this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2024
42 points (95.7% liked)

Ask Lemmy

27268 readers
1906 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Chaos0f7ife@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Probably about two or three years before I was born. I was a 90s baby and lived through one of the best decades in human history in terms of childhood entertainment. Nick Toons, Razor scooters, sock'em Boppers, and Pokemon just to name a few. Also cartoons themselves were the best that television had to offer. Hey Arnold, Rugrats, and Dragon Ball Z, just to name a few. If you were a kid in the 90s, you were in your PJs, eating cereal and watching Saturday Morning Cartoons, while your Holographic Charizard sat in your sock drawer so nobody was knew where it was. And your Nintendo 64 with the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time was still warm because you threw a tantrum when you couldn't beat the Water Temple. After Cartoons, you got your clothes on and went outside to play baseball with the boys while ignoring the girls because they have cooties and you don't want to contract cooties, while secretly having a crush on one of them.

At the end of the day, your parents called you in for dinner because it was getting dark out and, with mud and grass stains littering your shirt, you laugh with all your friends, knowing that, after a dinner of spaghetti and meatballs, you where going back to your room to play on your N64 again untill 2 in the morning when your parents are finally fed up with the noise and tell you to go to bed.

[–] AceFuzzLord@lemm.ee 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Since I don't have a lot of experience with many places outside my hometown, probably my hometown around 1985AD so I could grow up enjoying the 90s.

As much as I love the technology of today, I absolutely love 90s cartoons, music, and plenty of old 90s games. Plus the Internet of the time on places like Geocities, from what I've seen from archived sites, absolutely had amazing charm to them.

The one thing I wouldn't like about the deal is the part about being born in the 80s since I'm not a fan of that decade. That, and I am completely unaware of the history of mechanical heart valves and when they started becoming a thing used in open heart surgery (if the medical technology of the time would even be able to pick up the little growth like thing that was attached to my valve when I was born).

[–] DirigibleProtein@aussie.zone 2 points 5 days ago

In the days of the cavemen, with mammoths and glaciers
Bugs and trees were your food then, no pyjamas or doctors

[–] ValiantDust@feddit.org 30 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Can I choose my gender? If not, then not any earlier than I was born.

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 6 points 1 week ago (7 children)

Exactly what I came here to say. Well, I would specify sex rather than gender. I wouldn't want to be born female at any point in history.

[–] cabbage@piefed.social 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I guess at least there are those specific moments in history when, if you were to be born in a specific country, being a woman at least significantly increases your life expectancy.

If I knew what shit was about to go down and I had to be born in, say, Soviet Russia in 1925, I would probably have opted to be a woman. Not because it seems so darn great, but because chances of at least making it to age 30 would significantly improve.

Then again, not a point in history I would particularly favour.

[–] ValiantDust@feddit.org 1 points 1 week ago

Yeah, that should have been sex, not gender.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 29 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I'd love to be born on earth in about three thousand years.

[–] idiomaddict@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

That’s optimistic of you

[–] gnomesaiyan@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

Oh, taking the Dr. Stone route? I know bushcraft and survival, can I come?

[–] SouthEndSunset@lemm.ee 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I’ve been to the year 3000, and your great great great granddaughter looks pretty fine…

[–] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Awesome, I'm glad they're healthy.

[–] SouthEndSunset@lemm.ee 2 points 1 week ago
[–] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I choose to use my powers for evil. I will pop into existence in 2000 BC, 50 yards from the future Apollo 11 landing site. Neil Armstrong is going to make one small step for a man. Then he is going to shit in his space diaper when he finds a 4000 year old dessicated infant corpse just sitting there, completely inexplicably, exposed on the lunar surface.

Makes me think of the watchmen hbo series.

[–] wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 18 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I really liked being a kid and teenager through the 80s and 90s, I don't think I'd change that. But I would certainly accept the opportunity to do it again!

Maybe this time in Japan, instead of the US. Though the US would be fine too.

[–] watson387@sopuli.xyz 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 15 points 1 week ago

Yes, and now they know.

[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Ten years earlier, i.e. mid-1980s. I would have been a young adult when the Internet was starting to be awesome, instead I was a preteen or early teen.

As for location, the US would be nice tbh.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You'd probably want 20 years earlier, i.e. mid-1970s. Mid-1990s were when the Internet was starting to be awesome. Broadband was just coming out, but the first web browser was already 5 years old in 1995.

[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

nah that's when my parents were born and their lives don't seem that awesome tbh

[–] zout@fedia.io 8 points 1 week ago

I was born in 1975, and my youth was pretty awesome. I was also born in the Netherlands, so booze (and drugs, but I never did that) were available at a young age. Also, affordable concerts and festivals and great music scenes.

I was born in the mid-1980's, and Iw as going to say "10 years earlier in the 1970's" so I could have been a teen in the 90's.

[–] CaptPretentious@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

Sometime in the future, assuming the human race even lasts long enough.

Basically when a world like Star Trek TNG exists.

All my stupid health problems could be fixed.

To be able to travel space would be great, to lay on the moon and watch the Earth. Go admire Jupiter (from a distance).

Work, not because I have to, but because I enjoy the challenge and want to better myself and humanity.

I know for the show they couldn't really go all out, but I think being a holodeck author would be fun as a side hobby. Could be in a fun working out with whomever inspired you. Hands on learning, anything. Visit places you can't (like surface of Venus). But also think of like what a video game would be like because you wouldn't need a controller or VR headset you're just there. So you could be a Space Marine. Or be Spider-Man! We've done reading books, we've done watching books, we've even done audiobooks... But there you could participate. Or maybe just be there and watch it unfold.

[–] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Height of the incan empire would be nice tbh. Fucking beautiful place to live and relatively comfortable conditions

[–] Crashumbc@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Except for the human sacrifice

[–] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

The Incans did very little human sacrifice and in the places where sacrifice was more common, like the aztec empire, it was mostly prisoners of war. Essentially they just moved the deaths of war from the battlefield to the city, they weren't any more violent than the people of the old world. Even still we probably overestimate the scale of human sacrifice because so many of our records come from the spanish who aren't exactly a trustworthy source on the matter.

Personally I consider modern places like the US to be significantly more violent than any of the indegenous cultures of the Americas. We just don't see it like they did.

[–] kyub@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

1-2 decades earlier maybe (meaning: 60s or 70s). Location... I don't know. Maybe Norway, I've never heard anything bad about Norway. Might just be random selection bias though.

[–] cabbage@piefed.social 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Norway only discovered oil worth extracting December 23 1969. So you would not have grown up in a particularly rich country, but you would see the country gain incredible wealth as you grew older.

If you were born in the early 60s and bought a house in the early 80s, you'd be pretty fucked when the global economy crashed. But I guess that goes for everywhere. The 70s would probably be a better bet in that sense.

You'd probably not live in a city, but in some village in the middle of nowhere. So the wealth of the country would mostly be noticable through the social security web built around you, and the fact that your random village suddenly got a tunnel to it. If you're a farmer you'd receive subsidies so it would be somewhat possible to keep going, even as your peers in continental Europe would run out of business one by one.

You'd probably secretly wish you would also go out of business so you could retire to something less taxing.

You would spend your childhood amazed by America, and jealous of the youth revolution going on there. You'd watch American movies and grow up idolizing American and British war heroes. You would think your stupid valley was the most boring place on earth.

In your old age, you would thank your lucky star you're not in America. Maybe you'd get a house in Spain for the cold winters. Your family would think less of you for it, but they wouldn't be vocal about it.

[–] hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Eh, maybe just a decade earlier so that I would have had a chance to see Pantera play live. Otherwise meh

[–] Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The advent of computer technology is kind of hard to pass up but there were other things in history that could have been just as interesting on a different level. It might have been cool to be an explorer when the americas were discovered. Ok life would have been pretty miserable but the vast unknown would have been cool. Still would be hard to give up modern medicine.

Chicago such that I turned 17 in 1973 when the draft was formally stopped.. So 1956 then. Then ideally get an associates for next to nothing and transfer to urbana in the now the later half of the 70's which is a perfect time to get a computer science degree.

Im always stuck on the point that we never consented to existance, can I simply decline to be born in this hypothetical because I think thats my pick.

[–] IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

2000s USA, in an alternate timeline where world leaders actually fought against the impending climate crisis, Dubya was never elected, and I'm born to a non-toxic middle class (actual rich people are toxic btw) family, and this alternate world already got rid of racism for at least 100 years already and on the way to elminate the wealth gap.

(But, nah, such a world doesn't exist. Fucking world line convergence fucking me over. I need to like get 10 attractor fields to another set of world lines to get out of this mess.)

[–] Toes@ani.social 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Can I choose the future? Ideally some sort of utopia like the federation in startrek?

History hasn't been kind. I would probably need to cosplay a business tycoon or something to survive earlier.

If I go too far back it'll probably be nice. But I'd probably die due to an infection brought on by my autoimmune issues.

[–] blackbrook@mander.xyz 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think you should have to pick a year and hope for the best. otherwise it's no different then choosing some fantasy past like 'medieval times, but non violent and progressive, and no plagues.'

[–] Toes@ani.social 2 points 1 week ago

You make a wonderful point.

I'd pick 1999, Akihabara. So I can experience early anime culture at the source.

[–] Corno@lemm.ee 5 points 1 week ago

Victoria, Australia, 1990s. I say Victoria because it's not as hot as most other areas of Australia and I don't do well with heat.

[–] PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Germany, say 1910s-20s. Don't worry guys, I got this... 🔫😎

[–] stinky@redlemmy.com 2 points 1 week ago

you, after completing your mission: "why did I just kill that man?"

Belle Époque Paris sounds pretty nice. I sure hope nothing bad happens immediately after that ruins my vision.

[–] LucasWaffyWaf@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'd have loved it if I could have been there with the Elephant 6 crew in Athens GA during the 90s. The music those folks produced is some of my favorite, and it's totally the music I'm trying to make myself.

[–] PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Any link to your music? I love the E6 collective. Most people just know NMH but the whole lot of them were just amazing

[–] LucasWaffyWaf@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Nothing published just yet! I saw the E6 documentary this summer and it lit a spark in me and my mates. My biggest influence is from the Olivias, and particularly I take more after Will Hart's style (with my best mate being the Bill Doss of our group.) I'm actually gonna try doing some field recordings to try a Green Typewriters-esque musique concrete piece.

[–] Tiptopit@feddit.org 3 points 1 week ago

Guess the late 50s or sometime in the 60s. Guess this would be a very good compromise for the quality of life, listening to good music and a good perspective for life in general.

[–] Free_Opinions@feddit.uk 1 points 1 week ago

I wouldn't change anything. More than happy to be born in the early 90's in the country I live in.

load more comments
view more: next ›