Would you Time-Travel if it was possible?

beckett214

Project QL Intern
Jan 12, 2006
3
0
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Ok, here's an interesting question to ponder: Let's say time travel is someday proven possible...and a scientist creates a time machine (or something similar to Project QL). Now, they are looking for someone to test it out. Would you do it?

I'd like to think that I would just because I've been obsessed with time travel my whole life...thanks to the Back to the Future Trilogy and Quantum Leap of course ;) But then there's that part of me that would feel selfish in risking my life to attempt time travel with the possibility of leaving my family and friends behind.

What would YOU do in this case? ;)
 
beckett214 said:
Ok, here's an interesting question to ponder: Let's say time travel is someday proven possible...and a scientist creates a time machine (or something similar to Project QL). Now, they are looking for someone to test it out. Would you do it?

I'd like to think that I would just because I've been obsessed with time travel my whole life...thanks to the Back to the Future Trilogy and Quantum Leap of course ;) But then there's that part of me that would feel selfish in risking my life to attempt time travel with the possibility of leaving my family and friends behind.

What would YOU do in this case? ;)

I'd love to travel in time and certainly visit the past...although, if there was a distinct possibility that I could never make it back to my own time, it just wouldn't be worth it. I wouldn't want to put those who love me through the pain of never seeing me again.

If Sam knew that the retrieval program wouldn't work and that he was going to forever have been trapped in time, I'm not so sure he'd decide to make the leap, either. If he wasn't under pressure from the government, I don't think he would sanction the use of the Accelerator until the Project was complete.
 
QL Nut said:
If Sam knew that the retrieval program wouldn't work and that he was going to forever have been trapped in time, I'm not so sure he'd decide to make the leap, either. If he wasn't under pressure from the government, I don't think he would sanction the use of the Accelerator until the Project was complete.

i agree i dont think he would have eaither.
 
I wouldn't travel in time unless I could be retrieved.

I would be more than happy to be the observer though. Me - the invisible man in the women's changing room LOL!!!!
 
Origonally posted by Beckett214
Ok, here's an interesting question to ponder: Let's say time travel is someday proven possible...and a scientist creates a time machine (or something similar to Project QL). Now, they are looking for someone to test it out. Would you do it?

I'd like to think that I would just because I've been obsessed with time travel my whole life...thanks to the Back to the Future Trilogy and Quantum Leap of course ;) But then there's that part of me that would feel selfish in risking my life to attempt time travel with the possibility of leaving my family and friends behind.

What would YOU do in this case? ;)

Time travel would be the most dangerous thing to ever hit the world if it ever came about. Forget about people going back and using it to gain financial profits, ALA buying stock in Microsoft or GE.

Say someone decided to go stop the World Trade Center from being destroyed thinking that it would be a wonderful thing preventing that tragedy.

Then there would have never been a War on Terror. Therefore, The terrorists might have been able to get a nuclear wepon in NYC instead.

That being said, If I could be the guinne pig to travel back in time, would I? In a word, Absoulutly. Especially if it wasn't limited to my lifetime. Sure I would miss my family and friends, but some opertunities are just to good to pass up.

I am a huge history buff. I would love to go back in time and see who fired the first shot in the Revolutionary War. I would also love to travel to Tombstone and see the gunfight at the OK Coral.

But first and foremost, I would love to have a birds-eye view of the Grassy Knoll in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. No offence to Donald Bellisario, but I do not believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.

I have sought information on it from both sides. I have seen the stuff of the Conspericy theorists, and from those that subscribe to the Lone Gunman theory. I have studied both sides and I formed my own opinion, Lee Harvey Oswald was a patsy.

The theory I subscribe to is this, and I hope to make it to Dallas one day to see if this actually is there.

The Fatal headshot caused Kennedy's head to go back and to the left. I cannot get my head to accept that a shot that hit him going down and to the right could cause his head to go back and to the left. I truely believe that the head shot came from infront of him, not behind him.

Now, I saw a program once that used the autopsy photos and computers to trace the path of the fatal shot through Kennedy's head. He came to a conclusion of where the shot came from and went to dallace and found the spot. The problem is that if the shot came from there, he would have been too high for the bullet to have hit at the angle it did, and the gunman would have been in plain sight.

The scientist went back and reran the numbers and came up with the same conclusion. The shot would have come from that spot, but he would have been to high. Following a hunch, he went back to Dallas and saw that there is a sewer on the edge of the road that is big enough for one person to have sat in there and point a rifle.

The angle would have been right now.

That's why I would want to go back to Dallas. I would watch that sewer for a gunshot.
 
That IS a tough question. Time travel has always fascinated me as well. If its limited to a lifetime, im sort of at a disadvantage cuz im 19. Jurrasic Park was an incredible concept for me, and if I had the chance I would love to see real dinosaurs in their environment. I would love to go to that stable in Bethlehem that first Christmas.

If had the choice of a PERSON i wanted to "leap" into, it would be Neil Armstrong or Buzz Aldren because for several years, I was wanting to be an astronaut. My eyesight and health issues put an end to that dream. I want to walk on the moon. Of course, for my current dream, i would love to leap into any actor/actress to see what i'll have to do, hehe;) .

What I would seriously love to do is go back to Moses's time while he was building the ark and help him find a way to keep sharks from surviving the flood. I hate those things so much....scared to death of them. LOL

Samantha Beckett
 
Moses didn't build the ark. Noah did.

Speaking of Moses though, I'd love to see him parting the red sea and releasing all the plagues (as long as I wasn't on the receiving end).
 
naggindragon said:
Moses didn't build the ark. Noah did.

Speaking of Moses though, I'd love to see him parting the red sea and releasing all the plagues (as long as I wasn't on the receiving end).

Or maybe it was Joan Of Arc, Noah's wife! :roflmao:

I'm with Al on this one.

Time travel would be a very dangerous technology to have. If I had the knowledge to create a time machine, I would repress it right away.

It would be nice to observe historical events though, perhaps by the method that Al uses to communicate with Sam in the past.
 
naggindragon said:
Moses didn't build the ark. Noah did.

Speaking of Moses though, I'd love to see him parting the red sea and releasing all the plagues (as long as I wasn't on the receiving end).

:eek: Oh...right. LoL, usually i could blame it on my being on late at night, but it was at 7pm here, so i have no excuse. Shows u how much i pay attention in Sunday School :lol

I do mix them up sometimes tho...

Samantha Beckett
 
If there is a thing called fate time travel would be very dangerous. I noticed someone wrote about stopping the world trade center tradegy. What if fate had to have it happen? What if someone in there would someone have a child that could someday destroy the world. Any change in time would be dangerous even down to the smallest detail. Time travel sounds great until you wiegh the risk... just a thought...
 
I would go back in time and disappear in a heartbeat. My preference tho would be to go ahead and see if anything even close to Enterprise technology exists, the idea of seeing what else is out there intrigues me more than earth's past.

As far as people getting time travel technology, Season 11 of the TVS deals with this issue... What if terrorists got wind of PQL and tried to find a way to make their own project, steal secrets, etc? Season 11 also dealt with thinking about going back to 9/11 and stopping it, but the theory is if you stop one act of terrorism, what is to say something more horrible would happen later in the timeline instead? You prevent one thing with good intentions and cause a different tragedy to occur and you must be prepared for the consequences. True to that theory, Sam did prevent one thing that season and another tragedy occured.

I strongly believe that if/should QL returns, so much has happened in our history since 1993, that events in Al's present should impact Sam and the project and I have seen this in recent seasons of the TVS with other writers. While Sam cannot change 9/11 I would like to see an episode where Sam leaps into NYC on the street the morning of the attacks and must do what he can to save as many people as he can near Ground Zero from debris and rubble. Even if 4 or 5 more people survive than the "original history", Sam would at first live with the guilt that he couldnt do more but eventually come to grips that even saving a few more people was better in the grand scheme of things/ I don't want to see the story as an exploitation of real ppl's suffering, but I think it would be a story full of action and drama.
 
Al's Handlink said:
I am a huge history buff. I would love to go back in time and see who fired the first shot in the Revolutionary War. I would also love to travel to Tombstone and see the gunfight at the OK Coral.

But first and foremost, I would love to have a birds-eye view of the Grassy Knoll in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. No offence to Donald Bellisario, but I do not believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.

I have sought information on it from both sides. I have seen the stuff of the Conspericy theorists, and from those that subscribe to the Lone Gunman theory. I have studied both sides and I formed my own opinion, Lee Harvey Oswald was a patsy.

The theory I subscribe to is this, and I hope to make it to Dallas one day to see if this actually is there.

The Fatal headshot caused Kennedy's head to go back and to the left. I cannot get my head to accept that a shot that hit him going down and to the right could cause his head to go back and to the left. I truely believe that the head shot came from infront of him, not behind him.

Now, I saw a program once that used the autopsy photos and computers to trace the path of the fatal shot through Kennedy's head. He came to a conclusion of where the shot came from and went to dallace and found the spot. The problem is that if the shot came from there, he would have been too high for the bullet to have hit at the angle it did, and the gunman would have been in plain sight.

The scientist went back and reran the numbers and came up with the same conclusion. The shot would have come from that spot, but he would have been to high. Following a hunch, he went back to Dallas and saw that there is a sewer on the edge of the road that is big enough for one person to have sat in there and point a rifle.

The angle would have been right now.

That's why I would want to go back to Dallas. I would watch that sewer for a gunshot.

Well, I would LOVE to travel back in time just to solve particular mysteries like the Kennedy assassination once and for all, just for my own peace of mind. But, if I made a trip back to 1963 and became stuck in the past forever, I'd solve the mystery and then what? I'm stuck there! That's why I'd prefer to be an Observer like Al. As for the future, as curious as I am to see how things will turn out in maybe a hundred or a thousand years from now, I kind of don't want to know at the same time. Given the state of the world as it is currently, I'm not so sure I want to see where we're headed :( .

Not only that, but I kind of agree with the theme of the movie Groundhog Day, where the only thing worse than not knowing what's going to happen is knowing what will happen. And say I know for a fact that something happens in the future that I don't like, so I go to change it in the present. Then it's changed and I still won't know what's ahead in the future anyway without making constant trips back...
 
I find it interesting how so many of us would want to go back and not forward. The future is uncertain sure.. but aren't you the least bit curious to see how good or how bad the world turns out to be? OR is it too depressing to think of the current state of the world and where it could be headed.

Look at me! The new girl gettin' all philosophical! I do wonder though if H.G. Wells may be right in his assessment of the future that we'll ultimately destroy ourselves and then have to start all of over.
 
Like I said, it's too scary to interact with anyone from a different time. If you were able to simply observe, like Al, it would be a different story. I'd observe the past, present and future in a heartbeat.
 
It would be great to simply observe the Past or Future. You could satisfy your curiosity without that pesky worry about Chaging History and destrying our way of life.

But lets say it is a private citizan that invented the technology. The Goverment would militarize it faster than you can say Sphygmomanometer as a Matter of National Security. They would then Classify it and we still wouldn't get the answers we seek for another 50 years.

But the again, they would militarize it regardless of wether the person physically traveled back in time or simply observed
 
beckett214 said:
Ok, here's an interesting question to ponder: Let's say time travel is someday proven possible...and a scientist creates a time machine (or something similar to Project QL). Now, they are looking for someone to test it out. Would you do it?

I'd like to think that I would just because I've been obsessed with time travel my whole life...thanks to the Back to the Future Trilogy and Quantum Leap of course ;) But then there's that part of me that would feel selfish in risking my life to attempt time travel with the possibility of leaving my family and friends behind.

What would YOU do in this case? ;)

I first came across time travel when I first watched the first Back to the Future movie and it left me with an interest in the subject. I think I was about ten at the time, before that I never thought about it.

Anyway, given the opportunity to leap in time I think I would be very tempted to do it on the condition that I do eventually return home not too long after the first leap. I would not mind fixing things in history for other people with the aid of GFTW to put things right and I would give anything to fix a few things in my life too - just a few key things and it has to do with love and an event that I really didn't see coming that sent my life down a path that I don't want to go down but had to. I would be tempted to change a third event but I know that by doing that I could have gone through much worse time than what I actually experienced in this current history.

But I would definately take the role of the observer because I would like to see history being played around me in the form of a hologram. Helping the leaper the way Al does would be a task I would happily do given the chance.
 
The Conspiracy!

I agree with Tom about the multiple gunman theory. But, remember this, Lee Harvey Oswald got what he deserved as being one of the gunman in on the conspiracy to kill the president. Ok, maybe he wasn't part of the conspiracy, but he definitely was one of the shooters and did get what he deserved even if he was shot by Jack Ruby who probably did shoot him to hide the truth.

And Tom, I did watch the movie, "JFK" and the bonus featurettes that came with it and I don't remember hearing anything about a sewer shot. Of course if that was mentioned in one of the documentaries, there was just a lot of information in it that I just simply "don't remember".

As for Project Quantum Leap, Sam's intent was to observe history and to not live it through other people's lives. Imagine all the good he could do just observing! He could find out the truth behind Kennedy's death among a whole lot of other things. :)

Steve
RossBeckett
 
Leaper4Life said:
I find it interesting how so many of us would want to go back and not forward. The future is uncertain sure.. but aren't you the least bit curious to see how good or how bad the world turns out to be? OR is it too depressing to think of the current state of the world and where it could be headed.

Look at me! The new girl gettin' all philosophical! I do wonder though if H.G. Wells may be right in his assessment of the future that we'll ultimately destroy ourselves and then have to start all of over.

Just what I was thinking! I don't want to go ahead as much as I do to go forward. I like to go far past me own life time. To see things and see if I ever get married!:\ But really I want to see things that are far past what my life time will see. I would like to see if cars fly some time in the future.

The thought of all this makes me wounder why God has not giv'n us this yet. I don't think it will ever happen becuase as my old youth pastor use to say. We have what God lets us have and He knows what we humans can handle and yet we are destorying ourselves with what we do have little by little. Sorry don't mean to get all "churchie" as my brother says, but I do believe that time travle is one thing that could end our world as we know it. and yet I could be wrong Sam has made it look like a good thing. ( My high school debate teacher would be so proud of me...I just couldn't think that this back then. I failed his class becuase I couldn't think "deep"...what does he know anyway)
 
RossBeckett said:
I agree with Tom about the multiple gunman theory. But, remember this, Lee Harvey Oswald got what he deserved as being one of the gunman in on the conspiracy to kill the president. Ok, maybe he wasn't part of the conspiracy, but he definitely was one of the shooters and did get what he deserved even if he was shot by Jack Ruby who probably did shoot him to hide the truth.

And Tom, I did watch the movie, "JFK" and the bonus featurettes that came with it and I don't remember hearing anything about a sewer shot. Of course if that was mentioned in one of the documentaries, there was just a lot of information in it that I just simply "don't remember".

As for Project Quantum Leap, Sam's intent was to observe history and to not live it through other people's lives. Imagine all the good he could do just observing! He could find out the truth behind Kennedy's death among a whole lot of other things. :)

Steve
RossBeckett


I sawc the documentry on The Discovery Channell, not the DVD. And I think Oswald got what he deserved too.
 
Al's Handlink said:
Time travel would be the most dangerous thing to ever hit the world if it ever came about.
Jack Finney, an amazing time travel novelist from the 60s and 70s, wrote a short story the name of which escapes me at the moment. However, it is in a collection of short stories called About Time. I think it's something like, the Neighbors Next Door. But anyway, it's about this couple that notice some weird stuff about their new neighbors. Eventually they find out that the neighbors have traveled back in time because the future had developed the technology to do so. Finney's theory was that this is the end of the world. Not nuclear war, weapons of mass destruction, AIDS, or even apathy. Nope, the future simply ceased to exist because everybody could time travel, the device was as common as a TV or a microwave, and everybody just went back in time to their favorite place in history. The end. No more people in the future. They just all left. It was a really good book, and I'd recommend anything by Finney to anybody interested in time travel theories (gee, I wonder where I could find such a gathering of people...). His most famous books are called Time and Again, and Time After Time. One is the sequel to the other, I can never remember which comes first. It says on the cover of the books, though.
 
Bumping topic in light of new post on subject

Seeing the new poll posted, I thought I remembered the discussion being raised before, so I thought I'd track it down and refresh it in hopes of sparking further discussion.

Personally, there are some major decisions in my life that I don't think I'd make the same again, and which have caused heartache a-plenty, but they've all ultimately led to good things, so I'm not sure I'd want to risk 'the road not taken'.
 
Alright, I'll start this anew. I do not think I would time travel. Unlike Sam, I'm not as set in my morals and values, and I may be swayed to do something not for the greater good, as Sam does, but for self-interest, if it were to ever boil down to that. I don't think I'm a bad person, but I would probably fall into temptation. So therefore, no, I would not be the leaper. Though I may sign up for the Observer job.
 
I don't know if I'd like to go into the future, because if I see something I don't like and come back into my own time I wouldn't be in any position to change it, but rather be declared a nutcase. I'd try of course. But I'm really quite happy not knowing the future, I personally believe it isn't set anyway and you'll see only one of many infinite timelines. In which case I wouldn't really have to worry hmmm... interesting.

I think I would like to be in the past if I was invisible and intangible, yeah pretty much like Al, just that I wouldn't have to be a hologram because there's no one there I'd want to see me. So I'd just take notes, follow key people around to see how their mind worked clear up a few mysteries and mostly find out what life really was like in a specific time. Especially the antique, ancient Greece and Rome or Egypt or the Majans or Incas. How did the people of the different classes really live? How did they interact? Wouldn't do it forever though. I'd like to live out my life in the present too.

About QL time travel, I've started a new thread asking about a specific scenario, please take a moment to stop by :)