So imagine someone walks up to you and says, "I'll give you a million dollars right now, or I'll come back in one week and send you back in time to this moment. You'll then know everything that's going to happen in your life one week in the future. What is your choice?"
To me this question is both about money and the philosophical implications. I think if the goal is money, a smart person could make more than $1,000,000 simply by being able to see one week into the future (think stock market). But on the philosophical side, would you even want to go back in time and alter what would then be the future? The obvious paradoxes are why I limit it to a week. By limiting it to a week, it's not very likely that any change you'd make would have any major affect on your life, unless you wanted it to. But could you stop a senseless tragedy? Do you learn enough about yourself each day that you could do something substantially different only by being able to see one week into the future?
If you answer that you want $1,000,000, is it because you can't think of a way to make more than that with only one week of research? Do you have some other reason for not wanting to do that? And if you answer that you would go back in time a week, what would you do? Figure out how to make more than $1,000,000? Something more profound?
I edited this post to include this description. I posted last night with just the question here, but nobody was responding, even after the page had been viewed 46 times. Maybe it's just a dumb question I'm posing, but if it's a display issue, contact me.
I viewed the poll results before voting and there were two votes cast. After I voted for going back a week the results stayed at two and didn't move to three. just FYI. (edit: Just realized you have to actually be logged in for the poll to remember your vote. Makes sense. Now.)
My choice in going back in time is all about the Benjamins. Dealing with the stock market is a great option, however, it can take several days to fund an online brokerage account I believe. Even then, it takes a decent sized starting amount in order to bankroll ones way to riches. Perhaps not, but I'd think if you had just a few grand on hand to make this happen you'd have to deal in a lot of penny stocks where the percentage of growth can be huge in just a day. For that same reason, they are very risky but that's the whole point right? Who cares when you know!
Having said that, I'm thinking I'd take my bankroll and go to Vegas. Mark the exact time and hit the blackjack table, perhaps roulette. 26:1 odds anyone? Perhaps baccarat. That's where the BIG money is laid down and the one 007 always plays in the movies. If not the exact time maybe a better starting point would be noting a specific high limit table and the time the dealers change. Then you'd know for sure you're starting at the same point.
Play as much as you can before going bankrupt, which is inevitable, and take note of each hand. After I've lost my life savings, I'd take note of ALL the odds and outcomes of every sporting game played this weekend. (I'm thinking Back to the Future, Marty!) On my way home I'd also jot down the winning numbers for todays Powerball jackpot which is a cool $29 mil. Net take-home would be about $10mil.
I'd think after that amazing weekend, you'd be hounded by news crews, bookies, mobsters and psychic reader wannabes which means you'd either have to go into hiding or milk all those bozos for courses in "how I did it."
Now, that's my plan on paper. Philosophically, something tragic in the world may well happen before my "study week" is over which would be in my power to prevent. That may throw a monkey wrench into my plan so I may have to re-shuffle on the "McFly." But, I'm thinking 20-30 million can do a lot of good in the world as well.
"Vegas baby. Vegas"
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