16
votes
If you could experience anything in the past what would it be?
If you had a time machine that would let you experience the past, but not change it, what would you do?
If you had a time machine that would let you experience the past, but not change it, what would you do?
For many of those, an universal translator is required.
Of phonetical note: it is advised to use "a" before words starting with the sound
[j]. In English, most of the words starting with U make that sound: in this case,[juːnɪˈvɜːsl]. The "an" article is supposed to precede words that start with a vowel – in order to escape the phonetic concatenation, I presume – whereas[j]is a semivowel.Thanks. This is not my first language. I make an effort to get it right and also use Grammarly, which helps immensely. But a few basic things always elude me, and I have to live with that, otherwise I won't write in English at all. The corrections are certainly useful, though. Again, thanks!
On another note, I can't read phonetical, so when you refer to the
[j]sound IDK how to interpret it. Or at least I interpret it as a completely different sound than the one you have in mind, out of my Portuguese expectations.[j]is the International Phonetic Alphabet representation of the sound you make when you start pronouncing "yogurt": that weird short sound that sounds like[i].In Portuguese, this sound appears when you pronounce boia, apparently: Wikipedia says that it sounds like
[bɔj.jɐ]– since you speak the language, you should be able to decypher what each of those symbols means.Not exactly. The word is actually
bóia. Where I live we pronounce it "literally" (we read the acute accent), so it's a very openo(impossible to convey), while some southern states use a more closedo.I never considered learning Phonetic because my English pronunciation is acceptable, and I tend to learn by watching movies and such. But it's certainly useful.
The first thing that popped into my head was the moon landing, which I know is well within living memory (even my parents saw it live) but is so era-defining and such a transformational step for us as a species that I would give an awful lot to experience it firsthand. If I can stretch the rules a little and point out that travelling in time necessitates travelling in space as well, then I will absolutely double down on this and say that I get to experience it standing on the moon.
The second would be going back to a day or so before the JFK assassination and hiding cameras in every bush and tree I could find, just to settle my burning curiosity.
Beyond that, it would be amazing to see the pyramids in all their contemporary glory, or to walk with dinosaurs, or tour China at the height of the Qing dynasty, but those (and any similar things I can think of) would all be almost like tourism for me - I'd love to have the opportunity, but none would be my only choice if I had to pick something life-changing.
What I'd really choose, given one totally free shot in a time machine, would be 500 years into the future. I want to see what humanity manages, I want to see where technology takes us, and if I possibly can I want to grab some ideas and bring them back to get us there faster.
My high school class watched a short documentary about Archduke Ferdinand's assasination, and you're absolutely right in calling it absurd. Even today, I have a hard time grasping the reality of what happened.
I've got a big interest in human migrations, explorations, and crossroads that would be cool to indulge:
... Dammit, I basically want the whole picture of human history. 🙄
A Beatles concert. Granted, I wouldn't hear the music, but seeing them live would be worth it.
In order to hear the music, you could wish for a concert right before beatlemania.
True. Maybe a show at the Cavern Club or in Hamburg would be a better choice.
Concerts would be high on my list. Michael Jackson at Motown 25 when he showed the world the Moonwalk and Queen at Live Aid would be my top two choices, but there are so many other performances that would be amazing to attend.
I'd like to ask some 18/19th century Europeans what they thought of the slavery going on in their empires's colonies and what they thought of gender equality, homosexuality, atheism and racial tolerance, along with seeing what the guiled age trusts of the US were like to their workers. I'd also like to see the interwar period, since most of Europe, China and Russia were effectively in civil war and to see what the normal people were doing during all the conflict. (Also drawing parallels is always good for hysteria.) I'd also record them with a modern camera to see what they thought of that and to show to us today. I would also like to browse the Internet of 1995 or earlier (To see why it was so much better and if anyone predicted the behavior of the tech companies of today.) along with 2000 to see how did people react to Y2K, 2008 to see what people thought of social media then and what it was all like along with some great depression hysteria, see Obama's election and see what the Republican candidates were like before trump, and 2015, since it was regarded as 'the last year of calmary' by many.
That's a good question.
The first locations of choice would be within the borders of the modern continental US.
Then there's Russia. I'd really like to see the Kievan Rus' as it was some time before the mass christening in the 10th century. Then would be the foundation of Saint Petersburg: how the city was planned, built, and made to living. Seeing Moscow sometime in the 1800s, when the Kremlin walls were still white, would be cool.
What I really want to see would be the 1991 coup d'état attempt in Moscow. The closest I've gotten to it was reading Vladimir Pozner's Parting with Illusions. (I believe this part is only available in the Russian version, edited and expanded later by the author as the book was being translated into Russian.) Those three days in August would be fascinating to see with my own eyes.