If you had a time machine, would you...

[Guitar-Chris]

I don't want to go back there.

Still think you'd want to?

Wingsdad, I have to admit that I didn't have these pictures in mind. But there are well know. There was a long documentation about the demonstration in Ohio in the german television some weeks ago.

That's the problem of this imagination-thread. Some want to go 2000 years back, but of course the don't want to have all the deseases of that time. I would like to be in Woodstock, but would not change with other things.

Look, when I was a child, my family was not rich, not really poor at all, but life was more simple. But, sometimes, you are thinking of the past, and you get a warm feeling about all the happiness when beeing a child.

Sometimes it's a good thing, not to remember the bad things.

But - also looking at the younger german history - sometimes it is good not to forget the bad things.

[wingsdad]

Look, when I was a child, my family was not rich, not really poor at all, but life was more simple. But, sometimes, you are thinking of the past, and you get a warm feeling about all the happiness when beeing a child.

Oh, yes, Chris, indeed.

Sometimes it's a good thing, not to remember the bad things.

But - also looking at the younger german history - sometimes it is good not to forget the bad things.

If I were 1-3 yrs. old instead of 18-20 in 1968-70, the memories wouldn't be as vivid.

[just strum]

Wingsdad, I have to admit that I didn't have these pictures in mind. But there are well know. There was a long documentation about the demonstration in Ohio in the german television some weeks ago.

We live 12 miles from that college and my son is a full-time student there. I can remember when it happened and the mood and the divide that was present. I was a junior in high school, just started wearing long hair and against the establishment. My step fathers brother was a career soldier, several tours in Vietnam, and he was home on leave when a local news station approached him to ask him about Kent State, his response "they should have killed more of them".

Look, when I was a child, my family was not rich, not really poor at all, but life was more simple. But, sometimes, you are thinking of the past, and you get a warm feeling about all the happiness when beeing a child.

If I look further back I initially think of it as "easier times" or a "simpler life", but that would be for me, not my parents. It's easy to think of those days as "simpler times" when you don't have to work, dinner is waiting for you, someone is washing your clothes, a warm bed to sleep in..."

Saying that, if I was to go forward or backwards, I would want to go into the future to see how it turns out.

However, my real answer is - I would stay where I am at right now. I know the problems, I've learned to deal with them, and despite all of today's challenges, I am enjoying the trip.

[oldguy]

Or you could go back just far enough that Blazes wouldn't be helping you with that 335.

[tjcurtin1]

Wings - a powerful post. We often romanticize the past, especially if it wasn't ours.

[oldguy]

Wings - a powerful post. We often romanticize the past, especially if it wasn't ours.

+1.........
I was still in high school when the first local boy's body came home from 'Nam.
In a small community, a war half a world away somehow became less a noble cause and more a heartbreaking reality.

[Ch0jin]

I'd take two people as crew to make the most influential documentary of all history.

"So Jesus. Having read this translation of the Bible and having spent the last couple of weeks going over a summarized version of everything thats been done in your name over the last couple of thousand years, could you give us your thoughts?"

"Stay tuned for part two where we put similar questions to Mohamed..."

Hey Jimi, you don't happen to speak ancient Aramaic do you? Maybe we could go together

Guitar-Chris raises an interesting point about disease though.

My gut feel is that a 21'st century guy would actually be resistant to a lot of ancient diseases. I figured it would be MUCH worse for a 2000 year old man to be brought into the present disease wise. Of course the difference is, a 2000 year old man in the 21st century could be treated for anything they caught, not so in the other direction. I mean a small med kit would stave off things that would have killed people only a few hundred years ago. Got some scurvy? Have a vitamin C tablet. Got some Plague? Here pop some amoxycillin. For my money I'd be more concerned about ancient culture than ancient disease. The chances of being killed just for looking different would be pretty high I'd think, and to that effect, I'd be going well armed "Burn the witch you say? Say hello to my little friend....."

[msteeln]

If I had access to the Way-Back machine, I'd go right back to my old neighborhood in South/East LA and check out the happening scene just after WW2 and into the early 60s, in towns like Maywood, Bell, South Gate, Huntington Park, Compton, Bell Gardens, and Downey. These were the hot beds and birth places of West Coast swing and rock-a-billy, with guitarists - Merle Travis, Joe Maphis, Jimmy Bryant, Eddie Cochran, steelers - Joaquin Murphey, Noel Boggs, Marian Hall, Speedy West. Also the home/shop of Paul Bigsby (more than just his famed vibrato), and where The Town Hall Party and it's type of shin-digs were held, plus too much more to explain.

I was lucky in my own childhood to be around icons of other sorts, but those I mentioned are many of my musical hero's of today as well.

And, I'd make sure I didn't blow every chance I had to see Jimi Hendrix!

[Jimi75]

"Stay tuned for part two where we put similar questions to Mohamed..."

Hey Jimi, you don't happen to speak ancient Aramaic do you? Maybe we could go together

Guitar-Chris raises an interesting point about disease though.

Aramaic? Well, working on it as well as on tapped arpeggios

The disease thing was a good point, but there are so many diseases that we suffer from today....

I understood the time machine thread with an option to stay for a certain time and to be able to go "back" to the future again.

I think we have to define this.
What is meant here?

1. Time Machine that you can travel once and never come back?
2. Time Machine that you can travel back with again?
3. Are you taking part in the time period you travel to.
4. Are you just able to observe?

[Bloozcat]

I think I would be more interested in the future than the past. The past has already happened, been written about, debated, rehashed, revised, and is gone..

I'd like to know first of all, if we survive as the dominant species on the planet. Assuming that we do, I'd then like to see how far we advance in medicine & science. I especially like to see if we ever master warp travel and explore the vastness of the universe.

But, I fear that just as in H.G. Wells The Time Machine, the not too distant future will be one of global ruin before a new age slowly emerges. Will it finally be the post Apocalyptic period of the 1000 year reign of Christ on earth? Or, will it be just the latest in the series of war, death, destruction, and ruin followed by yet another cycle of rebuilding after having learned nothing from the exercise yet again?

First stop...December 23, 2012.....

[msteeln]

The past has already happened, been written about, debated, rehashed, revised, and is gone.

There is still plenty greats yet to be given proper print and face time.
One prime example is The Maddox Brothers And Rose, a family that not only lived Steinbeck's stirring novel 'The Grapes Of Wrath' which Henry Fonda starred superbly in the movie version of, but they then went on to post WW2 stardom as 'The Most Colorful Hillbilly Band In The Land' and produced some of the very best in country and Western swing music, and almost always included steel guitar by Bud Duncan and hot pickin' by the likes of Roy Nichols.
I'd love to get in 'the time machine' to witness their stage act.

Another sorrily unsung great in the steel and guitar world is Paul Bigsby (yes that Bigsby!), who just got some fine focus in the new and quite excellant book by Andy Babuik - The Story Of Paul Bigsby; The Father Of The Modern Electric Solid Body Guitar. www.bigsbyguitars.com/news12.html The book comes with a rare CD of Mr. Bigsby talking about his stuff.
There is also a good listen on www.npr.org about Bigsby, just type in bigsby in the searcher.

[Ch0jin]

I think I would be more interested in the future than the past. The past has already happened, been written about, debated, rehashed, revised, and is gone..

I'd like to know first of all, if we survive as the dominant species on the planet. Assuming that we do, I'd then like to see how far we advance in medicine & science. I especially like to see if we ever master warp travel and explore the vastness of the universe.

But, I fear that just as in H.G. Wells The Time Machine, the not too distant future will be one of global ruin before a new age slowly emerges. Will it finally be the post Apocalyptic period of the 1000 year reign of Christ on earth? Or, will it be just the latest in the series of war, death, destruction, and ruin followed by yet another cycle of rebuilding after having learned nothing from the exercise yet again?

First stop...December 23, 2012.....

I like that line of thinking, although the primary motivation for me to travel back to some of the key points in history is precisely because I do not believe that the past was necessarily documented accurately, or for the good of mankind as we know it today. Without going into specifics, I'd like to hold up an accurate account of historic events to try and help the world as a whole to understand the mistakes of the past and thus try and prevent them from occurring again.

Regarding man remaining the dominant species, I would be very, very keen to see what happens in the future for the same reasons you mentioned, but also I'd like to go WAY forward to see what happens to man as we know it, because at least once in history we've seen a species very similar to ours cease to exist. To explain.

It's scientifically accepted that Homo sapiens have been wandering about the place for around 200,000 years. That's certainly a long time, especially considering we've only really been documenting things for a couple of thousand years. During that time though, it's thought that Neanderthal man or Homo neanderthalensis existed as a separate species for around 100,000 years and then became extinct. So in the span of us Homo sapiens to date, we've actually already seen a species very, very similar to ours vanish off the face of the earth! Now I'm not aware of any theories that Neanderthal man was actually a dominant species, from what I've read it's more likely they were an inferior species to Homo sapien and therefore fell victim to natural selection, so that's not a great example I suppose.

However, consider my old friend Mr Homo erectus who wandered about the place for approximately 1.3 MILLION years before we Homo sapiens and the ill fated Neanderthal's rocked up on the scene. Now we can argue that erectus might not have been the top -predator- back then the way that we are now, but in human terms they were the dominant species and remained so for more than a million years, over which time they evolved so significantly they needed a new classification as a species. In scientific terms, I read that as the dominant species being replaced. So there we go. It's happened at least once before that mankind was replaced as the dominant species, it' stands to reason that if we don't destroy the earth first, it could happen again. After all, as I said, our predecessors were around for 1.3million years before we took over, and we've only really been at the helm for a brief 200,000 year stint.

All that said though, I'm pretty certain we'll render the planet unfit for habitation by humans as we know them in the near future anyway.

[just strum]

I'd take two people as crew to make the most influential documentary of all history.

"So Jesus. Having read this translation of the Bible and having spent the last couple of weeks going over a summarized version of everything thats been done in your name over the last couple of thousand years, could you give us your thoughts?"

"Stay tuned for part two where we put similar questions to Mohamed..."

Now that would be interesting, but I would pose the questions to God or Allah (one in the same). This is to address those people that view Mohammad and Jesus role in history in a different light. We must respect those people that have different beliefs.

This is now diving in too far into religion, although the thread unintentionally served as the vehicle for the discussion.

[Ch0jin]

....

This is now diving in too far into religion, although the thread unintentionally served as the vehicle for the discussion.

I hope I didn't go too far! I was trying very carefully to leave my religious views out of it. I just think, regardless of your views, that would likely be THE most important documentary ever made, and hence why I'd use the time machine for this purpose

[tot_Ou_tard]

I think it would be cool to meet up with Tot and Duck Dogers in the 24 1/2 century.Sumi

So you know about my great great grandfather Duck Dodgers then?

You earth creatures continue to amaze.

But, I fear that just as in H.G. Wells The Time Machine, the not too distant future will be one of global ruin before a new age slowly emerges. Will it finally be the post Apocalyptic period of the 1000 year reign of Christ on earth? Or, will it be just the latest in the series of war, death, destruction, and ruin followed by yet another cycle of rebuilding after having learned nothing from the exercise yet again?

Or each of the above & then some in one or another of the branches of the future.

First stop...December 23, 2012.....

So two days after...just enough time to get rid of the pounding hangover...nice touch.

Judging from some of these posts it would be interesting to explore philosophical/religious concepts but that'd probably end up in a train wreck. Strum have you come back from the immediate future yet to find out if this thread derails?

[Rx Tone]

That reminds me............ if I had a time machine, I'd try and find out who first said..........
"An optimist says 'The glass is half full'
A pessimist says 'The glass is half empty'
A realist says 'That glass is twice as large as it needs to be'. "

Depends on whether you're drinking or buying.

[Bloozcat]

So two days after...just enough time to get rid of the pounding hangover...nice touch.

Well, it would be an awful mess to stop the time machine right in front of an oncoming tsunami or where a fizzure in the earth is opening up...

Interesting take, Ch0jin....

Neither Homo Erectus nor Neanderthal ever became more than masters of their environment while Homo Sapiens became the dominant species on earth in less than 200,000 years. I read of one theory that claims Neanderthal and Homo Sapiens may have co-mingled with Neanderthal being absorbed by Homo Sapiens through interbreeding. It's a theory, but one it seems with little serious support.

It would seem that for Homo Sapiens it's not a question of biological evolution, but one of intellectual evolution measured through technological advances. Perhaps it's more properly adaptation than evolution in the traditional sense. What interests me is with Homo Sapiens having long ago established himself as first, the master of his environment and then dominant over all other earth species, will he ever manage to become master of himself. With technological advances increasing an an exponential rate, will man evolve quickly enough intellectually, morally, ethically, and spiritually to prevent his own extinction? Or, will man become a victim of his own success?

Time, that illogical nuisance that binds us to the moment.

[Ch0jin]

Excellent post Bloozecat!

I can't add any more to what you said without actually using this time machine, so I'll just applaud you for putting it so succinctly

[tot_Ou_tard]

Well, it would be an awful mess to stop the time machine right in front of an oncoming tsunami or where a fizzure in the earth is opening up...

You'd think, but you know: the best laid plans...

The fissures & tsunamis start on the 23rd. What you miss are two days of the dispensation of love, oneness, profound meaning, and heartrending beauty necessary to persevere through the onslaught.

Enjoy the 23rd.