Thought experiment: How far back would you go?

[Boyle]

August 5th, 2004. I missed so much in HS that I wish I hadn't. Oh, and getting proper marks this time, that'd be nice.

[Random Mutant]

I'm not even remotely tempted to use it... not that my life is perfect in any way, but I have a wonderful wife, a young son and another arriving in a month. I love and I am loved. What more could one want?

The conditions of the time machine mean that it is unlikely you'd be able to make any illicit gains, and since you need to work hard to get to where you are, it just means more hard work. I don't have enough regrets to want to try to do a makeover, and since my regrets are already in the past, they would stay in my memory whether or not I time travel.

Having said I'm not tempted, the salicious thought of humping my way through university again (knowing what I know now) might be attractive, but from my older, wiser, post-university perspective it's not enough in the grand scheme of things to warrant a reset of the second half of my life.

[Twoflower]

April 21 2000.

I know why that would be.

I use to dream of being able to go back in time and changing everything. Then I would wonder how much different my family would be, I can't see how we would end up in a position that is worse that how our lives turned out.

[orpheus]

I would use it to go back about twenty seconds.

The bit about two sets of memories existing side-by-side fascinates me. And I like the feeling of déjà-vu. Always have. So this seems like a good way to induce perpetual déjà-vu. It would be an interesting life.

[Hermit]

How far back would you go?

Thanks for the invitation, but I would decline to avail myself of the opportunity to travel back in time altogether.

For the first time I see some sense in this sentiment expressed by so many people: "I would not change anything, for everything I did made me what I am today." Anything, no matter how minor, that we change on the second go at our lives will have major repercussions (butterfly effect) down the line, and given the memory of the future past, changes are bound to occur. Under those circumstances I cannot conceive of the possibility that I would once more be where I am with the person I am with right now. The memory of this here and now will be something that will never have happened, making me possibly the most miserable person on earth.

As a side note, this is also the first time I could think of something even faintly useful to say in reply to a ridiculous hypothetical scenario.

[nellikin]

Got to agree with randonmutant here. My life is far from perfect but to erase all that I have just fix fix one silly moment would be dreadful.

Can the time machine also take us forward? Maybe I could check out the future a bit?

[Trolldor]

Has anyone considered that they might be destroying this timeline, "killing" the people who live on it, particularly those who would not be born on the new worldline?

And for that matter, literally destroying the lives of the people of this timeline, whatever they've accomplished, whatever they've achieved.

We can extrapolate from the specified conditions that we may well lack the means to know whether the original timeline persists in any meaningful sense to it's participants after you push the button.

So let's presume that knowledge is intrinsically unknowable.

Now, would you push the button?

-- TWZ

Yes.
It would all be worth it if I could just manage to say this to her:
"Don't go to the fireworks with your uncle..."

[Horwood Beer-Master]

Birth.

Nothing in my life has been so profound as to having me want to keep it...

[Tigger]

9014.5 hours ago, please. Crack on with it, XC.

[devogue]

I would go back in time 5 minutes to eat that lovely sandwich again.

That would be it - I couldn't bear to live with the memory of my children and to eventually live through the empty days when they should be with me.

[Tigger]

I would go back in time 5 minutes to eat that lovely sandwich again.

That would be it - I couldn't bear to live with the memory of my children and to eventually live through the empty days when they should be with me.

What sort?
EDIT: Sandwich, not children.

[devogue]

I would go back in time 5 minutes to eat that lovely sandwich again.

That would be it - I couldn't bear to live with the memory of my children and to eventually live through the empty days when they should be with me.

What sort?
EDIT: Sandwich, not children.

Egg and bacon.

[Horwood Beer-Master]

I would go back in time 5 minutes to eat that lovely sandwich again.

That would be it - I couldn't bear to live with the memory of my children and to eventually live through the empty days when they should be with me.

You could have other children.

[owtth]

I'd be willing to take a gamble that the lottery results wouldn't be affected if I went back on the same day, butterflies can't fly that fast.

[Rum]

Given the condition set out that history might not play out the way it did in this universe, I would not got back earlier than the Cuban missile Crisis (1962) because it was almost the flip of a coin whether we had nuclear war.

So actually the following year would be good. I was 13 and learnt to be lazy in school. I was bright enough and always got goodish results but I know I could have done so much better with a bit of application. I would not have done Art College either, which I went to at 18. Probably Law and used it in a decent socially oriented way in retrospect.