this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2024
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A time traveller comes back from 50 years in the future. You have 3 hours with them. What do you do? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Rules:

  1. The time traveller is able to travel backward and forward through time (max forward is 2074) and they can only transport things that can fit in a small backpack.

  2. You can choose when the 3 hours begin but it has to be in 2024 and once it has begun the timer can't be reset or stopped.

  3. They will answer to the best of their ability but imagine this is a random person from 2074.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

I ask them about the history of time travel and either listen to them, or accept the recording they give me, and carefully record it myself. Then I ignore them and try to metagame time travel, assuming they've set up some form of time loop.

The first step is to buy lottery tickets (with choices based on a quantum RNG), and if I win, buy more lottery tickets until I have an arbitrary amount of wealth. If I'm in a time loop, there will exist an iteration where I win all attempted lottery instances (note that only non-deterministic RNGs will work for this, like the one I have on my desk). I then use that wealth and my foreknowledge to adjust the future history of time travel such that I exclusively control the technology. Then I send someone back in time with the recorded history (now incorrect) of time travel.

That ought to destabilize any loop they're trying to set up after a finite number of iterations, and wrap my loop around it. If you're a time traveler looking to prevent me from doing this, I accept cash, money, and filthy lucre. Just make sure the dates on the bills make sense for this period.