If you could go back in time, say, to

[frogmarch]

the 1600s (anyplace in the world), and arrive dressed in the clothing of your choice (would you try to blend in and look like everyone else, or would you dress in modern clothing?) and take one object with you, how would you dress and what object would you take with you to the past?

Based on your answers, how do you think you would you be received by the people of the past? Would you reveal to anyone that you're a time traveler from the future?

Please elaborate as much as you'd like to.

I like daydreaming about time travel, even though I realize that time travel to the past may be impossible.

[MissHoneychurch]

1. I think I would dress in the clothes of the times

but I might change my mind considering how uncomfy some of the women's clothes must have been.

What would I take with me? As a women probably tampons (who knows how long I have to stay there).
And I would bring a camera with me to take as much pictures as possible to bring back to the future. That way we'd know exactly how daily life back then was.

I think with a camera people would notice that something is wrong with me. And would burn as a witch most likeley :shrug:

[frogmarch]

5. Yes, being burned (or hanged) as a witch

would be a strong possibility.

A camera might be what I'd take too. I can't decide.

[siligut]

2. I daydream about time travel too.

Why the 1600s? I would blend in as much as possible. I would want to be a man and possibly a ship captain. I would want to experience as much of the world as I could, to see history as it really was, not the interpretation the winners have given us. I create many different scenarios though; why do you choose the 1600s? I will come back to see your response later :)

[frogmarch]

6. I used the 1600s only as an

example. The reason I said 1600s is because I've been doing a lot of genealogy research on on my family, and I've traced my dad's paternal grandmother's ancestors back to the early 1600s, when they arrived in colonial MA from England. Many were involved in the Salem witch trials. Several of my great grandmothers were hanged as witches, and two of my distant great-grandfathers were Salem witch trial jurors. Other relatives of mine testified for the accused, and still others against.

It's creepy knowing that many of my ancestors were involved in the witch hysteria.

[siligut]

18. The witch hysteria: wrong place at the wrong time.

You have interesting ancestry. Have you looked further into the witch hysteria? I have oft thought it was really about factions vying for power.

[DainBramaged]

3. Give me a bazooka and 1000 rounds and take me back to Rome

I'd show 'em about conquering foreign lands.........And I'd look like this............

[frogmarch]

7. Whoa,

you'd kick some serious butt in that getup! Good luck to you in your conquest. (Saying "Break a leg" would sound silly, given your armor.)

[MorningGlow]

4. I'd dress in period clothing to blend in

and bring along a first aid kit--with penicillin.

[frogmarch]

8. Penicillin sounds like a great idea.

I often wonder how so many people from pre-penicillin days lived to be elderly, yet many of my own ancestors did. They must have been pretty tough - unlike me, who'd have died years ago without penicillin and other antibiotics.

[HopeHoops]

9. I'd want to go in full Star Trek uniform (Admiral Kirk's uniform) - with a functional phaser.

[frogmarch]

10. A hand-held phaser is

a brilliant idea. You could stun an antagonist, or if need be, disintegrate him or her - or them, since you could hit more than one target at once.

Please, don't disintegrate any of my ancestors, or this thread might disappear. (You might want to watch out for yours too.) ;-)

[HopeHoops]

14. Nah, all you have to do is vaporize a turnip to get their attention.

[kentauros]

11. India, and it's easy to find the right clothing around here, too

(Houston has one of the largest Indian populations in the country.) Plus, after looking at the relative time-period you mention, 1600 would put me there during the rule of Akbar the Great. Seems like this guy was pretty damn liberal and intellectual. In other words, a Liberal's paradise! :D

As for telling them I'm a time-traveller, I don't think that would be much of a surprise to some of them, like the yogis and such. It all seems pretty laid-back there, even between religions.

And then there's the Kama Sutra... :evilgrin:

[frogmarch]

12. Thanks for the link.

I'm going to go read it now. My maternal ancestors were Indian, and I like learning what I can about India, especially its history.

I didn't know Houston has a large Indian population. Interesting!

Kama Sutra? What's that? ;-)

[kentauros]

13. That's cool to have a family-link to India :)

After reading that little bit about Akbar, I think maybe I need to find a good book on the history of India. They really have a fascinating culture.

An Indian co-worker gave me links to some of the Indian restaurants in town I haven't been to yet, and here's the one I tried this past Sunday: http://www.bhojanusa.com Yeah, I was stuffed the rest of the day :9


The Lounge needs a Kama Sutra section, for all those threads we're not supposed to post here :P

[RandomThoughts]

15. Actually time travel would be really easy.

Depending on what you think existence is. For time travel to be possible, all that has to happen is for somewhere the state of everything in the universe would have to be stored. In temporal lore that storage is done in the dimension of time, mostly a thought fallacy within normal world, since time exist when anything changes, and not much more then that. Since if nothing changed time would not move. By measuring time, and thinking of it as a dimension from the thought of it being on an axis like the other three dimensions, people think the past and future actually exist at some stored location in time.

In matrix, or tron doctrine, time travel becomes really easy, just store the system at some point, then move someone back to that saved location, and start a new time line from that point on.

Although just a metaphor, I don't believe in tron or matrix doctrine, the concept of some higher control of the entirety of what we think of as existence would make time travel really easy, if the state of every thing in existence could be stored.


Side note, the concepts on quantum mechanics are really interesting, since they state that the amount of data to even understand a molecule is huge, however what is thought to be noise, could be formulaic and repeatable, just beyond understanding.

[bluedigger]

16. Time travel - Let's go!

Always a good time waster...:)

First, I would dress in period appropriate clothing in order to blend in. Given the time frame (1600s) in your premise, the object I would bring with me would be a sextant.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sextant

The sextant was crucial to the rapid exploration of the planet by the great sea going powers, and was in widespread use by the mid 1700s. It wasn't a new technology so much as a clever combination of existing ones, so I should be able to avoid being hanged as a witch. I would expect that I could use it to rapidly gain power and influence with any number of world leaders. Combined with the basic knowledge of science, geography, etc... that I brought with me, I would go on to found an enlightened world dictatorship which my descendants continue to rule to this day.:rofl:

[Danger Mouse]

17. All I'd need is my boomstick.