You have a one-trip time machine. Where do you go? Do you go at all?

[rumborak]

Title says it all. The time machine is good for one trip only (you run out of Libyan plutonium, the dlithium crystals lose alignment, whatever), so wherever you go, you have to stay there for the rest of your life.
Where would you go? Past, future, or not at all?

[FlyingBIZKIT]

Not at all. I'm afraid

[Arry]

The Sunset Strip... 1982.

[El Barto]

As much as I'd love to see what things look like 30/50/75/100 years from now, there's no way of knowing what you'd be beaming yourself into. It's a stupidly high risk option that pretty much makes it useless.

[Kotowboy]

El Barto's almost as much fun as I am.

[Zook]

One trip only? Pff, obviously the Cretaceous Period.

[Chino]

Depends. What are the rules? Can I bring someone? Do I appear at the same point just at a different time?

[Kotowboy]

Depends. What are the rules? Can I bring someone? Do I appear at the same point just at a different time?

You can only go to real places. Not Pandora.

[Chino]

That's not what I asked

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

I'd grab some cutting-edge tech, zap myself back 10-20 years, make a sweet profit.

[Grizz]

Where do you land? Relative to what? This seems disastrous.

[TempusVox]

I'd grab some cutting-edge tech, zap myself back 10-20 years, make a sweet profit.

So, what would happen is you'd go back with sweet technology, only to discover that the current manufacturer had patented it years before you went back in time, and were waiting to release it in the current time period. Then they would suspect that you had stolen the technology, and off to prison you'd go.   

Me, I'd make a fortune off sports betting. Where is that Grays Sports Almanac anyway? 

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

Well clearly, some research beforehand would be warranted. It is the rest of my life we're considering, after all.

[Chino]

I think I'd take my chances and jump forward at least 350 years.

[El Barto]

I think I'd take my chances and jump forward at least 350 years.

Yeah, that'd be just about right. Should give you 4 years or so until the life-clock in your palm turns red and off to carrousel you go. Or maybe you could be Snake Plissken, Winston Smith or Bernard Marx. Hell, a meteor could kill us all next week. Poof. Into oblivion you go. That's what I meant about too great a risk to jump around blindly. At least going backward you'd know where you land.

Not sure if I'd go back or not. Interesting thing to ponder.

[bout to crash]

 

I'd probably do the same as Chino. Even if I end up in some future war zone and die, at least I did it!
If I did survive, and the human race was still around and all that, I might get the opportunity to use someone else's time machine to get back 

[TioJorge]

I'm with the psychos, I would totally jump forward at least a thousand years. If I'm going blindly into the abyss of the more than likely horrible, disgusting, decaying future, I'm going BALLS DEEP. A few hundred years isn't nearly enough of a skip to truly see 'THE FUTURE'. Sure, I might land into a nuclear fallout zone, or maybe Earth was destroyed and I simply 'land' in outer space, finally having my fetish fulfilled of masturbating while my entrails are sucked out of my body, or maybe I'll be greeted with a leash from an ape? Whatever happens, if it did work out (and we might as well say so since we're hypothetically hypothesizing hypotheses anyway)...it'd be the most exhilarating, adrenaline-fueled, awe inspiring, terrifying, anxious moment.

I'd welcome anything, as long as I lived through the transition and there wasn't some atmospheric component that guaranteed my death, I'd hit the ground running and have the resolve of a really resolute doodbro from the past. I'd just fuckin' smile from the information overload and utterly unimaginable shock of knowing I'm really where I'd be. Chances are though...it'll be more like our own world than we're thinking, just more dead and dangerous. Either that or we'll get our act together in the next couple hundred years...OR we'll get even worse and I'll just zap into another cromagnum era and it'd be just like I went into the past. OORRRRR I'll get there and Malcolm McDowell will rape me. Those are the only possibilities. So it is.

[Zook]

I want to go a millions years in the future and chill with Guy Pearce.

[wolfking]

I'd record a shitload of sporting results, a lot of upsets that paid big money, go back a year from now, bet and make millions.  Only lost a year and I can stop myself making other dumb ideas in the coming 12 months.

[Zook]

I'd record a shitload of sporting results, a lot of upsets that paid big money, go back a year from now, bet and make millions.  Only lost a year and I can stop myself making other dumb ideas in the coming 12 months.

Just look out for creepy old guys peaking around the corner.

[Neon]

I always joke that I don't think I belong in this era...but clearly I do, or I wouldn't be here. 
And if I couldn't come back, I don't think it's a trip I'd make.

But just for sake of argument, and the sake of this thread, I'll take any one of these places/times- to be alive/aware/old enough yet young enough to enjoy some of my favorite bands when they were in their prime and experience these amazing times for myself rather than just hearing about them.

London- Mid 1960s
Los Angeles/San Francisco- Early 1980s
Seattle- Late 1980s- Early 1990s

[BlobVanDam]

As much as I'd love to see what things look like 30/50/75/100 years from now, there's no way of knowing what you'd be beaming yourself into. It's a stupidly high risk option that pretty much makes it useless.

While I'd really love to live in a world with more advanced science and medicine, I wouldn't risk it for this reason. My years of scifi watching have made me cautious of dystopian futures.

I'd consider packing up my PC and jumping back to the '80s, but I'd only get a few years before parts started going, and I'd have no replacement parts for decades, so probably not. I think I like the idea of living in the '80s more than I'd like it in practice.

I think I'd go with wolfking's idea. Low risk, high gain, except for having to kill my past self. Actually, we could just team up and conquer the world. Or do magic tricks.

[MetalJunkie]

I'd probably head to about 1950 and watch musical history become written with Elvis, Cash, Beatles, all the way up through to the formation of bands like Zeppelin and Metallica. I would absolutely love to live through the 80's as an adult. That would also give me the option of befriending my grandparents (who I miss dearly) in my later years. Plus I could invent stuff and become rich. Guess I'd pretty much pull a Lou from Hot Tub Time Machine... is that what created the idea for this thread?

[Zydar]

1960s, England or California. To experience that music scene would be a dream come true.

[MoraWintersoul]

Music fans talkin' 'bout music...

Isn't it weird how we used to imagine the future as bright and shiny with flying cars, and now it's invariably a nuclear dystopia?

[Sycsa]

Tens of thousands of years into future. With kick-ass healthcare, unfathomable technological advancements, intergalactic travel and the vast knowledge we will have accumulated, it'd be dull to go anywhere else.

Either that, or just to 2112 to listen to 2112.

[Chino]

If I'm aloud to bring a handgun, if have no problem jumping ahead several centuries. If the world  has gone to shit, I have an easy way out.

[Nekov]

Going back in time and being able to watch bands like Queen, Pink Floyd, Led Zep, King Crimson would be amazing so early 70s would be a nice choice. However my curiosity about the future is just to big to ignore and I'd probably go with Chino's option and jump way into the future and see what has become of us.

[ariich]

I'd probably head to about 1950 and watch musical history become written with Elvis, Cash, Beatles, all the way up through to the formation of bands like Zeppelin and Metallica.

1960s, England or California. To experience that music scene would be a dream come true.

But, wouldn't it be a bit boring when you know exactly what's coming? If you go back to the 50s or 60s, then for the next half century you already know ALL of the major albums that are going to come out, and all the new fads and styles and genres.

Surely it's more exciting to be here now, with no idea what will happen next but still have all that music from the past as well?

[Zydar]

Good point, Rich.

[puppyonacid]

I'd go back 10 years and have a serious word with myself.

However, if that is not permitted due to some reality crushing space time paradox then I'd go with:

A) The taking back sporting results and making killings gambling (or the more fancy option of buying stocks during the dotcom boom bubble); or

B) Go back to late 50's early 60's London - buy a strat and let leash with some serious Marty Mcfly type "you're not ready for this" type licks and see what happens.

[TheVoxyn]

A week so that in 7 days I would be able to do it again.

[puppyonacid]

You can't wish for more wishes!

There's always one 

[BlobVanDam]

Music fans talkin' 'bout music...

Isn't it weird how we used to imagine the future as bright and shiny with flying cars, and now it's invariably a nuclear dystopia?

We're basically at the point where we should have hoverboards and flying cars and hookerbots, but still nothin'. I think people are jaded that the future has failed them. Now it's time to just riot and fulfill either the Terminator or planet of the apes scenario. Or both. Terminapers.

[KevShmev]

November 5th, 1955!