sillyThe rules:
1) You can bring anything you want to the past, but you can't leave anything behind. So you can't bring back the polio vaccine and start treating people. It wouldn't work.
2) You can't take anything forward with you, either, except for information. So you could, say, travel back with a copy of a book and a pen, and have the book signed with that pen. Or you could bring a camera and take pictures. But all things must be somehow made from materials you carried with you.
3) You can't get sick in the past, but you could be eaten by a T-Rex. No one native to the time periods you're visiting will notice anything odd about you.
For my personal use, I would pack a bunch of digital cameras, Flip video recorders, and a gene sequencer, and hop back to Messina in 1347. I would then document the Black Death in ten year jumps, with lots of photographs and recordings of people trying to breathe as they fully expressed the virus. And then, when I got back to the present, I would drive the CDC insane...but I would finally know for sure.
For the good of all mankind, I would hop back to the pre-tape losses BBC archives with a tape-to-DVD portable recording rig (and a technician), and get copies of all the missing Doctor Who serials. Upon returning to the present day, I would probably also get knighted.
So what's your personal use? And what's your use for the good of all mankind?
April 22 2010, 02:21:10 UTC 7 years ago
Seal it up in the care of a company I trust for 100 years, then have them bounce it back with futuristic information that would allow us to avoid important catastrophes and advance our knowledge greatly, 'cause I am tired of us not having serious space colonies. };D
April 22 2010, 19:30:52 UTC 7 years ago
April 22 2010, 19:53:15 UTC 7 years ago
Far as I'm concerned, the past is the past, I'm only interested in the future. };) I'd probably have to ask or donate the time travel machine to some cause with an interesting thing-to-learn about the past.
I mean, sure, Library of Alexandria, yadda yadda, but how actually interesting are the contents of the library when there were probably other copies of important works elsewhere? More interesting would be knowledge that people actively tried to stamp out at the time or that is still a great mystery - lost arts of crafting like swordsmithing arts, what really happened to the Marie Celeste, what caused the Tunguska incident, etc.
On the sacrilicious side would be going back in time and getting an interview with Jesus Christ about how things turned out in the world after him - hmm. Wonder if he'd cure the time traveler's ailments if asked nicely? It's not in the rules that the time traveler can't be changed in some way as a result of the trip.