would you live back in time?

[reetpleat]

Okay, I have been thining how I could remove a lot of variables so this can be examined as a straight forward question. let's say someone came to you and offered to assist you in jumping into an alternate universe. In this universe, it is (the year of your choice)

Only in this alternate universe, it is just different enough that nothing you know about sports, the stock market, technology, etc will allow you to make money on knowing hte future. No betting, no buying stock, no getting patents. You would just have to be a regular guy. Nothing you know about the future could benefit you in any way. But if you are en expert engineer, you could be an expert of the era. etc.

However, in this alternate universe, your spouse, partner, and all your friends, and everyone you know exists and knows you. The only difference is they all are regular folks of that era.

However, the universe is similar enough that there is an adolph hitler, and everyone else that is good or bad. There will be a world war, you will run the risk of being drafted, killed by a bomb etc. You also will run the risk of dying of diseases they can now cure.

lastly, you can take with you, your net worth translated into then dollars. So if you own a house, you can buy a similar house. If you hve a lot of money socked away, you can have that amount adjusted for the time.

Am I missing any other caviats that would be necessery to distill the pure question of weather you would want to live now or in a past era?

Oh, you can't come back.

So, would you? Where and when would you want to go?

 

[duggap]

That's a hard one to answer. If I was living back then I would have died from my disease, but because I live in modern times they had a cure.[huh]

 

[Forgotten Man]

1928. I'd find a job with Disney in the art department, or work for Warner Brothers.

Yep, I'd go.

 

[Hemingway Jones]

I love my life here and now, exactly as it is. I wouldn't be tempted to go, not even for a second.

What I would like is a window into the time period, an interactive window to answer some of the questions I have about people's attitudes on the world around them, without the corruption of memory and the distortion of hindsight.

I am curious as to how it really was. I know my grandfather tried to tell me as best he could and I dearly cherish those conversations, but I would like to know how it was across a broad spectrum of people.

Still, compelling question. The only appeal time travel has for me is if I can bring the knowledge back and if I were going to be marooned back in time, it wouldn't be during the Great Depression!

 

[balder]

I love my life here and now, exactly as it is. I wouldn't be tempted to go, not even for a second.

What I would like is a window into the time period, an interactive window to answer some of the questions I have about people's attitudes on the world around them, without the corruption of memory and the distortion of hindsight.

I am curious as to how it really was. I know my grandfather tried to tell me as best he could and I dearly cherish those conversations, but I would like to know how it was across a broad spectrum of people.

Still, compelling question. The only appeal time travel has for me is if I can bring the knowledge back and if I were going to be marooned back in time, it wouldn't be during the Great Depression!

Agree entirely!

 

[KittyT]

I would go back to around 1955, but only if I could leave my diabetes behind in the modern era. If I had to take that with me and boil huge steel syringes for insulin injections, it would be a definite no go.

 

[ShoreRoadLady]

That's a tough one. I think what I really want is just what Hemingway Jones said - a clear window into the period, to see what really happened and how people really felt, without having to be stuck there.

Despite my location tagline , I'm not sure I'd want to go back and actually live in the 1930s. Or the 40s, or the 50s. I like my life today, with its ups and downs, and I can't see it being significantly different. Every person in every era has their trials and troubles, their joys and celebrations. Certain things always have to be done, choices have to be made, and life has to be lived. I guess that works the other way around though, too. So all I can say is that, despite my dislike of some aspects of today, I think I'm in the right place and the right time for me. Even if it doesn't always feel like it.

 

[John in Covina]

Temptations

I'd be sorely tempted, but two things that would stop me would be the state of:

Dentistry
Medicine

I would not mind visiting but the stay would probably kill me.

 

[Paisley]

No. I need my medicine (recently patented) and my parents need theirs. It would be expensive to talk long-distance with my best friend. I'd probably be able to put my engineering degree to better use than I have in this time--if anyone would hire a woman for that job. Maybe it would be easier to find a good man. Then again, I've gotten by for 39 years without one. Really, the only upside I see is less snarkiness and better looking clothes.

 

[Lefty]

What, and live without ebay?

 

[Mike K.]

would you live back in time?
Am I missing any other caviats that would be necessery to distill the pure question of weather you would want to live now or in a past era?

Sure, how far back in time?
Ask me tomorrow!

 

[Ace Fedora]

Well, my computer science degree wouldn't do me a darn bit of good in 1926...

As much as I'd like to say "yes, without a second thought!" I'd have to pause. Most of my joy of the past comes with the benefit of hindsight. Those who say that "things were better back then" have a "now" to compare it to.

In order to take a trip like this comfortably, I'd need to keep my memories of the present (the future?) and have some assurance that some things won't change. I'd give up advances in medicine if I could at least feel safe in knowing that The Bomb won't fall.

(Did that make sense?)

 

[griffer]

I don't think it would be attractive.

My equivalent social station then would not afford me nearly the luxuries I have now.

As much as I like the idea of being a time tourist or having a window view, I am positive I wouldn't want to live in the past.

/alternative past?
//well, steam punk is a whole other question...

 

[Miss 1929]

Civil rights!!!!!

Being in a mixed race marriage (at least here we are - in Mexico, Mr. 1929 is considered white - here he's "Hispanic"), I can't see going to live in a place where that is not acceptable.
And penicillin, polio vaccine (my mom remembers every summer at least one kid did not come back to school as they DIED over the summer from polio), other modern medicine marvels...
Not to mention how much fun I have with computers...

 

[Lefty]

Without looking it up, I'm pretty sure that average life spans have been increasing. I might go from young man to middle aged man, depending upon my chosen year.

 

[MPicciotto]

I have to agree with the "clear window" idea as well. I'm currently preparing a team of nine people to go to Russia for 10-days. I'm fielding questions from team members about taking cell phones and will we be able to call home easily etc. Flash backward to 1938 instead of 2008 and the trip to where we are going would be measured in WEEKS with possibly a letter or telegram dropped when the ship reached London. Then maybe another a week or so later when the team reached Moscow. After that it might be MONTHS until the next communication in the form of a letter mailed from the interior of Russia finally reaches it's destination outside of Washington, D.C. And here and now in 2008 I have a people asking me about being able to call to say we arrived only 20 or so HOURS after we leave. In 1938 by 20 hours into the trip the ship the hasn't left the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay yet, as we first had to ride a ferry across the bay, then take a train to Baltimore to get on a ship...

Okay so maybe I want the patience of 1938....

Matt

 

[Kassia]

That's a hard one to answer. If I was living back then I would have died from my disease, but because I live in modern times they had a cure.[huh]

I would have died when i was 14 years old... So NO i would not live before my time... I like the modern world, thank you very much...

 

[jamespowers]

Being in a mixed race marriage (at least here we are - in Mexico, Mr. 1929 is considered white - here he's "Hispanic"), I can't see going to live in a place where that is not acceptable.
And penicillin, polio vaccine (my mom remembers every summer at least one kid did not come back to school as they DIED over the summer from polio), other modern medicine marvels...
Not to mention how much fun I have with computers...

Actually, here before 1980 he was also considered white so as long as you went back before 1980, you would be fine.

 

[RIOT]

August 11, 2001

A whole month to convince everyone I know to help foil the plot that lead to the tragedy that is 9-11.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Interesting question to ponder. All other things being equal, and my basic nature being what it is, I'd say I'm better equipped to deal with the supposed conformity and naivete of a 1930s-50s world than I am with the relentless, corrosive nihilism of 21st century culture. Some folks may feel just the opposite, and that's fine -- but as far as I'm concerned, shove my birth date back to about 1913, let me live out my life and then shuffle off quietly sometime in the mid-1980s, and I won't feel that I've missed a thing.