Just one. Just for one hour. They'll miraculously be able to understood your native tongue, though they will have no idea about technologies subsequent to their death. You can talk to them about anything they'd know. Of course, you can discuss other stuff, too, but they'll probably just look at you as though you were crazy.
Whom would you choose to speak with?
My father, I never got to say goodbye.
I would like to speak with a leader among the Neanderthal.
the curator of the ancient Library of Alexandria...
and... both of the above...
My choice, for what little it's worth, would be Herodotus, the so-called "father of history." I'd like to know the extent of his actual travels, how his work was received, where he got the grossly inflated figures for Persian forces (which he would have known would have been logistically impossible at the time), etc.
Jesus. Got lots of questions.
Benjamin Franklin....just so I can tell him to go fly a kite.
I'd definitely chat up one of them mofo time travellers that keep zipping in and out of our timeline. Maybe a bit of manipulation/torture for the skinny on future events.
Nah... it'd be someone from the present time for me. Like the president of the US. Because I figure that nobody in the past knows anything I want to know (that isn't already written down in some book), and nobody's going to believe me anyway unless the person I'm interviewing is actually going to have to be physically present. Yeah, get a good interview with someone famous (that people can believe is actually participating), then sell it for good dough.
Yup! Can't make bread without good dough.
I'd like to know why Adam ate Eve's "apple..." although I'm fairly certain his answer will most likely include something about naked or banana or ....oh never mind. Its always been that way with every scandalous romance throughout history. Why waste a good opportunity...I'll follow HeavenFall's lead and go for the money. Bring me Julian Assange and the answer to the world's richest question:
what is the encryption key to the Wikileaks “insurance” file?
Then everyone can show me the money.
Nostradamus for the obvious reasons.
Jayne Mansfield... because.
Took the words right out of my mind.
The last german chancelor.... I really feel the need to have a.... personal.... word with him about some of his policies.
Being serious, one person I'd like to speak with in depth is Sir Winston Churchill, given he was such an enigmatic person. I met him briefly when he visited my school in 1964, but there were so many questions and not enough time. He was there to award another student and myself certificates of excellence for our essays on the causes of WWII, but his time was limited and the opportunity to chat was short.
Good thing it wasn't his predecessor, what was his name.....Chamberlain or something like that. His thing was appeasement and we all know how that played out.
Here's one...Richard 'Tricky Dick' Nixon. I'd like to ask him if he really did try to sabotage the peace talks in Paris in 1968. According to recently released papers LBJ knew about it, he was president at the time, but said and did nothing.
actually.... it would be really cool to be able to tell Vincent just how successful he eventually was.... that he's probably the most famous artist on the planet...
would be great to watch him get his head around that one..... I really liked that episode of Dr Who.... bringing him to the present at the Musée d'Orsay...
if I only had a Tardis...
Probably Hitler ...because no-one else has had a bigger 'impact' upon the world in 'modern times'...
[quote quoting="post"] Just one. Just for one hour. They'll miraculously be able to understood your native tongue, though they will have no idea about technologies subsequent to their death. You can talk to them about anything they'd know. Of course, you can discuss other stuff, too, but they'll probably just look at you as though you were crazy. Whom would you choose to speak with? Myself from the past and tell him to stay away from my future wife
Any of the builders of these Ancient sites...
Tiwanakupuma punkuSacsayhuamanThe Pyramids
or
Leonardo Da Vinci
Everyone's entitled to their own answer, and I do not mean to question yours. But Jesus (or any other religious figure) to me would be a waste of a brilliant opportunity (not that my choice was very interesting).
The way I see it, Jesus is one of two things (I'm assuming here that he existed at all). Jesus is either 1) the true son of god or 2) a normal person with ideas that were grand at the time. Now, if it was 2) then it wouldn't be interesting to talk to him. He wouldn't be able to say anything that a modern moderate preacher wouldn't. No grand discoveries, no hidden truths. Really just platitudes. Probably a few corrections for what's in the bible. But what do you really expect? "Yes, the crusades were horrible. No, the death penalty is not a christian thing. Please don't drop more nukes."
And if 1) was true, that he was the son of god, then surely it would be more interesting to talk to god instead.
Another possibility for me would be Mozart. Not because he was a "great" composer (whatever great is defined as; the musical greats first appeared as a 19th century German musicological term to foster a particular agenda), but because he was an omnivorous absorber of music regardless of style and period. He was open to enjoying and learning from music composed 75 years before him--very rare for his time. I would like to spend that hour playing short excerpts of everything from 15th century to 20th century, Binchois, Josquin, Monteverdi, Rameau, Bartok, Shostakovich, and Stravinsky, and get how he felt in detail about each.
Albert Einstein. I'd really like to understand that theory of his.
The secret to long life? I'm not that greedy either, i don't need 969 years, just 500 would do, thx.
Isaac Newton, or Carl Sagan. I'd be very torn between those two.. One has a mind that is quite frankly beyond the scope of my measure, and the other a passionate presence that embodies what it means to have a love of knowledge. I'm afraid a thousand years would not be near enough to determine which I'd choose, if only one could be chosen.
And now that I think about it, maybe the person who invented the antikythera mechanism.. That'd be an interesting conversation too I think. I'd love to know how the idea for that device came about during a time when nothing else quite like it existed. At least to my (limited) knowledge. Actually, the longer I think about it the more people pop into my head, but still.. Few are giants as Isaac Newton or Carl Sagan to me, so.. yeah. Tough call.
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