You must know the one; what would you do if you had a time machine? I was just watching Ricky Gervais on one of the US talk shows, and he brought up a valid point about everyone's go-to answer for this; "I'd go back and kill Hitler". I won't go into the reasons why (you can watch Gervais for that) but I think it's a stupid knee-jerk response, and nobody would actually choose to do that. People are far more selfish. Even descendants of Eva Braun wouldn't care. They're over it by now, and Hitler personally affected their family members!

I haven't thought about this enough, but if I could only use the time machine once (return ticket, of course) I might go back to the 70s or 80s and watch films at the cinema with my gran. Wouldn't stay long. Maybe a few weeks. Might tell her who I am, might not. Each would have its problems. Just to witness that culture and see those films as they were released back in the 70s or 80s would be somewhat of a dream for me. Of course, I'd also tip my younger self off about a bunch of 100-1 horse winners.

What would you guys do?

I’d tell myself from a year ago to not associate with Mario or Belle.

Implied in this question is that you could only use the time machine once. Otherwise, what *wouldn't* you do.

Another implication is that you could come back to present. Going to see the dinosaurs would be a neat place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there. If you couldn't come back to the present, going backwards would be insanely depressing, because most of the stuff you're used to having at your disposal wouldn't be there, and you'd never see anything new develop, although it would be cool to be able to get answers to questions you always wondered about, and you would at least be ultra rich because you'd know what to invest in and "gamble" on. Alternatively, a one way trip forward could be amazing, but it could also be very, very bad - see every distopian future ever imagined.

Assuming you can come back, going forward would be way better because you could see what happened, still get ultra rich in the present by knowing what to invest in and bet on, and help prevent future atrocities. What would be depressing is if no matter what you tried, you couldn't figure out how to prevent atrocities from happening.

I wouldn't kill baby Hitler. Butterfly effect is too unpredictable in terms of if any other dictators would make a go at it, the nuclear race etc. Worst case scenario could be bad. I would consider saving MLK although the possibility the government assassinated him makes it harder to it.

One chance. I'd go forward maybe 2076.

I'd like to think there would be enough advancements that I could cure anything that was wrong with me, and wouldn't be too lost technology wise. See that the world didn't blow up yet. Hopefully the Mars Mission, and maybe a few people I still knew were around. I chose 76 because I've I'd like to see the Tricentennial.

Oh but you're saying you could come back? So technically you can use it twice. Go to the future because you don't have to feel guilty about changing your future. And that doesn't have to mean personal benefit. Maybe you can actually do good as well.

Saving MLK would be retarded. Why save him when you could tell everyone to get off the 9/11 plane or not board the Challenger, or tell the Titanic to have more lifeboats, or tell everyone to evacuate Pearl Harbor?

Who is likely to believe you?

I'd watch a film of a character like zwackerm attempting all those things.

I would go to the future, to see what happens after I am dead. The information I gained would surely be financially beneficial as well. Though my friend pointed out that, knowing what the future holds and having cheated it might change a person so they can no longer relate to anyone in the present. AKA Biff Tannon syndrome.

I would go save Lincoln. I think our country was never the same after his death. I really think he would have helped get the nation through Reconstruction unlike racist Andrew Johnson.