America! Whatta Beautiful Country!
Oh, time travel. You complicated question, you. Why is it so hard? Because there are so many variables that shape the answer. Such as:
- How long would I be gone?
- Would I remember my current life?
- What would my status be?
- Will I have any additional skills (i.e. foreign language abilities)
The biggest factor, by far, is how long I would be gone. And, would I be able to come back to my own time? Technically, the concept of time travel makes me think I can go to a lot of different places, but there's always the issue of if I run out of plutonium or something.
And then, there's the issue of my class and status. I'm pretty sure that if I went back to any period of time prior to the 20th Century, I would need to be incredibly well-off and wealthy to be able to cope with the lack of technology. The image of returning to the 19th Century is romantic when I think of sprawling English estates and empire dresses. Not when I think of being a chamber maid. Or worse, a peasant with lice or something.
I decided to break this down all scientific and shit and plot the wealth needed for me to travel to six varying time periods I'd consider traveling (and staying). This is long-term time travel we're talking about.
As you can see from the graph, I won't venture out of my comfort zone for really any time period (for long-term travel). The closest I get is 1880s Paris, where I still need "plumbing-level wealth," but would be happy with the art and culture of that time. Suprisingly, I would venture to the 1930s as long as I was wealthy enough not to be touched by the depressesion. Therefore, Hollywood seemed the likely contender.
From this graph, I was basically able to determine that the "poorer" I'd go, the more I wanted to travel to that time. Scratching Paris off since I don't speak French, I would firmly plant myself in 1900s New York.
Perhaps it's a case of too much nostalgia for my family of immigrants, but I can imagine that having that connection to my roots and being able to track down my relatives would be incentive enough to travel. And, I can only imagine how good the Italian food would be.
So. Amazingly. Dorky.
Comments
Ah, now I see. Great post. I thought about old Paris too, and even 1950s Paris. I could see my Dad being born! But I am more interested in going far, far back in the past. Too much Land of the Lost as a child.
I think you've set the bar for the amount of effort and thought we should put into our qotd posts
OMGzip this is an awesome post. it's like i've time travelled to the golden era of Dollarshort.
Wow. If anyone ever challenges your claim to geekiness... Just point them to that chart. ;)