MetaChat - You just discovered a working time machine.

1987. The beginning of my high-school career. I would have done things differently. Everything from the classes I took to the people I hung out with.

posted by LoriFLA 15 March | 13:43

2065. I'd like to see how I'm celebrating my 100th birthday.

posted by BoringPostcards 15 March | 13:46

Los Angeles in the 1950s.

posted by WolfDaddy 15 March | 13:51

Probably some time in the late 1950's-early-1960's, just to see if that era onward would've suited me better than the current one.

BoPo: I'd be there with my ashtray and beerholder equipped walker.

posted by jonmc 15 March | 13:52

England in the 20s, for the clothes!

posted by gaspode 15 March | 13:54

Can I make it make me 23 years old again and then jump forward in time to now? Then could I do that over and over again every 10 years or so thus rendering me effectively immortal, beautiful (shut UP. I'd take the time to learn about makeup this time around.) and, no doubt, batshitinsane and eeeeeeeevil?!?!? Huh? Huh? Can I?

Okay, failing that I think I'd like to check out somewhere nicely decadent like Alexandria in the 20s. I'd love to visit the middle ages but I doubt I'd want to live there. Or maybe NYC in the 60s just to buy a building, then spin forward to now and sell it. Bwah ha ha ha.

posted by mygothlaundry 15 March | 14:03

Being that Earth is 4.567 billion years old, I'd go back 4.567 billion years and a day and witness the Big Bang. I guess that'd pretty much kill me though.

posted by Hellbient 15 March | 14:06

I'm pretty happy with right now. Maybe I just have no imagination.

posted by matildaben 15 March | 14:09

I'd go back to the night of 13 November 2005 so I'd be able to get George to hospital and (hopefully) save him.

posted by essexjan 15 March | 14:11

The day I day, because I'm curious how I turn out.

posted by TheDonF 15 March | 14:17

I'd go back to yesterday and move the machine so I couldn't find it today, just to mess with myself. 'Cause I'm evil that way.

posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson 15 March | 14:19

200 years into the future.

posted by seanyboy 15 March | 14:23

I'd bump it forward to 2030, by which time I'll likely be dead, but not so long dead as to be lost like most common men in the maelstrom of time's passage. I'd like to see how my life turned out, and since I'm not a believer in Great Beyonds, that'd be my one shot at it.

posted by paulsc 15 March | 14:28

(actually paulsc, MeCha is the afterlife, actually it's more of an apres vie. You died in a bizarre blender mishap in 1998.)

posted by jonmc 15 March | 14:30

1) Pancakes. During the Renaissance.

2) Late Cretaceous. Dinosaurs, c'mon!

3) Prevent 25-year-old self from meeting 2nd serious girlfriend. Devote following years previously wasted on therapy to stopping war, and stuff.

4) Restaurant at the End of the Universe. Omelette.

posted by steef 15 March | 14:31

Jan, that's really touching. I think if anything, I'd like to go back and spend some time with my dad, now that I'm (sort of) an adult myself.

I dunno, though. I used to think that I wanted to live in the 50's. But I've been thinking lately how so many of our current issues are a result of that era. Also, I don't think I could handle living in a pre-civil rights era. I'm not 100% sure I'm currently living in a post-civil rights era, so...I dunno.

I think I'm with matildaben. Now's good.

posted by richat 15 March | 14:35

Now's good.

Bush in the White House, lousy music, gentrification, impending apocalypse, terrorism and worst of all Paris Hilton? Good?

posted by jonmc 15 March | 14:38

Yes, but we have you, Jon.

posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson 15 March | 14:42

It's interesting how many people would pick a time in their own lives to travel back to...I never thought of that. I was thinking of going back to 1700s in England.

And why do time machines always look like they were made with parts salvaged from a 1940s whore house? And why do time machines have plush chairs upholstered in red velvet?

posted by iconomy 15 March | 14:42

Now is good. If it were a possibility I wouldn't time travel. Too scary. How did Peggy Sue and Marty do it?

posted by LoriFLA 15 March | 14:42

No, I'm back in the '60's hanging out with Dion & the Belmonts and Jack Kerouac before finally OD'ing in the Fillmore East men's room.

posted by jonmc 15 March | 14:44

Now is good. Maybe it's as good a time as any? I am sure you see my point, even though I also see yours, pal.

Your Kerouac reference does remind me of that era I used to think I'd like to see. Salinger's NYC, Kerouac's San Francisco, etc.

posted by richat 15 March | 14:55

Now is good. Maybe it's as good a time as any? I am sure you see my point, even though I also see yours, pal.

Yeah. Ultimately whatever era we live in we take ourselves with us. That great Dickens quote could apply to any epoch "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

posted by jonmc 15 March | 14:58

Dicks with Time Machines

posted by plinth 15 March | 14:59

When I wasn't alive:

Post-war Truman-era NYC (but I would also want to change my sex).

When I was in high school I wanted to go back to the 60's (I was born in '68 but my earliest memory is when I was about two and a half).

When I was:

Fall '91 to fill out my master's applications for both fiction and poetry instead of just poetry.

August 24, 1992, so I would be able to go up to someone and introduce myself.

Summer 1994, so I could move back to Boston instead of Denver and not have gotten fat again.

February 18, 2004 at about 2 am, so that I could have been more direct.

posted by brujita 15 March | 15:07

And why do time machines have plush chairs upholstered in red velvet?

Because regency furniture is easier to find than spare parts for DeLoreans?

posted by seanyboy 15 March | 15:12

I'd go back to the Garden of Eden days. I hear Eve used to walk around naked and shit.

posted by danostuporstar 15 March | 15:15

I'd sit there for a minute or two and go through all the options. First various points in my own life where I would needed to be slapped silly. But I doubt I'd listen. So maybe some historical moments where I could change things and make a global difference (save Lincoln, etc.). But then I'm too much of a pessimist to think that would work the way I would expect it to. I'd probably end up making things worse somehow (turns out if Lincoln lives the resulting survivor's paranoia turns him into a worse tyrant than Hitler, etc.).

So eventually I'd probably just go check out dinosaurs and the library of Alexandria and the like. Maybe get some panang shrimp noodle soup from that Malaysian restaurant that isn't there anymore.

posted by Lentrohamsanin 15 March | 15:24

I'd go save Ghandi and Lincoln and JFK and Mozart and make sure Hitler became a successful painter instead of a mass murdering fuckhead.

But if I was just going to assuage my curiosity I'd go to ancient Egypt. What were the pyramids really for, and how did they build those inner chambers that look physically impossible to build???

posted by Specklet 15 March | 15:39

Oh god, so many. I'm such a history/art/lit buff for the late 19th/early 20th century that I have a hard time choosing. But definitely:

January 30, 1889: Mayerling hunting lodge (outside Vienna): to see if Crown Prince Rudolf and his teenage mistress really did commit suicide or were victims of a conspiracy!

Vienna, c. 1900 (to witness the Secessionist movement, and perhaps get painted by Klimt!)

Paris and/or Berlin, 1920s (Paris to hang out with Joyce, et al.; Berlin to hang out in some cabarets)

London, 1960s (for the music scene!)

And in my own life:

Laramie, Wyoming, 1970s (to hang out with my grandparents as a kid one last time)

posted by scody 15 March | 15:52

I read the question as "You just discovered a work out machine." I'd set it to 4.

posted by mullacc 15 March | 16:24

It depends. If I go back, can I change things? If so: 1988 and I'd make an extremely different choice.

If not, Dresden before someone blew it up.

posted by crush-onastick 15 March | 16:33

the mid 80's so i can kick my own unmotivated, sullen, idiotic teenaged slacker arse into studying harder, getting acceptable grades, and going to college.

posted by lonefrontranger 15 March | 17:06

I really have few regrets, and I worry about movies like The Butterfly Effect, where no matter how many times we try to change things for the better, it just keeps getting worse and worse (disclaimer, I haven't seen that movie). So I'd probably go back to prehistoric times and try to eat some dinosaur meat, just to see what it tastes like.

posted by muddgirl 15 March | 17:29

I worry about movies like The Butterfly Effect, where no matter how many times we try to change things for the better, it Ashton Kutcher just keeps getting worse and worse.

Fixed that for you.

posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson 15 March | 17:37

- Egypt at the time of the 18th dynasty
- England in the 1600s
- Dakota Territory in the 1880s to meet Laura Ingalls (yes, I am a dork)
- Ontario, Canada in the 1950s to see the mister as a kid
- SoCal, once a year from the time I hit Junior High through High school I'll visit to give myself a kick in the pants
- the future, every 25 years or so. The one bad thing about dying is that I won't get to see the future.

posted by deborah 15 March | 18:00

The day I day...

What? I meant "the day I die". Stupid brain/fingers.

posted by TheDonF 15 March | 18:04

I'd set it just before the time machine was invented to prevent it from being invented, because none of us are qualified to be doing all this meddlesome mucking about in extratemporal space, no matter how well-intentioned.

*watches thread suddenly vanish*

posted by loquacious 15 March | 18:41

I'd like to go back to the summer of 1987, and make a different choice. And stay in college, finding my path at last.

But I only want this if I could have my same kids. I wouldn't change a thing about them.

posted by redvixen 15 March | 19:03

Can I make it make me 23 years old again and then jump forward in time to now? Then could I do that over and over again every 10 years or so thus rendering me effectively immortal, beautiful (shut UP. I'd take the time to learn about makeup this time around.) and, no doubt, batshitinsane and eeeeeeeevil?!?!? Huh? Huh? Can I?

Yeah, I'd probably just give mgl my time machine for this. I have a thing for beautiful, fucked up, evil, and effectively immortal redheads. Call me?

posted by Eideteker 15 March | 20:25

Past, present, future. Boring! There has to be another alternative. Whatever that is, I'd wanna try that. As long as there'll be oatmeal cookies.

posted by hojoki 16 March | 03:26

1863 Virginia City, Nevada. I hang out with Mark Twain and his journalist friends drinking whiskey and spinning lies.

posted by LarryC 16 March | 06:02

15 March 2007