trivial question...

[Morbid Angel]

I had this thought cross my mind so I decided to post.

If you were to have a time travel device, and you only had one chance to travel in time, either backwards or forward, which way would you travel and why?

[pixelplume]

back in time to witness led zeppelin, the who, and Pink Floyd in all their glory!

[tammo]

I would go to a time in the future where i can copy the neural network of my brain to a nice secure server. Then a would flood the interweb with copies of myself and download into military drones and robots which will be send back in time helping me become the first global emperor of mankind.

Forward ever, backward never

[Neilg]

If we know everyone is chill and getting on well, 100 years from now. (The future!!!)

If not, do we have our memory?
If so, 10 years ago. (You damn right i'm going to be the most forward thinking man alive)
If not, 60 years ago. (This last option involves lots of drugs and writing books)

[Shimakaze]

I guess I would need a little more information to make a decision.
Specifically: Would I be able to return or is it a one way trip?

[Jer25]

Easily the past!

I'd tell younger me to avoid some of the crazy women I've met. (plus it's pretty easy to make money in stocks if you know exactly what they are going to do). If I only had time for one though... no crazies!

[rmejia]

I first thought about the past, perhaps around the mid 60's, but now I think I rather just fast forward about 1k or 2,000 years into the future. Although I would probably be killed right on the spot by the robots that have taken over our planet and enslaved all mankind.

[Da_elf]

last night was a good night. ill settle for that. atleast last night i didnt have the hangover.

[RErender]

I like the idea of the not so distant past also, get a chance to do things differently and making a loot of money knowing when to buy and sell. With the recent housing bubble I could of sold my place 2 years ago rented for a while and bought twice the house today! Gah if I only knew...

[Jer25]

Dmitry are you going to answer your own question?

[Morne]

I would go back, drug Einstein, and see if any paradox gets created whereby my timetravel device never gets invented in the 1st place (since the brainy guy is a bit nutty from the drugs)

Hmmm why you asking? You've just arrived here from another time?

[Morbid Angel]

Dmitry are you going to answer your own question?

Well most common answer I found was indeed travel to the past, not a distant past and alter the events to own benefit such to obtain wealth.

But this is a very limited thinking, it is also most realistic one (provided the whole topic is not realistic in the fist place).

I actually thought about same thing as rmejia said. Travel to distant future. But, only if I had nothing to lose in the present. Since we kind of know what happened in the past, atleast the near past where the history recorded it, to me it would not be as interesting as going to the future. And also you can be killed as easily going to the past as to the future.

So I would travel to the future, far into it...

[PIXELBOX_SRO]

in 2012, i will dig up this post and let you know how far into the future i would teleport myself into

[Shimakaze]

But this is a very limited thinking, it is also most realistic one (provided the whole topic is not realistic in the fist place).

Well then lets be realistic shall we?
Scientifically speaking time travel is theoretically possible (as proven by Einstein's theory of relativity) and although actually building a time machine would require near infinite resources and time, let's assume someone actually managed to build one right now.
According to the theory of relativity there would be some restrictions. Mainly you could only travel in time during the timespan when the time machine is operational. Meaning from the moment it was completed and activated until the moment it stopped working or was destroyed.
So you could travel to the future but not the past (unless the time machine already was finished at the point in time you wish to travel to)
And also, according to the theory you wouldn't actually be limited to one trip, as long as you didn't go to the point in the future where the time machine stopped working.
Let me also add that time travel is being done right now on a smaller scale. Traveling on a supersonic flight actually makes time move slower by a very tiny amount (but enough to be calculated) and is in essence time travel.
But I suppose you could say everyone is always time traveling because we're always moving forward through time
So what would I do if I had a time machine? Since I couldn't go back in time very far I'd instead go into the future to see what the world would be like beyond my own lifespan. I really hate that I won't be around to see how computers will develop over the next 200 years.
Or I'd just travel back in time a week and play the lottery

[Neilg]

I would travel back to when autodesk was first starting up, buy in a controlling share, wait until about 2 years ago and stomp right into that board meeting and say STOP THIS RIGHT NOW.