Time Travelling Hijinks

[Moonface]

After class today me and some classmates were shooting the shit about going back in time to various periods/moments but coming up with ways to mess with things/people in that time and what silly outcomes there could be from it.

For example, one person suggested going back to when pirates (the stereotypical kind) were around but bringing a speed boat to see their reactions. On the other hand, I came up with bringing a submarine which nobody in that time period would know even exists, and just waiting until a ship with a load of treasure on it is out in the ocean entirely alone and then just blowing a hole in the bottom of it which would massively freak out anyone on the ship because suddenly their ship is wrecked but they can't see anything around as the cause. You let them all make their way back to mainland and hope they start spreading stories that there's some sort of monster or curse out in the ocean. As long as nobody ever sees the submarine, you wouldn't be causing an invention to be known of before it actually gets invented and so history would just have stories from that time of pirates getting sunk by an unseen force.

Another I came up with would be giving all the native Americans better means/knowledge to defend themselves when the settlers turn up, but you also give them costumes from Spirit Halloween to wear so when the settlers turn around and go back home in fear they share stories of how the American continent is inhabited by demons or some shit but it's just the existing locals in Halloween costumes. XD


So yeah, what sort of silly things would you do to mess with people if you went back in time?

[ShiraNoMai]

I always wondered what it'd be like to leave a piece of technology behind in an era where it's not alien but just far-fetched enough to get science/innovation to kickstart even faster. Like bringing a modern smart phone into the early era of cellular phones, where even Personal Computers were also just at the cutting edge. The mind-melt to have both in the palm of your hand would be fascinating lmao

[Kyng]

XKCD had quite an amusing twist on the age-old "Killing Hitler" scenario:

[Moonface]

I always wondered what it'd be like to leave a piece of technology behind in an era where it's not alien but just far-fetched enough to get science/innovation to kickstart even faster. Like bringing a modern smart phone into the early era of cellular phones, where even Personal Computers were also just at the cutting edge. The mind-melt to have both in the palm of your hand would be fascinating lmao

The downside I could see for this is if people of that time could reverse engineer what you leave behind, would they actually have all the knowledge/understanding that was obtained through the way technological advancements were made for our "current timeline"? Like they might be able to make it but would they understand it enough to build upon it?

XKCD had quite an amusing twist on the age-old "Killing Hitler" scenario:

 
Reminds me of that scene from the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie:

Will Turner: Barbossa, you lying bastard! You swore she'd go free!
Barbossa: Don't dare impugn me honor, boy! I agreed she go free, but it was you who failed to specify when or where.