I think we can rule out getting sick -- if we can generate the power to travel back i'm sure our bodies would be full of nano machines to take care of any unwanted bacteria or viruses.
Einstein said that the closer you get to the speed of light, the slower time passes for you. So anyone else in the universe is still moving at the same speed time-wise but for you traveling at the speed of light, time progresses at a slower rate so you are neither time traveling nor entering in another dimension. Time just passes differently for you. So a 2 week trip for you might be 2 years for everyone else. I liked that theory about the multiple dimensions. It always seemed more plausible then just simple time travel shown in movies, TV, etc.
It would most likely be a bigger issue for the local folks than with the time traveler. With all the vaccines we have nowdays, I am sure we would have carried a bug back to where there is no cure and start a plague....
I don't think hygeine would be a great concern if you're going to a wealthy civilization in its heyday, like ancient Rome. I think the main problem would be that you're arriving as a complete foreigner -- you look funny, you talk funny, you don't understand what people are saying or what you're supposed to be doing, you have no family or contacts of any kind to give you status. I don't think you're going to get into the Roman bath to be bathed by hottie slave women with handicaps like that.
There is a scene in "Time After Time" with Malcolm McDowell where he is riding in his time machine watching out the window as he sails through time. There is a boutique across from his window, and as he travels, the styles in the window change accordingly. It's kind of a cool scene, if a bit cheezy. no time to find the clip, but here's the even cheezier trailer. <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vYs8poLD8oU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> As for actually traveling myself? Hard to say I wouldn't, but you'd have to consider greater ramifications than just the hygiene of the time / place your going, I would think, depending on your belief of how that stuff works. "THIS IS MY BOOMSTICK!" <object width="560" height="304" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://movieclips.com/e/kNZ2D/" style="background: #000000; display: block; overflow: hidden;"> <param name="movie" value="http://movieclips.com/e/kNZ2D/" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000" /> <param name="wmode" value="transparent" /> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /> <embed src="http://movieclips.com/e/kNZ2D/" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" movie="http://movieclips.com/e/kNZ2D/" wmode="transparent" allowscriptaccess="always" ></embed> </object> <div style="margin: 0; padding: 1px 0 0 0; width: 560px; height: 27px; background: #000000; -moz-border-radius-bottomleft: 4px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; -moz-border-radius-bottomright: 4px; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; text-align: center; line-height: 11px;"> <a href="http://movieclips.com/kNZ2D-army-of-darkness-movie-this-is-my-boomstick/" style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Sans-serif; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10px; color: #00aeff; text-decoration: none;">This Is My Boomstick!</a><br /> <a href="http://movieclips.com/HYCsJ-army-of-darkness-movie-videos/" style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Sans-serif; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10px; color: #ffffff; text-decoration: none;"> Army of Darkness</a> <a href="http://movieclips.com/" style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Sans-serif; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">at MOVIECLIPS.com</a></div>
That's true but it is relative and prior to germ theory and the widespread availability of insecticides even a place clean by ancient standards would still be very dirty by modern standards. Just consider how hard it is to eradicate things like bedbugs now now consider a world where those things along with smallpox are very common.
That's why you bring a lighter... when you spark it, you wave your hands around it mystically and whisper "magic!" and glare at the audience. Greek and Roman societies already believed that the Persian Zoroastrians were practicers of "alchemy" and "magic" anyway, so you could play up that angle.
The vast majority of people would have lived in absolute squalor. And the minority who didn't still lived a pretty dismal life by our standards. No matter how much hollywood can pretty it up. I'm up with going back 20 or 30 years. Those were fun times. And I could make a few tweaks to my portfolio. (Given advance notice I could do some crazy fantastic things with the lotto too).
To further geek out. My understanding is that wormhole and String theories allow for the possibility of time travel. For instance a wormhole through space time might put you back, or forward, at another point in time. As another poster noted following the Many Worlds Theory you wouldn't have to worry about a Grandfather Paradox (or the Marty McFly Paradox if you prefer) since anything you did would lead to an alternate universe. Of course the problem would be that you likely couldn't travel back to your own time since that is a different universe.
Except that for something like small pox which we don't vaccinate for since its considered eradicated. On top of that without access to modern antibiotics and disinfectants you could die from getting a splinter.
And how to you propose to get past the TSA agents at the TimeTraveller check in desk???? I couldn't bring toothpaste to Phoenix! (and I wasn't even changing timezones....).
To see you and raise you, I thought the issue was that you can't travel back further to a time than in the present. So like if you wanted to travel back in time to see yourself now, you'd have to start traveling right now. But if you wanted to go back to check out some gladatorial fights in ancient rome, you couldn't do that.
One thing we're forgetting about unfortunately is the lack of cell phone towers in the past -- i'm not sure how we get around that paradox.
I'd do it. Get a chance to see da Vinci at work? Where do I sign up?!? I'd sacrifice quite a bit for that opportunity. Hygiene and modern technology can go fly a kite!
