I was thinking about this morning while I was brushing my teeth. I've been traveled through the Third World several times but this last time I was getting a bit squeamish dealing with the Indonesia toilet, a hole in the floor. In some cases this is the combination toilet, shower and sink. That got me thinking about would how I would handle traveling back in time a few centuries. Its sometimes bad enough dealing with 2010 Indonesia but imagine how dirty and smelly Elizabethan London might've been like particularly since Europeans of that time thought bathing was bad for your health. While Spartacus Blood and Sand is full of hot libidinous women with perfect skin I imagine the reality is of pockmarked and lice ridden women living in a very foul smelling Ancient Rome. As people who have grown up with 20th Century sanitation and medicine do you think you could handle the ancient world? For me I think the wonder of visiting ancient historical sites at important moments in history might make it tolerable but I don't think I could handle staying there for more than a couple of days.
No, I would never go backwards. Boring and smelly, no thanks Forwards (if it were possible) I would certainly consider, even if I didn't know what it'd be like when I got there.
If I were a Roman citizen during the Late Republic, I would have gone to the baths every day. The Romans had the whole bathing thing wired, with heated water, steam baths, etc., all made possible by the bazillion slaves. It really helped to be a citizen. I'd travel back there, if I knew I could come back (and had a Glock under my toga!). I'm a history nut. I would travel back to a lot of places, bugs be damned.
To see something epic like the building of some of the great pyramids around the world or ancient Rome/ Greece in their primes no doubt I would go. But to just a random period of time -- well what the hell yeah I'd probably do that too. The hygiene thing is a good point though -- that would be tough -- I get annoyed having to put toilet paper in a waste basket in Mexico.
i want to observe time at a very very very rapid speed.... if that makes any sense, so i can witness epic events
Time travel is different from going there and staying there. If I know I can return, I will do it in a heartbeat. I studied history in undergrad so it's my passion. Btw, I know I will get some flack for it, but some of the Islamic and Asian civilizations were much cleaner versus their European counterparts. Hell, civilizations from five thousand years ago (i.e. Indus Valley civs) are thought to have been cleaner than some parts of Europe from the Dark Ages up till the late 19th c. Tidbit: Louis XVI took one bath in his life, and Versailles was known to have a nasty stench because people urinated and defecated in the corners of its large rooms. Certain streets in England reeked because people would fling their chamber pots out their windows. It was customary for gentlemen to carry a handkerchief to hold to their nose while walking through them.
A world where a common cold could fatally kill you? No. Also remember. The ancient world was absolutely dominated by religious strife as well as pretty gruesome punishments for simple crimes. I could get killed for not going to Church on Sunday, or something other BS. Also. There's no internet.
According to Einstein, you can only go forward, you can't go back. So yes I would love to go forward in time. I would prefer to go back but that just is not feasible. Of course going back, you would have to worry about paradoxes and the like. Also, you might inadvertently cause your grandparents to NOT meet and then where would you be at?
There are many theories. I believe in the parallel dimensions theory where going back in time won't affect your present-time dimension, it will only create a separate dimension that plays out your actions only within that dimension. Time travel is a concept that humans will never be able to fully grasp.
You would bring your evolved immune system so diseases back then wouldn't stand a chance against you. If anything, impregnating a couple hotties back then, you could start your own race of genetically superior people.
To the best of my knowledge he never said that precisely. He talked about wormholes and traveling at the speed of light, and the conundrum of actually reaching the speed of light (because your resting mass would be effectively zero but your kinetic mass would not), but to actually say backwards time travel is impossible... That's not his style yo. I love the concept of time travel, whether it be from a physics standpoint or a Back to the Future (I, II, and III) stance. If given the opportunity to go back in time I would. Quantum Leap FTW!
