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If You Had A Time Machine.....

Discussion in 'Lounge' started by Zhed46, Jan 26, 2021.

  1. ...but the trip was one-way,

    (1) Where and when would be your preferred destinations?

    (2) Would you actually take the trip (assuming that everyone you want to take with you will also willingly tag along)?

    Why?

    I would choose somewhere with a Mediterranean climate around 15,000 years ago (Stone Age), but before the Neolithic Revolution of around 12,000 BC when Man turned from being a hunter gatherer to a sedentary farming lifestyle. Alternatively, pre-Columbus America.

    It's my belief that every technological revolution, firstly the domestication of cereals, then the Bronze and Iron Ages (when indestructible edged weaponry made wars more bloody and devastating), the Industrial Revolution, and now we are going through an IT/data/AI revolution has further eroded our freedom, alienated us from our connection with both the planet and each other and has generally made us unhappier.

    Hunter gatherer societies tend to be more egalitarian than settled civilisations. They are less violent towards neighbouring peoples because they don't need to defend territory as doggedly as a farming community which has (quite literally) put down roots. Their population densities are sustainable so they don't tend to have as many wars over resources as people who are tied to the land. And as they also don't need a class system, they tend to be less internally oppressive (ie: no huge working, peasant or slave class to be controlled), so there is no need for a police force, a court system or jails and such societies tend to be self-ruling, meaning that those subject to law and custom have a closer relationship with it. Their low carb diet is healthier and their active lifestyle also keeps them fit and strong into old age. You get up at dawn, hike with your mates and your wolf to the lake to do some fishing, eat lunch by the lake then hunt in the afternoon, followed by story-telling and camping under the stars. Life is basically one long adventure holiday living off the bounty of the land.

    Obviously, that's a hopelessly romantic and simplistic view and in those days anyone of the injuries I have suffered which due to modern medical treatments were little more than painful temporary inconveniences, could have ended my life or at least my mobility and something as simple as a bad tooth would ruin you unless one of your tribe-mates pulled it out without anaesthetic. Plus, a lot of hunter-gatherer societies have some pretty gruesome initiation rituals and punishments and if one year the rains fail and the herds of bison don't appear, you're basically fkd.

    I like to think I would take the trip, but being completely honest with myself, I don't think I would as I am probably too soft and set in my ways to start again. If it was a return trip, however, then where do I punch my ticket?

    How about you?
     
    #1 Zhed46, Jan 26, 2021
    Last edited: Jan 26, 2021
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  2. Fuck knows but anywhere but the last 10/15 years to be honest.

    what a snotter
     
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  3. A less radical trip would be to anytime between the 60s and early 90s. You'd have all the benefits of a relatively prosperous and fair society (before that time, an able bodied male was almost certain to spend his life working like an animal for someone else and end up conscripted into some senseless war) and modern domestic and medical technology, but without the oppressive suffocating blanket of nannying regulation and surveillance (both state and corporate).

    I would almost certainly take that trip, probably to the early nineties, as I don't really like some of the less attractive aspects of the 70s and 80s very much, such as the casual racism or having to drive an Austin Allegro, but they'd have to freeze it like that, so society doesn't develop into how things turned out.
     
    #3 Zhed46, Jan 26, 2021
    Last edited: Jan 26, 2021
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  4. I’ve always thought I’d do well in the 60’s & 70’s.

    I like fast things and have completed tinder on the hardest level. I’d make friends with James Hunt and take over the world.

    Edit: Bush doesn’t scare me either
     
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  5. A quick reply from me,but maybe the swinging sixties in London at the age of say eighteen then transferirng to L.A for that hippy movement,then waiting for the 1970's rock groups.:)
     
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  6. Yeah, San Fran in the late 60s would have been awesome, preferably just in time to see Hendrix play (died in '67, IIRC)
     
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  7. Back to the Future has got it right, you just need to take a sporting almanac with you to clean up on bets, plus invest early in Microsoft, Apple and Bitcoin.
     
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  8. I would go back to 7pm yesterday so I could have that seriously mega custard slice all over again!
     
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  9. Investing in a couple of record companies/ bands wouldn't have gone amiss, nor contraceptive pills or an online auction site!
     
  10. Nothing as extreme as yours @Zhed46 but to be a teenager in the sixties would be the dream. Think of the music & cultural revolutions, the space race, being able to buy an S1 e-type & a 67 Mustang Fastback knowing what they’re going to be worth in the future, then there’s the woman in mini skirts & seeing England win the World Cup & Woodstock. Yep I’d go on a flash!
     
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  11. Ha! Me too. Twice. In 2014-15 and again in 2016-17. Oh, the adventures I had....:yum

    That’s what Saddam Hussein said, and look where he ended up - down a hole, (in the fog....with an OWL!)* :laughing:

    * credit to @Mary Hinge for posting that clip the other day
     
  12. Would love to see ancient Egypt at its zenith.
    Or, a rural, pre-industrial England, imagine how quiet and clean it would have been.
     
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  13. NZ a thousand years ago. No humans, no predators and no shortage of food, water and building material.
    Of course I would also need a bevy of womens to do a bit of a "reset"
     
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  14. Famous 5 era would do me, all adventures and ginger beer, fresh air and not a care in the world.
     
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  15. 2013....

    Talking about Bitcoin, with a good friend, sat on my bed, with zero money behind me, who invested in 1000 Bitcoin and I didn’t.....He has 500 left, which is currently valued at around £14m....
     
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  16. Both of those would be very interesting trips as a tourist, but would you want to live there and then, because the journey is one way?

    In those societies, unless you were lucky enough to be in the top 1% or whatever, you were little more than a slave. In feudal England for example, you couldn’t even leave your village or get married without your Lord’s permission and if he fell out with another lord, or, God forbid, the King, then it’s off to war you go. And you wouldn’t have a suit of armour or even a horse - you might get a leather helmet and a jerkin if you’re lucky - before being thrown into the melee to stab and dismember equally terrified peasants who have absolutely no idea what they’re fighting for other than their own survival in that moment.
     
  17. That’s the winner!

    I knew that the Maoris only settled the islands relatively recently but I didn’t realise it was such a short time ago.
     
  18. I didn’t realise this thread was going to get cultured.

    I still stand by the tinder thing though
     
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  19. Well, it started with what was more or less an anthropology essay, although you and @Philm have lowered the tone with your talk of sex and food ;)
     
    #19 Zhed46, Jan 27, 2021
    Last edited: Jan 27, 2021
  20. Back to 1976 with what I know now.
    I would still have followed the same career, but would have made different life choices.
     
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