What would you do with the ability to go back in time and how would that change our history?

#1

"Hey dude don't eat that bat soup!"

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#2

It might sound crazy, but I wouldn't change a thing, and here's why: any change in history might mean that most of us wouldn't exist, or our relations might be completely changed (the butterfly effect), which means our parents, friends, and everything else might not exist, or wouldn't know each other, or would meet under different circumstances. Sure, history has loads of horrendous events, but in the end, no-one could guarantee that their changes in history would be for the better. And even if you'd know that something might turn out better—would you be willing to sacrifice all of this world for it?

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#3

I don't think I would change anything. I would be way too scared to mess things up and make everything much worse.

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#4

There was once a girl I liked so I asked her out. However I was shy as hell back then and asked if she would meet me round the corner where there were a few less people. She brought 50 People with her who all filmed the exact moment I asked her out in front of them and she laughed in my face. That video was uploaded to Facebook and my self confidence was destroyed. I am a changed guy now but it took a long damn time to heal that damage. I would change that moment in time so that I would not have gone through that and got on with my life earlier

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#5

Honestly I wouldn’t change a thing I would just want to see the dinos

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#6

I would go back and change the moment that men started to subjugate women. I believe that if women had an equal role in history, and girls were cherished and not treated as breeding stock by fathers and husbands, many ills of the world could have been avoided. I believe there would have been less war and more preservation of natural resources because women are innately practical. I also feel sure that at least one woman who was traveling with Jesus said "hey, we should hire someone to write all this down" and was ignored. If women were of equal value to a man, rape would never be tool in war, and slavery, and that would greatly have changed how the Europeans who explored the Americas interacted with the people they found there. Women in equal roles in the early church would have brought a pragmatism to the original goals of the Christian church which were to share everything in common and preach the good news. Certainly, there are greedy women, and stupid women, we could point and say "it would not have worked" but overall, we can see the destruction that thousands of years of patriarchy has brought the beings of Earth and I firmly believe that the equal role of women in Earth's affairs would be a mitigating factor to the heavy-handed, frat-house politics, testosterone fueled destruction we have seen evidenced all around us.

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Henry Saravia-Melara
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

and for some reason their is an add for bikinis on my screen,I know what you mean

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#7

April 15, 1865- Stop Abraham Lincon's death
April 10th, 1912-Blowing up the Titanic while people aren't on it to save many lives.
June 14, 1946- Stop Trump's birth
November 22, 1963-Save J.F.K.
November 5, 1955-See the day time travel was invented.
???????- Steal a vaccine serum and take it to the start of Covid.
I have no clue how this all pans out I would love to see it.

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#8

I would keep slavery from happening and make sure people stay away from bats

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#9

Let Hitler into art school. 'Nuff said.

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Jesus
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

''dont let that kid in'' they said ''whats the worst that can happen" they said

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#10

i would do something, no, ANYTHING to make sure that trump never wanted to run in 2016...

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#11

There was so much 'wrong' over the history that it's difficult to pick from. Of course, it has shaped the world we live in today, but if certain things could be avoided, that would be great, you know what I mean? I would forbid wars and make big guys battle it out in a tabletop game or a video game, depending on the period.

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Up All Night
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Whoa, tiger, you only got to travel back in time, not superpowers!

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#12

First, I'd go to Stephen Hawking's time traveller party - I bet he was a real blast. Then, I would go back to a time just after The Return Of The Jedi and have a good long chat with George Lucas about Jar-Jar Binks and the Star Wars legacy. I think that would serve mankind well.

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Who? Me?
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I need a Doctor Who episode on the Hawking party thingy. And yes... if you're going by any chance, take me with you

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#13

Oh boy, here i go to save the books in the librarby of Alexandria!

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#14

No question that I would go back to the time when Christianity was invented and stop it from happening. I have researched this and found that no-one wrote about Jesus when he was said to be alive. The 4 gospels were written by people who never even met him, so have no authenticity. Anyway, if it wasn't for Christianity, we would not have hard the dark ages, where religion supressed all kinds of development to keep the population enslaved. Advances were forbidden for 1300 years and if it hadn't happened, we probably would have had all the things we currently have, but at least 500 years earlier.

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Aragorn II Elessar
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I understand that viewpoint. “Christianity” has been responsible for a whole lot of problems. However, Christianity as it’s intended, to love one another, how can that harm anything? That’s how I and many I know practice it. Perhaps it’d be better to adapt it prior to the rise of the Catholic Church of that era and ensure that it wasn’t misinterpreted.

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#15

I would go back in the early 1900s when the companies started getting the same rights as people and became legal persons. Without that no huge corporations would exist today.

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#16

I wouldn't change a thing,but I kinda wanna go back in time.

Not to change things,
But to sorta relive some moments..

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#17

However Covid-19 started, I would go back in time to stop it. Just imagine the world without Covid-19!

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#18

I would go back to about a year ago. What i would do is save my aunt from k!lling herself... How it would affect the course of history ig all it would do is make it to where her kids have a mommy to live their life w/ uhmm idrk if that's a good answer but. uhmm.. yeah.

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#19

I would slash the tires of the guy in the bar who had way too much to drink, and killed two young guys riding their motorcycles home from night school. I hope the affect would be growing up with my father and godfather

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#20

I'm not sure.
People always say they'd want to go back and kill Hitler, but honestly, someone else would take his place. I'm not excusing him on anything he did. It was atrocious, but the butterfly effect would put someone else in his situation.
I don't think I would want to change anything, for that matter. I would just like everything to stay the same.

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Up All Night
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

May be it would be someone who would win the war for the nazis, so it's better not to mess with history.

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#21

I would give the knowledge of metal working to the Native American tribes in both north and south America. Allowing them to have a better fighting chance against the Spanish and later the English. I would try to right the course of Colombus so that he makes it to India, so that the Mayans, Aztecs, Incas, and other civilizations in the Americas could flourish and grow with out the Spanish and other European empires subjugating them.

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#22

I agree that changing the past creates an uncertain future, but since we're pretending :) I've always liked the idea of grabbing someone tragic out of time, and trying to save them. Tell Franz Ferdinand don't go driving that day, let security know what was up before Kennedy got in the car. Or even like, don't kill Hitler, grab him when he was still an infant, raise him with care, educate him. There are people whose brains are unfortunately wired poorly from birth, they literally just don't/can't feel anything for others, but it's so, so often that monsters are made. I like the idea of unmaking one.

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#23

Get a dog sooner, stop watching the news and just concentrate on listening to and loving my dogs.

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#24

I'd grab my kids and take them back to before my grandfather died and let them spend some time enjoying his company. He was my favorite person in the world and a terrific grandpa. I bet my kids would have loved meeting him and vice versa. And I'd give him one last hug and tell him that he was more of a dad to me than my dad was, and I miss him every day.

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#25

i would make sure me and my bbfaetteot ( best friend forever 'till the end of time) met in pre- k not in kindergarden and make sure me and my enemy never met soooooo ya!

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londynbrown avatar
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Y ARE YOU DOWNVOTING ME! JUST BECAUSE I SHARED MY OPINION DOES NOT MEAN U CAN JUS HATE FOR NO REASON! IF YOU WERE IN MY SHOES YOU WOULD POST THIS TOOOO! SHEESH! I KNOW 2021 ISN'T TO EXITING BUT YOU DONT HAVE TO TAKE IT OUT ON ME PEOPLE! YA HATERS!

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#26

stop adolf hitler from being born and stop the assassination of martin luther king

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#27

If I had the power I would go back to the time Europeans were colonizing the Americas. I would write books that explain and humanize Native American's culture and way of life. I would try to fight for their right's to stay on their land. I feel like a lot of really bad history may have been avoided if we had tried to work with and try to understand the locals, then what happened which was genocide.

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kendramiller avatar
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Though I doubt I could make a difference, being female and lower middle class. They would probably dismiss me and toss me in a sanatorium or something. I am insignificant in comparison to their greed. "They" referring to the British, French and Spanish aristocracy who are the ones to benefit from the raw resources to be gained from the "new world"

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#28

I would go in germany before Hitler was a Nazi and I would get him into art school so he can have a good time in art school and so the Holocaust wouldn't happen.

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Janelle Madison
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Maybe that could possibly make him a good person before he became the reason for millions of innocent people to be murdered I think he was just evil but nice theory

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#29

If I could go back in time I would make sure that I could speak the language of that time. It helps a lot :-) And I would go back to the Golden Age here in the Netherlands were I live. I want to meet Rembrandt, Vermeer and all the other great painters. I want to see how the city's look liked, how it smelled, how the food tasted. Then travel to all other country's to see and meet the, now very famous, artists.

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#30

Elect Hilary. She would be our first women president, and we also wouldn't have Trump as our president.

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Mary Rose Kent
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So really, abolish the archaic Electoral College, because Hillary won the popular vote but not the EC.

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#31

Well if I'm going to change history, I might as well go all out. You know the "grandfather paradox" where if you go back in time and kill your grandfather as a child, therefore you can't be born (so who went back in time?) Well lets go further, like 1,000 generations and kill off my great great.... grandfather when he was young. That would result in me, and probably 80% of the people in the western world no longer existing (replaced by other people). How different would history be if the majority of people in our history books were never born? It would be interesting to watch the results.

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#32

Harambe! stay away from that kid!

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Maanya Chandra
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3 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Actually, according to my random research Harambe was going to help the kid, and was unfairly shot. Someone PLEASE correct this in the chat. IDK anymore.

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#33

I'd probably go back to the last time I ate ice-cream :P

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#34

1. Tell Rosalind Franklin about Watson and Crick and their plans
2. Help van Gogh emotionally and mentally
3. Tell Mendel to not stop researching on pea plants

Though changing history will have far reaching implications. Whovians will understand.

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#35

Id go back about 6 to 5 years and tell dad to get a cancer screening. He would still be alive now.

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#36

For my personal life: get proper help for my mental and physical illnesses much sooner - as another poster said, "be my own guardian angel". I also suffered years of abuse at the hands of my family so I would definitely protect myself from all that.

For the betterment of the human race: I would want to travel through all of history with appropriate recording devices. What really happened at the beginning of time/space? Did certain religious figures really exist the way we think they did? Have we ever been visited by non-Earth entities? What colour were dinosaurs? Was there ever life on Mars? All these questions would finally get answers. :)

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#37

I would want to go back in history and explore, but I wouldn't change anything. If you mess something up, you could end up not existing.

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Sentient Duck
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

but that would mean you wouldn't exist to go back in time and stop yourself from existing, thus creating another paradox

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#38

I would tell myself to go back in time to tell myself to go back in time and so on to create an infinite loop of unnecessary time travel.

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aj2nielsen avatar
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The temptation to misuse any time travel technology would be overwhelming for me honestly. like instead of saving someone or preventing a disaster I'd just throw rocks at Socrates or something.

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#39

I wouldn’t change anything really, I like being in existence. Like most people would try to prevent wars or whatever but if it wasn’t for Word War 2 my great grandpa wouldn’t have come to the US and then my parents wouldn’t meet. Also it would create a paradox of if I don’t exist I never went back in time but if I do I do go back in time but then I don’t exist but I really do so on and so forth,

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#40

If I was sightseeing: I would watch Julius Caesar get stabbed. If I was changing: I would destroy Christopher Columbus's ship as he traveled to America.

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Mahshid Chowdhury
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yes make them not look for spices and get creative with their cooking with what they have already. And make England stay in England and stop coming to errdamn country.

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#41

I would go back in time and find a way to insist on good writing standards for everyone, including on the web, so that all the mistakes in these answers would disappear.

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#42

I wouldn't change anything, but I would take a team so that history could be recorded as accurately as possible. Also, some kind of sworn in fact checker so that it wouldn't be challenged. That way we can learn from as accurate a history account as possible, and not just rely on victor's propaganda.

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#43

i would see freddie mercury at the live aid

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#44

I know it’s not much to most people, but I would go back and try to save the old man of the mountain. My dad used to live out there in NH and he was very saddened when he fell. It wouldn’t change much. My dad wouldn’t have been sad, and the beautiful landmark would still stand strong.

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Roos Dillema
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Who was the old man of the mountain? I never heard of him. Please tell me more

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#45

I don’t think I’d change anything. I’d go explore Ancient Rome, but I wouldn’t change a thing, because who knows how that would impact the future?

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#46

Buy toilet paper, chips, ice cream, put it in my house then travel to a time and make sure I never meet my ex

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#47

I got a reptile a while back, but he sadly passed away a few months ago because of some choices I made, so I would go back and warn myself to not make those decisions.

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#48

I want to find out what happened to Atlantis.

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#49

go back and get famous famous famoussss people to give me an autograph before they become really popular

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#50

I'm going to be a wee bit selfish. I would go back to September 2, 2015. The thing I would change would be going to work that day. My mother died of a GI bleed while babysitting my children while I was at work. I can't guarantee that she would still be here if I had been there, but at least I would have been with her at the end. What would it change if the end result was different? My daughter was less than 2 years old at the time, she would have had the chance to actually know her grandmother, and my son would have had had more time with his "Meega".

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#51

I would just buy a little stock in some of the biggest companies in the world when it was cheap. I doubt that would have any effect on the course of history.

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#52

I would go back in time and kill Hitler. No Holocaust and millions of lives saved.

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#54

I would not go back in time because there is a medium chance of a paradox and disappearing from existence.

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#55

Honestly, I don't know WHY, but I wanna see my entire life in third-person. Starting from my birth. It'll be cool and kinda cringy when I see things that I regret doing now. Without anyone able to see me. Man, that'd be awesome.

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That One Girl
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I agree! It would be cool to be my own guardian angel and, if I want to, guide myself instead of just watching myself do things I regret.

#56

I would want to go back to whenever it was declared that being LGBTQIA+ is bad and change that forever!

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#57

Well I dont want to mess things up so I would change nothing but if it was just something just did not happen I would change trump being president (boo trump) or I would make corona just nit happen

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#58

I'll bring my smartphone to prehistoric age and teach people how to make it and how to use it so in 2020 we will know how they looks like and how they life instead just a theory and 3d rendering

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#59

I would go back to 2016 and ell everyone how dangerous and bad a Trump presidency would be. It wouldn't change anything because I knew that in 2016 and I told anybody who would listen, but it happened anyway.

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#60

I know I’m crazy but i’d try to remove Disney. It’s too big, too annoying and I just hate how it’s on everything. Would keep the mandalorian tho.

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Bernice Laurie Marquez
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Disney was my life back then. Without Disney,my life would've been a mess Not hating,just saying. Sorry if this offended you

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#61

I wouldn't change anything, but I would go back to 1945, when Hitler died, just to see people's expressions of joy. I wonder if it would be anything like when Biden was elected.

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#62

Go back to the stone age, give them the latest technology, come back and see what the technology now would be like.

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#63

I wouldn't change anything, but I would go back to when my parents were teenagers, I've only ever seen pictures and that was years and years ago. I wonder what they would be like...

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#64

I want to visit the Constitutional Convention. I would encourage them to clarify the power of a President to pardon. Specifically a President cannot pardon him or herself or immediate family.

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#65

Keep Kathleen Kennedy away from Star Wars

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#66

I would stop war and disease and violence wherever it showed up, periodically returning to modern times to see new things to change, and eventually make humans a perfect society. Also, I would continuously give technology to 15th century people and come back to get more advanced tech to give them so we would have perfectly advanced tech. I would also go and save knowledge from being destroyed, eventually gathering a complete archive of everything humans have ever known.

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#67

I'd go back in time and stop the invention of the smartphone. We'd just have cellphones with cameras in it. Why? Because our smartphones are not making us smarter, just more isolated and disconnected from the real world. It's become an addiction.

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#68

would have advised my parents they should have me 2 or 3 years apart from my sister and not 7, because we would be closer together. or tell my dad to use protection

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#69

Walk in on my parents when they were making my siblings. Peace and quiet.

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Tiny Dynamine
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Now seriously imagine that the police came to your door and told you that your siblings had died in a terrible accident. Try to see how you would actually feel.

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#70

I thing i would go to world war 2 just because in interested and would like o see it for myself!

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vincentcalabrese avatar
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yes, yes i Know, i only put the o in to and and i spelled in instead of I’m so yeah..pls dont judge me.

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#71

Tell James's Woods agent to forward the script and be given the chance for him to have been in Reservoir Dogs. Look, I like Tim Roth as an actor, but James Woods would’ve been a better choice.

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#72

At the 2011 White House Correspondent's Dinner, I will somehow persuade Obama to omit jokes about Trump so he would not be inspired to run for president.

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Mahshid Chowdhury
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It’s not Obama’s fault that the cheetah ran for president.... he was planning this from a long time ago, there’s a clip of him saying it in the internet somewhere

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#73

What I would want to do isn't a "go back and change this" event. It would involve going throughout the timeline to stomp out three concepts wherever they catch fire. [1] "Traits are either nature or nurture" (it's usually both) [2] "Theory vs. empirics" (they are each crucial to the other in any endeavor to discover) [3] "I can't explain why something happened scientifically, so it must be the result of magical forces/God's will". As liberally as these ideas are seasoned through history, such an endeavor would exhaust an army.

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#74

i would go to December 2019 and get rid of the bat

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#75

I would go back to be first in line to buy stock at the IPO's of Intel, Apple, Amazon....

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#76

sorry if im posting twice the wifi went out and then turned on again so i'm not sure but i wouldve went back in time so i could tell p.me to not steal the cookie, as my parents said no. i ate the cookie anyway and it led to my parents distrusting me.

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#77

tell my mom: "AYO DONT GET PREGNANT, I DONT WANT TO BE HERE"

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Maya Jones
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

NOOO! YOU DESERVE TO BE HERE!!! YOU ARE AMAZING AND NEVER DOUBT THAT. EVER.

#78

make sure tRump didnt win the election

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#79

I would go back in time to destroy the garden of eden so nothing bad will ever happen in the future.

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Up All Night
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Story time: You did it. You made it back to Eden and tried to get in. This enraged God who turned you into a snake, so you don't have hands to destroy anything. Furiously, you decided to ruin his creation once and for all, so you located the tree of wisdom and approached Eve...

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#80

I would go back in time and bring weapons and masks to help the native Americans. If they had been prepared I think they might have made it, or at least had a better chance. I'm confident that America wouldn't have taken the path that it did if they'd been in charge back then.

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Swyft
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

introduce a weaker strain of smallpox in the area hundreds of years earlier, this would allow them to avoid the problems caused by smallpox

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#81

I'd teach people tik tok dances I don't know what'd do but we'd probably look cool

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#82

i would create the infinity stones and snap half the world out of exsistance and the world will be balanced just like ot should be

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Sentient Duck
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'd assist you, as long as I'm not gonna be part of the half that literally bites the dust

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