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If you had a time machine...
WattsThat:
--- Quote from: james_s on April 15, 2021, 08:35:02 pm ---
--- Quote from: Syntax Error on April 15, 2021, 08:20:12 pm ---Seriously (?), I would travel back to the year 1950 to give Alan Turing this recently issued British £50 note. It would be delivered with the explicit instruction that he must get on the first liner headed for America as his life was in danger from a British establishment conspiracy against leading academics (sic). There would be no need to explain to him the concept of time travel plus, he would understand the concept of a temporal paradox.
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I think there's a very good chance he would think you were a nut and disregard everything you said. I don't know much about his personality but I would expect most rational people to respond in that way, certainly I would if some random weirdo showed up claiming to be from the future.
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There was a Rod Serling Twilight Zone episode that explored that exact theory. Russell Johnson (the professor on Gilligan’s Island) finds himself transported back in time to the evening of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. He pleads with those around him to assist with preventing the event but is seen and treated as a nutter. It was all very believable and was exactly the way we would all react to the situation.
Only later, after returning to the present time, does he realize he was being helped by John Wilkes Booth.
Sal Ammoniac:
I'd go back to 1997 where I'd buy as much Apple stock (at $1 a share) as I could afford.
MathWizard:
OP I agree I'd have a hard time choosing 1 period, in fact it reminds me of in video games where you level up your tech somehow. I guess I'd choose something early, since there's lots of the game left. And I'd want to play the whole thing.
Today I'd say the 1930's, all the R&D in between WW1/2, a lot of cool stuff was in the works.
Alex Eisenhut:
--- Quote from: Syntax Error on April 15, 2021, 08:20:12 pm ---a British establishment conspiracy against leading academics (sic).
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"sic"?
Syntax Error:
--- Quote from: Alex Eisenhut on April 16, 2021, 02:54:03 am ---
--- Quote from: Syntax Error on April 15, 2021, 08:20:12 pm ---a British establishment conspiracy against leading academics (sic).
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"sic"?
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This is a Latin idiom used in written English to denote a statement is the truth, but often said in an ironic or cynical way. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sic
Given how Turing was abandoned by the British establishment, someone very high up, was for sure conspiring against him. Maybe Turing knew too much about those senior figures who had done too little? Wild speculation (sic).
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