Be Excellent To Each Other

So, you can either go 10 years into the past or 10 years into the future.

You'll become the old / new you when you arrive, and you don't have to worry about causality or suddenly appearing ten years older / younger. If you go back, you'll know everything you know now. If you go forward, you can choose to know what happened in the meantime or not, and you'll live 20 years longer.

Which do you do? Why?

Go back in time. Use knowledge to become extremely rich!

I would go back. Would like avoid some of the big mistakes I made.

Surly everyone would go back just to say those things you thought of about 3 days after the opportunity to say them.

Also there might not be chips in the future so fuck that.

Nah, I wouldn't be the person I am today if I did that. Would be curious about the future, but given the stipulations set out in either scenario I would choose neither. Live for the moment!

There is that, but I would not have allowed myself to get fat, and get diabetes..

Get immediately 10 years older, then have to live another 20 years as an old person? Fuck that.

You may have stayed in shape and got a brain tumour instead. Who knows?

True... I would have skipped my last girlfriend too..

10 years wouldn't be enough to make much of a difference to my life as only good things have happened since 2004.

20 years and you might have a deal.

Incidentally, has anyone else seen About Time? It's pretty good

I agree with American Nervoso. Live for the moment!

If I did go back, the only things I would do are collect more video games and (Zio take note) finish with my old girlfriend sooner.

I would also decline. As tempting as it would be go back and win the lottery. I'd hate to go back 10 years and somehow miss the line my life is on now, or knowing what's coming, be impatient and try to force it. I definitely agree that your experiences shape who you are and while you'd have knowledge of that if you went back, you'd miss it all by skipping forward. Knowing what happened in those accelerated 10 years is not the same as living through it at all. Besides, I'm statistically likely to die 20 years later than Mr. Flis as it is

It would be fun to go back and not make the mistakes I have done, but I could not be 100% sure I wouldn't make different fuckups of a similar magnitude. We are where we are.

There are, of course, certain days that would be fun to relive, but with the good comes the bad.

Who says you can decline?

Much as I long to see the future, the chance to do it childless is probably too much of a draw, so I'd head back.

Also I'd like to move a couple of things in the bowels of the Tomcat while I'm building it.

That's pretty heavy.

If I had too then, I'd go back. I'd buy more video games, save more money, quit smoking sooner, finish with my girlfriend at the time sooner and spend more time playing drums.

Also, I wouldn't piss off one of my friends at the time.

I guess it depends how happy you are now. If life seems pretty shitty, then sure, go back and change things so they suck less.

However the circumstances where I met my current awesome gf were very specific, and I'm not sure that even with all of the pre-existing knowledge that I'd be able to woo her in the same way. That means I'd probably fuck it up and lose her, or seem too keen or too familiar and never get together with her to start with.

I could avoid all manner of unpleasantness if I started back in 2004, although it just so happens that exactly 10 years ago from today was a pretty shitty time itself, so I'd probably need to go back a bit further to avoid that.

But all in, fuck it, I'll stick with my current hand. I'd also rather live the next 10 years than merely recall it retrospectively.

Yeah, damn. That's sort of like saying you find your kids a hassle and you'd wink them out of existence if you could.

Usually I'd expect people to say the opposite, that life was sucky but you got your awesome kids out of it so it was all worth it.

Ooh, toughie.

If I went back I could get rid of the ex much sooner, which would spare me a lot of trauma, but I might then miss the opportunity to meet Gaz.

I would like to go forward and see where I end up, but I don't want to miss out on 10 years of happiness (and I'm not sure I'd want to live 20 years longer if everyone I love has died or is dying anyway)

Going back to 2004 would be just enough time to prevent one of the largest mistakes of mine life.

Joining the WoS forums?

Too late for that.

My main issue going back, will be to try and remember exactly what I did to entrap my wife in our relationship.

temptation is to go back 10 years and make yourself rich I suppose

But what about all the ripples? I might not end up with my wife and son by my actions of winning the Euro lottery with my knowledge

So think I'll leave this stuff to Dr Who!!

Annoyingly, everything I'd want to change would need a bigger jump back.

No, that's exactly like saying that.

Oh wait, no it's not, because I'd remember him this way. Well, balls. I'll go forward, then.

I think it's more interesting if you could go back just a month. Let's also assume you don't have time to memorise lotto numbers, so no quick wins. What would you do differently?

Let's assume betting to get rich quick is off the table. So no liquidating all assets and betting it on a No referendum result

Is there anything in a month you could really do different with the foreknowledge? Would it just be a bit of a depressing faff to have to relive it over again? Would any changes you could make be unimpressively minor?

I'd well impress the wife while watching Pointless

Yeah, that's the problem for everyone with kids under 10. You can go back and plan to have them at some point in your re-run life but it's not going to be the same kid; even if you somehow managed to get the wife pregnant at around the same time.

If I was being forsed to choose one or the other, going back would be more risky I think. Even if you fully intended to go back and live the years in as much the same way as you could, the potential to mess up and not get the future you know you could have is pretty big. I imagine it could be horrendously depressing, and no-one else would even be aware of the life you lost so there would be no comfort or sympathy. Going forward would mean missing out on directly experiencing that whole part of my life, and that could be the happiest time. I don't want to skip straight past all of that stuff. Hmm.

That's of course assuming we have free will. Imagine going back and then having to relive the last ten years again knowing that no matter what decisions you take you will end up at the same place?

God, there's so much I'd want to change if I went back, but for all I know, the Parallel Universe Zio who didn't get into shitloads of debt and make dubious life/relationship choices would be an even more miserable sack of shit than the one you see before you. Getting an ex-girlfreind pregnant could be termed a mistake with all the problems it's caused one way or another, but Zioette is absolutely the best thing that ever happened to me. Even career-wise: it's been a roller coaster and it's taken me way too long to get here, but I have an amazing job now at an amazing company that I love being a part of. I guess - and this is something I really need to apply to my own life - the important thing isn't wishing you could change your past, but actively making the changes right now that will make your future so much better.

I think that towards the end of his life Nietszche became convinced in the doctrine of 'eternal recurrence'. The afterlife is a re-run of your life, again and again. He also said that the problems with his relatives were enough of a reason not to believe in this fate.

live 20 years longer, or live until 20 years further in the future than I otherwise would have done?

It's an interesting question for sure. I'm happy with my life, and while I'm reasonably good at my job, i'm under no illusions that to get where I am career wise i've been very lucky. Not sure I could be that lucky again?

The latter. You'd gain 10 years going back, and lose 10 going forward, so this evens that out.

Ah, then definitely forward. I'd worry that going backwards that I would, in changing the things that did go wrong that I'd also accidentally change something innocuous that would prevent the lead up to where I am now. Basically (and this will be a whole for some of you, I am sure) though there are so many things I would like to go back and avoid/change I'd worry that the butterfly effect of one of my action would mean that I never met Russell, and that we would not be married today, because one day I did a tiny thing to somehow prevent that. I don't think I'd worry too much about anything else, but I'd be terrified of that one thing not happening.

You could prevent that worry by immediately looking him up, driving to his house and saying "hi, I'm your future wife."

I'd go back the 10 years and then kill the other members of the crew that got busted and ratted me out, costing me 4 years of my life.

Sorry... What? You'd kill Busted? Bit harsh... The year 3000 wasn't that bad.

Best Song In The World

I agree

<sings>
Let's all meet up in the year 3000
Won't it be strange when we're all fully grown
Be there 2'o'clock by the fountain down the road

This is possibly the most tortured joke I've ever seen on Beex. On Beex for God's sake man!

Why thank you. I'm here all week.

If you'd said Fightstar it would have been more tortured.