If you could witness anything or any time....

[Mike C.]

Let's say you have the opportunity to be a fly on the wall during any point in time... you can stay for as long as you want, smell the smells, hear the sounds, but you could not actively interact with anything. You cannot speak to anyone, they cannot see you. You are there in spirit only, basically.

After you answer, lets say I give you the choice to intervene and change something, knowing what you know. For instance: If you knew a car accident would happen, would you choose to interfere to prevent it?


What I would want to witness:
1. Sinking of the Titanic.
2. Assignation of JFK
3. The moon landing, from the surface of the moon.
4. The disappearance of Amelia Earhart
5. The crash at Roswell, NM

[stevedmc]

I'd like to see Bill, Martin, and Ron stop arguing.

[Mike C.]

I'd like to see Bill, Martin, and Ron stop arguing.

I'd like to see Godzilla. I think I have a better chance...
:Headspin:

[08087]

T. Jefferson writing the Declaration of independence.

[Jonathan]

From the thread title, I knew what mine was... then saw it in your list too: to be a fly on the shoulder of Abraham Zapruder in Dealey Plaza in Dallas on November 22nd, 1963.

But some others:

Telling John Bender to keep his mouth shut or Dick Vernon is going to have his ass for 2 months.
Telling Myles Dyson to quit his job at Skynet ;)
Convincing the folks at the design table of the Pontiac Aztek to go home for the day and start over tomorrow.

[sean]

I'd like to see Bill, Martin, and Ron stop arguing.

:tongue_stick:

I suppose I could go for:
Ancient Rome during a top gladiator event.
Pyramid construction in Egypt


I could probably conjure up a few more if I though about it.

[r00b]

How about getting to see our cars being put together in the factory.

[Dracula]

Here's my list:
Follow Jimmy Hoffa.
Warn Nixon about Watergate. (That way EVERY SINGLE slightly embarrassing incident doesn't become ____-gate {like the senator with the corn-dog; corn-dog-gate!? REALLY!? The only one that was funny was Weiner-gate. Hehehe, Weiner-gate...} Okay, mini-rant OVER)
Attend every Zeppelin concert in 1972.
Walk around a Cadillac dealer's lot in 1959.
Passenger on a Zeppelin (No relation to the band.)

[Renee_1632]

Just to witness?

-that 1980 hockey game of US v. USSR
-moon landing
-any atomic bomb blast (with strong glasses, radiation/blast suit, and several miles distance)
-the landing at Plymouth Rock
-birth of Christ

To intervene?
-close down all airports really early on 9/11
-go back to the day Apple became a public company and invest!

[SamHill]

Intervening:

"Hey John: move to Ireland full time, focus on the car itself, cut production levels and costs, get more HP, hang on until the mid 80s and don't talk to that Hoffman guy."

Watching:

Two chicks at the same time.

[Dangermouse]

Fly on the wall: JZD and Colin Chapman contract negotiations.


Berlin wall coming down

Intervene on the last night of Hendrix, Morrison, and Cobain

Be in Gadaffis tent tonight, step outside and set off a huge flare

[Kenny_Z]

Watching:
Pyramid construction, StoneHenge, Easter Island, the Tower of Babel, and the Library of Alexandria. I love architecture.

Intervene:
There's too much that could change for the worse. I believe that the past has unfolded exactly as it is supposed to. If there was guaranteed no impact on the present...there were just too many people hurt or killing in history to pick just one.

[PlutonimicX]

I would personally liked to have prevented the assassination of Dr. MLK.

Just to witness, every UFO sighting people claimed to have seen, a movie set and the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

[TTait]

My parents having dinner before they married...

[Lenny]

Pyramid construction in Egypt
Dinosaurs

[Mike C.]

I asked my friend this question while out drinking one night a while ago, and he said he wanted to go back to the night he was conceived and see what position his parents were in... :facepalm:

I like the idea of witnessing the pyramids being built. I'll go on the same page and say I want to see Stonehenge being built too.

[sean]

I'll go on the same page and say I want to see Stonehenge being built too.

Yes! I've always been intrigued by that place.

[Dangermouse]

I asked my friend this question while out drinking one night a while ago, and he said he wanted to go back to the night he was conceived and see what position his parents were in... :facepalm:

.

The age old conundrum:

Would you prefer to watch p0rn with your parents or p0rn of your parents ??

[timothymoore]

#1: to be in the room and see what actually happened to Kurt cobain.
(thought it was weird that CL took the investigator Tom Grant through every room of the property except for the attic above the garage where his body happened to be)

#2: to be in room of the PM that decided to quit funding DMC and bite her lol

#3: be in the room where bin laden was shot and killed just to see it

#4: witness the signing of the declaration of independance

#5: be a fly in my friends car in 2009, and somehow keep him from wrecking his car, that ultimately took his life 3 months later.

[Ryan]

I'd go back and punch a dinosaur in the face.

[Stainless]

Witness:

Any of Christ's miracles
The look on Hitler's face before he pulled the trigger
The look on Timothy McVeigh's face before the drugs started pumping


I guess I have ill feelings towards psychos that do evil things to good people.

Intervene:

I'd make sure O.J. didn't get away with it
I'd call in bomb threats to all buildings affected by 9/11/01 and save a few thousand lives

[tyb323]

Mike, I agree with your number one. Sinking of the Titanic, but I would want more than that. I would want to go back to 1908, and meet up with Thomas Andrews, the ship's designer and builder.http://www.rmstitanicremembered.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Andrews.jpg
Watch the keel being laid in March 1909,
http://pics.livejournal.com/prunesarequeen/pic/00001xq1/s320x240

All the way up to to the final departure, and sinking. I'd be there every step of the way. See every meeting between Ismay, Andrews, and Smith.
http://3info2u.com/Image/RMS_Titanic_in_dock.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hzTRTlRWSD8/Tad9UZv4IHI/AAAAAAAAA-s/cTYTEyE_ad4/s1600/titanicsinking.jpg

[dvonk]

how about this: witness the origins of the universe. i dont think the human mind can fully grasp such concepts... not mine, at least. :8ball:

i also think it would be interesting to be able to travel to parallel universes, kinda like Sliders (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sliders).

[Spittybug]

Interesting premise. How about observing:

Any of the original Wonders of the World
Assasination of Julius Ceasar
The court of Henry VIII
The workshop of Leonardo Da Vinci
The great fire of London
The heroic last stand of the Spartans at Thermopylae
The Wright brothers' first flight


If I could somehow change things:

Assasination of Abraham Lincoln
Sinking of the Titanic
Max Steineke's percerverance in finding oil in Dammam, Saudi Arabia (more meaningful than you know to global issues today)
Vasectomized Hitler's father
Give some future vision to our founding fathers to head off future problems
Invested a little differently on several occasions........
Made sure that NASA and the European space agency were both using metric measurements when they collaborated
Stop that first guy that ate (or did whatever he did to) that monkey that introduced AIDS to mankind
Too many more to innumerate

[Jacko]

The age old conundrum:

Would you prefer to watch p0rn with your parents or p0rn of your parents ?? ... Neither

[Dangermouse]

... Neither

Sorry, not an option; the conundrum is that you must pick one :vomit_3:

(I don't make the rules)

[1batt4u]

Sinking of the Titanic!!