Curious question, if you were standing alone in front of baby Adolph's crib would you be able to muster the pyschological strength to snuff out that babies life knowing what the future holds if you didn't? I don't know if I could or if I should. Too many what ifs.

@paul1967 I know you weren't asking me, but in order to summon the strength, I would only need to picture what I saw when I visited Dachau, The Documentation Center Nazi Party Rallying Grounds in Nuremburg and the Shoah / Holocaust museums in Washington DC, Paris and a number of other cities. Of course, one might think to kidnap little Adolf, and bring him 'back to the future.' ...could present an interesting 'nature vs. nurture' case study.

Killing the 3rd pope would have saved many more lives.

Yad Vashem the memorial to the 6 Million from all the camps did it for me 40 years ago. I will never forget those cases of teeth, hair, eyeglasses, wedding rings, and toys displayed like corpses were a commodity they stripped of all dignity. One reminder of that and I could do it.

@pnullifidian Adolph's wasn't always the sinister monster he became. He started out as an artist and had he been a better artist I think we would have just had someone else. I'm not sure if killing Adolph would be for the best. WHAT IF someone else had taken his place who was a little less impulsive. What if you killed Adolph and returned to discover Germany had won the war because Heinrich Himmler stepped forward as the leader of the Nazi party or someone with more military savviness. In all likelihood killing Hitler as an infant would not stop the future. We know what happened with Hitler we would be gambling with changing history.

still think I would do it to save all those lives. I suppose killing all of them-attempts were made-would have been the answer.

@paul1967 Please refer to my initial posts below regarding my disregard for the time travel paradox, the issue of 'key man theory' vs. 'grass roots' view of history, and Hitler in general. Bottom line, it's a thought experiment, you get one shot at it, and judging from the responses, it seems you either pick a time and place for self fulfillment and fun, or you choose to make a positive change, based on the historical record.

@azzow2 True, but Hitler hits much too close to home, if you catch my drift.

You might see paradise but if I were a betting man, I would guess it would fall far short of that.

Actually what I would like to see is where technology is going to go in, lets say, 200 years.... That I would love to see !!!

I'm not sure how that would work, according to everything I've read you would pop into existence before spacetime. I suppose by doing that you could become the big bang and be the creator of the universe.

And according to everything I've read, you can't travel back in time. Do paradoxes cancel?

The way I would look at it is, you had a good life before you left, you added to life by becoming 20 again so even if you died 25 to 30 years later you still lived a good long life.

Used to work in Bridgeton, ME/Lake Sebago area back in college. Please check out our Cancer Survivors Group.

that could be fascinating.

we have between 1 and 7% neanderthal in our dna

OK, you talked me out of it.

I wouldn't step one foot in the future. Well, I guess I do that every moment of every day, but I wouldn't want to go far into the future. I would be too afraid of what I might see.

yeah, i was thinking whatever choice i made i would have to add the caveat :like in the movies

@paul1967 Yes, but if what we were to see was not THE future, but A future, and we didn't like what we saw, might we be able to change it, upon our return?

yeah, i'll be in vienna in 1925.

kensington 1920 was my second choice

Life is good, maybe too good. Are we becoming lazy, porn-addicted, donut eaters?

yes, 1925 is my choice.

I do like the clothes. I think that was the birth of extreme fun fashion in America.

You wouldn't be alone. You would see me wandering around taking pictures of everything. I might get eaten, but it would be worth the risk.

I wonder what impact changes like those would have on the future.

good idea on lennon, imagine how much less warlike we would be if he was still around. effing marines

just read capone . chicago would have been nuts !

Do you think that would prevent what he did later, or would we remember someone else for committing his crimes now?

Your idea sounds great in theory, but he didn't organize the National Socialist Party, and found plenty of men who were more than willing to murder millions. I think someone just as evil, but more capable may have been the alternative to Hitler.

What if that action set a series of events that created a man who was identical but who won WWII?

@Fulishsage You and @JimG are, to state it very simplistically, questioning the 'key man' theory of history, vs. grass roots movements. And while we can play the ‘what if’ game and run a bevy of variables through this thought experiment, I base my admittedly visceral choice to ‘pre-assassinate’ Adolf Hitler on the historical record.

The post-World War I reparations that were placed on Germany no doubt created the conditions for a Hitler, and rabid anti-Semitism has existed, in varying degree, throughout European history. But this narcissistic author of Mein Kampf who demonstrated the gift of oratory, and rallied unwavering loyalty while instilling absolute fear and terror in the hearts of his subordinates, was, in my view, a unique personality. Were there other junior Hitlers out there? Who knows.

The point is, while I don't believe time travel is possible, this is merely a response to a 'fantasy' question. And you gotta start somewhere when it comes to the horrors of Nazi Germany. I’ve never been a fan of being concerned about the time travel paradox—the whole point of time travel is that you will, even as an observer, change the past, and thus the future, so you might as well go in guns blazing. Hell, if I were the Captain of the USS Nimitz in ‘The Final Countdown’ I would have, without hesitation, ordered the destruction of the Japanese fleet!

@pnullifidian touche

@Fulishsage Merci Monsieur ... mes compliments!

same as my answer - but earlier.

money corrupts

I wonder what he was really like as a person. I bet he was an odd character.

@paul1967 he must have been pretty busy too.

he? or she?

@paul1967 inquiring minds want to know!

@JimG exactly!

@BAMBISPICE that question as well!

Nope, we need you here.

@icolan or it could cause a parallel universe in which he never was born to form spontaneously. However, he obviously wouldn't exist in it, and would be stuck in our universe and continue to exist here.

@icolan LOL!

Fair point.

Do you speak Italian?

@paul1967 I am a quick study.