Noontime question from Maister

[Maister]

Michaelskis is out of town today and didn't even ask me to post a noontime question.....but I found myself feeling obligated to do so anyways.

Let me check the noontime question posting guidelines.....has to have broad appeal......light subject matter.....some likelihood of controversy to spark discussion.....lots of subjectivity....
Oh well, here goes:
If you could be transported back in time to the year 1904 with your present knowlege and nothing else (well maybe a change of clothing) do you believe you could alter world history and how so?

 

[Dan]

This could be a problem if I was transported back in my timeline, since anything I do would have a dramatic effect on this timeline. This could result in your great-grandparents, grandparents or parents not meeting, which means some of you would go POOF! I could head to Kansas, bother El Guapo's parents on the night he was conceived, resulting in a different sperm winning the race; now La Guapa would be posting here, with her leftist rants and praise of the La Leche League.

Assuming it's an alternative but identical timeline, and you won't be affected, the natural thought most people have is to kill a young Adolf Hitler. However, many of the technological advances we have now are a result from research that took place in the race to win World War II and the resulting Cold War. Consider computers, for instance, whcih were conceived long before the War, but only built then because there was a need for creating ballistics tables and cracking cryptography schemes. Without Hitler, 2004 might look more like 1964. When you think about it, the PC you're using had a terrible price.

That being said, I'd buy lots of Ford stock, and later add GM, GE, and RCA. I'd dump the portfolio in September 1929, and start short selling stock the day before the market crash. There wasn't much call for urban planners then, so maybe there's architecture school, with a sideline as a financial advisor. ("Sell your interurban stock!")

 

[GeogPlanner]

I'd find some scheme to make some money and stash it for future me somewhere. I wouldn't want to make any drastic moves that would alter all of history b/c better the devil you know...

 

[Zoning Goddess]

I'd come to FL and buy up a lot of beachfront property and (by whatever legal means were available at that time) prevent it from ever being sold for condo development.

 

[ludes98]

Ok Alternative but identical timeline so I don't go poof.

How about evil, like frooits if the deevil?

Weasel way into Ford Mortor Corporation taking control as Ford's right hand man by knowing every idea in his head. Ensure the incorporation of automobiles into daily life at an alarming rate. Every FMC employee gets a car. Use this and strong arm tactics to keep unions out. Empower governments to buy a$$loads of cars for employees. Line the pockets of politicans across the country to ensure funding for highways and roads instead of rail. Pioneer the trucking industry to insure death of rail and dense cities.

 

[mendelman]

(snip)...Line the pockets of politicans across the country to ensure funding for highways and roads instead of rail. Pioneer the trucking industry to insure death of rail and dense cities.

Check...Done...Next?


;-) :-D

 

[Maister]

Personally, I think the Beatles and Elvis would be out of a gig (and Little Richard would not have his opportunity to singlehandedly 'invent' RocknRoll - although he might very well take credit for it...) as Maister goes down in history as having penned: Yesterday, Sgt. Pepper's, Hard Day's Night, Blue Suede Shoes, Teddy Bear, Purple Haze and Rock around the Clock, Proud Mary, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Cheatin' Heart and the Hustle....

Come to think of it it might not be that easy - folks in 1910 might not be READY to hear Primus. Hmmmm....

 

[Gedunker]

Let's see, in 1904 my paternal grandfather would have been the same age my son is today 8-! And the family fortune would just be getting pretty well started (there really was one, once but grandpa lost it . . . :-c ).

So I'd guard that little nest egg and invest in PLASTIC! It's the FUTURE! :-D

 

[Dragon]

Although it didn’t happen until 10 years later, I’d slap Archduke Ferdinand for continuing on with his motorcade after someone tossed a grenade in his car. B-) 8-| A little later he was shot, because he didn’t get the heck out of dodge, and then WWI started. Which led to the happy WWII.

In all reality though, although horrible, I believe the world learned a lesion from those horrible wars. :-\ This, in part, may have been what kept the Cold War cold. That and Nuclear Deterrence.

I just hope we never have to experience a WWIII. :-# "Can't we all just get along"

 

[michaelskis]

I would stop them from building a farm house that close to the road, so the people who got denyed at the ZBA meeting last week could keep all the improvements they made, and I would not have to deal with it.

 

[Maister]

I would stop them from building a farm house that close to the road, so the people who got denyed at the ZBA meeting last week could keep all the improvements they made, and I would not have to deal with it.

And this has some impact on world history? Lemme guess, l bet one of the kids who lives there will in the year 2041 invent a fusion power generator and will base his design on the mathmatical ratio found comparing the square of the required setback divided by percentage of lot coverage of his childhood home...?

If it was anyone else I'd cut 'em slack but not you :-} :-D

 

[boiker]

"if you could change the world"

I would make sure that I would prevent the 18th amendment from passing....Then I'd make sure that marijuana is never criminalized.

Those two things should eliminate about 80% of the crime in America.

 

[otterpop]

1904 wouldn't interest me. But to go back to 1804 and meet Lewis and Clark at the Mandan village, now that would be cool. Maybe beat Charbonneau's time and hook up with Sacajawea. Travel with them. See Montana when it was wild country. That would be something else.

 

[Cardinal]

I would use my knowledge to build a vast fortune. I would become a developer, creating places that could forestall the flight to suburbia fifty years later. I would purchase huge swaths of undeveloped, unforested, undisturbed land and preserve it for the future. I would be at the forefront of "liberal" social issues such as the women's movement and civil rights. I would book a ticket on the Titanic, the Lusitania, the Hindenburg and other doomed ships, only to miss them. I would amaze and awe people with my ability to predict the future, and that, along with my incredible wealth, would get me elected president instead of Roosevelt. I would invade Europe to take out the threat posed by Hitler and Mousolini, then continue on into Russia to get rid of Stalin. I would then pick up the other continents. I would suspend the Constitution and declare myself emperor of the World.

 

[Zoning Goddess]

I would use my knowledge to build a vast fortune. I would become a developer, creating places that could forestall the flight to suburbia fifty years later. I would purchase huge swaths of undeveloped, unforested, undisturbed land and preserve it for the future. I would be at the forefront of "liberal" social issues such as the women's movement and civil rights. I would book a ticket on the Titanic, the Lusitania, the Hindenburg and other doomed ships, only to miss them. I would amaze and awe people with my ability to predict the future, and that, along with my incredible wealth, would get me elected president instead of Roosevelt. I would invade Europe to take out the threat posed by Hitler and Mousolini, then continue on into Russia to get rid of Stalin. I would then pick up the other continents. I would suspend the Constitution and declare myself emperor of the World.

See, you modest guys, you're to be admired... ;-)

 

[Doitnow]

This could be a problem if I was transported back in my timeline, since anything I do would have a dramatic effect on this timeline. This could result in your great-grandparents, grandparents or parents not meeting, which means some of you would go POOF! I could head to Kansas, bother El Guapo's parents on the night he was conceived, resulting in a different sperm winning the race; now La Guapa would be posting here, with her leftist rants and praise of the La Leche League.

Assuming it's an alternative but identical timeline, and you won't be affected, the natural thought most people have is to kill a young Adolf Hitler. However, many of the technological advances we have now are a result from research that took place in the race to win World War II and the resulting Cold War. Consider computers, for instance, whcih were conceived long before the War, but only built then because there was a need for creating ballistics tables and cracking cryptography schemes. Without Hitler, 2004 might look more like 1964. When you think about it, the PC you're using had a terrible price.

That being said, I'd buy lots of Ford stock, and later add GM, GE, and RCA. I'd dump the portfolio in September 1929, and start short selling stock the day before the market crash. There wasn't much call for urban planners then, so maybe there's architecture school, with a sideline as a financial advisor. ("Sell your interurban stock!")

Now that Dan has summarised the impossibility of going back to time, I would like to point out that theres nothing like a perfect society. The utopia is a dream and pure fantasy. If there were no problems, then that day would be the last day of the humanity.
By the way if there were no numerous, complicated, totally messy issues then who would want planners like us at all. Would there be Cyburbia?

Now to answer your question:
I would go back in time and improve the water resources planning and networking.
So that i would get the present world as it is but with better water resources.
Other wise I am perfectly happy with the present world. A 'Perfect World' it is!! ( with it's so many imperfections)
:-}