If you could go back in time to fix all the wrongs, would you?

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BlackC@t
I'm pretty much talking about 'The Butterfly Effect' thingy here, you have blackouts when your a kid so you write everything down in journels then reliese you can go back in time to fix the wrongs, would you?

I would.

SpikeSpiegel
Like in Quantum Leap? Yeah

The Omega

finti
NO I wouldnt

shellie
nope

WindDancer
Well, I hated the movie because it was just another clone of time travelling storylines. And Ashton Kutcher can't act. stick out tongue

Anyways, I would travel in time. Try to change the events? Maybe, but if I had the power I would stop certain assasinations of the past. Ghandi, MLK, JFK, Lincoln, The PM of Israel (forgot his name), Fedinand, Zapata, Romero.

The Omega
WindDancer> (As far as I interpreted the answer it was changes in my OWN past).

But you would change things in the past. How do you know it would change anything for the better?

WindDancer
I don't think it would save the World. But for me those men didn't deserve to be assasinated. There are others, but those are the only ones I can think of right now.

Fëanor
if you could go back, theoretically speaking-then you will have learn nothing to benefit your future...we are the sum of our past good or bad, that sets our path towards the unknown future....changing our past just changes what and who we are and our reality...

lil bitchiness
Nope, i would not.

phinney6
I would save Lee Harver Oswald and question him so I could find out the real killer of JFK, BTW..........It's the mafia who dunnit

WindDancer
My thoughts are that if the future hasn't happen it could be manipulate it. But then that's a lot of time traveling ideas. messed

Alpha Centauri
There's people I'd stop from being killed or perhaps getting into events that would lead to their death. I'd also go and kill some people who should be dead.

I'd have Lee Harvey Oswald sitting in Kennedy's car so that when he gets shot LHO can stand up and shout "I TOLD YOU ****S IT WASN'T ME!"

-AC

Darth Revan
No, I wouldn't. There are a shitload of things that nobody is happy about having happened, but every event, good or bad, adds up to create the present. No, JFK didn't deserve to be shot, but I believe that what happened happened and shouldn't have happened any other way.

The Omega

lil bitchiness
Agreed.

The theory is that everything is connected. You mentioned the butterfly Effect, and yeah the flap of its wings could be related to a tornado on the other side of the world, or some guy being shot somewhere.

I wouldn't change anything...

Darth Revan
Isn't that chaos theory? confused

lil bitchiness
Yeah blink

Oh poo, i missed out chaos before theory....damn it blink

WindDancer
If by stopping the assasinations of these great men would not change the course of history.....well, I guess there is no point in saving them.......guess what? I STILL would try to stop those assasinations from happening. Oh! and also I would also stop the assasinations of some great women......just to show I'm not sexist. roll eyes (sarcastic)

Moo Cow
i wouldnt, ive learned alot from my mistakes

Mr Zero
Worry more about fixing the wrongs of today and tomorrow. Those you can affect.

vaya_the_elf
I believe that things are how they are for a reason... we may not always know the reason.. but there is one.. and if you mess with the past it could make things worse

think
the past is a memory, the future a hope, the present is reality. Over and over again. If given the opportunity, I wouldn't change even the worst moments of my life. I wouldn't want to imagine who I would be had everything been "perfect."

WhiteEagle
Good point Think. I wonder just how much the events in my past have influenced my present character and how much even a slight change may affect me. Almost scary when you think about it. So no, I probably wouldn't want to change anything. I don't think there's been anything so bad in my life that I'd wish it to be different and I'm fairly happy with things the way they are now. smile

Capt_Fantastic
Look at HG Wells, he addressed this in The Time Machine. Because one bad thing is avoided, doesn't mean that that bad thing happening doesn't prevent other bad things from happening. So, to change the past is to change the future. And what will be will be.

Fëanor
if you look at time as being linear...then changing a thing from your past linear time would probably affect that future linear time....

but what if time is not linear? which i believe it is not linear...the concept of time does not move forward, backwards or sideways imo...it occupies space at all times and at all points....

it cannot even be defined in the physical sense such as a complicated net in mesh form because even that has gaps...to me there are no gaps in time...

as we know it to be, time is, if we have to place a starting point, from pt A to pt B...in the linear sense...but if it weren't, if you were to go back in time, instead of going from your present tiem you'd end up going back in an alternate past...

to sum it up: you go back to assassinate Hitler, only it's not your linear past - so your future does not change, but you've changed the future for that timeline...then to complicate things, once the deed is done you decide to return to the future only it's not your linear future of before or even of the future of the timeline you were in but an alternate future where Hitler did not die and Germany won WWII...*whew*

i think i just confused myself... confused

Capt_Fantastic
lol...now we're talking planet of the apes.

Really, time may not be linear. I look at time in the same way I do destiny. Time isn't a line from point A to point B...but a spider web of multiple connecting points that creates the tapestry of destiny.

Fëanor
maybe...but still that conceptual idea of a web still has gaps and in some sense still linear if it is somewhat haphazard...and for whatever else i don't believe there are gaps in time...what would you call them(gaps)??? null time???

Capt_Fantastic
So, maybe I'm not following what you mean by gaps. Are you referring to the "holes in the net"?

Mr Zero
Far better than the inane Butterfly effect is the Ray bradbury short story "A Sound of Thunder" covering much the same ground.

Peter Hyams has been filming this - lord only knows if it will be any good.

Here is the trailer:

trailery goodness

Fëanor
well yeah...the holes

if we associate time as points that intersect linearly as in a web...but then i can see where you may have meant if those interconnecting points were multiplied exponentially to infinity whereby the gaps or holes were soon glossed over with more connecting points then becoming somewhat like a fabric...hence your tapestry of destiny

but the word destiny is hard for me to swallow...as the arguments go whether destiny is predetermined or not...but that is another topic...

Darth Vicious
I agree, i am who i am by learning from my mistakes and all ive been thru but i would change some things, some i would make different.

Dexx
the question is redundant. You CAN'T go back in time, therefore you can't change anything. no point in thinking 'what if' at this one.
what you probably mean is "do you regret anything you've done or not done so far and would you do it all again"

vaya_the_elf
I would not change the things I regret even if i could with making things worse.. because i know in my mind i still did them, and I deserved whatever I got

vaya_the_elf
I mean with OUT making mistakes.. just started to type to fast

Dexx
well that's why we don't actually DO everything that we do in our mind wink

BlackC@t
I think a lot of you are aren't getting what I'm saying, if you could only go back into your YOUNG mind, since you weren't born when those people were assinated you can't save them, because you didn't exsist back then. I know I would, a lot of bad things have happened in my past. Like if I could go back in time the first thing I would do is save my Mum from dieing.

BlackC@t
I mean, you can only go back into your own mind, and since I'm probably the only one that's lost somebody very closed to me I can understand why a lot of you wouldn't want to.

WhiteEagle
I don't think anyone would refuse the chance to save someone they loved.

angelsflame265
I do something wrong everyday, there's no way i'd be able to fix it all if I could. But also a lot of those wrongs turned into something good in the end, so i've learned to keep going when i fall.

Fiery Eyes
There are things in life i'd like to change, just a few, cuz i thk i've become the person I am today from learning from the mistakes i've made.

BlackC@t
Interesting.......there would be a lot I would change........

baddspellahl4
I would fix alot, but not all

ragesRemorse
I wouldnt fix any kind of wrong things, because for all i know. Those events that i am changing will hender my existence from ever happening. Then again, if i could go back and stop myself from calling that escort, i probably would have asked for two.

MissesDepp?!
I wouldn't touch a thing. I mean, we as people are a.ssholes. We screw stuff up and then want to fix it. It's the whole "f.uck you!... I'm so sorry!". If someone was genius enough to invent a machine where you could go back in time and change something so you're future is better, we'd want to do it all the time you spill a glass of water, don't clean it up! just go back three seconds ago and prevent it from spilling! We'd fix certain wars, certain deaths and then when they f.uck up the future over time we'll just go to the past and fix those too. Why does everything have to be f.ucking pleasentville? The only thing I'd use the time machine for is to go back in time and knock the guy who's making the time machine unconscious.

Leave things alone.

-MD

Reborn Again
In going back to fix your wrongs, you create new wrongs. It's an unending circle. The only way to fix mistakes is to learn from them. We learn more from mistakes than accomplishments.

theReject
Hell no
Didn't you see the Butterfly Effect or the Time Machine?

Reborn Again
Yes, I did. And obviously you didn't understand the concept of both stories. Both time travellers tried to rectify their mistakes after learning to fix their prior mistakes was a mistake in its own rite, and they tried not to make the same mistake again. That's why in both movies, they came to the conclusion that they were the cause of the mistake and took themselves out of the equation, thus not making the same mistake twice.

MissesDepp?!
Exactly. But see, if stupid Evan (ashton) and stupid Alexander (Guy) had just accepted that the people they loved in fact had died.. then they'd "treck on" and even though they'd probably be empty for the rest of their lives, they'd learn their lesson and NOT screw everything up.

-MD

ragesRemorse
Travelling back in time and changing somthing, doesnt just change the ultimate outcome, it changes everything from that point on. Let's say you travelled back in time with no intentions to change anything, but you bumped into a table and knocked a glass over that broke. This could change the present day as we know it. Chaos theory. Anone ever read the story about the guy who travelled back in time and stepped on a butterfly, and it changed all of existence? the ray bradbury book, that was tunrned into a shitty film "a sound of thunder"

MissesDepp?!
Exactly, so leave things alone. Just.. everything could be completely screwed more than it is now. Why risk that? If a butterfly could change the face of existance, who knows what could happen. It's like everything is set out to go perfectly, don't screw around with it.

-MD

Reborn Again
This is where the theory of alternate realities plays out. For every action there is an opposite reaction. For every thought we don't do it's played out in an alternate reality. And who says that changing the past will lead to an even bleaker future? It could turn out the opposite. You could make things a hellva a lot better. But of course, not everyone will be happy, so it's a Catch-22 situation.

ragesRemorse
Well, no matter what you change in the past, it will cause a negative effect on someone or somthing. No matter what you change. It may mean better things for you, but could cause a person to not exist. Anyone thing that would be changed in the past could mean changing everything (literally)

Reborn Again
Yes, ragesRemorse. So here's the top question, do you care about others so much more than yourself to attempt to fix their lives, or would you rather make yours better? Self-preservation comes into play here.

Ytaker
There was a film or book where a person went back in time to save Lincon, and sparked of the events that caused his assassaination.

eleveninches
The biggest wrong that would need fixing is the big bang and the invention of reality

FeceMan
^ laughing

To be honest, the only thing I might change would be the speed at which science progressed. I would like to bring back textbooks and proven experiments to show scientists why and how things happen so we could be a lot farther along.

Kind of like in the Justice League where Vandal Savage brings the laptop to Germany during WWII and Germany is unstoppable, only without the evil intent.

theReject
Yes but if they would have left well enough alone, they wouldn't have screwed things up to begin with. Well that's just my opinion, and you don't have to believe it. smile

frodo34x
On a similar note. Earlier in his reign, Hitler was regarded as the best leader Germany had ever had, as he brought us out of the depression. Supposing he had been shot before then. This would mean that WWII never happened, and that Hitler was remembered as a great man. Then, suposing someone went back into time and stopped the assasination. *poof* They return back and millions of people have disappeared.

frodo34x
Oh yeah, and heres proof you cant travel back in time : No one has ever done it.

FeceMan
I wouldn't kill Hitler.

frodo34x
Why not?

FeceMan
Because WWII pulled the U.S. out of the Great Depression, made us a world power, and achieved medical and technological advances.

Ronny
no, my mistakes made me what i am today. plus something could go terribly wroung

miahera
ah they mentioned about not killing Hitler in Time Cop. big grin they said it could possibly be worse without him.

eleveninches
/\ there were plans to assassinate hitler, and they could have done it, but the governments at the time realised that if they killed him, a more competent military leader would take his place and be more dangerous. They wanted hitler to stay where he was, because he was making so many bad decisions, making it easier for the allied war effort.

Dazzler619
yeah I would like to go back in time to fix things b/c I made mistakes in the past

crazyguy33
but if u went back in time, then time would DEPEND on u going bak and doing wat u already did, because you are part of the history.u cannot change time.

frodo34x
Surely it is impossible to go forwards in time, because it hasn't happened

Linkalicious
I'd go back in time to prevent a couple of assassinations...that way I would be a hero.

Fire
lol

Linkalicious
What if you stopped the assassination of the Arch Duke? Do you think that could have prevented World War 2?

Fire
Dunno but the First World War would have happened anyway. I mean the murdering of the arch duke was just a futile catalyst that almost anything could and probably would have triggered it

However maybe the winners would have been different.
Link if you wanted to stop WWII I think you have a better chance if you killed AH

Napalm
It would be a very difficult choice for me. Because one part of me would want to change that and the other would fear causing a paradox in time

Storm
We can learn from history how past generations thought and acted, how they responded to the demands of their time and how they solved their problems. We can learn by analogy, not by example, for our circumstances will always be different than theirs were. The main thing history can teach us is that human actions have consequences and that certain choices, once made, cannot be undone. They foreclose the possibility of making other choices and thus they determine future events.

Would I fix all the wrongs? Certainly not.

carnival_junkie
not in a million years.
you dont want to fu.ck with fate.

leonheartmm
even a single molecule's position beeing changed in the past is like throwing a pebble in the watter, at first small waves appear that upset the water, slowly with the passing of time they spread over the surface of the water, only thing is that these waves unlike the real thing, get bigger wider and taller as they move along and the more time passes the bigger they grow.

leonheartmm
its not right to mess with fate and the already chosen path of time

leonheartmm
anyway, time or destiny doesnt actually LET anyone change it that easily i suppose

ShootingStars
I don't think i would, im a strong believer in the whole 'everything happens or a reason' philosophy, so if something happened, it's not ment to be changed

Alpha Centauri
"so if something happened, it's not ment to be changed"

Strange rationale.

So if something happens and there's an opportunity to change it, what then?

Cause and effect and coincidence are all there is. If you do something, there will be results. When you think of every single intricate development in every single human beings life that somehow effects someone else, coincidence is impossible to avoid. I was walking across the road once and my friend called me, I stopped, A truck crashed right where I was standing. Everyone went "oh that's fate, that happened for a reason." My friend said "No, I was on the phone, saw him walk past the window, Chris had to hang up coz his mum was bitching at him and as a result I walked out to call him."

Nothing more, nothing less.

-AC

BlackC@t
There's no such thing as coincidence.

finti
so when my brother, sister and girlfriend all buy the same cd for my birthday thats not a coincident?

deweyburke
I have to say I would. I've made so many mistakes in my life that would undoubtedly change the quality of my life. To go back in time and change one day or one decision would be so tempting. I know for a fact it would not only change my life but other's lives around me and who knows how far reaching that decision would go.

I would probably not have met the people I've met in the interim but the possible outcome might outweigh certain things. To think that I could be right with myself and others but not have certain special people in my life because of the altered path I'd be taking would be a hard hard decision to make. Very intense question. The further back you go the more time and events are altered I believe. So if I did go back it would be the most recent time possible while still yielding maximum results. Damn I'm greedy.

HarmonicFlo88
Hell yeah i would. i would f'ucking change a LOT of things that DRASTICALLY affected my life. if i changed those things ...A LOT would change in every bit of who i have become .

Its funny how this thread exists because in tha past couple of weeks i have been thinking about going back in time and changing things..man that would be heaven. one thing that i realized is that it would be extremely BORING once you do change wutever it is you wana change because everything else that happened...everythin u have experienced would have to be repeated. some of those things...that had good outcomes...would require you to do EXACTLY wut you did. which would be a pain in tha ass. so it would be a boring, pain in your ass time after you changed a few things.

I guess it's still worth it. i read up stuff about time machines...seems i need a black hole. i'm not racist or anything so i guess i have to get dirty with some african american girlies..LOL

Arachnoidfreak
I wouldn't change all of it, but there are definitly some things I would have done differently.

5knuckleShuffle
i definetly would.


if i can go back to day 1 i would change my f*cked up life

Philosophicus
The problem is this: IF ONE INDIVIDUAL WENT BACK IN TIME TO CHANGE WHAT HE/SHE THINKS WAS WRONG, THAT 'CORRECTION' MIGHT BE ANOTHER WRONG IN THE EYES OF OTHER PEOPLE, SO YOU END UP WITH 'WRONG' THINGS BEING CHANGED INTO 'RIGHT' THINGS CONSTANTLY. THE PROBLEM RESULTS FROM THE FACT THAT THERE IS NO UNIVERSAL RIGHT OR WRONG.

leonheartmm
true that is, plus u dont have the right to change the destiny of anyone other than urself and ull definately affect other people, secondly u urself are not the person u were in the past and hence do not have the right to mess in "their lives"{just imagine if a guy who looks slightly older than u came in front of u n changed ur life} also the result of U changing the past would lead to a completelu different U in the same time u time travelled from and that U wont be the same as the U before u time travelled to change the past and hence u dont have the right to mess with HIS fate

finti
exactly

Philosophicus
Hey, we are agreeing on something!? But this is a simple subject, so the answer, IMO, is pretty obvious in any straight thinking person's mind.
BUT I BET THAT A RELIGIOUS PERSON WOULD NEVER AGREE ON THIS, AS GOD DICTATES TO ALL HIS SHEEP THAT THEIR IS IN FACT AN ABSOLUTE, UNIVERSAL RIGHT AND WRONG, RIGHT?

Fire
Maybe but depends on how religious the person would be.

I'm still pondering on the concept of what happens if you kill your father or mother if you time travel, what happens will hapen to you?

leonheartmm
there are universal rights and wrongs but they really do depend on the situation and cant be labelled, and sometimes the difference between right and wrong might be too blurry to figure out if at all its there in the first place.

JToTheP
Interesting question. Supposedly a life without regrets is a life not lived, BUT if you went back in time and fixed all the wrongs, you would get the most out of life.


So.....


Me? Hell yes, I would. For everyday in my life that I had the chance to do something more worthwhile then what I did, or tell one of my crushes how I felt about them, didn't, and they moved, or got boyfriends, or lost contact with. Hell yes I would, in an instant.

eleveninches
THere are two options.

Either the past was not perfect, so there is no reason to re-live it.

OR

The past was perfect, so why try to ruin it.

Philosophicus
An imperfect past is no reason NOT to re-live it. The definition or the meaning of 'Perfect' is relative to an individuals standards and opinions. You are posing an absolute ultimatum on the question of the past when you only limit it to two options exclusively; the past cannot be descibed as having been perfect or imperfect in an absolute or universal sense, it is subjective in the utmost sense.

peterKSL
I believe in maths you have learn about possibilities right? So I believe now you know that coincidence does exist??

By the way, coincidence is same as destiny, both serve the same purpose.. all you have to do is realise that in a chart of hierarchy, those lines could lead up to one point where you must cross, in life or (imaginary)? (have to think about that)...

42Bardock
I seriously have to admit that I don'T know what the chart of hierachy is, can you maybe explain that further?

peterKSL
hierarchy chart is a thing I made up my own.... basicly it is just a list of possibilities ordered hierarchyly.

(draw it to understand it better)
example would be--> money would be under the hierarchy of power. That is because if you want money, then you would want power also, but if you want power, doesn't mean you want money, that's why money is under power, and not = power.
phobia and reality is under the hierarchy of fear, as you already should know, and phobia is under the hierarchy of imagination, because phobia is imaginary and not real, as I made that proverb "to overcome your fear, you have to control your imagination".
If you can list out a full list of hierarchies, then you can figure out how he/she thinks. But then people's thoughts are also include examples in the hierarchy. So it's won't be that easy at the moment.

Hope you understand now..

Lara
I wouldnt cuz my experiences have made me who I am. thats how you know not to make the same mistakes again.

peterKSL
It is that experience is under the hierarchy of time....

BlackC@t
Nope.

It means they all have the same taste in CD players smile

Ou Be Low hoo
Ahh...those religious nut-jobs really are phucked up! There is such a simple - dare I say, 'ignorant' - life!

finti
cd players???? I was talking about cd`s!!!!!!! and if I wanna buy a cd as a gift I try to find something the recipient of the gift likes not what I like.

The cd players they have to get on their own

peterKSL
BlackC@t- let's say we have 2 person rolling a dice, and both rolled number 6 the first time, what do u call that?

Lara
coincidence. big grin

peterKSL
I guess she would say---

Nope.

It means that they all have same taste in number six. smile

Lara
laughing out loud doubt it, purely chance. hey I'm not predictable, I just state the stupidly obvious. *slaps self* see what I mean?! laughing out loud

HarmoNiC FLo
To those that said that it would effect other people:

You think its unfair because if you change something in your life to make it better, you'd be somehow making other's lives worse.

However tha thing you did in tha first place was beneficial to them and not you - and THAT is not fair. who gives a f'uck about being fair when it comes to going back in time and changing something for tha better? life sure as hell is NOT fair to us. life usually works by "cause and effect". well if we ever find a way to travel back in time...Cause : life was unfair in tha first place. Effect : We're unfair to life.

peterKSL
Justice does't exist... only in our heads.... we are merely acting to it because of "compassion"...

Lara
action, re-action sequence.

HarmoNiC FLo
If it exists in our heads, then it does exist. anger exists only in our heads and it leads to violence - just because its not tangible doesn't mean it isn't worth anything. anyways tha existence of justice had nothing to do with anything.

Batarangs Blade
What would it be? It's a very interesting subject. It's casually discussed frequently, but when you think about it, it goes a lot deeper than that. If you were to change something about you, it could change something for everyone else. If say, you changed something you did in the past that you regret doing, what would happen? You wouldn't be who you are today, you could be a totally different person. And what about the people it affected? Where would they be? And if you just changed something about the world around you, like say, you chose to remove prejudice from the world, what could stem from that? Would discremination sprout again, just in another form? Or would things be entirely peaceful? And could that peace be Hell for some? We are, afterall, human beings who thrive on interaction. What about those who thrive on conflict? What about those like Martin Luther King Junior? If there was no racism, what would he have done with his life? Would he have been nearly as influential? Anyway, this is taking a typical topic to another level, so, let me know what you think.

NicktheBassist
wow, that is very philosophical. but i don't think that i would change anything about my life because ultimately, life is pretty good right now and i think that if i tried to change something, then i would end up screwing something up and doing more bad then good.

spidergrl
Nothing!!!

Philosophicus
If I could make all life dissapear, I would - it would have been better if we were never born, better yet, if there was no existence at all, because suffering and unanswerable questions are infinite.

narcil
mmmm, i'd make this assignment i'm working on comprehensible to me...so that i'd be able to finish it in time for the due date...tmrrw. ^^*

*ducks*

a serious answer...would be... hmm...i'll be selfish and choose smthg to change about myself. i'd like to be more decisive.

Jackie Malfoy
Thats easy I would change my life.JM

Storm
Nothing. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word 'happy' would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. To live is to learn.

peterKSL
I would improve myself in terms of language and behaviour, and I would like to change my bad past...

KharmaDog
Nothing, to change anything about me would negate all the experiences I've had over my years, and I've learned from each of them both bad and good.

If I could change one thing about my situation, I'd love to win the lottery so that I could travel to all the places in the world that I often think about, and to have the financial security to pursue any dream or option that I or any of my future children wished to.

But as for personality, I'm happy with who I am and what I have become.

debbiejo
I don't know about changing all the wrongs without going to the very beginning, and where would I start. Maybe I'd rip out a tree.

Does anyone understand this??

FeceMan
OMG U R TALKING ABOUT TEH ADAM N TEH EVE!!!!!111!!!!11

(Don't add the "Does anyone understand this??" part. Either flat-out state it or leave it implied for only the intelligent to understand.)

debbiejo
angel

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