Regardless of consequences...

Cosmo

Cosmo

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Assuming you had the ability to travel through time and that you're limited to this single timeline, would you go back and change something from the past, even at the risk of causing paradoxes or influencing events for the worst?

I'm not sure I'd be brave (crazy) enough to purposefully change something... I'm not even sure I'd risk going back just as an observer! The only way I'd be comfortable with it is if the multiple timelines / parallel universes thing held up and I was able to return to my original, unaltered version of the world.

 
Assuming you had the ability to travel through time and that you're limited to this single timeline, would you go back and change something from the past, even at the risk of causing paradoxes or influencing events for the worst?I'm not sure I'd be brave (crazy) enough to purposefully change something... I'm not even sure I'd risk going back just as an observer! The only way I'd be comfortable with it is if the multiple timelines / parallel universes thing held up and I was able to return to my original, unaltered version of the world.
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If there are no other timelines involved, you probably wouldn't know you made the change. For example, I wouldn't want to do it because I don't want to risk not having my children. I wouldn't even know I did it, though, even if I did. I suppose you could wipe yourself out of existence, too. Parallel universes do fix a lot of problems. :)

 
I would definitely change things if I was given an opportunity even with the understanding that time-lines would/could be altered and paradoxes could be created.

 
Assuming you had the ability to travel through time and that you're limited to this single timeline, would you go back and change something from the past, even at the risk of causing paradoxes or influencing events for the worst?I'm not sure I'd be brave (crazy) enough to purposefully change something... I'm not even sure I'd risk going back just as an observer! The only way I'd be comfortable with it is if the multiple timelines / parallel universes thing held up and I was able to return to my original, unaltered version of the world.
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I believe that events play out the way they're supposed to, so I would have to give any circumstance a lot of thought if I was going to try to make changes. As an example - saving someone from dying in an auto accident, then have them either turn out to be a serial killer or get a horrendous disease - The car accident might have been much better.
If Hitler had been killed, imagine if someone like Rommel took Hitlers place ?

As far as risking going back, in any capacity, YEAH you would. Having a working time traveling machine in your garage and NOT using it to go somewhere in the past ? :eek: Ha !

Even if I could return to the original, unaltered version of the world, I would hesitate because the past might not be as "romantic " as imagined.

Seeing the Grand Canyon or other "western landscapes " before civilization showed up would be awesome. But having a group of Native American warriors sneak up on me while gawking wouldn't be much fun.

 
Assuming you had the ability to travel through time and that you're limited to this single timeline, would you go back and change something from the past, even at the risk of causing paradoxes or influencing events for the worst?I'm not sure I'd be brave (crazy) enough to purposefully change something... I'm not even sure I'd risk going back just as an observer! The only way I'd be comfortable with it is if the multiple timelines / parallel universes thing held up and I was able to return to my original, unaltered version of the world.
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Oh, man, the more that I think about this, the less of a zeal for time travel I'm having! Stop it!! Lol. I'll just console myself in the multiple timelines approach and convince myself that there is no need to consider such things until the opportunity actually presents itself (not).
While I might be compelled to go back if I could make a big difference by preventing some past genocide, or the possibility of drastically improving my current life, could I bear the thought of erasing life as it is now? I don't know. On the one hand, I have typically believed that things are as they are for a reason. On the other, I believe in the power of change and using the abilities we are given... <Sigh>

Either way - good question! Why isn't this ever explored further? I suppose that in many ways the question is presented in time travel literature and media by showing the reader/ viewer the results of changing a timeline. To deal with the question even more directly, though, is interesting.

 
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