if I could turn back time ...

Category: Let's talk

Post 1 by sugarbaby (The voice of reason) on Friday, 15-Apr-2005 16:17:37

so let's say in the future, someone invented a time machine. looks a bit like a call box only has loads of dials and leavers and a clock ... you get in, and you can go anywhere, into the past, the future ... anywhere, would you? would you go back and change anything about your life? or perhaps go further back and change a part of history? or would you like to go and see what was in the future?

Post 2 by Inesle1987 (Account disabled) on Friday, 15-Apr-2005 16:28:13

I think I would want to see what's in my future and also in the past. There are a lot of things I would want to change in my life. But the futuree is something really interesting I think. Something I'm sure nearly everyone wants to know about.

Post 3 by sugarbaby (The voice of reason) on Friday, 15-Apr-2005 16:30:18

ah but what if what was in the future was something you didn't like. would you be able to go back to your current life knowing what kind of future lay ahead for you?

Post 4 by Inesle1987 (Account disabled) on Friday, 15-Apr-2005 16:37:31

Hm, good question, obviously. I'm honestly not sure if I better let the future be unknown. But I'd still want to go to the past, because i made so many mistakes and I let so many people bring me down - I wish I could change that.

Post 5 by sugarbaby (The voice of reason) on Friday, 15-Apr-2005 16:41:52

ah but, you say you made mistakes, but if you went back and changed those things, put right the mistakes you said you made, that could possibly change the whole course your life took, would you want to do that?

Post 6 by Goblin (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Saturday, 16-Apr-2005 9:07:15

the 12th centuary and fight with Scottish patriot William Wallace ..also to 1947 to the Rome grand prix to witness the winning debut of the 1st Ferrari...

Post 7 by Inesle1987 (Account disabled) on Saturday, 16-Apr-2005 16:20:58

Yes, I would definitely want to do that. I know that because I definitely regret my mistakes and I would love to go back even though this would change my whole life.

Post 8 by renegade rocker (I just keep on posting!) on Saturday, 16-Apr-2005 23:35:58

I would go back and correct all the mistakes I made, and right all those I've wronged.

Post 9 by Flidais (WISEST IS SHE WHO KNOWS THAT SHE DOES NOT KNOW) on Saturday, 16-Apr-2005 23:40:01

I would go back to 2 years ago <sad smile> things would be very, very different.

Post 10 by Inesle1987 (Account disabled) on Sunday, 17-Apr-2005 9:18:46

And I also would like to go back and enjoy the greatest moments in my life. But of course, only if I could get back afterwards.

Post 11 by Senior (I've now got the bronze prolific poster award! now going for the silver award!) on Sunday, 17-Apr-2005 11:43:54

Turning back time and been able to alter a few things would be nice, but If I could turn it forward I'd know when I was going to die so if I could edit the future in the way I could edit the past I could decide what kind of funeral I was going to have and organise it. I could also try to organise the most dramatic media attention grabbing death in history.

Post 12 by chelslicious (like it or not, I'm gonna say what I mean. all the time.) on Sunday, 17-Apr-2005 15:31:18

ide definitely wanna know what my future held, thatd be sooo awesome. i wouldnt wanna turn back time though, cause mistakes are mistakes, and if we didnt make them, we wouldnt be human.

Post 13 by sugarbaby (The voice of reason) on Sunday, 17-Apr-2005 17:18:57

well I think that rarely do people regret the things that they've done, I think it's the things we didn't do we often end up regretting.

Post 14 by Inesle1987 (Account disabled) on Monday, 18-Apr-2005 4:26:54

Not sure if I really want to know my whole future, the past is more important.

Post 15 by wildebrew (We promised the world we'd tame it, what were we hoping for?) on Monday, 18-Apr-2005 9:02:51

Did anyone seen a movie called "Butterfly Effect"? It's very strong and moving. It's about a guy who has the baility to change the past, he keeps going back to the same moment to try and sve himself, his girl friend and her brother from disaster. He always fails. He actually (in the mannerof happy endings) finally realizes what he has to do, goes back and severs ties with her before they get intimid, they never meet up, they don't know each other but they all end up being ok. I think it pretty much sums it up. Who is to say your choice would make you a better person, and if you explore the path your life would take based on every decission you'd never have enough time to explore all those. I think I wouldn't want to know what lies in my future or change things I've donein the past. It's ok to wonder why or how things would be but different to actually go back and act on those thoughts. We must always realize that what we perceive as mistakes at the time might've been the right thing to do or the best thing to do given the situation.
Cheers
-B

Post 16 by Blue Velvet (I've got the platinum golden silver bronze poster award.) on Monday, 18-Apr-2005 9:56:03

I would only want to go back and change things in my past if I could then go to the future and see how my changes affect my future. And if I decide I don't like the future after making changes in my past, I would want to go back and put things back the way they were. Or change one past thing at a time and see how that affects the future and then maybe change one more thing, etc.

I have always fantacized about changing history too. For example, what would the current world be like if there had never been a Hitler, or what would have happened in this country if Kennedy had not been assisinated? But if I had access to a time machine, I would definitely want to keep being able to go back and forth and not just once.

Post 17 by Inesle1987 (Account disabled) on Monday, 18-Apr-2005 9:58:51

Yeah, good point. No, I haven't seen the film but it sounds interesting. I might watch it once. It's been already recommended to me but I haven't found it yet.

Post 18 by sugarbaby (The voice of reason) on Monday, 18-Apr-2005 10:01:42

I've often thought about decisions I've made in my life and wondered how things would have turned out if I'd decided differently, but I guess, that unless you are really that unhappy with your life then you wouldn't necessarily wanna change it. Sure there are parts of all our lives we might want to be different, but I am a great believer in that things happen for a reason. As for the future, I don't think I'd really wanna know what was in it, might wanna travel to next saturday though and get the lottery numbers, then travel back and buy the ticket, but that's about it really.

Post 19 by Inesle1987 (Account disabled) on Monday, 18-Apr-2005 10:03:12

Well I am happier with my life than earlier, but there ae some horrible years in my life I'd definitely want to change and I honestly doubt that they would change a lot in my life except that I would be a bit more self-confident and had more friends.

Post 20 by sugarbaby (The voice of reason) on Monday, 18-Apr-2005 10:24:23

ah but ines, you say you'd like to have been a more confident person and therefore would have had more friends, and although you say it wouldn't have changed your life, think of it like this. say you were more confident, you would have had a different group of friends most likely from the one you had before you changed your life, and that different group of friends would most likely have meant you would have done different things with your life, and therefore, would now, have been a different person to the one you were before you got into the time machine.

Post 21 by Inesle1987 (Account disabled) on Monday, 18-Apr-2005 11:18:57

No, there is not a real context. I was being bullied in my former school, all my friends had been taken away from me. I was a real outsider and I got very unconfident. I think this is why I do not have so many friends. If I could have protected myself from the people who bullied me, if I could have changed that, I am sure I would not always think about that now.

Post 22 by wildebrew (We promised the world we'd tame it, what were we hoping for?) on Monday, 18-Apr-2005 11:22:45

inez, hmm so you found the "cool group" in your class, they perhaps were the kids that partied themostor got into drugs etc and you would end up an alcoholic (just as an example). I found the cool kids in my elementary school are actuelly the people who today have the worst jobs and least education whilst the outsiders from that school are doing really great.
And I don't know if you e.g. saved someone's life, then went bck in a time machine and changed something so you never would've metthat person, does that mean that person would die now since that person never had to to savehis/her life hehe, I thik time travel is impossible it will mess up the logic of the universe actually.

Post 23 by Resonant (Find me alive.) on Monday, 18-Apr-2005 12:15:36

I like to think I'd be wise enough not to mess with the future, or the distant past, and I don't have any personal regrets so great that I'd risk messing with the order of things, but to be able to just go back and watch... Ancient Greece, Post Pereclean Athens, coming up to the Peleponesian wars, or 4th dynasty Egypt for that matter. I'd love to sit in smoky, noisy american clubs in the 1930s, when white people were hearing jazz for the first time and it was blowing their minds, I'd love to be at the first production of shostakovich's 5th in Stalin's Russia, where the establishment heard their supremacy reaffirmed and the people heard the glory of their rebellion in the same piece. I'd love to have been around for the birth of rock-and-roll.

Fanciful Erin

Post 24 by Inesle1987 (Account disabled) on Monday, 18-Apr-2005 13:45:41

I would not change everything. And, it's true that the outsiders are doing great at school sometimes, but that's also a reason why they are hated by kids who don't learn so much. This can be another reason for them to be an outsider. And unfortunately the "cool kids" were my whole class who consisted of 4 students plus me.

Post 25 by Goblin (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Monday, 18-Apr-2005 14:13:04

no matter how much I wish I couldn't go back and change things, to face the same people again, would destroy me. It's better to move on and draw strength from the fact that you have survived and are loved and wanted

Post 26 by Inesle1987 (Account disabled) on Monday, 18-Apr-2005 15:02:04

Hm I understand that, but facing the same horrible people again would probably give me the oportunity to tell them what think of them and being more self-confident.

Post 27 by chelslicious (like it or not, I'm gonna say what I mean. all the time.) on Monday, 18-Apr-2005 20:27:41

i forgot to add that ide wanna see what my future held, cause ide wanna see if ide still be with the person im with now.

Post 28 by Inesle1987 (Account disabled) on Tuesday, 19-Apr-2005 2:20:58

Well the future loses its excitement if you know it.

Post 29 by ALD girl (Account disabled) on Tuesday, 19-Apr-2005 6:30:55

If I could go back in time, I would probably first go to crescent oklahoma, that is where antinuclear activist Karen Silkwood lived. I would tell her not to go to that meeting because she would never make it there. in that way i would be saving her life and therefor changing history. I would then fastforward a few years and then take a trip to south africa, where I would try to convince steve Biko not to go to those secret meetings on that faithfull August day.

Post 30 by Susanne (move over school!) on Tuesday, 19-Apr-2005 21:13:10

Fascinating topic. I personally think that time travelling back to the past is logically impossible. If you did go back and changed some event, everything else that follows would also be altered since you would have changed the course of history. And if that course was in any way connected with yourself, chances are you would have changed it so much that you would have never ended up in the place in which you started. Hence, you couldn't have gone back in the first place. Weird, huh? So, I don't really think too much about going back to change the past because I don't think it would be possible anyway, and besides, as Wildebrew pointed out, you would never know whether the amended life would be better, and when you made the decision you made in the first place, you made it because it seems right from that perspective which, of course, is the only one you had.