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If you had a chance to travel through a TIME MACHINE for a WEEK? where would you go?

Pompidou

One Too Many
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1,242
Location
Plainfield, CT
Going back to the middle ages or Renaissance with a good microscope and books about disease treatment, some vaccines, etc, might be worthwhile, science in general - really fast track them. If modern medicine/technology got a 500 year head start, imagine how it'd be back in the present.
 

Pompidou

One Too Many
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1,242
Location
Plainfield, CT
I would go back to the early thirties in Munich. Go to one of Adolf Hitlers meetings.
I would have a pistol in my pocket and I would kill the SOB.

You know what might be even easier for you, offing the guy when he was a low ranked nobody in WWI. The difference is whether he becomes a martyr or a statistic. It makes you wonder how history would change. I mean, Italy would've probably plateau'd and probably never caused much trouble, leading the world only to see Mussolini's benefits to the Italian revival, and not the ties to Hitler that brought him down in real history, and Japan would've probably continued a militaristic course, causing havoc in Asia, but probably never to the extent that they'd get nuked. Then America would lose the impetus that caused it to become a super power, remaining in depression indefinitely, and who knows who'd get the bomb first. I've always been interested in alternate history what-ifs.
 

Edward

Bartender
Messages
25,068
Location
London, UK
Going back to the middle ages or Renaissance with a good microscope and books about disease treatment, some vaccines, etc, might be worthwhile, science in general - really fast track them. If modern medicine/technology got a 500 year head start, imagine how it'd be back in the present.

Most likely you'd be burnt as a witch in short order. ;)

Tempting as it might be to change history (I'd be particularly interested as to how Churchill might be viewed absent the 'WW2 Hero' branding), I should think that would be a very dangerous game to play, no matter how well meaning.
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
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33,697
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Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
If killing Hitler c. 1918-30 prevents World War 2, it also prevents the technological surge of the mid-forties which came out of that war, which also prevents atomic weaponry, which prevents the Cold War, which prevents ARAPNET, which prevents the Internet, which prevents the World Wide Web, which prevents the Lounge. So if the plot succeeded, we wouldn't even be having this conversation.

Time is like an old sweater. Pick at one loose thread, and the whole garment falls apart.
 
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Spitfire

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,078
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark.
If killing Hitler c. 1918-30 prevents World War 2, it also prevents the technological surge of the mid-forties which came out of that war, which also prevents atomic weaponry, which prevents the Cold War, which prevents ARAPNET, which prevents the Internet, which prevents the World Wide Web, which prevents the Lounge. So if the plot succeeded, we wouldn't even be having this conversation.

Time is like an old sweater. Pick at one loose thread, and the whole garment falls apart.

Thank you for the Lounge, Adolf! :)
 

Foofoogal

Banned
Messages
4,884
Location
Vintage Land
What a fabulous ?

I would go back to 1952 and be either at the local Dairy Queen and watching the skating carhops or I would be at a prom in a fabulous dress.
 

Michael Carter

One of the Regulars
Messages
159
Location
Midwest
Being a student of history the choice is a difficult one.

Once I got back I'd want to travel during that week to see as much as possible.

Probably somewhere around 1938-1942.

I'd start in Germany and visit Zella-Mehlis in Thuringen where the Walther P.38 was just being introduced and pick up a new one. I'd also pick up the older PP and PPK. Then head over to Nürnberg and take in a rally and then down to München to have look around. Not too closely though. I would not want to arouse the suspicion of the Gestapo. Maybe visit Hermann's estate and do a little hunting.

Then up to Wiesbaden to visit a spa for a day or two and have a casual look around. Maybe visit where I would live nearly 30 years later as a boy. Or at least the area. The buildings didn't exist that long ago.

Then over to Paris for a day and on to London for the last two days.
 
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I would go back to the early thirties in Munich. Go to one of Adolf Hitlers meetings.
I would have a pistol in my pocket and I would kill the SOB.

In short, I think that if it hadn't of been Hitler it would have been someone else. The problem with that is that then alternate person might have been more competent and a better strategist. Getting rid of him might end up with all of us speaking German right now.:eusa_doh:
History can be quite resilient if you mess with it---it will push back hard.
 

Unlucky Berman

One of the Regulars
Messages
180
Location
Germany
If killing Hitler c. 1918-30 prevents World War 2, it also prevents the technological surge of the mid-forties which came out of that war, which also prevents atomic weaponry, which prevents the Cold War, which prevents ARAPNET, which prevents the Internet, which prevents the World Wide Web, which prevents the Lounge. So if the plot succeeded, we wouldn't even be having this conversation.

Time is like an old sweater. Pick at one loose thread, and the whole garment falls apart.

And now someone should say the universe (or god if you want) does not have a black humor with a strong tendency to irony ;)
It's always like that with history. There happened a lot of bad things but then if they would not have been then many of us would not be here and most of what we know either. There is also one other thing with WWII, it ended the the Great Depression and boosted the economy of several states, esp. the USA.

That's why I would choose the future as the place for my travel. Better to know what is coming and maybe change it before it happes if there would be a bad thing. But then, maybe I would become something like Biff Tannen after gettin my hands on some sports newspaper. :eek:

Getting rid of him might end up with all of us speaking German right now.:eusa_doh:

Deutsch ist aber eine sehr schöne Sprache und leichter als man denkt! :p
 
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That's why I would choose the future as the place for my travel. Better to know what is coming and maybe change it before it happes if there would be a bad thing. But then, maybe I would become something like Biff Tannen after gettin my hands on some sports newspaper. :eek:



Deutsch ist aber eine sehr schöne Sprache! :p

If you didn't I would lose respect for you. ;):p

Deutscher kann eine schöne Sprache sein, aber ich wollen nicht gezwungen werden, sie im Augenblick einer Gewehr zu sprechen. :rolleyes::p
 

dragonaxe

One of the Regulars
Messages
127
Location
Southern England
back 2 weeks, so i could pick the winning numbers on the £113million eurolottery! Only 1 ticket won it so i'd be £56million richer! Think of the hats i could buy :D
 

Michael Carter

One of the Regulars
Messages
159
Location
Midwest
And now someone should say the universe (or god if you want) does not have a black humor with a strong tendency to irony ;)
It's always like that with history. There happened a lot of bad things but then if they would not have been then many of us would not be here and most of what we know either. There is also one other thing with WWII, it ended the the Great Depression and boosted the economy of several states, esp. the USA.

That's why I would choose the future as the place for my travel. Better to know what is coming and maybe change it before it happes if there would be a bad thing. But then, maybe I would become something like Biff Tannen after gettin my hands on some sports newspaper. :eek:



Deutsch ist aber eine sehr schöne Sprache und leichter als man denkt! :p

Ich würde nicht überhaupt bedenken.
 

Michael Carter

One of the Regulars
Messages
159
Location
Midwest
If you didn't I would lose respect for you. ;):p

Deutscher kann eine schöne Sprache sein, aber ich wollen nicht gezwungen werden, sie im Augenblick einer Gewehr zu sprechen. :rolleyes::p

If you were as old as I am or younger, I doubt you'd have to experience that. It would already have been in the public school system for at least a generation.
 
In short, I think that if it hadn't of been Hitler it would have been someone else. The problem with that is that then alternate person might have been more competent and a better strategist. Getting rid of him might end up with all of us speaking German right now.:eusa_doh:
History can be quite resilient if you mess with it---it will push back hard.
Bingo: eliminate Hitler, and Stalin pushes west instead. Either way, you got totalitarian jackboots marchin' on Paris...

This very scenario was the premise of the old PC game Red Alert, and several other works of alternate-history.

Want to make a real difference? Help Stauffenberg, then confront Rommel with hard evidence of the atrocities his country was up to--check out Fox on the Rhine and Fox at the Front for an alternate-history of how this might have played out.
 

Michael Carter

One of the Regulars
Messages
159
Location
Midwest
Exactly. The West would have been overrun with Communism. Had the July 20th plot been successful, I doubt there would have ever been a 'West' Germany post-war.
 
The scenario played out in the books ultimately was "Patton Gets His Wish": he and Rommel team up, de-Nazify the Wehrmacht and turn it against Himmler's Reich and then push Stalin back east of Berlin. (The Potsdam Declaration? In this one, Potsdam is Zhukov & Konev's HQ, and the "declaration" is made with Little Boy...)
 

Michael Carter

One of the Regulars
Messages
159
Location
Midwest
Himmler was no leader when it came to war or the strategy of war. Anything he commanded would have been crushed and pushed out of the way on the way to Moscow.
 

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