to humanity towards combating individual, dire threats to existence if needed. Then my family and I would take to our capital ship and explore the great unknown together, acting as a forward diplomat for humanity, making friends among the alien races I encounter, but most likely eventually succumbing to the whims of some eldritch horror that I hope in my dying breath I've prepared humanity well enough for. If it turns out there's really nothing out there, after a thousand years of wandering, I'd dismantle our military and focus humanity on reducing as much suffering while maximizing self actualization and human pleasure as possible before firing myself into the sun while the untold trillions of humanity witness the spectacle.
Basically I'd just be Leto II minus the gross worm-body.
I realize that this is ridiculous and kind of stupid, but you did say "Ideal Life" and I'm not joking about any of this.
Maybe a little circular, but a life that while living it I'm happy and content with and I don't have an ideal life other than the one I'm living? I feel this is achievable. If I had to guess what...
Maybe a little circular, but a life that while living it I'm happy and content with and I don't have an ideal life other than the one I'm living?
I feel this is achievable.
If I had to guess what that might look like:
I'd live near enough caring, supportive friends whose time I enjoy that I could say I'm part of a "community." Overall, we'd mostly be self-sustaining locally. I wouldn't be free of mental health or physical problems, but I'd accept them for what they are while still making progress where I can. I'd have one or two big projects I'm working on, some skilled trade that I'm able to contribute back to the community, and a hobby I enjoy. I'd go to sleep when I'm tired and wake up when I do. I'd cook somewhat often.
Thinking about this has been helpful. I'm at a part of my life where I really need to figure out where I'm going. I dropped out of college after a year, worked the summer and until the end of the year, and now I've gotta figure out what's next. I'll try to make it something that helps me towards my goal!
I'd like to live in a small commune within an hour of a city, preferably in a temperate climate. The compound centered on a garden, with some uncultured land surrounding. Chickens or ducks, maybe...
I'd like to live in a small commune within an hour of a city, preferably in a temperate climate. The compound centered on a garden, with some uncultured land surrounding. Chickens or ducks, maybe goats, as livestock. To be able to wake up, drink some tea or coffee, eat some eggs, and tend to the earth, the commons, or directly to those I love. Then to take the afternoon to read or write, and the evening for music, socializing, and some good whiskey or cannabis.
Preparing a lot of meals, making things like vinegar and yogurt at home. Growing flowers and trees, maybe keep some bees. Build knives and tables, draw and photograph the beauty around me. Eat fruit and vegetables, the latter at least mostly homegrown. I only want everything.
Oof, got me. That's my life. I wouldn't change it too much, but if given the opportunity I would magically change the field that I work in. My original desire was to be a math professor. I assuage...
there are people who really do want to settle down with a single significant other in a large suburban house and raise 2 to 3 children
Oof, got me. That's my life. I wouldn't change it too much, but if given the opportunity I would magically change the field that I work in.
My original desire was to be a math professor. I assuage my mathematical desires via Numberphile on YouTube, and by various puzzles, but I would have loved to have continued to work in set theory. This isn't something that I could reasonably work towards any longer; a career at this point in life is untenable. The main reason I would have worked towards this instead of being a developer are a bit complicated, but it mostly boils down to the fact that when people ask me what I'm proud of having accomplished now, I think about my kids, and not myself; it would be nice to have achieved something meaningful in a field that I care about so I could answer this question in a way that satisfies me.
As for other ideals, there are a variety of things that I would like to have for an ideal life, and I work towards them constantly:
I would like to own a bigger house. Having 3 kids is wonderful, but it takes up space. I'd love to stay in the same neighbourhood and just live in one of the century homes near the park that we're close to; they all have smaller yards and more interior room, and are reasonably laid out for having guests and entertaining, which we would like to do more of. ETA: mid 2020
I would like to own an electric car. Buying gas is stupid, and Canada has an abundance of hydro electricity. I've reserved a Mach E. ETA: mid 2021
I am constantly trying to be healthier; in this case, I continue to lose weight. My goal weight is 115kg. ETA: mid 2021 at the rate my mass is adjusting.
There are probably more things like this I could include in an ideal life, but those are the big ones. I've tried to explain why I want some of these things, but I haven't really addressed why the life I have is close to the one I want (ie - monogamous, 3 children, a house, etc). It mostly comes down to the fact that I was happy as a child and wanted to share that happiness with my own children. I also think that the "why" tends to be relatively unimportant, because humans tend to want what they want and then reason out why they want it later; this is the thing that my subconscious wants. It probably wants it because it reminds me of happy childhood, and also because of some deep seated evolutionary desire to spread my DNA. The reasons that I have mostly boil down to "I want it because it makes me happy and it makes me happy because I want it".
If anything goes, I'd only like to be about 2.5y back in the past and then stop time. If realistic: keep things as they are right now, on a "better the devil you know" basis.
If anything goes, I'd only like to be about 2.5y back in the past and then stop time. If realistic: keep things as they are right now, on a "better the devil you know" basis.
More free time and more space for creating things. Also not chronically fatigued, probably.
Within the confines of reality, assuming I'm just a particularly lucky individual in the world as it is right now?
I'm an English professor at a public university. Since we're talking about ideal circumstances most of the reasons I'd want to leave the United States are irrelevant to me, so I'm probably fairly close to where I am right now, in a beautiful portion of the upper midwest. I live relatively far from the university, out away from all other people except the other residents of my communal living space, consisting of my partner and many of my friends. This living space is a place actively pointed toward creating creative community. A perfectly open art collective with people I trust, but still with the option to choose solitude.
Complete fantasy?
I live with that same partner and those same friends in a quiet church in a fantasy pre-industrial Scotland, living a life of study. We have easy access to the good things about modern life: my needed medication, a computer and internet connection, free access to books, the million advances in hygiene, etc. These things are tucked in a private room of ours, able to be accessed at will but preserving the rest of that environment. Let's just wipe out the barriers of prejudice and economics, so it's this idealized rural paradise. I spend most of my life studying arts of all kinds, and occasionally collaborate with the people around me on creative projects. But mostly we chill out, enjoy each other's company, and appreciate art till we die.
I've gotten into my own head about all the ethical problems with having these things and not sharing them with the people around me, so I'm going to cut it off there lest I spend an hour trying to figure out a version of this where I'm not an asshole.
Oh, also communism for both categories. I would say fully automated luxury gay space communism, but that kinda defeats the "pre-industrial" bit.
To be honest, I'm quite happy with my life right now, but what I want right now is to have enough passive income to support my family.
I also want enough not to worry about supporting my future kids (planning on having one soon). Right now I worry at how much it's going to cost me in the near future, especially for their education. It's becoming really expensive nowadays.
Rich enough for money not to be a concern, poor enough for money not to be a concern.
I'd most certainly drop everything I'm doing to dedicate myself completely to philosophy and logic. Going all the way from undergraduate to PhD.
I'd also have apartments all over the world, so I could spend a few months in each. Places like NYC, Chicago, London, São Paulo, Naples, Sidney and Barcelona.
I definitely relate to the first sentence. I'd want enough money to be relatively stable in terms of finances, but not too much that I'd be worrying about it all the time.
I’m pretty much taking the path of a software engineer even though my heart is in making electronic music...
In an ideal world, my parents wouldn’t mind me going into music full time (yessir, most third world country parents don’t give you any leeway in terms of choosing a career).
Every now and then, I listen to tracks that I love on expensive audio gear I’ve splurged secretly without my parents’ knowledge and sigh because I know that in another life I would’ve chose music any day over any any other field...
My thoughts are a bit scattered so I apologise for that. TL;DR of above comment is, in an ideal world, I’d be in a field that I love!
Timeless void in which everything I could possibly want is provided. Since that seems kind of unreasonable, I'd like to better be able to sublimate myself into whatever I wanted to work on without having to manage my neuroses, putting a gun to my head, putting myself against a wall with a deadline, more of a ideal headspace then a living space.
I'm going full on peaceful socialist star trek future here.
WORK
A four day 6 hour work week under a UBI system or a non-monetary system.
Id love to do manual labor but my body doesn't like it any more so I guess I could keep doing IT support.
One volunteer day doing some type of community (re)building would probably get my manual labor fix in.
HOME
A well built (sound insulated) 1 bedroom with an office/den area apartment for me and the cats in a major city so I could take public transportation and have lots of diversity around me.
RECREATION
Digital recreation would include some light computer gaming along with finishing my book series.
Outside would be hiking every other weekend, maybe even some camping here and there.
Ahhh to dream.
Right on about the sound insulation! I feel like in the future, the crappy sound insulation most multi-unit dwellings currently have will be viewed with the same sort of disgust that we now view the original drinking fountains where people often put their mouth directly on the spigot.
It's totally a profit over quality problem. Why take time and make something that will last when you can put up two cheaper versions in the same time frame for the same price. The upkeep on the two cheaper units will absolutely destroy your bottom line, but that's a problem for which ever sucker buys them from you.
I have been thinking about this a lot recently. I don't have many specifics, but here are the few specifics that I do have:
I would like to have between $500,000 to $20,000,000 USD in wealth. This is the range of money that I know I can live off the interest from indefinately.
I need to either be self-employed or run my own business, which would have to be a worker cooperative. I feel myself slowly dying in the corporate environment.
I want to spend a significant period of time living a nomad life style. It is something I have dreamed about since I was kid, and I'd like to know one way or another if I enjoy it.
Definitely me, minus the children.
I would live in some generic upper-middle class home (but without a lawn), probably in the US or UK to share the issues most of the people I presumably interact with have with their nations and since that seems ideal to me (if most of the people I talk online to are English speakers living in the US or Europe, i would want to be one of them) ,with enough income to maintain it, myself and to buy hardware that only needs to be replaced every 5-10 years, support the youtubers and sites I enjoy (donate to Tildes, Wikipedia, many YouTube channels and game developers on patreon and even new social media competitors like WT.social since I firmly believe that if we want a Internet that prioritizes us we're gonna need to pay for it) and play all the games I enjoy like HoI4 and Eu4, Undertale, Deltarune, SMM 1&2 Detroit: become human, etc.
I would have the free time to learn what I find important like economics, civics and geopolitics which seem like very important fields to learn if you want a good understanding of politics which to me is the most important field since politicians are the ones making the rules of the world and things I enjoy like software development, since making sites or games is definitely what I would want to do in my personal utopia.
A girlfriend would be great, although I still have next to no idea what would 'my ideal GF' would be like other than 'vaguely introverted' and 'vaguely attractive' (this is the part where I inevitably need to clarify that I'm lonely, 14 and have next to no knowledge of love or relationships).
If we're going to link this to reality, my job would be probably software developer at a small to medium-sized tech company, probably a company competing against a large social media platform like Twitter or YouTube (maybe Tildes in 5-10 years from now if this seriously takes off and doesn't face major issues) and I would probably live in a condominium somewhere around my city (São Paulo)
Everyone's thinking about somewhat realistic goals, so I'll come a little out of left field.
I want to live in a large automated capital-ship, millions of years further advanced than anything humanity has ever developed in low earth orbit with my wife and have a bunch of kids with her. I also want to have powers that enable the both of us and our kids to live as long as we wanted, and also imbued us with superhuman intelligence. Then I want to take over the world and rule it as a benevolent dictator. I would most likely have to make an example by blowing up an uninhabited island and destroying the incoming ICBMs that would try to destroy my ship in retaliation. Hopefully most of the larger and more rational nations would surrender after realizing how hopeless their situation would be in an all out war with me and I could get the whole thing over with minimal loss of life.
I'd immediately set to work reversing the damage to the ecosystem, re-allocate resources to eliminate poverty and starvation, and heavily fund innovation to let us leave the earth, with the eventual goal of every human leaving permanent settlement of the planet for good, leaving it as a gigantic nature preserve and living museum that people are free to visit, but cannot stay. Everyone would eventually live in gigantic, utopic space stations orbiting the planet or in similar stations orbiting other celestial bodies.
I'd put a stop to war and most forms of physical human suffering by directing humanity in singular purpose though my superior, superhuman intellect and foresight and crushing rebellions led by opportunistic would-be warlords. I'd build up our military just in case there's something more powerful than me out there, but they'd stay at the borders of our space, because I generally want people to be free from oppression in their day to day lives. I'd let small local councils govern the daily decision making processes of every day life, and only step in with my authority if they stray too far from the course, or I sense corruption. After 10,000 or so years, I imagine I would get bored of this, and I'd set up a resilient constitutional republic to rule in my place, using my superpowers to design the most efficient and corruption-resistant form of government ever created, but still with enough central control to direct the combined might to humanity towards combating individual, dire threats to existence if needed. Then my family and I would take to our capital ship and explore the great unknown together, acting as a forward diplomat for humanity, making friends among the alien races I encounter, but most likely eventually succumbing to the whims of some eldritch horror that I hope in my dying breath I've prepared humanity well enough for. If it turns out there's really nothing out there, after a thousand years of wandering, I'd dismantle our military and focus humanity on reducing as much suffering while maximizing self actualization and human pleasure as possible before firing myself into the sun while the untold trillions of humanity witness the spectacle.
Basically I'd just be Leto II minus the gross worm-body.
I realize that this is ridiculous and kind of stupid, but you did say "Ideal Life" and I'm not joking about any of this.
Maybe a little circular, but a life that while living it I'm happy and content with and I don't have an ideal life other than the one I'm living?
I feel this is achievable.
If I had to guess what that might look like:
I'd live near enough caring, supportive friends whose time I enjoy that I could say I'm part of a "community." Overall, we'd mostly be self-sustaining locally. I wouldn't be free of mental health or physical problems, but I'd accept them for what they are while still making progress where I can. I'd have one or two big projects I'm working on, some skilled trade that I'm able to contribute back to the community, and a hobby I enjoy. I'd go to sleep when I'm tired and wake up when I do. I'd cook somewhat often.
Thinking about this has been helpful. I'm at a part of my life where I really need to figure out where I'm going. I dropped out of college after a year, worked the summer and until the end of the year, and now I've gotta figure out what's next. I'll try to make it something that helps me towards my goal!
I'd like to live in a small commune within an hour of a city, preferably in a temperate climate. The compound centered on a garden, with some uncultured land surrounding. Chickens or ducks, maybe goats, as livestock. To be able to wake up, drink some tea or coffee, eat some eggs, and tend to the earth, the commons, or directly to those I love. Then to take the afternoon to read or write, and the evening for music, socializing, and some good whiskey or cannabis.
Preparing a lot of meals, making things like vinegar and yogurt at home. Growing flowers and trees, maybe keep some bees. Build knives and tables, draw and photograph the beauty around me. Eat fruit and vegetables, the latter at least mostly homegrown. I only want everything.
Oof, got me. That's my life. I wouldn't change it too much, but if given the opportunity I would magically change the field that I work in.
My original desire was to be a math professor. I assuage my mathematical desires via Numberphile on YouTube, and by various puzzles, but I would have loved to have continued to work in set theory. This isn't something that I could reasonably work towards any longer; a career at this point in life is untenable. The main reason I would have worked towards this instead of being a developer are a bit complicated, but it mostly boils down to the fact that when people ask me what I'm proud of having accomplished now, I think about my kids, and not myself; it would be nice to have achieved something meaningful in a field that I care about so I could answer this question in a way that satisfies me.
As for other ideals, there are a variety of things that I would like to have for an ideal life, and I work towards them constantly:
There are probably more things like this I could include in an ideal life, but those are the big ones. I've tried to explain why I want some of these things, but I haven't really addressed why the life I have is close to the one I want (ie - monogamous, 3 children, a house, etc). It mostly comes down to the fact that I was happy as a child and wanted to share that happiness with my own children. I also think that the "why" tends to be relatively unimportant, because humans tend to want what they want and then reason out why they want it later; this is the thing that my subconscious wants. It probably wants it because it reminds me of happy childhood, and also because of some deep seated evolutionary desire to spread my DNA. The reasons that I have mostly boil down to "I want it because it makes me happy and it makes me happy because I want it".
If anything goes, I'd only like to be about 2.5y back in the past and then stop time. If realistic: keep things as they are right now, on a "better the devil you know" basis.