If you could pick your time and location of birth, anywhere and anywhen in all of the world and it's history - which place/time would you pick, and why?

TheLemming@feddit.de to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 44 points –
43

Oslo. Yesterday. Norway is playing life on easy mode. Massive oil & lithium reserves. NATO. Far North in a hot World.

To date, I think non-minority American boomers have had it the best. The past sucks pretty fast if you go back further than that, and we're in interesting times now. I could be born a straight cis white man in New York state, 1940 and die in 2019.

This is assuming history is unchangeable. If not, maybe it's better to arrive after the Cuban missile crisis, which I'm guessing ended badly in most parallel universes.

the cambrian period

no capitalism

no climate change

no politics

just swim

no climate change

So I'm not a paleontologist, but I think that technically, there were climate changes. I mean I imagine that the creatures weren't particularly bothered by such climate changes, implying that they were sophisticated enough to be bothered at all.

I do like swim though.

Obligatory xkcd reference

Whatever climate change earth previously went through was never noticed by any living being.

The last 40 years was the first time that temperature went up by 1 degree Celsius in such a short time frame. That took 1000 years in any previous climate change.

The climate change was not this fast, as far as I know. We have managed to expedite the entire process. That's why it sucks so much this time around.

Since the empty set of time is considered to be a valid subset of all time, I chose the empty set, e.g. "never". For similar reasons, I chose "nowhere." It would have been a whole lot easier to never have been born.

Great Question. I'd go to the future, not sure how far tho.

The thing is, that could be awesome, or it could be a fucked up dystopia. There's no way to know until you're there.

I would too, maybe 200 years forward. I’m hoping by then most natural causes of death would be mostly figured out and poverty hopefully being a thing of the past.

People in the 1800s thought the same. It’s not going to get better.

But we have figured out most causes of death from the 1800s don’t downplay the huge impact modern medicine has had!

Because that benefits the people in power as well. Ending poverty is just not something they are interested in

I guess in 100 years climate crisis made this planet not very pleasant.

You can't go back tho. Except if someone there asked you the same question again. Need to make friends, dig through history books and find my question. Tell them they should ask you. If they want to come with you, you ask them also

If I’m retaining knowledge I’ll go early 60s in Japan. Have fun and get rich in the miracle economy and protect myself from the bubble bursting in the early 90s. Then I’m loaded and living in a great place.

I always figured people in a stone-age tribe in a subtropic region, in a period with no wars, natural disasters and plagues (these conditions must have existed somewhere right?), would have had the best lives.

Just hanging around making some basic tools, pots and bows and arrows, hunting a bit, foraging some fruits and mushrooms, be amazed by nature. Not too bad.

Ancient Minoan would be the place, chilling on the sunny island of Crete in the reasonably calm Mediterranean sea with abundances of food and water as well as trade goods from all over the Mediterranean. And they weren't crazed militarists like most of the other Greek tribes, so don't have to worry too much about war either.

Yeah man. Carve a log into a surfboard. Sing carefree songs with cartoon animals. Poop on a leaf and wipe with sand. Skinny dip with your elders. Just live a natural life free of all the capitalism.

I wouldn't want to change the time, really. As for the location - mostly anywhere in the current EU, preferably - Germany/Austria/Finland/Netherlands in no particular order?

  1. Do I get to pick my mother?

  2. We talking rebirth with continuity of memory or is this a blank slate?

Do I get to pick my mother?

This is the essential question. Like, if I could be born into a super-wealthy family, the actual time might be less important.

Ha ha aye right Louis the 17th 😂

Maybe become the 16th instead. You could even vastly improve life for your subjects and still live in obscene wealth. Might even avoid the guillotine that way

No, it's only you who's going on a journey

... what?

Do I get to choose who I am born to? And is this rebirth or a blank slate? You didn't answer anything!

You get to choose who ypu are born to and it's a blank state

There is no discernible difference between being reborn as a blank slate and dying. Either way, I cease to exist. No thanks.

Right here, right now! I'd raise myself as my own baby. This would force time travel to be invented, no matter how improbable. We'd be unstoppable.

How far in the future can I go before pathogen microbes evolve too significantly for me to survive? Whatever the answer is, this, but only after making a few minor investments first. Then I'll go. Place? Switzerland. Why? Hopefully, - stability.

It also doesn’t get as hot high up in the mountains.