2. you can choose to be visible or invisible.
3. you cant alter history.
4. timeline of known history of earth only.
additional question: IF you COULD alter history, what would you change?
I remember reading a (speculative) argument that the earliest gospels were much more ambiguous about the "miracles" and exactly what happened after Jesus' death. Was the account of seeing him rise to heaven a later addition?
Likewise I'd also like to see what the real Christ had to say (if he did in fact exist - that's still disputed AFAIK). I've always liked to imagine he was much less spiritual and more political. I imagine there were a few other would-be messiahs doing the rounds, I wonder what they were up to, and how similar they were (I think we can be confident they were about because the New Testament does mention them - albeit very unfavourably).
Another time / place to go would be when the first books of the Old Testament were written. There's a theory doing the rounds that the first book written was Leviticus, which acted as a kind of early legal code. Then the theology was added later as a means of justifying the law and marrying it to a religion rather than just a city state. There are also arguments that early Judaism was polytheistic and Yehova was a god of a city rather than "the god" in the original conception.
I've always been curious about the origins of those belief systems and how close our Bible reflects the actual beliefs and cosmology of Iron Age proto-Israelite society.
They were all rewrites of Akkadian and Egyptian texts. Overlaid with Ugaritic basic beliefs.
Origin stories in Judaism is mostly syncretic and fragmented stories of Akkadian/egyptian myth. Mostly rewritten altho the Ugaritic Baal cycle mythos gets reproduced somewhat intact brought in by the Cannanites from whom the Hebrews came.
In fact, El was a god worshipped by early Israelites, hence the -el in Israel. Yahweh was a god and worshipped at the time. But over time, Yahweh became the single worshipped god, who became “the god”. El became a generic name for a deity much like our god vs God. In fact, other gods were acknowledged to exist for a time, until eventually they too were denied to exist.
I too am interested in the same question. More generally, how a polytheist belief system transforms into a monotheistic one.
El was the high god of the Canaanites and Hebrews most certainly were from Canaan. El was ‘god of gods and hosts of hosts’
Yahwehs were the 70 sons of El. There were 70 Yahwehs. Each Yahweh had dominion over a holy mountain they possessed and they each led their own tribes. Their mother was the consort of El aka Asherah.
One of the Yahwehs ...who had dominion over one of the Canaanite tribes made the covenant and smashed the idols and prohibited idol worship and worship of all other Yahwehs. And now you have the old testement of the Hebrews.
It was around the first Iron Age that the Hebrews slowly started moving away from the Babylonian polytheistic fold. The original Hebrew faith was incredibly syncretic with Akkadian and Egyptian texts and myths. And then it evolved by Iron Age of Babylonian captivity in 5th and 6th BCE.
I would be curious to learn how Religions/Christianity gained its way into mainstream. Most of these religions started as fringe/niche.
Between we are all curious about a religion's product-market fit ;)
1. I would time travel 10 years from now and see who the top tech companies are. I would then come back and wait for those startups to appear and you know what I am doing next :)
2. I would travel back to somewhere around 1993ish when no one knew Jeff Bezos ?? and convince him that I would like to back his startup idea of selling books. I become a lead investor in Amazon and then come back to 2020 :)
3. I would go back to the times when religion was invented and then try to uninvent it (controversial I know). Nothing against faith in general but most religions have caused misery and pain over the years in the name of God.
4. Time travel to the first time fire was invented and watch the reactions just to get a kick out of it. Time travel to the first time when the first light bulb was invented and tell the guy he changed the world :)
5. Go back to the time when my dad was healthy AND try to convince him to eat better and exercise so he could hopefully live beyond 70 (he didn't) and spend time with his grandchildren.
The creation of fire with friction or flint spark would be an achievement, but not a terrible surprise for a person already familiar with the fire concept.
Check out the construction of the pyramids at Giza. There's still so many mysteries surrounding them and they're just overall fascinating.
Then pay a visit to the Library of Alexandria. I always wondered how much civilization was set back by it being burned down.
(Top of the list: Aztec, Maya, Rome, Ancient China)
If the future is included: figure out the next collapse and avert it ;)
The moment you become visible, where you can be seen by others, you will have altered history....unless you were already there and are trapped in a paradoxical loop, which is an even bigger problem.
If I can alter history I guess I'd just do this in the past and start living the god king life right now.
If this seems too boring I'd go 5 billion years forward so I can watch our galaxy collide with Andromeda, but the immortality path is probably a better way to accomplish this since the Earth may not be around still.
Let's take the example of Jesus: I've been teleported to Judea, around the time of crucifixion. Who expects me to be able to just stroll up on Calvary and have a look at how it happened?
Who expects me to just visit the pyramids of Gizeh? And if someone asks me what I'm doing at the construction site for the pharaoh's grave, I simply say "just having a look, I thought it's interesting"?
Let's change the question a bit: If someone from a thousand years from now could choose to visit our time, what would he see and experience?
Simple, approximate answer: what I'm seeing and experiencing.
And I have to say that I cannot give a definitive account of Bin Laden's death. Or Trump's shady deals. Or what exactly happened to Nawalny. Or how the German government party decided to just introduce gay marriage (virtually without any forewarning, just like that).
Living at the same time as some historic event (even if it's not recognized at such until later) isn't really the same as having access to it.
(I admit that I first overlooked the invisibility option, but even then, it's still hard to enter the Oval Office, I suppose.)
Or would you prefer that?
What I'd do is to spend some time with my parents when they were younger.
PS: I don’t know how accurate these dates are, don’t cite these dates. I didn’t perform even a cursory sanity check on these dates.
I’d travel back to 1453 and witness the fall of constantinople.
Then, I’d make my way to Europe to watch the start of the protestant reformation, the rise of the Tudors and maybe go to Uzbekistan and join the 11 year old Babur in 1494.
I’d love to stay and follow him till he becomes the first Mughal emperor in India later, but there’s a lot more to see.
I’d make my way over to Lisbon and hitch a ride with Vasco da Gama in 1497 as he starts on his historic voyage that will take him to the Indian Malabar coast in 1498. (I’m a One Piece fan btw, I am imagining sailing with Vasco da Gama would be as fun as the manga, but reality will probably be more brutally medieval).
I’d then make my way over to the court of the Vijayanagar empire and watch Krishnadevaraya ascend to the throne in 1509.
I wouldn’t mind staying in Hampi for the entire duration of Krishnadevaraya’s reign - but in 1526, I’d want to go watch Babur (whom I’d have last seen around 1494) defeat Ibrahim Lodi and become the first Mughal emperor. From there I’d go to the court of Suleiman the Magnificent and watch the Ottoman-Saffavid wars.
I’d try my best to go back to Europe to watch Michelangelo in Florence and later Rome. I’d probably take a short trip back to England to watch Henry VIII finally marry Anne Boleyn in 1532.
Around 1539, I’d travel to Copernicus and probably stay and watch him finalize his book where he proposed the heliocentric model of the universe.
I’d then hike around a bit, watch the Renaissance unfold, go back and watch Suleiman make his way till Vienna and make my way back to India to watch the Mughal empire firmly settle in.
I want to witness the 1565 battle of Talikota. Somehow, that’s important to me.
Not sure what I’d do most of next decade. In 1572 I’d watch the supernova with Tyco Brahe. Then follow him around for a while watching the science and religion in Europe forever change civilization. Along the way, I’d stop by in England to watch Shakespeare plays as they come about. In 1600, I’d want to witness the incorporation of the British East India Company.
Then I’d go to watch Kepler work on Tyco Brahe’s data and compile it into his laws of planetary motion (published 1609). I’d also be there to watch Galileo build his telescope in 1608 and between these two, define our understanding of earth and sky.
I could go on, but I’ll stop typing now. You get the picture. Eventually, I’d return after watching the Taj Mahal be completed in 1648 I guess, though I’d love to stay behind and watch Newton do his thing.