You're sixteen again...

sphenisc

Philosopher
sphenisc
Joined
Jul 14, 2004
Messages
6,233
Scenario:
You wake up tomorrow morning and discover that you've travelled back in time to when you were sixteen. You're in your sixteen-year old body, but you have all your current knowledge and memories, i.e. can 'remember' things that will happen in the future. Your family and friends etc. see you as a teenager and treat you accordingly.
Okay, you feel it's your duty to try and prevent some of the events that you know are otherwise going to take place over the next umpteen years. Which events? What's your best course of action? How do you convince people?

Okay, it's all yours...

[To forestall derails, this not about time travel paradoxes, or about whether you have a duty. You have the ability to change the course of events, and you feel the need to do so.]
 
Change one thing and everything subsequent changes. Then all your "memories" are no longer relevant. You'd be a different person.
 
I, for one, would exercise more.

But of course, I wouldn't.
 
That's a hard one. See, the thing that was most on my mind that year (and the following year) was a case of unrequited love I had for a guy in my youth orchestra. We eventually dated, but only because he was on the rebound, which made the relationship very unfair to me. Now I realize that I shouldn't have spent all that time obsessing over the guy and I know I would have been much happier for it.

But...what did I learn from the experience? My husband actually shares some of the personality quicks of that other guy (with the major distinction that my husband is crazy for me), and I learned a lot about how to deal with those quirks from those years as a broken-hearted teenager. I might have been happier in the short-term, but I don't think I would have learned the interpersonal skills to be happy in the long term.

But then, maybe the fact that I already remember the experience is enough; I'd already have learned my lessons, even if the experiences no longer happened.
 
Forty-Two said:
But then, maybe the fact that I already remember the experience is enough; I'd already have learned my lessons, even if the experiences no longer happened.
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This time around, you could slap the guy silly.
 
I would be more adamant with my friends during that argument about whether we buried the bodies deep enough.
 
The_Fire said:
"Oh ****! Grandfather Paradox! Now how do I prevent 9/11 again?".
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First thing would be to prevent the explosives from being mixed into the concrete when they built the WTC.
You should also try to create a device that would jam the signal that creates the holograms of planes hitting the towers.
JPK
 
Having just turned 21 I would be delighted to find I was 16 again... As for what I would do different, just about everything! :D
 
I would have just got up and yelled "You're all f***ed!", then found my mother's gun and shot myself.

It's only manageable the first time around.
 
Reporting the 9/11 terrorists would be a good example.

I suppose I might go to Columbine High School and say, "Stop them, they have guns."


But most importantly, I would ask those girls for dates that I was too shy to ask when I was in High School. I think I was at least 20 before I could work up the courage to ask a girl out unless it was horribly obvious that she was going to say yes, and really, I was over 30 before I got good at it.
 
Meadmaker said:
Reporting the 9/11 terrorists would be a good example.

I suppose I might go to Columbine High School and say, "Stop them, they have guns."
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And then they shoot you. But warning the teachers about how dangerous the kids really are several weeks in advance might help.
 
c4ts said:
And then they shoot you. But warning the teachers about how dangerous the kids really are several weeks in advance might help.
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But how do you do it? You're sixteen you've got school tomorrow. How do you find out where the school is? When you do, do you write a letter? Leave home and go there? How do you convince anybody to do anything about it?
 
sphenisc said:
But how do you do it? You're sixteen you've got school tomorrow. How do you find out where the school is? When you do, do you write a letter? Leave home and go there? How do you convince anybody to do anything about it?
Click to expand...

That would depend on if you were actually sixteen at the time. Suppose you were ten years older now.
 
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