On the subject of "the best time to be alive" I find the following thought experiment helpful:

If I could choose which year I was going to be born but knew nothing else about my life, when would I chose? That is I wouldn't know which country, gender, mental composition, parents, socio-economic class, etc. etc. Only which year.

For me, it's hard not to pick today or even the future, if that's allowed. I think it would be fun to visit the past and be a fly on the wall, but with the constraints above I wouldn't want to risk a "bad roll."