If you could rewind time (once) to back when you were 6 years old but retain all your experiences, memories, skills and intelligence, would you do it? If 'yes', what would you do differently? What are some moral implications of time travel? What about selfishness and redefining fate or interfering with the natural course of events? What about paradoxes? Any other thoughts?



Personally i would actually take this chance, it'll be nice to be top in my class in everything. And i would be able to start hobbies (such as GS) much earlier and be #1 =P.

the bad side to this is that your gonna be really bored for the first ~5 years(at school anyways)

I would definately take this chance.
Reason? To do almost EVERYTHING different from the way I did it. I would change the sports I played (I would start Rugby at a much earlier age), I would make sure to be less of a !($#*^&)( to others. I would start Glowstringing at a way earlier age (this should make it easier to learn).
To summarize it: I would make sure that I would be the person I now try to be, not the idiot that I've been (and perhaps at times still am).
Cheers

I would take this chance as well i have lost friends and such that i feel could have been prevented.

You can't actually physically change your own age. You can change the rate at which you age, the rate at which all objects relative to you age, but not your physical age itself. You will always get older, no matter how slowly or quickly, progress through age.

But this does not exclude the possibility of time travel. Infact time travel is a very real and feasible possibility given the correct circumstances. So you shouldn't ask "What if I could rewind time to be six years old again?" you should really be asking "What would I tell my six year old self if I could go back and visit him?"

If you want to learn about time travel, time traveling theories, theories on superstrings, space-time warpdrives, black hole singularities, or any other appropriate means of time travel, I would suggest reading an EXCELLENT book that would get you started on the beginning and intermediate subject material while still presenting it in laymens terms.
"Time Travel in Einsteins Universe: The Physical Possibilities of Travel Through Time" by J. Richard Gott. ...probably one of the best books I ever read.

oh.. more on topic, my six year old self probably wouldn't heed much warning... my sixteen year old self on the other hand...

i wouldnt go back
even though i did a lot of things i dont like
it kind of defined who i am

@spazz, how about if all this was possible? what if your able to go back to when you were 6 years old, while you keep your memories and experiences?

and, i've read a book that mentioned the possibility of sends messages back in time. its got to do with something Quantom. Heard of it? O.o

I don't think I'd go back. I don't want to do it all over and I'm content with where I'm at and the people I know right now.

Yeah, I would do it, mainly just to see how much fun it would be to be considered a child genius (IMG:http://www.glowsticking.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/happy.gif) .

I had a whole discussion, but when it came time to draw a graph to demonstrate what I thought, i failed miserably. I just edited it to save confusion (IMG:http://www.glowsticking.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/happy.gif)

Basically When talking about interfering with the natural course of events, I think going back in time and changing something would only create another timeline. For example, going back and killing your dad wouldn't zap you out of existence right then and there, it would just create another timeline skewed off from the original where you would not exist. Upon returning back to your original timeline, your father would still be alive. Think of it as a flat line with a random diagonal coming off of it.

_______/______

This is my personal conclusion based on the numerous books and articles I've read on the topic.

hell yes! who doesn't want to be the best glowsticking and raving 6 year old on the planet. You'd become the ultimate stringer by the time you got to twenty again.


I'd love to go back to just relive, like watching home movies, only better

personaly i wouldnt take that chance...everything in all of our lives happens for one reason or another. ya there will always be situations that u wish u could take back but we learn from mistakes and they make us better people.

one kinda lame/bad example (but all i can really think of that everyone would understand) is that of Hitler and the Nazi's...what if all that happened and someone went back in time and stoped him? ya all the jews would have been saved and all that badness prevented but the new generations would have no knowledge of this event and the crulity the man is capable of...

...but anyways like i said our mistakes are what we would like to chance but they are what makes us all unique. they mold our minds and shape them into new ideas

one little more personal example would b my last relationship...i was hurt bad but if that had never happened i would still be the boy i was back then and still have all the same problems that in the end caused me to be hurt so bad (like fixation and stuff liek that) but now that i went thought that experience i have learned from it...

...that being said the only thing if i HAD to go back and change would be to start glowsticking sooner and thats it because I love it and it helps me relax...i wouldnt change anything else because even though im not completly in love with my past it has still made me who i am today (IMG:http://www.glowsticking.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I would do it. I would of never told my first father I loved him. I would of never sent that one kid to the hospital, or I just wouldn't of thrown a rock as hard as i could at his head... I would of never tried marijuana or ecstasy. Never had sex. I would of treated myself much better, spiritually and physically. Started spinning poi at a young age as its the best stress reliever and the best get away I've ever had. And most importantly... I would of never let the love of my life make that one horrible decision...

In conclusion I think I made more mistakes then anything else. But then again I wouldn't be me... Do I want to be myself with a few mistakes or be some one else?-

i believe i know what you are talking about.

the moment that you would appear in your history would cause a tangent

one would have to assume that the at the point in time in your past (were assuming 6 years old), is a set path so far. from that point in time there are an infinite number of possibilities (or paths) for the future leading from this point.

the older you (the one who is traveling back in time) is a set individual as a result of one specific path.

by traveling back in time, it would alter the event, and send the individual down a different path towards a different future.


after this is where it gets a bit fuzzy:

there are theories.

the previously thought idea is that there is only one path, and that it would be possible to travel back and forth with out any disruptions in the present or past.

one suggests that there is only one future, and by changing the past it erases the future. this is where changing history would erase the old you because your future wouldn't exist anymore.

other suggest that it is possible for multiple futures to exist at the same time, so changing the past doesn't erase the future. this is where the past would change, but the older you who came to visit would be the same. this gets more into more 4th and 5th dimensional



i think it sounds like a great idea. however, the only problem with time travel is that if there is more than one future (what i agree most with), it would be theoretically impossible to differentiate between our current set future and another one. and then the problem arises: if one goes back in time, how will it be possible to determine which future you have come from? its not like it is possible to set an interdimensional beacon on the space time continuum (at least not yet) so it would be possible for people to locate the "correct" home.


of course there are many ideas as to what is the nature of space and time, fate and choice, etc. etc, so there is no definite answer, and i doubt there will be.


would i do it? not if i was going back to when i was 6 years old. like spazzman said, it would probably be better to be older.

Wow, people are really getting into this discussion, lol.

I've been thinking about this a lot actually. I'd love to be able to go back to when I was six and kick some ass. I'd love to get tutored in another language or two, particularly Spanish. I've been having dreams about this semi-frequently lately haha.

I am pretty sure you are referring to quantum mechanics. Questions like these make me honestly think these discussions are difficult without a moderate understanding of physics (especially special relativity and astrophysics). Discuss as you may about all the paradoxes such as killing your ancestors, or meeting your previous self back in time, or whatever, but none of it actually has any clarity behind it without considering the equations that bind us and the laws of the universe.