Realistically, I wouldn't want to live in an age where a visit to a "doctor/barber" with a twisted intestine, could earn a person the diagnosis of a small demon living inside her stomach. The operation to remove the homunculus without anesthetic, would have most beating it back to the 20th century, pdq.
The future, fast forward about 1000 years, would be pretty interesting. Hopefully the trip would take a few days, slowing down for important events, because I'd want to know how the past shaped the present of 3,000 AD, when I finally arrived
Going very far into the future, Heineken, you'd risk not being able to be there, if the human race was wiped out. If humans make it, there could be complete confusion of understanding, an inability to make sense of what you're experiencing.
PeakOil is You
If You Could Escape into the Past . . .
Re: If You Could Escape into the Past . . .
by threadbear » Mon 17 Dec 2007, 16:07:22
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Re: If You Could Escape into the Past . . .
by dinopello » Mon 17 Dec 2007, 16:40:56
Back to the garden of eden and kill the stupid snake that is pimpin apples. Or, the Renaissance could be good.
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Re: If You Could Escape into the Past . . .
by oowolf » Mon 17 Dec 2007, 17:45:52
I should say the near Paleolithic, about BC 30,000, but I would love just 1 day to walk the Rome of Hadrian's later reign. About the time the Pantheon was finished (AD 125).
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Re: If You Could Escape into the Past . . .
by Pops » Mon 17 Dec 2007, 18:19:20
I’ll assume I can know what I know today, as that was not specified.
I’ll go with a similar upbringing with the folks I had; only born a decade or 2 earlier (‘30s – ‘40s).
I would then mature at about the pinnacle of cheap oil fueled manufacturing of quality tools in the US, have a ready supply of well-tried old tools and the folks that knew their workings, access to the beginnings of a supply of the best of oil-fueled farm and chemical science and the ability to acquire the good farmland the Boomers’ parents sweated for but sold in the Estate Sale to buy a Mercedes.
If that were true I would surely not be posting here as a smallholder;
but then if wishes were horses…
I’ll go with a similar upbringing with the folks I had; only born a decade or 2 earlier (‘30s – ‘40s).
I would then mature at about the pinnacle of cheap oil fueled manufacturing of quality tools in the US, have a ready supply of well-tried old tools and the folks that knew their workings, access to the beginnings of a supply of the best of oil-fueled farm and chemical science and the ability to acquire the good farmland the Boomers’ parents sweated for but sold in the Estate Sale to buy a Mercedes.
If that were true I would surely not be posting here as a smallholder;
but then if wishes were horses…
The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves -- in their separate, and individual capacities.
-- Abraham Lincoln, Fragment on Government (July 1, 1854)
-- Abraham Lincoln, Fragment on Government (July 1, 1854)
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Re: If You Could Escape into the Past . . .
by gampy » Mon 17 Dec 2007, 18:54:50
Oh man...so many choices.
I think I would pick the future. I would like to be placed in my current locale 100 years from now.
2112.
I want to see if that Rush song came true.
Seriously. I think a hundred years in the future would be fascinating.
I think the oil age will be at it's end by then. I think sea level will about 10 m higher. The nation state has ceased to exist. What replaces it is going to be interesting to see.
I imagine a lot of changes. Mostly for the worst, but still interesting.
Could be a nuclear wasteland, or toxic wasteland with death everywhere, or it could be a pastoral, and much slowed down, agrarian environment. No cars. No planes. I see many mules, and oxen. Something similar to rural Afghanistan / Tibet writ large over the North American continent. I don't see Mad Max. I do see the hulking, rusting, rotting remains of the oil age, but people don't live in burned out, and decayed cities, and suburbs anymore. Except for scavengers who brave the roaming gangs looking for recycle-able materiel to trade with the agrarian communities that have sprung up in the spaces between the cities.
I see a world population reduced from war, famine, and disease.
Perhaps 500 million worldwide, and 50 million in North America. Less in Africa, more in India and Asia. Europe is a wasteland.
Who knows? Could be just the same as we have now...but with more gadgets and better drugs?
I think I would pick the future. I would like to be placed in my current locale 100 years from now.
2112.
I want to see if that Rush song came true.
Seriously. I think a hundred years in the future would be fascinating.
I think the oil age will be at it's end by then. I think sea level will about 10 m higher. The nation state has ceased to exist. What replaces it is going to be interesting to see.
I imagine a lot of changes. Mostly for the worst, but still interesting.
Could be a nuclear wasteland, or toxic wasteland with death everywhere, or it could be a pastoral, and much slowed down, agrarian environment. No cars. No planes. I see many mules, and oxen. Something similar to rural Afghanistan / Tibet writ large over the North American continent. I don't see Mad Max. I do see the hulking, rusting, rotting remains of the oil age, but people don't live in burned out, and decayed cities, and suburbs anymore. Except for scavengers who brave the roaming gangs looking for recycle-able materiel to trade with the agrarian communities that have sprung up in the spaces between the cities.
I see a world population reduced from war, famine, and disease.
Perhaps 500 million worldwide, and 50 million in North America. Less in Africa, more in India and Asia. Europe is a wasteland.
Who knows? Could be just the same as we have now...but with more gadgets and better drugs?
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Re: If You Could Escape into the Past . . .
by Byron100 » Mon 17 Dec 2007, 20:26:25
What a great thread. I love stuff like this. 
Since the past I can learn about and therefore imagine what it's like in my head, I'd pick to head off into the future....how about the year 2500. Long enough to be away from the cataclysms of the 21st century, but not so far ahead that the human race would be extinct or otherwise unrecognizable.
I relish the idea of seeing a world in which the human population is reduced to sustainable levels, with all the big cities gone, not to mention the lack of cars, planes, factories, etc, etc. The one thing I'm desperate to know is whether humans will finally "get it" and live in harmony with nature and with each other. That means the total elimination of greed and avarice, as well as mistaken beliefs pertaining to religion, although spiritual thinking wouldn't be a bad thing in my opinion. And I'm also dying to know if we'll be able to maintain at least some tech in the post-fossil fuel era...such as trains, solar power and computers. Maybe even develop new skills such as telepathy and biologic manipulation (think giant veggies that require no work except for planting and harvesting, etc). Not to mention maintaining population control...LOL. And *please*, no "economics" in this future era...it's a totally failed "science" that permits some people to have so much more than others....if we're to carry on into the future, we've got to ditch that along with our other shortcomings, such as fighting useless wars.
If us humans can't achieve what I've outlined above, I really do hope we exit stage right and be done with it, and just let the Earth carry on without us, like it has for billions of years. Either way, it'd just be nice to know how it all turns out.
Since the past I can learn about and therefore imagine what it's like in my head, I'd pick to head off into the future....how about the year 2500. Long enough to be away from the cataclysms of the 21st century, but not so far ahead that the human race would be extinct or otherwise unrecognizable.
I relish the idea of seeing a world in which the human population is reduced to sustainable levels, with all the big cities gone, not to mention the lack of cars, planes, factories, etc, etc. The one thing I'm desperate to know is whether humans will finally "get it" and live in harmony with nature and with each other. That means the total elimination of greed and avarice, as well as mistaken beliefs pertaining to religion, although spiritual thinking wouldn't be a bad thing in my opinion. And I'm also dying to know if we'll be able to maintain at least some tech in the post-fossil fuel era...such as trains, solar power and computers. Maybe even develop new skills such as telepathy and biologic manipulation (think giant veggies that require no work except for planting and harvesting, etc). Not to mention maintaining population control...LOL. And *please*, no "economics" in this future era...it's a totally failed "science" that permits some people to have so much more than others....if we're to carry on into the future, we've got to ditch that along with our other shortcomings, such as fighting useless wars.
If us humans can't achieve what I've outlined above, I really do hope we exit stage right and be done with it, and just let the Earth carry on without us, like it has for billions of years. Either way, it'd just be nice to know how it all turns out.
Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide...
...and the meek shall inherit the Earth!
...and the meek shall inherit the Earth!
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Re: If You Could Escape into the Past . . .
by PenultimateManStanding » Mon 17 Dec 2007, 21:53:38
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Byron100', 'W')hat a great thread. I love stuff like this.
Either way, it'd just be nice to know how it all turns out.
I don't know. People have always been doing this kind of speculation. Pops says he wants to take what he knows with him. That would make the arrival into a new time and place very awkward as one's world view would be so out of place as to be a crippling liability. The people there would think you are crazy. You wouldn't know how to act. If you didn't take what you know with you, then you wouldn't be you. But don't let me spoil the fun. OK, uhm, let me see, uhm, well there's --- but that might suck, and there's --- and that might suck. How about the future, hmm, no, that wouldn't do. Nothing there but Morlocks and Elois.
Either way, it'd just be nice to know how it all turns out.
It is impossible to step into the same river twice - Heraclitus
Turn those Machines back On! - Don Ameche in Trading Places
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Re: If You Could Escape into the Past . . .
by Heineken » Mon 17 Dec 2007, 23:45:43
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'G')oing very far into the future, Heineken, you'd risk not being able to be there, if the human race was wiped out. If humans make it, there could be complete confusion of understanding, an inability to make sense of what you're experiencing.
I know it's a high-risk option, T-bear. Very high-risk. I know that it might even result in my instantaneous death. However, it might also result in my immortality.
Your last comment is rather brilliant (and typical of your lateral thought pattern).
It's possible, even likely, that the Earth of 250,000 AD would be as alien as any planet we've read about in science fiction novels.
Still, I'd be up the challenge of trying to make sense of what I encountered. (I'm used to that situation from my own time!)
"Actually, humans died out long ago."
---Abused, abandoned hunting dog
"Things have entered a stage where the only change that is possible is for things to get worse."
---I & my bro.
---Abused, abandoned hunting dog
"Things have entered a stage where the only change that is possible is for things to get worse."
---I & my bro.
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Re: If You Could Escape into the Past . . .
by Heineken » Tue 18 Dec 2007, 00:00:41
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', '[')b]I’ll assume I can know what I know today, as that was not specified.
Yes, Pops, you will time-travel as the person that you are at the time of the trip. Same knowledge base, same history, same everything. You go from now . . . to then, forward or backwards, through the portal, never to return. You take with you whatever you can carry in both arms and a backpack. You are free to do whatever you are capable of doing in the new time. Kill Hitler in 1915, invent the automobile in 500 B.C., whatever. You can change the future (if this is possible), but you will be stuck in the time you choose, so you won't be around to see that altered future.
Choose wisely, board.
It's interesting to reflect on what our choices of a new "home time" say about ourselves. Anti-techno, neoprimitivist type that I am, I choose the distant future and not, say, the year 450 AD. This surprises me. (Granted, the distant future might be even lower-tech than 450 AD. For that matter, it would probably be NO tech!)
I suppose the reason is that, at heart, I'm an explorer. And the distant future represents the ultimate frontier, not history that has already been written and lived, albeit by others and not me. Too, the distant future will be stripped of any lingering trappings of the present, an era I've had a bellyfull of by now. It will be entirely new.
Last edited by Heineken on Tue 18 Dec 2007, 00:13:21, edited 1 time in total.
"Actually, humans died out long ago."
---Abused, abandoned hunting dog
"Things have entered a stage where the only change that is possible is for things to get worse."
---I & my bro.
---Abused, abandoned hunting dog
"Things have entered a stage where the only change that is possible is for things to get worse."
---I & my bro.
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Re: If You Could Escape into the Past . . .
by Pops » Tue 18 Dec 2007, 00:08:21
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PenultimateManStanding', ' ')Pops says he wants to take what he knows with him.
Actually the Rules say I can’t choose today - which is my preference.
So as not to convolute the topic with more fantasy than necessary, I would still choose to be born a couple of decades earlier than I was - even with no knowledge of the future.
I know, not very romantic…
The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves -- in their separate, and individual capacities.
-- Abraham Lincoln, Fragment on Government (July 1, 1854)
-- Abraham Lincoln, Fragment on Government (July 1, 1854)
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