posted
If you received a phone call that went, "Hey, its me...I mean, its you. I'm you. That time travel machine you're thinking about. Bad IDEA. Trust me. Don't make it."
What would you do?
A) Begin at once making a Time Travel machine. B) Listen to yourself and rip up your plans on making one. C) Ask the caller, "Hey, do I really sound like that?"
posted
I'd start with C regardless, but the rest would depend on awful lot on whether I actually had plans on making a time machine.
I kinda want to have a friend run up to a group of people and anxiously ask them "What's the date?" And then go on to specify "The year! What's the year!?"
And then a few minutes later I walk quickly by dressed in the most anachronistically compiled 20th century clothing and ask "Excuse me, did a man with long blond hair just run through here? Which way did he go? That way? Thanks. Good day."
And then, just as I'm walking away, stop and turn and say "By the way, when you see the two dogs barking, you may want to duck." (Or something suitably JUST likely enough to happen to make them think twice the next time they see two dogs barking)
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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quote:Originally posted by Elmer's Glue: If it's really me on the other end, I would tell myself why it's a bad idea.
Have you no respect for the narrow plot constraints that time travel creates? They emanate from the 4th dimension shock front that expands around the wormhole.
Posts: 4287 | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Raymond Arnold: I'd start with C regardless, but the rest would depend on awful lot on whether I actually had plans on making a time machine.
I kinda want to have a friend run up to a group of people and anxiously ask them "What's the date?" And then go on to specify "The year! What's the year!?"
And then a few minutes later I walk quickly by dressed in the most anachronistically compiled 20th century clothing and ask "Excuse me, did a man with long blond hair just run through here? Which way did he go? That way? Thanks. Good day."
And then, just as I'm walking away, stop and turn and say "By the way, when you see the two dogs barking, you may want to duck." (Or something suitably JUST likely enough to happen to make them think twice the next time they see two dogs barking)
D) "Get me a list of NYSE stock results for the next 10 years (or your preferred way of making money) and I'll tear up the plans."
Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
I guess I wouldn't believe it was me because I would never tell myself to not do something that, if I listened to myself, would create a paradox that might destroy the universe.
Plus, I'm not thinking about building a time machine.
Posts: 2392 | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
Except that if I don't build the time machine then I would never call myself to say not to build the time machine, thereby creating a potential paradox which could destroy all life. So, in the interest of mankind, perhaps I should make the time machine.
ETA- ok, need to refresh before posting, since Christine beat me to this point.
Posts: 2223 | Registered: Mar 2008
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quote:Originally posted by Darth_Mauve: If you received a phone call that went, "Hey, its me...I mean, its you. I'm you. That time travel machine you're thinking about. Bad IDEA. Trust me. Don't make it."
What would you do?
A) Begin at once making a Time Travel machine. B) Listen to yourself and rip up your plans on making one. C) Ask the caller, "Hey, do I really sound like that?"
None of the above. "Why?" comes to mind. As does "Hmm... are you sure the time machine you're thinking of is the same as mine? How does yours work?"
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Harry Turtledove has a matched pair of stories called "Forty, Counting Down" and "Twenty One, Counting Up". They're the first and last stories in the anthology "Counting Up, Counting Down" (surprise, surprise). They basically cover a similar theme, shown from both perspectives.
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
If there weren't time for future me to explain, I would agree not to make the time machine. I trust myself. Future me wouldn't deny past me all that fun, unless she had an excellent reason.
Posts: 910 | Registered: May 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Elmer's Glue: The two of you have silly views on time travel.
There are a lot of different ways to handle time travel, and I'd say every one is a bit silly. My real view of time travel is that it's not entirely possible (although I accept that time dilation is possible). In fiction, I will suspend disbelief for a number of different hypothetical approaches, including the multiple realities view (which eliminates the paradox problem). I have problems with the idea that changing history is impossible, unless time travel is somehow read-only and you cannot interact at all with historical time periods.
But paradoxes are fun, and they were part of my first exposure to time travel in fiction. (The Back to the Future Movies....had to love the 80's.)
Posts: 2392 | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
Oh, for those who ask why, your future self responds, "I don't have time to go into the whole long sordid story, but trust me. Don't do it. The story involves things too horrid for me to want to think about, and include the naked corpse of Angela Lansbury."
Posts: 1941 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
If future me expected me to trust he was really me and trust what he said without proof or explanations, then that would be proof it wasn't really me. Personally I wouldn't even bother going back in time to convince myself not to do something, if I didn't think I'd have a least a *few minutes* to convince myself I was me. I'm pretty incredulous about things I think are impossible (such as time travel).
Posts: 454 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
That's pretty freaking long. If I had time to say that I certainly had time to say something good.
If I was talking to my past self I would know that I would want me to tell me things that only I would know.
Posts: 1287 | Registered: Apr 2006
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posted
Luckily, I already have several redundant passcodes for myself, that I know that I cannot ever forget except in the case of total amnesia, already prepared.
So, my future self would already know them, because I do, but nobody else does, and I'd be able to simply say them, at least two of them, since there's no way anyone would know two of them except for me.
Once that action, proving to myself that I am myself, has occurred, I'd naturally believe it's me, especially if it sounded like me.
Unless, of course, sometime in the future someone else manages to get much better at voice synthesizers, and is able to, say, torture such pass codes out of me.
Even so, it'd be clear that the person contacting me at least HAD to at minimum get information from me.
However, my first response would definitely be "do I really SOUND like that?!"
Posts: 1577 | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
What 0Megabyte said. But I still worry that at some point in the future I'll change my password and future me won't know to use the old ones.
Posts: 413 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
I've already planned for this. I have a password that only I know so if future me calls me and tells me the password I will know that it is me calling me. Plus I think I could have a very cool conversation with me trying to guess what I am going to tell me next
Posts: 1918 | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Originally posted by DarkKnight: I've already planned for this. I have a password that only I know so if future me calls me and tells me the password I will know that it is me calling me. Plus I think I could have a very cool conversation with me trying to guess what I am going to tell me next
I don't understand how this will keep future mind readin spy from reading your mind to get the password.
Posts: 11187 | Registered: Sep 2005
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quote:Originally posted by DarkKnight: I've already planned for this. I have a password that only I know so if future me calls me and tells me the password I will know that it is me calling me. Plus I think I could have a very cool conversation with me trying to guess what I am going to tell me next
My husband and I have a secret password so that in case one of us is ever replaced by an alien being, the other will be able to tell.
Seriously! Well, at least I'm serious that we have the secret password. Its a game we play, not serious concern about being replaced by aliens.
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