I would want to tell my past self that I'm trans and they should take HRT ASAP and that all my friends and family are accepting and that I don't need to wait until I'm 30 to come out.
Ask my future self. Telling my past self something is very likely to have no affect on my life (what if past actions only affect that "me" and not me-me), whereas asking my future self something will always end up with me gaining information - no guarantee its relevant, but it's more likely to be.
"Tell me the most important thing you can tell me"
My future self will know best about what I need to know. Winning lottery/investments can make me rich now, but maybe there's a nuclear war, climate apocalypse, or some other disaster in 5 years and my future self can tell me where to be and what to do before it starts.
Wouldn't the same logic apply from the perspective of future you? I.e. they would be a different future you if they were told something by themselves in the past.
Realistically I'm sure I'd end up using it for financial gain either way.
Future Self: What's the next Nvidia stock?
Past self has more monkey paw possibilities, but I think I'd go with something like, "Buy all the surplus compute you can to generate bitcoin in 2009 and hold it until $64,000."
That's too much work. Just buy $1000 worth of bitcoin in 2010 and sell it all at 50k, which means you can cash it in 2 years earlier and still make WAY more than you'll ever be able to spend.
At that point you will be affecting the entire market though. So things might become unpredictable.
The one thing I would want to tell past me is something I already knew, but still couldn't convince my dad to invest in Google and Apple back in 2002. We played a game in economics class where, using the real stock market, we started with like 50k to invest in and at the end of the month, whoever made the most money won a big jar of candy.
I won by just putting half in Google and the other in Apple and then never touching it. But I couldn't convince my dad to invest even a little bit and I had no money of my own to do so myself. 😮💨
What happens to me after I tell my past self the thing? Do I cease to exist? Do I quantum leap into a version of myself from the universe where my future self told me that one thing? Do I just go on with my life but I know that there is a parallel universe out there where my past self got my message? Or does the time stream correct itself such that my life follows the same exact course except I remember my future self sending me a message?
Of course telling past me a thing makes more sense. I have a basic understanding of the past and what I say has a good chance of improving past me's life.
I cant even imagine what my biggest decision in the next few years is going to be, there's a good chance whatever I ask will be a waste of time. The wiser of me should dictate what we talk about.
This is the real answer. You can't change your past, or the current version of you would not exist. You might still exist but not this version of you. It might be better or it might be worse but most things in your life would be completely different. And you definitely wouldn't remember the change.
We don't realize how intertwined different parts of our life are. If you just pause a second in your daily life and do nothing, you have literally changed your future and that of the entire world. It's not some woo-woo vibes thing, you are literally slightly adjusting everything around you by existing and acting. It's impossible to tell exactly how until much later.
It's kind of dumb that knowing she was unable to stop him, he still sent her the same message, instead of sending information like "I am you. Do not go."
Tell my past self not to trust guidance counselors and go to the tech highschool instead. If they say anything is a kind, caring voice along the lines of "we think you would be better in an easier class...", shut them down. Don't settle, don't negotiate, don't think you can wait it out.
Tell my past self that actually you have to do everything yourself. Like EVERYTHING. No is waiting to pull you up into the life where you belong. Life is demanding, without understanding, but I saw the sign.
Telling my younger self something is better, but riskier. Can't guarantee my young self will take action. What would 17 year old me really do with the knowledge that Bitcoin would hit 20k? Setting.io the wallet was harder back then and I may just give up.
Everyone here is trying to make a quick buck, without thinking about whether it will work.
If they change the past, they will cease to exist, unless time is looped, which means nothing would have changed.
So the past is a dead end, and the future you should know this too, answering you will either make them vanish from existence, or answering you will not change anything.
If they vanish, there's no guarantee you'll be better off, even if you do become rich.
This seems like a completely pointless comment. If moneymaking efforts won't work because of the paradox of changing the future, then nothing else will work, since anything will change the future. In that situation, if given the opportunity, why not try?
Also, this can be resolved if your relative future self is smart enough to remember what they heard in the past, and say the same thing they heard when the time comes (unless it doesn't work, in which case arguably they'd say something else, which leads to an unstable configuration where the theoretical future will change until you reach a stable configuration where future you does repeat what you heard)
Well, it's not me who will stop existing, that's 5 seconds from now me's problem. But like, she already doesn't exist. So really all I'm doing is changing which 5 seconds from now me has to deal with the burden of existence.
But any knowledge you gain will change your behavior in the future, it's unavoidable, and those changes will compound causing the divergence to grow over time.
The only way to avoid "erasing" the timeline is to propose a time travel mechanism through which the timeline never changes despite passing information to the past, and that'd be basically what I suggested, taken to a bit more extreme of a conclusion - that because any other possibility would cause a paradox, your future self must have already made the optimal choice and will be satisfied telling your past self what they already heard in the past themselves.
Well, either that, or you just continue existing in a different timeline, with no benefit from helping your past self.
62 Comments
Tywele@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 31 pts · 2y
I would want to tell my past self that I'm trans and they should take HRT ASAP and that all my friends and family are accepting and that I don't need to wait until I'm 30 to come out.
MermaidsGarden@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 2y
Ugh, SAME
Ledivin@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 2y
Ask my future self. Telling my past self something is very likely to have no affect on my life (what if past actions only affect that "me" and not me-me), whereas asking my future self something will always end up with me gaining information - no guarantee its relevant, but it's more likely to be.
SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 2y
Past self wouldn't listen to any sage wisdom I could pass on anyway lol
Today@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y
What would you ask your future self?
Vanth@reddthat.com · 9 pts · 2y
odium@programming.dev · 2 pts · 2y
"Tell me the most important thing you can tell me"
My future self will know best about what I need to know. Winning lottery/investments can make me rich now, but maybe there's a nuclear war, climate apocalypse, or some other disaster in 5 years and my future self can tell me where to be and what to do before it starts.
Axiochus@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y
Wouldn't the same logic apply from the perspective of future you? I.e. they would be a different future you if they were told something by themselves in the past.
UndercoverUlrikHD@programming.dev · 14 pts · 2y
I would probably go for the generic "buy as much bitcoin as you can, dump it all at 55k in March 2021 and put it all on Nvidia and sell it may 2024".
Boring advice, but can't think of anything that would have a greater impact.
JackbyDev@programming.dev · 1 pts · 2y
Dump in March 2021 and buy a house while interest rates are low.
UndercoverUlrikHD@programming.dev · 1 pts · 2y
Eh, Nvidia is up more than 1200% since then. You'd be a billionaire at that point, interest rates wouldn't matter to you.
JackbyDev@programming.dev · 1 pts · 2y
Wasn't aware, I don't keep up with it too much. My investments are (mostly) total market stuff.
Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 2y
I’d love to tell my past self “remove your NVDA stop loss before August 2022 so you don’t sell all your shares at 170USD”
I checked the price right now and woof
Ouchies
Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de · 11 pts · 2y
Realistically I'm sure I'd end up using it for financial gain either way.
Future Self: What's the next Nvidia stock?
Past self has more monkey paw possibilities, but I think I'd go with something like, "Buy all the surplus compute you can to generate bitcoin in 2009 and hold it until $64,000."
DaddleDew@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 2y
That's too much work. Just buy $1000 worth of bitcoin in 2010 and sell it all at 50k, which means you can cash it in 2 years earlier and still make WAY more than you'll ever be able to spend.
At that point you will be affecting the entire market though. So things might become unpredictable.
Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 2y
Dogecoin would be funnier. Buy 1K USD when it’s like 0.000001 and sell when it’s at .20USD
bstix@feddit.dk · 10 pts · 2y
You can ask your future self stuff right now. You won't get the answer until you answer it in the future, but the question is possible.
NegativeLookBehind@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y
Zozano@aussie.zone · 2 pts · 2y
Yes you can, just that the past you can't hear it.
bstix@feddit.dk · 1 pts · 2y
All answers are from the future, just like all photographs are of the past
NegativeLookBehind@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y
bstix@feddit.dk · 3 pts · 2y
I posted 19 minutes ago. Your answer came 1 minute ago. Your answer came from the future from the point in time of the question.
This might seem stupid, but it's the same point that Stephen Hawking used to prove that time travelling is impossible or something.
Kolanaki@yiffit.net · 8 pts · 2y
The one thing I would want to tell past me is something I already knew, but still couldn't convince my dad to invest in Google and Apple back in 2002. We played a game in economics class where, using the real stock market, we started with like 50k to invest in and at the end of the month, whoever made the most money won a big jar of candy.
I won by just putting half in Google and the other in Apple and then never touching it. But I couldn't convince my dad to invest even a little bit and I had no money of my own to do so myself. 😮💨
KISSmyOSFeddit@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 2y
I'd tell my past self that I have ADHD, and to ask my mom to take me to a psychiatrist.
Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 2y
I’ve been putting off my ADHD test for over 15 years. I keep saying I’ll do it. I’ll do it some day soon!
At least I went to the dentist… after 14 or so years of not going.
bionicjoey@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 2y
What happens to me after I tell my past self the thing? Do I cease to exist? Do I quantum leap into a version of myself from the universe where my future self told me that one thing? Do I just go on with my life but I know that there is a parallel universe out there where my past self got my message? Or does the time stream correct itself such that my life follows the same exact course except I remember my future self sending me a message?
Anticorp@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y
That's the neat part, you get to decide since it's your fantasy, and none of us know the answer for sure.
shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee · 7 pts · 2y
I have too much to warn my past self about to not choose that.
dumbass@leminal.space · 3 pts · 2y
Yeah Russia declaring war on me would be a footnote.
thirstyhyena@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 2y
It's either sharing the winning lottery numbers, or asking for them. I need to know how the time stream works first.
ValenThyme@reddthat.com · 2 pts · 2y
BluesF@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y
It makes a lot more sense for me to make myself rich now than to make a version of myself rich who will never become me.
ValenThyme@reddthat.com · 1 pts · 2y
Tudsamfa@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2y
Of course telling past me a thing makes more sense. I have a basic understanding of the past and what I say has a good chance of improving past me's life.
I cant even imagine what my biggest decision in the next few years is going to be, there's a good chance whatever I ask will be a waste of time. The wiser of me should dictate what we talk about.
FleetingTit@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2y
Tell past self: buy bitcoin early and HODL until they are worth ~$50k. DO NOT GET TEMPTED!!!
frontporchtreat@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 2y
Past self : I wonder what he meant by HODL
Dicska@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2y
Anticorp@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y
I'm definitely going to sell a few thousand coins to make my life more comfortable while waiting for the high point.
pyre@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2y
asking your future self isn't always guaranteed to yield results. for starters, you know for certain you have a past.
Zozano@aussie.zone · 5 pts · 2y
I would ask my future self "what is the most stressful thing awaiting me on my future, which I shouldn't worry about at all".
This doesn't change anything except my mental health is better off.
Thcdenton@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2y
Ask my future self something. I get a leg up on everyone and future-me's timeline collapses - not mine.
KevonLooney@lemm.ee · 4 pts · 2y
This is the real answer. You can't change your past, or the current version of you would not exist. You might still exist but not this version of you. It might be better or it might be worse but most things in your life would be completely different. And you definitely wouldn't remember the change.
We don't realize how intertwined different parts of our life are. If you just pause a second in your daily life and do nothing, you have literally changed your future and that of the entire world. It's not some woo-woo vibes thing, you are literally slightly adjusting everything around you by existing and acting. It's impossible to tell exactly how until much later.
Anticorp@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y
"Hey future self!"
"..."
"Hello?"
"..."
"Oh shit, he must be dead"
Thorry84@feddit.nl · 4 pts · 2y
MURPH!!!! DON'T LET ME LEAVE MURPH!!!!! MUUUUUURRRRRPHHHHH!!! DON'T LET ME LEAVE!
Anticorp@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y
It's kind of dumb that knowing she was unable to stop him, he still sent her the same message, instead of sending information like "I am you. Do not go."
TheOakTree@lemm.ee · 4 pts · 2y
I would tell myself to spend more time with and keep in touch with a close friend who succumbed to his sadness.
Duamerthrax@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 2y
Tell my past self not to trust guidance counselors and go to the tech highschool instead. If they say anything is a kind, caring voice along the lines of "we think you would be better in an easier class...", shut them down. Don't settle, don't negotiate, don't think you can wait it out.
stevestevesteve@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2y
They're the same thing tho
RestrictedAccount@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2y
I’m an old fuck, this is easy.
BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2y
Past. I'd do a lot of things differently including being single forever.
Snowclone@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2y
Tell my past self that actually you have to do everything yourself. Like EVERYTHING. No is waiting to pull you up into the life where you belong. Life is demanding, without understanding, but I saw the sign.
kandoh@reddthat.com · 2 pts · 2y
Telling my younger self something is better, but riskier. Can't guarantee my young self will take action. What would 17 year old me really do with the knowledge that Bitcoin would hit 20k? Setting.io the wallet was harder back then and I may just give up.
humorlessrepost@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y
Ask my future self one thing.
I don’t know enough about how this works to risk altering the past in a way that makes this “me” stop existing.
Zomg@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y
Tell my last self.... Bitcoin. Lol
Varyk@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 2y
Tell my past self I nailed it.
Infynis@midwest.social · 1 pts · 2y
What if I ask my future self a question, but they chose the same option?
JackbyDev@programming.dev · 1 pts · 2y
Ask my future self because I can't change my past.
PanoptiDon@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y
Por que no dos?
Mango@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y
Tell my past self about crypto.
SeattleRain@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 2y
Yes your mom is mentally I'll.
Zozano@aussie.zone · 0 pts · 2y
Everyone here is trying to make a quick buck, without thinking about whether it will work.
If they change the past, they will cease to exist, unless time is looped, which means nothing would have changed.
So the past is a dead end, and the future you should know this too, answering you will either make them vanish from existence, or answering you will not change anything.
If they vanish, there's no guarantee you'll be better off, even if you do become rich.
kuberoot@discuss.tchncs.de · 4 pts · 2y
This seems like a completely pointless comment. If moneymaking efforts won't work because of the paradox of changing the future, then nothing else will work, since anything will change the future. In that situation, if given the opportunity, why not try?
Also, this can be resolved if your relative future self is smart enough to remember what they heard in the past, and say the same thing they heard when the time comes (unless it doesn't work, in which case arguably they'd say something else, which leads to an unstable configuration where the theoretical future will change until you reach a stable configuration where future you does repeat what you heard)
Zozano@aussie.zone · 0 pts · 2y
ACKTHUALLY
My other post gave an answer which made sense.
I would want to know what moment in the future causes me the most stress, which I don't need to worry about at all.
No paradoxes, just convenience.
Also, I wasn't saying money making wouldn't work, only that your future you would cease to exist because you would have changed things.
If you're okay with suicide to offer your past self financial advice, then the same should be true of your future self.
Personally, erasing that timeline seems unacceptable.
OneWomanCreamTeam@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 2y
Well, it's not me who will stop existing, that's 5 seconds from now me's problem. But like, she already doesn't exist. So really all I'm doing is changing which 5 seconds from now me has to deal with the burden of existence.
kuberoot@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 2y
But any knowledge you gain will change your behavior in the future, it's unavoidable, and those changes will compound causing the divergence to grow over time.
The only way to avoid "erasing" the timeline is to propose a time travel mechanism through which the timeline never changes despite passing information to the past, and that'd be basically what I suggested, taken to a bit more extreme of a conclusion - that because any other possibility would cause a paradox, your future self must have already made the optimal choice and will be satisfied telling your past self what they already heard in the past themselves.
Well, either that, or you just continue existing in a different timeline, with no benefit from helping your past self.
OneWomanCreamTeam@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 2y
Good point, I'm definitely changing the past then.
Zozano@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 2y
Oof.