Hint: You can prevent https://lifeline4gaza.com/ <- this from happening, or solve the unsolveable historical mysteries that haunt us all.

Premise: the continuum is bullshit and can do whatever idk, viewing only or with alterations, depending on what makes sense to you. It’s not a contest to do the most (well okay it is but that could limit our inquiry), just whatever occurs to you first.

  • Saprophyte@lemmy.world
    0·
    7 months ago

    Dec 15th, 1791 along with an AR-15 and four high capacity magazines just to explain something to a few people.

      • Saprophyte@lemmy.world
        0·
        7 months ago

        I would just want them to understand that a single shot musket that takes thirty seconds to load each round wouldn’t always be the norm.

  • over_clox@lemmy.world
    0·
    7 months ago

    I would go back to 1955 (yes, kinda ironic to think of it), with more modern medical instruments, anesthesia, sterilization, etc, and try to save my Baby Blue uncle who I was named after. He was born with his intestines on the outside and only lived one day ☹️😭

    Yeah I’m no medical expert nor surgeon, but holy shit he might have had a better chance with more modern medical equipment and knowledge, I would have surely tried to do my most cautious best…

  • chaosCruiser@futurology.todayEnglish
    0·
    7 months ago

    I would go to the year 1800, and bring with me a bunch of books on science and engineering. Basically all the building blocks you need to build wind farms and solar power. I would visit all the universities I can and drop these books in library shelves. Some climate change literature could be nice too.

    • FatVegan@leminal.space
      0·
      7 months ago

      During the pandemic we learned that people react well to reasoning and people telling them what to do

      • chaosCruiser@futurology.todayEnglish
        0·
        7 months ago

        I have a plan B too, but it’s not so gentle.

        The goal is to become the number one energy producer and stomp out all opposition and competition before it has a chance to grow. There are no laws against cartels and monopolies, so you exploit the hell out of it. You file extremely broad patents to prevent fossil fuels and combustion based motors from ever becoming a thing. You play super dirty, no mercy, no remorse. It’s going to be basically like the East-India Company, but with renewable energy.

        You lobby governments to adopt renewable energy and electrical devices you provide. You influence the public opinion on fossil fuels by spreading information about climate change, pollution and negative health effects. If the global energy company becomes big enough, you should make your own private army and conquer all the places where large oil deposits exist, and establish massive natural reserve parks in those areas. Lobby the governments to make other similar areas legally protected from all industrial development for the next 1000 years.

        You would become the supervillain billionaire of the 1800s, but you put the whole world on a renewable trajectory.

        • bountygiver [any]@lemmy.mlEnglish
          0·
          7 months ago

          You influence the public opinion on fossil fuels by spreading information about climate change, pollution and negative health effects

          if you are playing dirty, telling them digging up those evil black liquid out can anger the gods would work too

          • chaosCruiser@futurology.todayEnglish
            0·
            7 months ago

            That could work too. Superstitions and religions were in at the time, so I think there’s plenty to exploit.

            You could call coal the Devil’s rock, and spread rumors about it being cursed and haunted. You cal talk about the smoke causing vice, moral decay and sin. Oil could be seen as the blood of the Earth, tears from ancient curses, bad omens etc. Only rebellious sorcerers and heretics would dare to tamper with the natural order of things by burning oil. As the un-godly un-natural smoke poisons the air, it poisons the soul etc. God gave you the sun and wind, so using them is the only righteous choice… You get the idea. The 1800s was a magical period of time.

  • mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    7 months ago

    Take a slide rule to ancient Babylon because on some level I’m morally offended we didn’t figure that one out until the 17th century. Ideally this also snipes a variety of terrible numeral systems.

  • Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    0·
    7 months ago

    1995 to visit my family when they were all still alive. It wouldn’t hurt urging them to invest in Apple stock and Bitcoin while I’m at it.

  • robotElder2 [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    0·
    7 months ago

    I tell general Butler to accept Lincolns VP position. Then leave a time capsule in the future USSR to be opened in 1920 or so with instructions for building computers

    • wewbull@feddit.ukEnglish
      0·
      7 months ago
      • Buy CPU from AMD
      • Buy GPU from Nvidia
      • Buy motherboard from MSI
      • Buy RAM from Corsair
      • plug them together and put it in a case.
      • plug HDMI cable between GPU and handy LCD monitor.
      • Install Windows

      The point I’m making is there’s so much technological development in manufacturing that has to take place before you can even start, it probably wouldn’t happen any faster. Just the technology that builds the machines that builds the machines that build the chips is beyond the 1920s.

      Turing’s papers on computing were all pre-WW2 anyway.

  • Sharkticon@lemmy.zip
    0·
    7 months ago

    There’s a lot of interesting Branch points you can think of. I’ve always been interested in what would have happened if Bobby Kennedy hadn’t been assassinated. That seems like a really big one.

    Of course maybe the most important one I can think of is going back in time and beating Jubal Early to death before he can start all that lost cause bullshit.