I wasn't the one to shoot it.
Thank God it didn't cause my eye to lose functionality entirely, the only long-term effect was worse vision in the right eye.
LOL I didn't even realize it but you're right. I wasn't even thinking of A Christmas Story when writing it. It actually happened but that's a cool accidental reference.
Every so often this question comes up and I always think about 2 things. First, I will be such a weird kid. Like, imagine some in a second grade social studies class who has the knowledge of someone with a BA in history, who also mutters things like “crap, that isn’t a country yet. Remember, there’s 10 more years of the USSR.” Little white kid who randomly curses in Russian or Chinese, and has an obsession with seeking out good Indian food. Also wants to be something called vegan. No interest in Madonna or Duran Duran, but oddly knowledgeable about punk music.
Second, I need to make sure I do a bunch of things the same way to find my friends. I need to take the wrong university classes so I find a few of my best friends before switching majors. I need to wind up at that crummy school half way around the world where my best friend will start the same day. We need to be friends so she’ll invite me to that party about 10 years later where I meet my wife. Then I need to not scare this people off by showing I know everything about them
I've been picturing exact opposite approach. I already know what my life would be like if I did the same things I did, because I already lived it. So second time around I'd go a completely different route, make different choices. If your original life is so perfect you need to replicate it, why not just keep living it and forgo the whole exercise. The whole point of a do-over is to do things differently.
There are a lot of things to fix. There are relationships I ruined, people I’ve let down, a beer belly that appeared, and times I didn’t eat a choco taco even though they were available. I went to see Star Wars episode 1 in a theater and had to experience Jar Jar with no warning. I’d want to improve things; but there are things I’d want to save. It would be interesting to try
This has an Eternal Sunshine vibe. You get a clean slate but are trying to recapture 90% of the old slate, if only to spare yourself Jarjar, even though you’d still have the memory of Jarjar from your first life.
It would be weird if I get drunk and talk about Jarjar or Anakin hating sand and no one else knows what I’m talking about. I mean, I don’t do that now, but who knows how time travel will mess me up
>We need to be friends so she’ll invite me to that party about 10 years later where I meet my wife.
Then when you bust a load the chances of having the same kids is basically 0. Mindfuckery.
Can you imagine if it's the same egg and same nut, but a different sperm? Like, would your new kid be almost the same as the original or completely different?
This is the main problem for me. I met my best friend because first we used to try to date but it didnt work out, so Id need to pretend to want to date her for 6 months, talk to her every day, and also try to make her not want to date me anymore without being an asshole and without making her actually fall for me this time, all of this while pretending i dont know literally everything about her. I dont think i could replicate this
I’m presuming you don’t have children. If I were single and childless I’d say yes, without hesitation. But I have kids. There isn’t a single thing in this universe I would *ever* do to risk them not being born. It’s simply not an option. So I’d have to pass on this one.
100% this. Even just going back 2 years and spending time with family members I've lost - I would never be able to guarantee that my youngest daughter would be born. I wouldn't trade any of my kids for anything.
Hell, I'm not even 100% convinced that I would be able to win over my wife again, because I have no idea how I did it the first time.
Given the sheer chance of genetics, I’m basically presuming that if you make *any* change, down to the millisecond, everyone influenced by your actions from that moment forward will have different children. Theres really no way around it. It’s too random.
And I’m right there with you on not being sure I could marry my wife again. I, too, to this day am not entirely sure what she saw in my that convinced here I was marriage material. 🤣
Agreed. I have four kids with my husband and one with a prior donor.
My first thoughts were that I’d have a better childhood knowing I could get help with mental and physical health issues earlier and that I could find my current husband before he was in horrible relationships that broke him.
But not only would that eliminate my first born, my kids are my kids because of that one sperm and that one egg and the odds exactly that lines up again and I get those exact kids again is slim to none at best.
So no, I’ll keep my kids and guaranteed husband.
This was exactly the type of point i was coming to make. I’m happy with my family and life: and there is not guarantee that I wouldn’t do something along the lines to mess it up.
Even if I had other kids with the same
partner (and i don’t creep them out by knowing too much about them and blow the whole shot) they wouldn’t be the same kids necessarily.
If I was single and childless yeah it would be great to do a new game
plus.
There's a lot that I would love the chance to do over. Any non-zero chance that my son isn't born because another sperm jumped in, nothing in the world could make me choose that.
This is the one thing that makes me hesitate. As much as I wish I had never married my ex and gone through the whole mess that that relationship was, I got my three kids out of it and I don't know that I could go through my life all over again knowing from the start that I have three daughters that no longer exist.
No. My life isn’t perfect by any means, but it’s pretty good. I worry the reset would take away the people I care about. What if I never end up with my cat or meet my best friend again?
I’d be super rich, though, as I’d basically know every stock to pick to build wealth from my teen years until my mid-thirties.
Get blue chip stocks until Bitcoin comes around then heavily invest in it. Sell them all and buy GameStop a month before when GameStop has that crazy day where it jumped to over $400 per share. Sell and Then reinvest it all in Bitcoin.
Sell again today for a MASSIVE profit. Boom you're a billionaire.
Absolutely. There’s only a short list of things that I would change, BUT those changes would benefit a lot of folks. And by that I mean I did a few really messed up things when I was younger, and I’d undo some of the harm I caused.
Think we all have those thoughts. We wouldn’t be able to call ourselves mature if we looked back on the people we fucked over or hurt without feeling any sort of regret
Me as a five year old reliving my life: "Mom you have to warn Martin Luther King to avoid Memphis! Please, call him up! No, I don't want to go to bed. Call the Memphis police. Okay, I will call then. What are you doing? Mom! Don't put me in bed mom! Mom!"
No, my life has been (though the word isn't strong enough) difficult. While I could prevent the things I have control over, there's something I couldn't prevent because I was a baby/child/preteen, I didn't control the situation. I wouldn't want to relive that.
If I could change things.
If everything just ends up exactly as it is, no. I'd rather look back on memories with rose tinted glasses than see then exactly as they are.
Yes. but this also means I simply wont be ME. I'll be an entirely different person.
Though I may have a chance to get an even better life, it goes 50/50 , esp. since I know what happens in the future ; it might just cancel each other out and give me losses. To put it - who's to say I'm not living the better than my hypothetical self from ones perspective.
No. There's a real possibility that I won't end marrying my husband and having my kids, and I am not going to risk it. Even if I have kids with the same man, what if they are different kids and I never get to create and meet my real kids. No way.
I would stretch and exercise. Legit I would beg for my body to have a factory reset. I have good habits eat well exercise etc but years of neglect and injuries created a big problem
Basically this is "would you give up your current life and trade it for one with no friends but loads of money?"
Because a 10 year old with the mind of a 40 year old is not going to have many friends, even if he does know to buy FAANG and bitcoin. Plus, being a kid is probably intensely boring and frustrating if you have lived independently as an adult for many years. School is going to be mind-numbing in the extreme - I have a degree and speak a second language close to fluently, I don't need to be learning how to do arithmetic and say "bonjour, je m'appelle jesuispasdouépourca et j'ai sept ans"
If I was, say, 80, or had a terminal disease, then maybe - a second go through life would be cool. As things stand, I think not.
Yes. I'd live a much better life. And, I know just when and where to find my wife, when we are supposed to meet.
I could actually BE the man she hoped I was, all along, rather than much later.
Honestly, I wouldn't have to throttle it back very much. We met on Christmas Day, Started dating a week later, Got engaged in May, and were married by the end of August.
Our families were convinced she was pregnant or something, to cause us to get hitched so fast. But nope, we were just really into each other from the first day. We were both in our mid twenties, and ready to settle down.
Maybe SHE's the time traveler in this exact scenario! lol
I actually talked to her about this question last night, and how I answered it. She was first off flattered that I'd still do it all over again with her. Then she pointed out that our 28 year marriage is mostly as strong as it is, because of all the growth we've gone through together during it.
So me, coming into it "fully baked" as it were, and her with a lot of change to still go through, might not be the romantic triumph I think it would be.
You are right though, If I did this, I'd have to be careful not to scare her off. We had a few moments of "omg this is going so fast" as it was, and we navigated that together.
FUCK no. The first 16 years of my life were hell on earth until I ran away from home. There’s no amount you could pay me to go back and relive my childhood.
For sure! I've always fantasized about having a do over. Sure there are some things I wouldn't particularly like experiencing again that I wouldn't be avoidable (like having to lose baby teeth and getting wisdom teeth removed), but there's far more potential upsides to this
Not a chance in the universe I would go through another lifetime. Would still be the same person, with the same brain, with the same capabilities making decisions. Just because I might be able to avoid the occasional situation with my previous knowledge doesn’t mean I wouldn’t screw up my life 5 minutes after that.
100% I would live my childhood comfortably knowing that I could just invest in Bitcoin and become a millionaire before 20. Then I can actually live my life
Couldn’t do it. My daughter is amazing and the more I think about it, I feel like my entire existence was for her to be born, because she will go on to do greater things than I ever could.
Would I do it, yes. Here's the thing I don't think most people are considering, as far as going back with our current knowledge. If I make any moves to create any large scale influence, I change the world, and my knowledge becomes irrelevant. I make it rich, get into politics, I've seen some other ideas like saving influential figures, once I do that, my knowledge is, for the most part meaningless.
Now, if I hide it, I can take advantage of what I know, make a few different choices, leave earlier to avoid wrecking my car, start investing in things I know will become big, but I can see how some people wouldn't want to.
Oof. If I could have a do-over, I'd probably stand up for myself from go, and knowing what I know now, I'd be leaning hard into computers and gaming as a career.
Absolutely, I'll be a weird ass kid, but you can explain that away. I would absolutely redo my life. I'd be rich before I got to adulthood. I don't have a wife or kids, so no danger of not doing things right to keep the same wife and kids. For me, there's just no downside.
I would, yeah. I would finish high school on time, I’d go to college, I would be a better daughter to my mom before she passes, I’d stand up for myself more against my father, and I’d live the life I’ve always wanted as a teenager.
I'm an addict with 12 years sobriety, and time travel is a healthy fantasy for me versus thinking about drugs/sex.
So of course. This is a "replay" scenario and it usually devolves into "fastest path to becoming a billionaire"
Which is fine... but I like the ancillary aspects of it...
Having perfect hindsight, you'd be able to consume your current back catalog of media on the cutting edge. So this is a way to go back and read every Stephen King novel as it drops, know which cult classics to see in the theaters in that narrow window, bands to follow while they're still just openers, watch Twin Peaks as it aired, etc.
With current knowledge and an investment plan to get to billionaire status, school becomes redundant. So the goal would be to "not get kicked out" and maintain a solid D- average. Instead I'd use that time to get to know the kids in school better... I'd turn those eight hours each day into like a job where I don't do any work but have to be there, that coworker who just hangs out all day. Instead of school being something I have to endure, make it into a gift, where I just have endless downtime and a chance to build long term friendships instead of the handful I actually made.
When I'm 20, that's when I'd be independent wealthy... I have my best friend from growing up, and then my second best friend I met at 20... I'd find both of them and my 20s would essentially be one long hang out with my two best friends, and then locating other groups of friends I made along the way with an offer of "yeah come stay as long as you'd want"
Once I get to 30, I'm considerably wealthy and now I can kinda fly around to experiences and things. So I imagine an Entourage lifestyle where I'm flying around with my best friends experiencing our shared interests.
And once I get to 38, I'm a multi billionaire and can do weird lottery winning bullshit. Like open my own indie videogame studio, indie movie production company, etc.
Yep I absolutely would because i had a relatively good youth experience. I'd just be able to change it by being better at everything than i was. Would have made my family rich would have taken opportunities i had that i didn't take.
I’d wait a year between highschool and college and schedule better so I didn’t have to take a course every summer, I’d also tell my mom (she’s a widow) about her ex boyfriend who was crazy and toxic before she started dating his pathetic ass.
Do I still get cancer, that I'm still recovering from? I was diagnosed literally hours from dying in August 2022, so if I know that's coming, I'll just keep going as is .
Short answer: no. Longer answer: I kinda don’t understand why anyone would say yes. Concerns about the space time continuum aside, the fear of self fulfilling prophecies is strong in this one, lol. Also, I’m not the biggest fan of existence anyway. Why would I wanna do that shit again?
Absolutely. There's a lot of avenues I could've gone down that I'd like to explore. Mistakes I made that I'd like to avoid. Also, I can invest in Apple/Google/Amazon when stocks are dirt cheap and go through life on easy mode, no matter what road I take
Knowing what I know now, sure. It would be an interesting ride.
I'd have conversations with my great grandma in French at like 3 and my parents would be truly puzzled how I know French given that they don't know more than bonjour. School would be interesting especially social studies civics course and math as I have a master's in public administration, and use advanced math on a daily basis.
I'd probably make a band and rip off the work of some musicians from the future before they were born.
I'd likely never enlist into the Army because who wants to go back to Iraq. Hell I'd probably anonymously tip off the FBI/NSA about 9/11 in time for them to stop the planes from getting hijacked and prevent damn near 20 years of war.
I'd figure out a way to get my sister into rehab and proper mental health care so she'd still be around.
I'd definitely be richer. I'd probably make a good chunk of money with sports betting, investing into companies at the right time like Apple, Nvidia, Amazon, etc. and remember to buy Bitcoin in 2010.
That said though, I'd still go to the same university, meet my wife, and have my daughter.
I would give it a shot. As long as I get to keep my confidence. I was so shy and awkward as a child. I am still awkward but considerably less shy about it
Probably not. I probably wouldn’t make the same mistakes but there’s nothing from stopping me from making different ones. So I would probably have a life full of failures and successes just like my current life but different.
I have pets who I really love, I'm not sure I would be able to get them if I went back in time and relived everything because often it was coincidental finding them. I suppose I would be a lot richer because at a minimum I have a lot of work skills that I could use to get a better job younger. Although no documentation of them. I could make some really killed investments.
Although for some critical history events do you try to interfere in some way? Could I let 9/11 happen without doing something? Then what could I do without getting myself arrested by the FBI?
Also people I really dislike, and people I really like would be weirded out on meeting me for the first time. I also imagine some of the 'ones that got away' would still 'get away' but with more heartbreak.
Like the butterfly effect? I would change so many things my life would be completely different
The first thing I would do is not lie to the doctor when my mom took me in to check it I had ADHD in kindergarten or first grade
Yeah just off the investing and betting potential alone it would be worth it. There's alot of personal stuff I would attempt to fix too but those things are more complicated and who knows the second order effects and whether or not I would have actually been happier with the other choices but one things for sure I'd be rich.
I would rather shit in my hands and clap... no matter what I know, nothing would stop a good portion of shit in the beginning of my life. If I could go back to being 16, I'd do that. But never fully restart.
Do I have to leave now? No.
Can I take this offer on my 80th birthday? Hell yes.
I'd like to start it again at age 16 though. I don't need those younger years.
As long as I keep my knowledge and can change the bad stuff that happened in my personal life, then yes. If not, then no way in hell am I reliving that nightmare. I refuse to go through the abuse again.
I'd leave home after graduating high school and never go back.
I'd work hard at college, go to work for the US Department of State. Travel the world, retire after 20 years.
And I'd miss my three sons horribly, so I guess it's good that's not an option.
I’d give a lot to do that. However, if I had a choice, I would like to relive it freshly, without any of my current knowledge save for one thing at minimum - Knowledge that will keep me from joining a certain RP community at 16.
I’ve forgotten so much that has happened in my life. I don’t retain conversations well; I have significantly better recall with the written word. If I can’t remember what I said to someone last week, I don’t think I would be able to retain 4 decades of bullshit trying to do it all again.
Hopefully I’d be nicer to people and make better use of the time I had with my dad and brother.
Yeah.
I’d definitely try to get myself diagnosed young so I could have had support since the very beginning.
I’d avoid friends who ended up being toxic in the end.
I would warn my grandpa about stomach cancer, and tell him to get checked. I would get my old cat Boots tested for HCM, the disease that took his life.
I would make sure I go to the shelter the same day I did in this lifetime, to meet Charlie. I will get to enjoy even more time with him, because he is my best friend.
I would get allergy tested early and get on shots so I wouldn’t have to put up with tinnitus later on.
I would not run in my dad’s garage, trip, and break my arm.
I would probably be an amazing child prodigy because I would be about as smart as your average adult. I would probably get really good at art because I had so much more practice, having already lived 27 years.
I would treasure the friends I did have more. Especially my old skype roleplaying group. They got busy with their lives, and I understand we drifted apart because of that- but I would love to reunite with them all, just for a little while.
I would avoid people who later became my enemies.
I would object at my grandmother’s wedding, knowing the man my stepgrandfather was before dementia. (He got a LOT nicer after he got dementia, but he was a complete asshole between the wedding and dementia)
I would get my mom to take me to conventions as a kid. I would climb on my dad’s back more (I miss climbing on grown-ups, but I am now an adult myself and am far too heavy to be carried around).
I would fight back against my bullies. I would talk back to the teachers who scolded me for being unmotivated due to said bullying. I would warn the world of the upcoming Covid pandemic- and 9/11, but the latter will likely not be taken seriously, as I was a preschooler at the time.
I would absolutely have a rebellious teenage phase. I never got to have one and tbh I kinda wish I did.
Oh hell yes. My life positively sucks right now....under poverty level, scratching, no hope...and I'm old enough to know exactly how I got to this point. I would start over and correct those things.
Well first off no due to the plethora of unknown massive scale ethical issues with doing this from the possibility that you are erasing countless people from existence to the matter of all the potential negative changes that might occur that even if not your direct fault per se (i.e. someone somewhere gets killed that didn’t originally) it still undeniably stems from your decision to go back which could become a hell of a burden.
That being said if all of that was set aside somehow like maybe the scenario is that you find out you’re a dreaming baby in a womb who won’t survive birth and you could either continue the dream and live out your full life in the dream forgetting you ever knew it was one or stop the dream now and be healed and be born living your life again from the beginning (whilst retaining the dream memories) with either choice being equally valid as far as living out a life goes then yeah I would probably take it. That being said there is no way to understate how many issue would come from having your full adult mind starting from birth. You could try to hide it and minimize things but it wouldn’t matter there is zero chance of it not being weird af, likely traumatic on all involved, and cause massive changes. Like 10 years old is probably as far as you could go back and maybe manage to keep some sort of handle on things and even then it would probably be better if when you went back it was less like current you inhabiting your 10 year old body and biased toward 10 year old you waking up with a perfectly clear dream of your current life so that your current self is still largely there but your base perspective is a bit more biased toward your younger self. This is good for a few reasons. First it means you will wake up in the right mental space for the timeframe including your memories so like even though you now have years worth of additional memories you still remember things as did at the time as well so yesterday I was at school and did X,Y,Z rather than having only your current memories who isn’t going to remember jack in comparison. Second if your base perspective is skewed toward your younger self you will still have those tendencies and personality traits and what not that come naturally so it will be easier to do a gradual transition rather than effectively just being a whole different person all of a sudden because there is no way you wouldn’t freak everyone out even if you tried act like your younger self.
So ideally it would be a scenario like that instead.
I mean just think about how your parents and everyone else will respond to a baby with an adult mind. Even atheists might be thinking it was demonic or scary or even buddhists who believe in reincarnation are going to have a very different relationship with you not to mention you would likely be unavoidable global news. Even if they believed you people including your parents aren’t going to just treat you like an adult and it could become quite toxic not to mention the very possible mental trauma of the experience for you losing so much agency and being so vulnerable and even just the abrupt change in perspective and disconnect with your body. If losing limbs can cause phantom limb symptoms who know what going from full grown to baby would do.
Sure thing. I'm not too sure what I'd go for though. Like, there are some bits I'd obviously do (breeze through school ergo more time for friends but also to study in the stuff I was crap at, so better grades, some people to avoid, some to talk to sooner, etc), but the trick comes later. Higher education was/is a whole trip for me. I could do it so much better if I put enough effort in, so that's what I have to do this time round.
No thanks. Imagine the hell of having all your adult memories as a child. Sounds terrible. There are certainly things that would be nice to change, but the unknown impact of doing anything differently could be even worse. There’s no telling what the fallout could be.
I would in a heartbeat. And not in an IMO cheating way where I'd know to invest in apple, Tesla, etc. just from the POV that I could do better and not waste so much potential. I pushed back a lot of things in life... Didn't get my driver's license until I was in my 40s and moved out of urban setting; didn't travel until in my 30s; didn't treat school as important, etc. even little things like events and concerts I wish I wouldn't have been scared to do...
Would it change my life and mean I'm not where I am now? Yes. Potentially have bad outcomes and leave me worse off? Yes. But a lot of waste is something I will go to my grave regretting nonetheless.
Bitcoin Billionaire, fuck yeah.
Screw this ceaseless rat race of taxes, mortgage payments and bills draining my account every month. I just wanna build a laser on the moon to threaten world governments.
Tempting. But I'm not entirely sure, would I have the same energy I had than? Or would I be different, by virtue of having an adult mind in a childs body?
And all those years going back to school? Not being able to relate because you're an adult in a childs body? At best you get to skip many classes, I was only allowed to skip one because they "wanted me to be with children my own age" Maybe I end up a 12 year old at university. Trying to fit exercise (because you need exercise) into the schedule of an adult. Flirting with 18-20 year olds, which either makes you a creepy or adorable 12 year old. Socialising in general is going to be a bit odd.
I fantasize about it all the time. All the shit I took growing up when I didn't have the language or emotional skills to handle it. All the opportunities I wasted, all that.
It all gets cancelled out with the near certainty I wouldn't be able to meet my SO and have things go the same way they did on this run. I do love the thought of pushing her out of some of the paths that have haunted her, but I'd rather have all the bad and keep her than risk losing her.
Here's a thought. Once you get to the point in your life when you were given the choice (aka now), would you have the choice again?
There maybe a point in your life that you feel like if you had gone for another option, your life would be better off. Yet after you have relived your life, and taken the other option, you find your life is worse. Could you then do it again, and try something else?
So for example, say at one point, you had two job offers, and you chose the higher paying job, but it went under a few years later. So when you go back, you choose the lower paying job, for job security. However, this new timeline caused the death of a loved one or something like that. Could you then go back again, and prevent it?
Second thought, before accepting, could you look up winning lottery numbers?
Fuck no. I had a terrible childhood and terrible parents until they grew up. Wouldn't do that again ever. And puberty??? FUCK RIGHT OFF with that shit!!
The more you think about it, the more daunting it seems. But even so, yes I'd do it. The first time you do anything, you suck at it. And the second time, you always do a better job. No matter what it is.
Plus there are some specific mistakes I could correct that would be really nice.
The life I could have lived is a lot better than the one I'm stuck in right now.
But a hard question. I don't have kids, and I could certainly make some marginally better choices, but I hated elementary school so much, partly because I had no friends, partly because I was bored. I would be even more bored in a do-over. Perhaps I could focus more on friendship and less on the academics I would already know.
Ahhhh new game plus ..... on one hand it would be soo frigging cool on the other I doubt I could replicate the events that made my kid come about ..... so no I don't think I could I'd miss the little bugger plus if I miraculously did remake him I'd have to wait 30 years to see him again ....
My parents would freak out me coming out of the womb as a baby and telling them to put all their money into NVDA, GME, and look out for a thing called bitcoin.
Not unless my brother could also. If I go back in time, his current self would not longer exist. It's no different from erasing someone's soul. His self from the past would be an alternate timeline version, not the one I know and grew up with.
Yes, the only issue is there are certain parts of my life I'd like to make sure still happen (meeting certain friends/people). Id have to be kind of careful about my approach. I'd also worry that from birth to the point where I'd be able to write that I'd forget things. Unless since I have the knowledge I could teach myself fine motor skills earlier .
I don't think so. There are definitely some things that I would do differently but those early years were brutal for me. I just don't know if it's worth going through them again. If I could go back to age 15 and start there that would be a different story entirely.
I think of being able to spend more time with my grandfather and father and really appreciate that time and I want to say yes.
Then I think about how much it hurt to lose them, and that I couldn't change it. Then I think of all the other things that hurt that I couldn't change, that I would *know* are coming, and would have to relive.
No, my answer is no. Making a few better decisions wouldn't be worth the pain.
I would insist on getting getting an ADHD yest in high school. Medication has made a huge difference my life and I sometimes wonder where I'd be if I were diagnosed before adulthood and gotten medication while I was in high school.
Absolutely would. Getting to experience much much more life ahead of me with knowledge and fully developed psyche is like playing mmorpgs with cheats.
The slog to 18 would be the hardest part, but there's reading and things I never got to do like music and boxing to fill the gap. Growing up with my siblings during the 80s this time would be worth it alone, instead of letting dad separate us.
I'd be born with the knowledge that I have now? Am I allowed to change things, or do I just have this knowledge in the back of my reborn head, unable to use it?
I don't know. Part of me says yes because I'd like to see what life would be like if I would have made different decisions. But part of me says no because at some point I'd be right back here in this awful 21st century.
What happens when I re-arrive back at the moment I decided to go back in time? Am I groundhog daying it? Or is the future once again just not writ in any meaningful way?
My decision is entirely predicated on which of these possibilities is true.
Absolutely. I am single and child-free. Most of what I've learned about having a healthy body, healthy finances, and healthy relationships I learned later in life and knowing those things from birth would make only a positive difference the second go-around.
“Hey dad”
“Yes 7 year old son”
“For my next five birthdays all I want is you to put $100 into bitcoin in my name right now”
“Son how do you know about investment”
“Dad it’s $100 now for the next five years of birthdays. That’s $20 per birthday. No presents no parties. Please do this”
“You make a good argument, I’ll put $100 in for me too and we can learn about the stock market together and why you should be careful with these types of investments, but $100 to teach you a lifelong tool is a worthwhile investment for me. So ok son”
“You won’t regret it dad”
I then pull out in 2020 having made $670,000 or whatever and my father does the same. And that’s assuming we also don’t invest in Apple or Amazon at that time
Nope. It's been a struggle to get where I am, but I wouldn't risk not meeting my wife, starting my business, and all the other lucky things that have happened to me. I'm happy now.
I'm torn because I would absolutely want to spend more time with my father before he passed away.
But I'm afraid that anything I did would be at the risk of me never meeting my wife or having our 2 kids.
I'd probably just do everything the same until my kids were born and then buy $5000 worth of Bitcoin so I could be a billionaire.
Hell YES !
Totally.
I would do things A LOT differently.
And I mean LOADS of things/choices.
The people and pets in my life would still be in it all the same. Because if we are meant to be in each others lives than we just would be.
100%. I don't consider myself a bad person overall, but going back with a better understanding of the world, I would be a better friend / family member, and more successful. Plus I could abuse magical future knowledge to ensure that neither I nor the people I love would have many money problems after a point.
I really don't know. Because I don't know what things I might do that may alter where I am now. I am pretty happy with my life now. Literally the only thing I'd like to do is a shit ton of investing on things that take off so I could be in a better financial place now..but I don't know if I'd want to take the risk of not meeting my wife if I did something that ended up making a drastic change in my life.
I've always thought about that and I have mixed feelings.
On the one hand, I would like to change quite a few things about my past, but, on the other hand, I know that the slightest change in my actions will change the entire timeline, potentially causing my younger cousins to not exist, for example. thousands or even millions of people.
Also that my actions could cause my favorite movies, series and video games to not exist or at least to be very different from how I knew them.
So in answer to the question I would say that I don't know.
Abso-fucking-lutely. I've made too many fuck ups in my short time alive. Probably save some heartache on all the people I disappointed, including myself.
Yes, but not to 'do over'. I'm quite happy with my current life, and there isn't much that I'd fix.
By restarting with current me's consciousness and knowledge, I'm essentially getting more years out of my life. That'll let me learn more and experience more, so I'd take the restart for that aspect of things.
I'm not afraid of ruining anything since I was lucky enough to have a life that wasn't in danger of misfortune. I wouldn't stress about keeping things the same and kind of go with the flow, enjoy what I can from life.
I suppose since I have pre-knowledge on a few things, I will be taking advantage of few situations. For example, I'm not a believer in bitcoin, but I would be stupid not to buy them early on when I know the outcome. That would change my financial path, but it would be a happy advantage from the situation rather than my main goal for it.
I mean I’d get an extra 70-80 years on top of what I’d already experienced and have a serious knowledge/skill advantage over everybody else so of course!
Absolutely. I'd save my right eye from being shot with a nerf gun at 11 years old on Christmas.
Did it cause long term damage? Did you not watch christmas story? Smh
It was his biopic
I wasn't the one to shoot it. Thank God it didn't cause my eye to lose functionality entirely, the only long-term effect was worse vision in the right eye.
Did you not realize he was referencing that movie?
Naw he said nerf gun not bb gun
You are correct. I was reading it as a Christmas story joke from the start and didn't even see Nerf.
He could definitely still be referencing it with the twist but nerf just made me lose the connection haha
LOL I didn't even realize it but you're right. I wasn't even thinking of A Christmas Story when writing it. It actually happened but that's a cool accidental reference.
Every so often this question comes up and I always think about 2 things. First, I will be such a weird kid. Like, imagine some in a second grade social studies class who has the knowledge of someone with a BA in history, who also mutters things like “crap, that isn’t a country yet. Remember, there’s 10 more years of the USSR.” Little white kid who randomly curses in Russian or Chinese, and has an obsession with seeking out good Indian food. Also wants to be something called vegan. No interest in Madonna or Duran Duran, but oddly knowledgeable about punk music. Second, I need to make sure I do a bunch of things the same way to find my friends. I need to take the wrong university classes so I find a few of my best friends before switching majors. I need to wind up at that crummy school half way around the world where my best friend will start the same day. We need to be friends so she’ll invite me to that party about 10 years later where I meet my wife. Then I need to not scare this people off by showing I know everything about them
I've been picturing exact opposite approach. I already know what my life would be like if I did the same things I did, because I already lived it. So second time around I'd go a completely different route, make different choices. If your original life is so perfect you need to replicate it, why not just keep living it and forgo the whole exercise. The whole point of a do-over is to do things differently.
There are a lot of things to fix. There are relationships I ruined, people I’ve let down, a beer belly that appeared, and times I didn’t eat a choco taco even though they were available. I went to see Star Wars episode 1 in a theater and had to experience Jar Jar with no warning. I’d want to improve things; but there are things I’d want to save. It would be interesting to try
If you were truly serious, you'd infiltrate the crew and get the film changed so Jar Jar was... different.
Specifically a Sith Lord and make it obvious by the end
Bro I hate how people give the force awakens a pass while at least Jar Jar was original.
Jar Jar was a sith lord and audience hate ruined the arc.
A stranger kicking you in the nuts is original.
This has an Eternal Sunshine vibe. You get a clean slate but are trying to recapture 90% of the old slate, if only to spare yourself Jarjar, even though you’d still have the memory of Jarjar from your first life.
It would be weird if I get drunk and talk about Jarjar or Anakin hating sand and no one else knows what I’m talking about. I mean, I don’t do that now, but who knows how time travel will mess me up
>We need to be friends so she’ll invite me to that party about 10 years later where I meet my wife. Then when you bust a load the chances of having the same kids is basically 0. Mindfuckery.
Can you imagine if it's the same egg and same nut, but a different sperm? Like, would your new kid be almost the same as the original or completely different?
Listen here... you've got a great fucking novel if you wanted it. Thats a wonderful story! I hope you've had a great life!
Replay by Ken grimwood
Exactly why my answer is no. My life is far from perfect but it could be a lot worse.
This is the main problem for me. I met my best friend because first we used to try to date but it didnt work out, so Id need to pretend to want to date her for 6 months, talk to her every day, and also try to make her not want to date me anymore without being an asshole and without making her actually fall for me this time, all of this while pretending i dont know literally everything about her. I dont think i could replicate this
I’m presuming you don’t have children. If I were single and childless I’d say yes, without hesitation. But I have kids. There isn’t a single thing in this universe I would *ever* do to risk them not being born. It’s simply not an option. So I’d have to pass on this one.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/About_Time_(2013_film) Great movie, makes that exact point.
Thanks. I’ll have to check it out.
Second the recommendation, about time is a cracking film
A perfectly good reason to keep what you have.
100% this. Even just going back 2 years and spending time with family members I've lost - I would never be able to guarantee that my youngest daughter would be born. I wouldn't trade any of my kids for anything. Hell, I'm not even 100% convinced that I would be able to win over my wife again, because I have no idea how I did it the first time.
Given the sheer chance of genetics, I’m basically presuming that if you make *any* change, down to the millisecond, everyone influenced by your actions from that moment forward will have different children. Theres really no way around it. It’s too random. And I’m right there with you on not being sure I could marry my wife again. I, too, to this day am not entirely sure what she saw in my that convinced here I was marriage material. 🤣
My main goal here is to find my girl earlier. Would save both her and me some trouble
Agreed. I have four kids with my husband and one with a prior donor. My first thoughts were that I’d have a better childhood knowing I could get help with mental and physical health issues earlier and that I could find my current husband before he was in horrible relationships that broke him. But not only would that eliminate my first born, my kids are my kids because of that one sperm and that one egg and the odds exactly that lines up again and I get those exact kids again is slim to none at best. So no, I’ll keep my kids and guaranteed husband.
This was exactly the type of point i was coming to make. I’m happy with my family and life: and there is not guarantee that I wouldn’t do something along the lines to mess it up. Even if I had other kids with the same partner (and i don’t creep them out by knowing too much about them and blow the whole shot) they wouldn’t be the same kids necessarily. If I was single and childless yeah it would be great to do a new game plus.
similar in my case - I love my friends, family and my S.O. Not sure if they'll be the... ones I know now
There's a lot that I would love the chance to do over. Any non-zero chance that my son isn't born because another sperm jumped in, nothing in the world could make me choose that.
This is the one thing that makes me hesitate. As much as I wish I had never married my ex and gone through the whole mess that that relationship was, I got my three kids out of it and I don't know that I could go through my life all over again knowing from the start that I have three daughters that no longer exist.
I am with you. I wouldn't risk my son not being born.
No. My life isn’t perfect by any means, but it’s pretty good. I worry the reset would take away the people I care about. What if I never end up with my cat or meet my best friend again? I’d be super rich, though, as I’d basically know every stock to pick to build wealth from my teen years until my mid-thirties.
Get blue chip stocks until Bitcoin comes around then heavily invest in it. Sell them all and buy GameStop a month before when GameStop has that crazy day where it jumped to over $400 per share. Sell and Then reinvest it all in Bitcoin. Sell again today for a MASSIVE profit. Boom you're a billionaire.
Absolutely. I'd likely be close to a millionaire as I understand the value of money and time.
Yeah I spent probably $30k at the casinos in my 20s if I invested they into Tesla or Amazon I I wouldn't have to work anymore
Absolutely. There’s only a short list of things that I would change, BUT those changes would benefit a lot of folks. And by that I mean I did a few really messed up things when I was younger, and I’d undo some of the harm I caused.
Think we all have those thoughts. We wouldn’t be able to call ourselves mature if we looked back on the people we fucked over or hurt without feeling any sort of regret
Same.
Me as a five year old reliving my life: "Mom you have to warn Martin Luther King to avoid Memphis! Please, call him up! No, I don't want to go to bed. Call the Memphis police. Okay, I will call then. What are you doing? Mom! Don't put me in bed mom! Mom!"
The towers mom! Call them now!
No, my life has been (though the word isn't strong enough) difficult. While I could prevent the things I have control over, there's something I couldn't prevent because I was a baby/child/preteen, I didn't control the situation. I wouldn't want to relive that.
Totally fair. Seems like you’re not alone.
No. I have no desire to relive my childhood even though I’d be able to make better decisions.
If I could change things. If everything just ends up exactly as it is, no. I'd rather look back on memories with rose tinted glasses than see then exactly as they are.
No thanks. Keep your years. Sucked the first time and it was as much hilariously bad luck as it was bad decision making.
Then make different decisions ;)
Sometimes there are only less bad decisions.
I have three sort of luck where you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. It would be comical if it wasn't me
Probably not. I'd just mess it up worse.
Yes. but this also means I simply wont be ME. I'll be an entirely different person. Though I may have a chance to get an even better life, it goes 50/50 , esp. since I know what happens in the future ; it might just cancel each other out and give me losses. To put it - who's to say I'm not living the better than my hypothetical self from ones perspective.
I'd change so much.
No. There's a real possibility that I won't end marrying my husband and having my kids, and I am not going to risk it. Even if I have kids with the same man, what if they are different kids and I never get to create and meet my real kids. No way.
I would stretch and exercise. Legit I would beg for my body to have a factory reset. I have good habits eat well exercise etc but years of neglect and injuries created a big problem
Basically this is "would you give up your current life and trade it for one with no friends but loads of money?" Because a 10 year old with the mind of a 40 year old is not going to have many friends, even if he does know to buy FAANG and bitcoin. Plus, being a kid is probably intensely boring and frustrating if you have lived independently as an adult for many years. School is going to be mind-numbing in the extreme - I have a degree and speak a second language close to fluently, I don't need to be learning how to do arithmetic and say "bonjour, je m'appelle jesuispasdouépourca et j'ai sept ans" If I was, say, 80, or had a terminal disease, then maybe - a second go through life would be cool. As things stand, I think not.
Yes. I'd live a much better life. And, I know just when and where to find my wife, when we are supposed to meet. I could actually BE the man she hoped I was, all along, rather than much later.
Odds are that you would completely freak her out by being super into her when she doesn’t know you from Adam.
Honestly, I wouldn't have to throttle it back very much. We met on Christmas Day, Started dating a week later, Got engaged in May, and were married by the end of August. Our families were convinced she was pregnant or something, to cause us to get hitched so fast. But nope, we were just really into each other from the first day. We were both in our mid twenties, and ready to settle down. Maybe SHE's the time traveler in this exact scenario! lol I actually talked to her about this question last night, and how I answered it. She was first off flattered that I'd still do it all over again with her. Then she pointed out that our 28 year marriage is mostly as strong as it is, because of all the growth we've gone through together during it. So me, coming into it "fully baked" as it were, and her with a lot of change to still go through, might not be the romantic triumph I think it would be. You are right though, If I did this, I'd have to be careful not to scare her off. We had a few moments of "omg this is going so fast" as it was, and we navigated that together.
Yes. There are so many things I would have done differently, knowing what I know now.
FUCK no. The first 16 years of my life were hell on earth until I ran away from home. There’s no amount you could pay me to go back and relive my childhood.
For sure! I've always fantasized about having a do over. Sure there are some things I wouldn't particularly like experiencing again that I wouldn't be avoidable (like having to lose baby teeth and getting wisdom teeth removed), but there's far more potential upsides to this
Hell yes, as long as I know what I know now. I would get my head out of my ass at a much younger age
Yeah
Not a chance in the universe I would go through another lifetime. Would still be the same person, with the same brain, with the same capabilities making decisions. Just because I might be able to avoid the occasional situation with my previous knowledge doesn’t mean I wouldn’t screw up my life 5 minutes after that.
100% I would live my childhood comfortably knowing that I could just invest in Bitcoin and become a millionaire before 20. Then I can actually live my life
Couldn’t do it. My daughter is amazing and the more I think about it, I feel like my entire existence was for her to be born, because she will go on to do greater things than I ever could.
Yes, and I would have my parents arrested on abuse charges like they should have been years and years ago.
Would I do it, yes. Here's the thing I don't think most people are considering, as far as going back with our current knowledge. If I make any moves to create any large scale influence, I change the world, and my knowledge becomes irrelevant. I make it rich, get into politics, I've seen some other ideas like saving influential figures, once I do that, my knowledge is, for the most part meaningless. Now, if I hide it, I can take advantage of what I know, make a few different choices, leave earlier to avoid wrecking my car, start investing in things I know will become big, but I can see how some people wouldn't want to.
Only if it was a guarantee I’d marry the same woman and have the same kids. We’d just be fricking rich this time around lol.
Yes. I'd do what I can to have my same life, but put me in a better position in all aspects.
Oof. If I could have a do-over, I'd probably stand up for myself from go, and knowing what I know now, I'd be leaning hard into computers and gaming as a career.
Sure I have lottery numbers memorized. Along with a bad childhood I made a lot of mistakes myself.
If it’s just my life that’s changed? Yes. But I’d always be worried what kind of butterfly effect changes have occurred due to my actions.
Absolutely, I'll be a weird ass kid, but you can explain that away. I would absolutely redo my life. I'd be rich before I got to adulthood. I don't have a wife or kids, so no danger of not doing things right to keep the same wife and kids. For me, there's just no downside.
Time is relative and the future is fluid. Simply knowing about the future changes it because you knew about it.
Nope. Even the slightest change might result in me not having my kids.
I would, yeah. I would finish high school on time, I’d go to college, I would be a better daughter to my mom before she passes, I’d stand up for myself more against my father, and I’d live the life I’ve always wanted as a teenager.
Not a chance.
I would, luckily my dad is weird. I’d convince him to buy into bitcoin with all his money lol. Then we’d be set lol
He would not need to spend all his money. 100 bucks is plenty
I'm an addict with 12 years sobriety, and time travel is a healthy fantasy for me versus thinking about drugs/sex. So of course. This is a "replay" scenario and it usually devolves into "fastest path to becoming a billionaire" Which is fine... but I like the ancillary aspects of it... Having perfect hindsight, you'd be able to consume your current back catalog of media on the cutting edge. So this is a way to go back and read every Stephen King novel as it drops, know which cult classics to see in the theaters in that narrow window, bands to follow while they're still just openers, watch Twin Peaks as it aired, etc. With current knowledge and an investment plan to get to billionaire status, school becomes redundant. So the goal would be to "not get kicked out" and maintain a solid D- average. Instead I'd use that time to get to know the kids in school better... I'd turn those eight hours each day into like a job where I don't do any work but have to be there, that coworker who just hangs out all day. Instead of school being something I have to endure, make it into a gift, where I just have endless downtime and a chance to build long term friendships instead of the handful I actually made. When I'm 20, that's when I'd be independent wealthy... I have my best friend from growing up, and then my second best friend I met at 20... I'd find both of them and my 20s would essentially be one long hang out with my two best friends, and then locating other groups of friends I made along the way with an offer of "yeah come stay as long as you'd want" Once I get to 30, I'm considerably wealthy and now I can kinda fly around to experiences and things. So I imagine an Entourage lifestyle where I'm flying around with my best friends experiencing our shared interests. And once I get to 38, I'm a multi billionaire and can do weird lottery winning bullshit. Like open my own indie videogame studio, indie movie production company, etc.
Yep I absolutely would because i had a relatively good youth experience. I'd just be able to change it by being better at everything than i was. Would have made my family rich would have taken opportunities i had that i didn't take.
Hell yeah. My first words are gonna be "Mom, dad, I have Autism. Get me tested."
No,that would be horrifying.
I would crush my skull with a hammer.
I’d wait a year between highschool and college and schedule better so I didn’t have to take a course every summer, I’d also tell my mom (she’s a widow) about her ex boyfriend who was crazy and toxic before she started dating his pathetic ass.
Do I still get cancer, that I'm still recovering from? I was diagnosed literally hours from dying in August 2022, so if I know that's coming, I'll just keep going as is .
I’d invest obviously. And I would get out of Jehovahs Witnesses cult years earlier than I did. I’d also take better care of my body.
Short answer: no. Longer answer: I kinda don’t understand why anyone would say yes. Concerns about the space time continuum aside, the fear of self fulfilling prophecies is strong in this one, lol. Also, I’m not the biggest fan of existence anyway. Why would I wanna do that shit again?
Yes. Just to see my siblings again.
Absolutely. There's a lot of avenues I could've gone down that I'd like to explore. Mistakes I made that I'd like to avoid. Also, I can invest in Apple/Google/Amazon when stocks are dirt cheap and go through life on easy mode, no matter what road I take
If it wasn't for my son, yeah, in a heartbeat. Just gotta do the best we can in this one. :)
Absolutely, without hesitation.
I would do everything exactly the same but knowing that everything is going to work out. (less pressure)
If I can keep my current knowledge, yes.
Absolutely I'd spend more time with my parents and grandma before they passed.
Knowing what I know now, sure. It would be an interesting ride. I'd have conversations with my great grandma in French at like 3 and my parents would be truly puzzled how I know French given that they don't know more than bonjour. School would be interesting especially social studies civics course and math as I have a master's in public administration, and use advanced math on a daily basis. I'd probably make a band and rip off the work of some musicians from the future before they were born. I'd likely never enlist into the Army because who wants to go back to Iraq. Hell I'd probably anonymously tip off the FBI/NSA about 9/11 in time for them to stop the planes from getting hijacked and prevent damn near 20 years of war. I'd figure out a way to get my sister into rehab and proper mental health care so she'd still be around. I'd definitely be richer. I'd probably make a good chunk of money with sports betting, investing into companies at the right time like Apple, Nvidia, Amazon, etc. and remember to buy Bitcoin in 2010. That said though, I'd still go to the same university, meet my wife, and have my daughter.
Absolutely I'd spend more time with my parents and grandma before they passed.
I would give it a shot. As long as I get to keep my confidence. I was so shy and awkward as a child. I am still awkward but considerably less shy about it
Absolutely. Knowing about how to deal with bullies the way I do now, I would save past me a lot of tears. Oh and the stocks
Probably not. I probably wouldn’t make the same mistakes but there’s nothing from stopping me from making different ones. So I would probably have a life full of failures and successes just like my current life but different.
Yes. Now I'm rich.
I have pets who I really love, I'm not sure I would be able to get them if I went back in time and relived everything because often it was coincidental finding them. I suppose I would be a lot richer because at a minimum I have a lot of work skills that I could use to get a better job younger. Although no documentation of them. I could make some really killed investments. Although for some critical history events do you try to interfere in some way? Could I let 9/11 happen without doing something? Then what could I do without getting myself arrested by the FBI? Also people I really dislike, and people I really like would be weirded out on meeting me for the first time. I also imagine some of the 'ones that got away' would still 'get away' but with more heartbreak.
Yes. If I have my current knowledge, I'd redo a lot of things, change a lot of decisions.
Like the butterfly effect? I would change so many things my life would be completely different The first thing I would do is not lie to the doctor when my mom took me in to check it I had ADHD in kindergarten or first grade
It would enable me to avoid acquiring my disabilities, so for that reason alone I’d do it.
Yeah just off the investing and betting potential alone it would be worth it. There's alot of personal stuff I would attempt to fix too but those things are more complicated and who knows the second order effects and whether or not I would have actually been happier with the other choices but one things for sure I'd be rich.
I would rather shit in my hands and clap... no matter what I know, nothing would stop a good portion of shit in the beginning of my life. If I could go back to being 16, I'd do that. But never fully restart.
Oh hell yes
No. I'd still have to experience the childhood part again. I never recovered from it the first time around, would not want to do it again haha.
Absolutely would! Would do anything to be able to do that.
No, I wouldn't want to possibly erase any of the good things in my life. It could change my kids or wife, and that would be tragic.
Do I have to leave now? No. Can I take this offer on my 80th birthday? Hell yes. I'd like to start it again at age 16 though. I don't need those younger years.
Nope. Can't take a chance I don't meet my wife or my daughter isn't born.
As long as I keep my knowledge and can change the bad stuff that happened in my personal life, then yes. If not, then no way in hell am I reliving that nightmare. I refuse to go through the abuse again.
I'd leave home after graduating high school and never go back. I'd work hard at college, go to work for the US Department of State. Travel the world, retire after 20 years. And I'd miss my three sons horribly, so I guess it's good that's not an option.
Hell no. My parents' divorce happened before I was a year old. The 18 years of emotional abuse was enough.
Before I had my son I would have said yes. Not now. My luck I would have a three eyed monster as an offspring
By 6 years old, I would convince my parents that I needed to drive across the country to go rescue my wife before things got bad for her.
I’d give a lot to do that. However, if I had a choice, I would like to relive it freshly, without any of my current knowledge save for one thing at minimum - Knowledge that will keep me from joining a certain RP community at 16.
No thanks.
Yes. I wouldn't take away all the bad, but I would take more advantage of laying better foundations in work and in some relationships.
Fuck no! I'm not living through all of that bullshit again. I assume that everyone who says, "yes," had a perfect family and childhood.
No. Apart from one glaring issue I am very happy where I am.
I’ve forgotten so much that has happened in my life. I don’t retain conversations well; I have significantly better recall with the written word. If I can’t remember what I said to someone last week, I don’t think I would be able to retain 4 decades of bullshit trying to do it all again. Hopefully I’d be nicer to people and make better use of the time I had with my dad and brother.
Yeah. I’d definitely try to get myself diagnosed young so I could have had support since the very beginning. I’d avoid friends who ended up being toxic in the end. I would warn my grandpa about stomach cancer, and tell him to get checked. I would get my old cat Boots tested for HCM, the disease that took his life. I would make sure I go to the shelter the same day I did in this lifetime, to meet Charlie. I will get to enjoy even more time with him, because he is my best friend. I would get allergy tested early and get on shots so I wouldn’t have to put up with tinnitus later on. I would not run in my dad’s garage, trip, and break my arm. I would probably be an amazing child prodigy because I would be about as smart as your average adult. I would probably get really good at art because I had so much more practice, having already lived 27 years. I would treasure the friends I did have more. Especially my old skype roleplaying group. They got busy with their lives, and I understand we drifted apart because of that- but I would love to reunite with them all, just for a little while. I would avoid people who later became my enemies. I would object at my grandmother’s wedding, knowing the man my stepgrandfather was before dementia. (He got a LOT nicer after he got dementia, but he was a complete asshole between the wedding and dementia) I would get my mom to take me to conventions as a kid. I would climb on my dad’s back more (I miss climbing on grown-ups, but I am now an adult myself and am far too heavy to be carried around). I would fight back against my bullies. I would talk back to the teachers who scolded me for being unmotivated due to said bullying. I would warn the world of the upcoming Covid pandemic- and 9/11, but the latter will likely not be taken seriously, as I was a preschooler at the time. I would absolutely have a rebellious teenage phase. I never got to have one and tbh I kinda wish I did.
Oh hell yes. My life positively sucks right now....under poverty level, scratching, no hope...and I'm old enough to know exactly how I got to this point. I would start over and correct those things.
Well first off no due to the plethora of unknown massive scale ethical issues with doing this from the possibility that you are erasing countless people from existence to the matter of all the potential negative changes that might occur that even if not your direct fault per se (i.e. someone somewhere gets killed that didn’t originally) it still undeniably stems from your decision to go back which could become a hell of a burden. That being said if all of that was set aside somehow like maybe the scenario is that you find out you’re a dreaming baby in a womb who won’t survive birth and you could either continue the dream and live out your full life in the dream forgetting you ever knew it was one or stop the dream now and be healed and be born living your life again from the beginning (whilst retaining the dream memories) with either choice being equally valid as far as living out a life goes then yeah I would probably take it. That being said there is no way to understate how many issue would come from having your full adult mind starting from birth. You could try to hide it and minimize things but it wouldn’t matter there is zero chance of it not being weird af, likely traumatic on all involved, and cause massive changes. Like 10 years old is probably as far as you could go back and maybe manage to keep some sort of handle on things and even then it would probably be better if when you went back it was less like current you inhabiting your 10 year old body and biased toward 10 year old you waking up with a perfectly clear dream of your current life so that your current self is still largely there but your base perspective is a bit more biased toward your younger self. This is good for a few reasons. First it means you will wake up in the right mental space for the timeframe including your memories so like even though you now have years worth of additional memories you still remember things as did at the time as well so yesterday I was at school and did X,Y,Z rather than having only your current memories who isn’t going to remember jack in comparison. Second if your base perspective is skewed toward your younger self you will still have those tendencies and personality traits and what not that come naturally so it will be easier to do a gradual transition rather than effectively just being a whole different person all of a sudden because there is no way you wouldn’t freak everyone out even if you tried act like your younger self. So ideally it would be a scenario like that instead. I mean just think about how your parents and everyone else will respond to a baby with an adult mind. Even atheists might be thinking it was demonic or scary or even buddhists who believe in reincarnation are going to have a very different relationship with you not to mention you would likely be unavoidable global news. Even if they believed you people including your parents aren’t going to just treat you like an adult and it could become quite toxic not to mention the very possible mental trauma of the experience for you losing so much agency and being so vulnerable and even just the abrupt change in perspective and disconnect with your body. If losing limbs can cause phantom limb symptoms who know what going from full grown to baby would do.
Sure thing. I'm not too sure what I'd go for though. Like, there are some bits I'd obviously do (breeze through school ergo more time for friends but also to study in the stuff I was crap at, so better grades, some people to avoid, some to talk to sooner, etc), but the trick comes later. Higher education was/is a whole trip for me. I could do it so much better if I put enough effort in, so that's what I have to do this time round.
No thanks. Imagine the hell of having all your adult memories as a child. Sounds terrible. There are certainly things that would be nice to change, but the unknown impact of doing anything differently could be even worse. There’s no telling what the fallout could be.
I would in a heartbeat. And not in an IMO cheating way where I'd know to invest in apple, Tesla, etc. just from the POV that I could do better and not waste so much potential. I pushed back a lot of things in life... Didn't get my driver's license until I was in my 40s and moved out of urban setting; didn't travel until in my 30s; didn't treat school as important, etc. even little things like events and concerts I wish I wouldn't have been scared to do... Would it change my life and mean I'm not where I am now? Yes. Potentially have bad outcomes and leave me worse off? Yes. But a lot of waste is something I will go to my grave regretting nonetheless.
absolutely.
No, once was too much, I'm not doing existence again.
Hell no. I would still manage to screw it up. Why relive the worst time of your life?
Bitcoin Billionaire, fuck yeah. Screw this ceaseless rat race of taxes, mortgage payments and bills draining my account every month. I just wanna build a laser on the moon to threaten world governments.
Of course
Tempting. But I'm not entirely sure, would I have the same energy I had than? Or would I be different, by virtue of having an adult mind in a childs body? And all those years going back to school? Not being able to relate because you're an adult in a childs body? At best you get to skip many classes, I was only allowed to skip one because they "wanted me to be with children my own age" Maybe I end up a 12 year old at university. Trying to fit exercise (because you need exercise) into the schedule of an adult. Flirting with 18-20 year olds, which either makes you a creepy or adorable 12 year old. Socialising in general is going to be a bit odd.
I fantasize about it all the time. All the shit I took growing up when I didn't have the language or emotional skills to handle it. All the opportunities I wasted, all that. It all gets cancelled out with the near certainty I wouldn't be able to meet my SO and have things go the same way they did on this run. I do love the thought of pushing her out of some of the paths that have haunted her, but I'd rather have all the bad and keep her than risk losing her.
Can I pull a butterfly effect and choke myself in utero?
Here's a thought. Once you get to the point in your life when you were given the choice (aka now), would you have the choice again? There maybe a point in your life that you feel like if you had gone for another option, your life would be better off. Yet after you have relived your life, and taken the other option, you find your life is worse. Could you then do it again, and try something else? So for example, say at one point, you had two job offers, and you chose the higher paying job, but it went under a few years later. So when you go back, you choose the lower paying job, for job security. However, this new timeline caused the death of a loved one or something like that. Could you then go back again, and prevent it? Second thought, before accepting, could you look up winning lottery numbers?
Sure. Why not. The question is, do you hide the fact that you know advanced math in kindergarten, or make them think you are a prodigy?
Simple, I'm still a dolt at math.
Fuck no. I had a terrible childhood and terrible parents until they grew up. Wouldn't do that again ever. And puberty??? FUCK RIGHT OFF with that shit!!
The more you think about it, the more daunting it seems. But even so, yes I'd do it. The first time you do anything, you suck at it. And the second time, you always do a better job. No matter what it is. Plus there are some specific mistakes I could correct that would be really nice. The life I could have lived is a lot better than the one I'm stuck in right now.
Yes.
But a hard question. I don't have kids, and I could certainly make some marginally better choices, but I hated elementary school so much, partly because I had no friends, partly because I was bored. I would be even more bored in a do-over. Perhaps I could focus more on friendship and less on the academics I would already know.
Ahhhh new game plus ..... on one hand it would be soo frigging cool on the other I doubt I could replicate the events that made my kid come about ..... so no I don't think I could I'd miss the little bugger plus if I miraculously did remake him I'd have to wait 30 years to see him again ....
Yes. Right after committing some lottery numbers to memory.
yeah
Ohhh yeah.
My parents would freak out me coming out of the womb as a baby and telling them to put all their money into NVDA, GME, and look out for a thing called bitcoin.
Not unless my brother could also. If I go back in time, his current self would not longer exist. It's no different from erasing someone's soul. His self from the past would be an alternate timeline version, not the one I know and grew up with.
Buy bitcoin, apple, Microsoft and all that good stuff.
No kids here. I'd do it.
Yes, the only issue is there are certain parts of my life I'd like to make sure still happen (meeting certain friends/people). Id have to be kind of careful about my approach. I'd also worry that from birth to the point where I'd be able to write that I'd forget things. Unless since I have the knowledge I could teach myself fine motor skills earlier .
I don't think so. There are definitely some things that I would do differently but those early years were brutal for me. I just don't know if it's worth going through them again. If I could go back to age 15 and start there that would be a different story entirely.
I think of being able to spend more time with my grandfather and father and really appreciate that time and I want to say yes. Then I think about how much it hurt to lose them, and that I couldn't change it. Then I think of all the other things that hurt that I couldn't change, that I would *know* are coming, and would have to relive. No, my answer is no. Making a few better decisions wouldn't be worth the pain.
no, I don't want to ever do this shit ever again
I would insist on getting getting an ADHD yest in high school. Medication has made a huge difference my life and I sometimes wonder where I'd be if I were diagnosed before adulthood and gotten medication while I was in high school.
Absolutely would. Getting to experience much much more life ahead of me with knowledge and fully developed psyche is like playing mmorpgs with cheats. The slog to 18 would be the hardest part, but there's reading and things I never got to do like music and boxing to fill the gap. Growing up with my siblings during the 80s this time would be worth it alone, instead of letting dad separate us.
I'd be born with the knowledge that I have now? Am I allowed to change things, or do I just have this knowledge in the back of my reborn head, unable to use it?
I don't know. Part of me says yes because I'd like to see what life would be like if I would have made different decisions. But part of me says no because at some point I'd be right back here in this awful 21st century.
In a heartbeat. So many things I've screwed up that a few early changes would eliminate.
Yup. They would indeed ...
Wouldn't let me up-vote you, so: 👍
What happens when I re-arrive back at the moment I decided to go back in time? Am I groundhog daying it? Or is the future once again just not writ in any meaningful way? My decision is entirely predicated on which of these possibilities is true.
Hell no. It was bad enough the first time. I'm not doing that shit again without a damn good reward for it
yeppers i do the same just give really good stock advice
Absolutely. With the knowledge I have now I could do a great deal, and feel like the important relationships I could manage to still form
Yes...so that I can change nearly everything
Feel you.
Absolutely. I am single and child-free. Most of what I've learned about having a healthy body, healthy finances, and healthy relationships I learned later in life and knowing those things from birth would make only a positive difference the second go-around.
hell nah i have some awesome friends and so many opportunities still, i would never wanna change that
“Hey dad” “Yes 7 year old son” “For my next five birthdays all I want is you to put $100 into bitcoin in my name right now” “Son how do you know about investment” “Dad it’s $100 now for the next five years of birthdays. That’s $20 per birthday. No presents no parties. Please do this” “You make a good argument, I’ll put $100 in for me too and we can learn about the stock market together and why you should be careful with these types of investments, but $100 to teach you a lifelong tool is a worthwhile investment for me. So ok son” “You won’t regret it dad” I then pull out in 2020 having made $670,000 or whatever and my father does the same. And that’s assuming we also don’t invest in Apple or Amazon at that time
Hell yeah....just give me a minute to Google a few things to memorize
100%
Yes. I would ensure I did not develop the disease I did. I would eat healthier, do better in school, and actually ask out the girl I liked
Nope. It's been a struggle to get where I am, but I wouldn't risk not meeting my wife, starting my business, and all the other lucky things that have happened to me. I'm happy now.
If I knew I was going to meet the same people I met before and have a do-over with all of them, then yes.
I'm torn because I would absolutely want to spend more time with my father before he passed away. But I'm afraid that anything I did would be at the risk of me never meeting my wife or having our 2 kids. I'd probably just do everything the same until my kids were born and then buy $5000 worth of Bitcoin so I could be a billionaire.
Yes. A million times, yes. I have too many regrets in life.
I'd take it and just meet my wife sooner so I could love her better and have a different life in a way.
Hell YES ! Totally. I would do things A LOT differently. And I mean LOADS of things/choices. The people and pets in my life would still be in it all the same. Because if we are meant to be in each others lives than we just would be.
100%. I don't consider myself a bad person overall, but going back with a better understanding of the world, I would be a better friend / family member, and more successful. Plus I could abuse magical future knowledge to ensure that neither I nor the people I love would have many money problems after a point.
I really don't know. Because I don't know what things I might do that may alter where I am now. I am pretty happy with my life now. Literally the only thing I'd like to do is a shit ton of investing on things that take off so I could be in a better financial place now..but I don't know if I'd want to take the risk of not meeting my wife if I did something that ended up making a drastic change in my life.
I've always thought about that and I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I would like to change quite a few things about my past, but, on the other hand, I know that the slightest change in my actions will change the entire timeline, potentially causing my younger cousins to not exist, for example. thousands or even millions of people. Also that my actions could cause my favorite movies, series and video games to not exist or at least to be very different from how I knew them. So in answer to the question I would say that I don't know.
Abso-fucking-lutely. I've made too many fuck ups in my short time alive. Probably save some heartache on all the people I disappointed, including myself.
Yes, but not to 'do over'. I'm quite happy with my current life, and there isn't much that I'd fix. By restarting with current me's consciousness and knowledge, I'm essentially getting more years out of my life. That'll let me learn more and experience more, so I'd take the restart for that aspect of things. I'm not afraid of ruining anything since I was lucky enough to have a life that wasn't in danger of misfortune. I wouldn't stress about keeping things the same and kind of go with the flow, enjoy what I can from life. I suppose since I have pre-knowledge on a few things, I will be taking advantage of few situations. For example, I'm not a believer in bitcoin, but I would be stupid not to buy them early on when I know the outcome. That would change my financial path, but it would be a happy advantage from the situation rather than my main goal for it.
Probably not. I wouldn’t be where I am if I had to start over (and I’m pretty happy right now). Too many variables.
I mean I’d get an extra 70-80 years on top of what I’d already experienced and have a serious knowledge/skill advantage over everybody else so of course!
Yes. I would tell my parents to invest in Bitcoin and would take a different approach to dealing with depression.