EPTAsk and answer stupid questions here! - Page 414
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JimmiC
Canada22817 Posts
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farvacola
United States18874 Posts
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JimmiC
Canada22817 Posts
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Fecalfeast
Canada11355 Posts
On March 20 2016 23:19 farvacola wrote: And if a forensic accountant looked into that trust seed money? Imagine being the forensic accountant assigned to a time traveler. If somehow the time traveler gets found out by the investigation how do you even prosecute? | ||
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Buckyman
1364 Posts
Market investments are more intrusive - I'd mess with multiple individuals' timelines, if only slightly. | ||
Liquid`Drone
Norway28920 Posts
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JimmiC
Canada22817 Posts
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oneofthem
Cayman Islands24199 Posts
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Gorsameth
Netherlands22698 Posts
On March 21 2016 07:00 oneofthem wrote: i am disappointed that no one wants to something to accelerate the past's scientific and social progress We assumed minimal impact. Because we know the life we are leading now. Once you start changing anything your completely in the dark and even the most well meant change can have terrible consequences. | ||
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Cascade
Australia5405 Posts
On March 21 2016 07:00 oneofthem wrote: i am disappointed that no one wants to something to accelerate the past's scientific and social progress This leads to another, perhaps more interesting, question: how would you do that? Let's assume we get sent back in time as a one off thing. - No traveling back and forth between eras. - We don't get to bring anything. - we get to choose which time and place we are sent to. - we are opening a new timeline, feel free to change future as much as you want. - we want to improve the new timeline. (Let's keep the "how to become king in the past" discussion separate) Questions: 1) which time and place would you go to? 2) what would you do? | ||
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Simberto
Germany12075 Posts
The obvious classic would be "kill Hitler", but that is a very simplistic view of the past, with Hitler as the root source of nazi Germany. If Hitler isn't there, does that mean that the whole Nazi movement disappears? No, of course not. You might prevent the rise of the Nazi party, but then you might also just propel someone actually competent to the top of that party. And in the end, the main causes of WW2 are still there, a german population that feels deeply unhappy with the situation after WW1, in a recession, with a political system that is so split in so many factions that the paralysis becomes obvious to the population And of course the Sino-Japanese side of the war is completely untouched. The fact of the matter is that it is really hard to actually change the past in a meaningful way, and even harder to then predict what those changes will lead to. History is really complex  You also have the problem that you are but a single person without any particular power or social standing. You can't stop Genghis Khan from destroying large parts of Asia. I guess you could try to murder baby Genghis, but once again it is really hard to predict what that leads to. It might save a lot of people. But i don't think baby murder is the best way to go improving anything. My best try would be to try to spread science at some point where it is lacking, and hope for the best. This might horribly backfire, though. Basically, find some reasonably powerful and not totally asshole-ish noble, learn a bunch of stuff that you can actually apply in the past (Probably some basic chemistry and engineering, but you need to make sure that the things you learned are actually possible with the equipment at hand), and try to interweave empirical scientific theory with the very useful stuff you do. Attach to that noble and try to spread that knowledge as far as possible. The actual stuff you build isn't the most important thing, the empirical sciences ideas are. You will probably have to deal with shitloads of religious backlash, so make very sure that the stuff you bring is really, really useful. | ||
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Sent.
Poland9336 Posts
On March 21 2016 07:00 oneofthem wrote: i am disappointed that no one wants to something to accelerate the past's scientific and social progress That could be risky, imagine medieval Mongols armed with advanced weaponry. The world would be doomed. On March 21 2016 07:47 Cascade wrote: This leads to another, perhaps more interesting, question: how would you do that? Let's assume we get sent back in time as a one off thing. - No traveling back and forth between eras. - We don't get to bring anything. - we get to choose which time and place we are sent to. - we are opening a new timeline, feel free to change future as much as you want. - we want to improve the new timeline. (Let's keep the "how to become king in the past" discussion separate) Questions: 1) which time and place would you go to? 2) what would you do? I'm thinking about sabotaging communist revolution in Russia so the country somehow ends up democractic or just not totalitarian, and then giving some non-military tech to nations most fucked up during the Great War so they survive the Great Depression in a decent shape (that should stop fascism). | ||
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Yurie
12182 Posts
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Yoav
United States1874 Posts
On March 21 2016 09:44 Yurie wrote: Biggest impact in history (if you can convince people) would most likely be 6000 years ago or so in the Indus Valley and changing their crop system to be more sustainable. Would have a knock on effect and likely make our current civilisation arrive by what we consider 2000 BC. Stopping the Mongols from destroying the Mideast's irrigation systems likewise be an economic way of massively advancing civilization. Helping Athens beat Sparta in the Peloponnesian War could have a tremendous impact too, but that's a harder thing to game out accurately. Although, for sheer hilarity, giving the Aztecs advanced technology would be pretty hilarious, a la Crusader Kings's "Sunset Invasion" where they invade Europe. | ||
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JimmiC
Canada22817 Posts
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Yoav
United States1874 Posts
On March 21 2016 11:10 JimmiC wrote: For my own personal intrest I would go to the start of all the religons to see if they were all cults or more legit. This would be my own preference if actually given a time machine. Christianity would be very testable, since things like resurrection and Jesus' various signs of power were very public and visibly manifest. Judaism or Hinduism would be easy to test in fundamentalist forms, but more liberal forms would be impossible to test at all. Islam has some early miracles, but they are often just limited to Mohammad himself, which would make them harder to test. Something like Buddhism would be utterly untestable, though individual sects could have their origin stories and great saints tested (although maybe you could use a time machine to more properly test reincarnation as a theory.) | ||
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Thieving Magpie
United States6752 Posts
On March 21 2016 11:10 JimmiC wrote: For my own personal intrest I would go to the start of all the religons to see if they were all cults or more legit. Wouldn't the firs thing to test with a time machine be the beginning of time and the end of time? Day Zero, Year Zero | ||
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KwarK
United States44432 Posts
On March 21 2016 11:10 JimmiC wrote: For my own personal intrest I would go to the start of all the religons to see if they were all cults or more legit. Do you really not already know? | ||
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Buckyman
1364 Posts
1) Learn Russian 2) Go back to January 24, 1995 3) Locate the officer who will be responsible for persuading Boris Yseltin to launch a nuclear counterattack and treat him to some drinks spiked with something nasty enough to keep him from showing up to work tomorrow. | ||
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Velr
Switzerland10986 Posts
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