What Era Would You Chose To Live In ?

[marlon]

What Era Would You Chose To Live In ?

Just wondering, if you could get back in time, what era would you like to live in?

I go for the period of the French revolution...I mean, the second half of the 18th century... Like in 1750-1790...

Because of several reasons : i could go out and watch Don Giovanni being conducted by Mozart himself, I could attend a pianoconcerto with Beethoven as the solist...Also, the scientific revolutions back then...The altering of Europe...Ahh what a period...

regards
marlon

ps : how about you...

 

[Icebreaker]

Witness the Big Bang and live to tell about it.

 

[franznietzsche]

go back to when atlantis was supposed to have been around, find out, come back, and then tell everyone that it either existed, or to stuff it and quit fantasizing.

 

[Kerrie]

I would love to live during the 19th century here in the United States.

 

[quantumdude]

I'd like to go back to around 1880 and steal the credit for all of modern physics.

 

[polyb]

Hey, if I had a 'time-machine' that means I could also travel through space! Why dwell in the past when the whole universe is open to exploration! Grab what you must and go!

 

[Astronuc]

The 1960's in the UK and US would be very tempting to do with what I now know about the period. Metting up with the Yardbirds, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix and a host of others would be really cool.

But scientifically, I would like to bounce around the Mesozoic period, which is divided into three time periods: the Triassic (245-208 Million Years Ago), the Jurassic (208-146 Million Years Ago), and the Cretaceous (146-65 Million Years Ago).

I would like to see all of the dinosaurs and measure the climate and atmosphere.

 

[Townsend]

I'd like to go back to around 1880 and steal the credit for all of modern physics.

Who's to say this has not already been done?

 

[Moonbear]

The roaring '20s always sounded fun. Anything much before that seems like it would be too smelly.

 

[Bartholomew]

If I could take what I wanted with me... I might go back to hunter-gatherer times. Things would have been simpler then, if I had modern machines. It would be interesting to find out how much of intelligence is cultural.

 

[Evo]

It's too difficult to only select one time period to live in. I would love to live in Florence, Italy in the late 15th century, I'd love to meet Da Vinci. I think too much though and realize that for a woman during that time period, or most time periods in the past, I would also need wealth and power to be privy to the things I'd like to see and the people I'd like to meet.

I've read that Michaelangelo was an absolute fanatic when he was working and he only took off his boots once every three months and the flesh would be decaying. Lovely.

 

[Icebreaker]

Mmmm... maybe I'll go back in time, kill myself, and settle that paradox once and for all.

 

[Bartholomew]

for all you people who say they want to meet famous artists, what if it turns out they are not very interesting? Most of the magic of art is hype by critics.

 

[Moonbear]

for all you people who say they want to meet famous artists, what if it turns out they are not very interesting? Most of the magic of art is hype by critics.

They probably would be boring. I'd guess a number of them were probably quite introverted. How else could one immerse themselves so fully into so many works of art if they were out socializing and partying it up?

I wouldn't want to go back and meet anyone person. My fascination with history and the past is more about knowing what it was like to be an ordinary citizen in that time. The history books never talk about that stuff, they focus on the royalty and generals and people who were in some way exceptional. Or, I'd like to see what pristine forests looked like before the industrial era, rivers before dams were built and before human civilation polluted them, deserts before they became deserts, etc.

 

[franznietzsche]

They probably would be boring. I'd guess a number of them were probably quite introverted. How else could one immerse themselves so fully into so many works of art if they were out socializing and partying it up?

All good scientists are like that.

Well, when they're working anyway.

 

[Integral]

I've read that Michaelangelo was an absolute fanatic when he was working and he only took off his boots once every three months and the flesh would be decaying. Lovely.

This really presents a problem for me .. I like my showers. Historically, by our standards, Europeans were absolutely filthy. I think even a brief visit to anything pre 1900 would be nearly intolerable to someone accustomed to our levels of sanitation.

That said would like to be an eagle flying over the historic battles. Marengo, Austerlitz, Waterloo in the Napoleonic era to see how Napoleon handled the masses of troops. Later to fly over Stonewall Jackson as he chased the Union forces from the Shenandoah valley.

I do not think I would get a lot out of converstions with specific people, but would like to be present and witness some of world shaping events of history or, as Astronuc, mentions to actually see a living dinosaur.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I like my showers

If you worry about showers, consider the options to toilet paper!

 

[Smurf]

Roman Era, Ancient Greece, I'd like to 'visit' all the periods inbetween that and now, but it'd be really too dirty for me. But early 1900's, seeing all the battles and stuff would be cool too.

 

[Integral]

If you worry about showers, consider the options to toilet paper!

Could I take a dozen cases with me?

 

[hypnagogue]

I guess this isn't very exotic, but I think I'd pick California circa Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Bob Dylan: There was music in the cafes at night and revolution in the air. America in the 60s seems like a pretty fascinating place, especially since it seems so different from what it is today, and it wasn't even terribly long ago.

 

[brewnog]

I'd go back to just before the Romans invaded Britain.

That way, there'd be far less history to learn at school.

 

[Joel]

Well, if I had to chose an era, it would be now. Never has the world changed so fast and produced so many new things to learn. So, in a way, this is the time when you get a chance to experience the most diverse things.

But from the past, maybe the scientific revolution... before the industrialization. 1500-1600 europe. I could walk up the windy streets of Florence to Galieleo's house or persuade Da Vincis voluntaries not to take that jump off Fiesoles hills with a pair of paperwings...

And to see places I know before humans layed foot there would also be interesting. But then I'd also prefer the eagle perspective, or my fascination would literary die out pretty soon.

 

[Mentat]

I'd probably go back to the Rennaisance...maybe ancienct Greece (pre-Plato, but post-Peloponnesian (sp?)).

 

[misogynisticfeminist]

For me, it would be the greek and roman empires. I would like to see the nature of social and political life (esp. the Greeks) and how they were much more advanced than most civilizations their age. The enlightenment period would be good too...

 

[Mentat]

For me, it would be the greek and roman empires. I would like to see the nature of social and political life (esp. the Greeks) and how they were much more advanced than most civilizations their age.

Polybius would say that, to understand how they were what they were, and how they came to be that way, is to understand their history and that of the surrounding nations (the Mediterranian civilizations, in this case). I suggest Charles Freeman, if you're interested in such things .

The enlightenment period would be good too...

I concur.

 

[Chrono]

Two times I would most like to live in:

Medieval Japan
Medieval Europe

Mostly I like them for their fighting.

 

[Moonbear]

I'd go back to just before the Romans invaded Britain.

That way, there'd be far less history to learn at school.

I was always terrible at learning history. When my parents would question me about my history grades, I'd explain, "Well, there's a lot MORE of it than when you were in school."

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Although I would rather see the distant future [HG Wells had the right idea], that and other practical conerns aside, I would have to say Greece: 500 B.C. or so.

 

[Bladibla]

Would love to live in early 18th century in europe, hopefully gettting to meet chopin

I respect chopin so much..

 

[marlon]

Would love to live in early 18th century in europe, hopefully gettting to meet chopin

I respect chopin so much..

Then you would have to live in 19th century Europe...

marlon

 

[Bladibla]

Then you would have to live in 19th century Europe...

marlon

oops got it wrong...

 

[BoulderHead]

Just wondering, if you could get back in time, what era would you like to live in?

I'd like to go way back in time when the first primitive man has the first original thought...



...and knock dead that SOB with a blow to the head!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I'd like to go way back in time when the first primitive man has the first original thought...

...and knock dead that SOB with a blow to the head!

Do you wish to be king of the monkey people?

 

[Wardw]

Although the thread is "What era would you choose to live in", perhaps it should have been called "What era would you like to visit".

The possibilities are endless but for a wuss like me who is adverse to pain, we are now in the best era ever. Living in any other time up to 50 years ago would be hell, assuming we go there from here with what we know now of our time.
Imagine the endless ways in which we could die...from a snake bite to a toothache...no thanks.
I was born in 61 and I am sad for the fact that we are just now on the cusp of real technological progress, to the stars and beyond. What we will achieve in the next 100 years will be nothing short of amazing, and sadly, I must accept that I will not be around to see it...not from this dimension anyway.
Yes, I'd like to live to 150, it may well be possible, but not in our lifetimes.

Whatever device that I would use to get there would have to be hand held, with a button clearly labeled "Get me the Fu%^& out of here now".

But in answer to the question, I agree with Moonbear, there are toooo many interesting periods for those of us who get off on history to choose just one.

Because of several reasons : i could go out and watch Don Giovanni being conducted by Mozart himself,

Make sure you set the time machine right down to the day, as I believe Don Giovanni saw only 9 performances before Sad Sack Salieri had the plug pulled.

 

[marlon]

Make sure you set the time machine right down to the day, as I believe Don Giovanni saw only 9 performances before Sad Sack Salieri had the plug pulled.

This is untrue. This image comes from the motion picture Amadeus and though it is a great movie, lot's of things in it are wrong. There was never any competition like that between Mozart and Salieri. In those days, Salieri was a very well respected composer. Also, Salieri did not order a requiem "in cognito", though there are rumours that some duke gave Mozart the task of writing a death-mass.

But the argument that Mozart wrote the requiem for his own funeral is untrue.

marlon