One opportunity to use a time machine... What would you do?

For me the time has come to look back at myself, my life and how I became who I am today. The idea that the best way to move forward in life is knowing the exact route I took to get to the reality I live in today couldn't be more obvious than it already is.

I'm a dreamer and always dream big. As far back as I can remember I always fantasized that I am very rich and happy. For instance when I was around eleven years old a guy at a bodega offered to read my palm and told me that he can see very clearly that I will be a rich and well respected man. This memory has been in the back of my mind ever since. Most of the time I would visualize finding a huge bag or a suitcase full of money. Living in a beautiful house with a wonderful family. Working a job that I love etc.

I'm waiting for it to happen all my life, but the thing is that It already happened but I didn't notice it. I get obsessed with things all the time. Unfortunately it's not always a good thing because I tend to overdo it most of the time. I have been addicted to drugs, alcohol, pain killers, over the counter drugs, cigarets, internet, over spending, even surgery to name a few bad ones. The good ones are exercising, reading, working (not sure if that's a good one). Each obsession usually wears off after a year or two, but it always gets replaces by something new. The bad ones win unfortunately.

My wife and my parents gave me way too many second chances. It feels like I won't be able to ever truly repay them because the love and support they gave me is almost super natural.

The truth is that I'm blessed with an amazing family, I'm pretty healthy, live in a dream house and I do love my job. All I need now is to find a bag of money.

I see now that while I am waiting to find that suitcase or a black garbage bag full of money on the side of a road I fail to see that everything I have and ever had is a miracle. My life is amazing and I don't even understand how it happened.

It's like if my life was an airplane and I'm siting in the cockpit looking forward while flying on autopilot to some airport that doesn’t exist. Just waiting for that landing strip to appear on the horizon, but not noticing that I already passed multiple landing strips that look almost the same as the one I'm waiting for. Does that even make any sense?

It make me sad thinking about it. It's like if I accept that my life is a success then there's nothing to look for in the future, no landing strip to appear on the horizon. But if I ignore that I already have what I need then what's the point of having it?

A question came into my mind recently, I can't choose the answer and it's driving me crazy. Just another obsession I guess.

I am interested to see how many people feel the same way. So here's the question...

If you had just one opportunity to use a time machine to go back and change something that you know was a big mistake, or go to a point in the future when you just realized that you just made a mistake and have an opportunity to try to avoid it when you come back, What would you do?

I know it doesn't make much sense but I'm in one of those moods lately.

I would destroy it and never speak of it again
for the sake of all humanity, not worth the unknown risk of destroying everything..
And the same goes for my opinion on the large hadron collider

Hmmm... I think I can pinpoint a couple 'nexus' points in my life's past where if things had gone differently on that one day ..just one day of the thousands that make my life...everything for years following would have been very different too. Yeah, I'd have a challenge to choose which nexus point to change but I love your OP for the thinking it requires...Which one of them, actually? Now I'll be thinking about that on and off for awhile. lol... s/f

i would go back to when the mayans made the calendar that ends on the 21st ,and ask them why

reply to post by whatsecret


i read that wrong sorry ,i would'nt go back and change anything in my past as i would'nt be the person i am now

Originally posted by darknewt
i would go back to when the mayans made the calendar that ends on the 21st ,and ask them why

All the UFO's over Mexico are them trying to give us a new calendar. But they get chased away by the air force.

The only thing I would like to change, is meeting my ex husband. But I can't do that, because then I wouldn't have the only two things he did right in 7 years!

i would go back to the time hitler's parents met for the first time.
and somehow distract her away. if i had to, try and whoo her myself.
anything to stop her falling for hitler senior

I would go to earliest possible time, and, furthest future.... just to see if my mind can comprehend what i will be seeing.

Addicted to surgery?

Originally posted by zonetripper2065
Addicted to surgery?

long story

I will have to be the first to play the greed card and do the lottery number thing

Time machines. Fun.

If all I had was a single-use time machine, I wouldn't go BACK in time, but, forward.

I'd go forward in time to a time where multi-use time machines existed, and Grand-Theft-Auto one of those for prolific Dr. Who-ing toward whatever leisure and whimsy I might have.

Suffice to say, when it comes to altering time, I follow the Observed Universe paradigm where once something is observed, it's essentially indestructible and unchangeable for the duration of observation.
Certainly there's the argument that one could create pre-existing conditions to 'change' an observation, but, doing so only creates an alternate observable event/place/time where if one were desirous, they could always go back to any point origin observation in its original indestructible "pre-observed" state.

Thus, you can 'change' things, events, outcomes, probabilities and such, but, doing so does not alter the pre-existing already observed time line stemming from the original condition. Doing so only creates another alternate condition.

I would go back in time and figure out the mysteries of our past. Then I would come to ATS and post it, where noone would believe me haha.

In actuality I would probably just destroy it. I would never want to be lost in the past or future, not to mention the whole universe collapsing, I would be scared.

Has anyone seen the movie Primer? Primer is really interesting; first they go back and win stocks, but they create so many strange after effects they have to keep going back. It's interesting to think if you really could go back, even just a little, your life would be so complicated the invention would probably be lost in a small portion of time. For instance, if you keep repeating 2010, you'd never witness the invention making it to 2011. That would suck!

reply to post by Juggernog


One day the lottery will win my numbers. No time machine needed for that.

I would go back and ask out that one woman that i know would change my life

reply to post by whatsecret


i would go back and stack cheese, gold mostly, when i 14 an oz of gold was cheaper than an oz of "tobacco". I would have collected as much gold as i could over my lifetime and knowing when the prices would skyrocket be ready to sell when the time is right. I would be able to retire right now if i had a time machine. I would also have fun knowing the future maybe place a few bets, and turn those winnings into gold. it would be hard though to not save the people i knew were going to die, but i would have have enough respect to allow life and death take its course. and finaley there was a girl that slipped through my fingers long ago..........

reply to post by whatsecret


I would go back to 1992 and stop muggers stabbing my brother to death on the train station in my town or just make sure he stayed home that aweful night then I wouldn't be missing him still.

I would go back 2 years, not get in the shower, get lots of hugs and kisses and beg them to sleep on my floor.
You kinda suck for asking that, no personal offense intended, once I read it the answer was just there.

I think I would make sure that the South won the Civil War...just to see if America would still be as screwed up as it is today...