NikolaiFarkoff: mainsail: Honestly, as a thought experiment, I can see nothing but trouble in going back in time; can you warn people about the Twin Towers, or Bloody Sunday, or any of the other tragedies big and small without being labelled as a kook? "How do you know?" "What are the details?" You might be able to invest well, or will your presence alter time? I'd love to see some family members again, but would they be thrilled to see some possibly familiar middle-aged person claiming kinship? It's like the meme that you can go back in time and tell the younger self some line that's supposed to change things, or be something they really needed to hear; but that would inevitably change the person going back, so.

I just treated it as if I could whisk myself away to a different time with zero knowledge of the future. That way I don't have to divide by zero or whatever.

Fair play, but my brain keeps pointing out things like disease immunity (mine and theirs), and so on. I have a history background, and trying to fit in to a non-contemporary culture (even one closely related to the one you come from) would be a very difficult task. Are you using things in the correct fashion? Do you know the social mores? What transferable skills do you have to earn a living, do you speak the language (and if not, how quickly can you learn?). In some cases it'd be a bit like being like one of the refugees in Greece or Italy or Ireland.

I'm not much fun at parties, either, I suspect.