Time Machine - Travel to Year 2030
- MekongTrader
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Time Machine - Travel to Year 2030
Kind of stupid but can't get it out of my head.
Time Machine
Assume you would be given the unique opportunity to travel to Year 2030 for 10 seconds only. Sitting at a computer which is connected to the internet in Year 2030. After 10 seconds you will travel back to today, Year 2011.
During these 10 seconds you have the opportunity to quickly check which investment will have performed the best. So you, may look at DOW, price of gold, etc. Or look up any other information.
What would you look at?
Check out the Superbowl winners from 2011 onwards and then place bets?
Lottery numbers?
What would be the most valuable information?
Which information would make you the most $?
Consider: you go to google finance and see that DOW is at 12000 meaning it stayed flat. This took you may be four seconds to check...
MT
Time Machine
Assume you would be given the unique opportunity to travel to Year 2030 for 10 seconds only. Sitting at a computer which is connected to the internet in Year 2030. After 10 seconds you will travel back to today, Year 2011.
During these 10 seconds you have the opportunity to quickly check which investment will have performed the best. So you, may look at DOW, price of gold, etc. Or look up any other information.
What would you look at?
Check out the Superbowl winners from 2011 onwards and then place bets?
Lottery numbers?
What would be the most valuable information?
Which information would make you the most $?
Consider: you go to google finance and see that DOW is at 12000 meaning it stayed flat. This took you may be four seconds to check...
MT
spend 20 years finding out what the exact best investment is that I could understand in 10 seconds. then leave myself a message at a predetermined location that i could get to in 2030.
in 2030 go to that website w/ the message to myself and read the instructions.
go back to 2010 and execute those instructions.
i imagine the msg would be something like.
"invest everything in symbol_name on X date"
in 2030 go to that website w/ the message to myself and read the instructions.
go back to 2010 and execute those instructions.
i imagine the msg would be something like.
"invest everything in symbol_name on X date"
- nisiprius
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Which eye movement gesture pivots the trunk to sweep the market leaves into view? (It used to be left-flick but Webzen made so darn many UI tweaks after they acquired Microsoft).
Could you lend me a couple of bitcoins, it wants a micropayment.
Ah, the official New York Stock Exchange listing. How do you spell "Exxon Mobil" in Chinese?
Oh, look, my obituary--gotta read that first.
Could I have another ten seconds, please?
Could you lend me a couple of bitcoins, it wants a micropayment.
Ah, the official New York Stock Exchange listing. How do you spell "Exxon Mobil" in Chinese?
Oh, look, my obituary--gotta read that first.
Could I have another ten seconds, please?
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness; Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.
Re: Time Machine - Travel to Year 2030
If I'm still alive (and loved ones) and healthy! Everything else is UNimportant.MekongTrader wrote:Time Machine
Assume you would be given the unique opportunity to travel to Year 2030 for 10 seconds only. Sitting at a computer which is connected to the internet in Year 2030. After 10 seconds you will travel back to today, Year 2011.
During these 10 seconds you have the opportunity to quickly check which investment will have performed the best. So you, may look at DOW, price of gold, etc. Or look up any other information.
What would you look at?
Landy |
Be yourself, everyone else is already taken -- Oscar Wilde
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With infaltion it would be 1 billion.Snowjob wrote:clearly lotto is the best bang for your buck.
200 million dollar powerball anyone?
I would look at the market.
If its much higher I know I can go to 100% equity, load up on dips.
(and so on)
If even or lower, I know I must focus my energies in other places.
(or only buy when 30 to 50% lower than that price)
I wouldnt have the patience to wait for one lottery drawing.
(and would probably get the weeks mixed up )
Thanks
SP-diceman
- fredflinstone
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Re: Time Machine - Travel to Year 2030
If this was the only thing I got to check....MekongTrader wrote:Consider: you go to google finance and see that DOW is at 12000 meaning it stayed flat. This took you may be four seconds to check...
Then I'd find somebody to give me a *very* long dated option on the market, something that would absolutely skyrocket from like 5c to $10 and then buy as many contracts as they were willing to sell me and I could afford. I'd take out a mortgage just to have the cash for it etc.
Start unloading near the end of 2029 (since it would take awhile to sell the contracts most likely) and be uber rich.
Last edited by FredPeterson on Thu Aug 11, 2011 8:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
- ddb
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10 seconds would make it kind of impossible to benefit, methinks. It would take at least that long to figure out whatever user interface exists at that time.
Assuming a minute were available, I'd definitely pull a Biff Tannen and look for the Superfecta results of the 2012 Kentucky Derby. In 2011, the Superfecta paid out $48,126 on a $2 bet. I'd come back to present day and start betting on horses regularly, so that when I do get the back win at the Derby, I could alleviate any suspicions of wrongdoing by showing that I bet often.
Then again, this might not work. If I find out the results, and then come back to present day and place a bet, then I have potentially made a change that will alter all future events, including the outcome of the race on which I'm betting.
- DDB
Assuming a minute were available, I'd definitely pull a Biff Tannen and look for the Superfecta results of the 2012 Kentucky Derby. In 2011, the Superfecta paid out $48,126 on a $2 bet. I'd come back to present day and start betting on horses regularly, so that when I do get the back win at the Derby, I could alleviate any suspicions of wrongdoing by showing that I bet often.
Then again, this might not work. If I find out the results, and then come back to present day and place a bet, then I have potentially made a change that will alter all future events, including the outcome of the race on which I'm betting.
- DDB
"We have to encourage a return to traditional moral values. Most importantly, we have to promote general social concern, and less materialism in young people." - PB
Re: Time Machine - Travel to Year 2030
Computer? Internet? Will they still be around?MekongTrader wrote: Sitting at a computer which is connected to the internet in Year 2030.
But the thing I like most about your scenario is I am still around!
- jeffyscott
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Yes, but can you find winning numbers from 19 years ago in 10 seconds? Quick, you have 10 seconds to find winning numbers from 1992...can you do it?Snowjob wrote:clearly lotto is the best bang for your buck.
200 million dollar powerball anyone?
Dang, all I got was an article titled "1992 Lottery Winner Kim Haggarty Teaches Figure Skating"...find her and steal her ticket?
Let me try again...got it, do I still have time to print this page?
http://www.lots0cash.com/numbers/PBresults1992.htm
Yep, 10 seconds would be worthless. Maybe grab somebody and ask them who won last year's SuperBowl. Or who the President is.ddb wrote:10 seconds would make it kind of impossible to benefit, methinks. It would take at least that long to figure out whatever user interface exists at that time.
Even a minute might not be enough time to figure out how to work a computer
+1 for the Back to the Future reference. Did you actually know Biff's last name or did you have to look it up?Assuming a minute were available, I'd definitely pull a Biff Tannen and look for the Superfecta results of the 2012 Kentucky Derby.
Re: Time Machine - Travel to Year 2030
I would use the remaining 6 seconds to click the "Basic Chart" link. It may still be at 12000 in 2030, but I'm guessing we've gone through a couple of business cycles between now and then. That is information I could profit from.MekongTrader wrote: Consider: you go to google finance and see that DOW is at 12000 meaning it stayed flat. This took you may be four seconds to check...
- ipod_keith
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dgm wrote:spend 20 years finding out what the exact best investment is that I could understand in 10 seconds. then leave myself a message at a predetermined location that i could get to in 2030.
in 2030 go to that website w/ the message to myself and read the instructions.
go back to 2010 and execute those instructions.
i imagine the msg would be something like.
"invest everything in symbol_name on X date"
Hi dgm,
It's yourself from 2030 - I forgot my boglehead logon and password.
invest everything in BOGO on 12/31/2012
Sincerely,
dgm from 2030
Last edited by ipod_keith on Thu Aug 11, 2011 8:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Time Machine - Travel to Year 2030
MekongTrader wrote: Assume you would be given the unique opportunity to travel to Year 2030 for 10 seconds only. Sitting at a computer which is connected to the internet in Year 2030. After 10 seconds you will travel back to today, Year 2011.
Windows 25 would probably crash.
(some things just wont change)
Thanks
SP-diceman
- JupiterJones
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Assuming there were still "computers" as we know them, and assuming I could quickly comprehend the interface and use one, and assuming there was still a stock market...
My visual memory is better than my "raw data" memory. So I'd all up a graph of the S&P 500 over the next (or previous, depending on your point of view) 20 years. I'd try to remember the major peaks and valleys as best as I could.
Suddenly I'm a miracle market-timer! I'd getting out at pretty much the top and getting in at pretty much the bottom from then on.
I agree that getting a winning lottery number would be even more potentially rewarding, but I don't think I'd be able to dig up a 20-year old number in 10 seconds.
Of course, it's a moot question. As anyone who has watched enough "Twilight Zone" knows, these things never work out they way you think. (Anyone see the one where the crooks get the magic camera that takes pictures of the immediate future?)
So maybe I get back from the future with my winning stock info, and in my rush to the bank I get hit by a car and am struck with amnesia.
Or I make my big investment but lose it all, later learning that there will be no stock market in 2030, and I had accidentally called up the results of a "what if we still had a stock market" simulation.
Or while researching in the future I immediately stumble upon a headline about a guy in 2011 who was killed when a pioneering time-travel experiment went horribly wrong at the very end, and then I see my photo there in article as the 10-second clock clicks down...
JJ
My visual memory is better than my "raw data" memory. So I'd all up a graph of the S&P 500 over the next (or previous, depending on your point of view) 20 years. I'd try to remember the major peaks and valleys as best as I could.
Suddenly I'm a miracle market-timer! I'd getting out at pretty much the top and getting in at pretty much the bottom from then on.
I agree that getting a winning lottery number would be even more potentially rewarding, but I don't think I'd be able to dig up a 20-year old number in 10 seconds.
Of course, it's a moot question. As anyone who has watched enough "Twilight Zone" knows, these things never work out they way you think. (Anyone see the one where the crooks get the magic camera that takes pictures of the immediate future?)
So maybe I get back from the future with my winning stock info, and in my rush to the bank I get hit by a car and am struck with amnesia.
Or I make my big investment but lose it all, later learning that there will be no stock market in 2030, and I had accidentally called up the results of a "what if we still had a stock market" simulation.
Or while researching in the future I immediately stumble upon a headline about a guy in 2011 who was killed when a pioneering time-travel experiment went horribly wrong at the very end, and then I see my photo there in article as the 10-second clock clicks down...
JJ
"Stay on target! Stay on target!"
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Re: Time Machine - Travel to Year 2030
Only with a time machine.Boglenaut wrote:MekongTrader wrote: Sitting at a computer which is connected to the internet in Year 2030.
But the thing I like most about your scenario is I am still around!
sounds the most 'reasonable' given the unreasonable boundary conditions.dgm wrote:spend 20 years finding out what the exact best investment is that I could understand in 10 seconds. then leave myself a message at a predetermined location that i could get to in 2030.
in 2030 go to that website w/ the message to myself and read the instructions.
go back to 2010 and execute those instructions.
i imagine the msg would be something like.
"invest everything in symbol_name on X date"
ignoring the paradoxes and alternate realities created by this unnaturally wealthy person... i'd secure a quick-to-type but cryptic domain like zxcvasdfqwer.com and put the superbowl winner for 2012 there, and then a series of stocks that performed best in 5 yr increments. the webpage would simply be:
Code: Select all
vikings
12 aapl
15 xom
20 XYZ
25 ABC
on the page, i would also be tempted to list chronologically all of the deaths in my circles of family/friends, or maybe w/ years, too. but on second thought, that sounds like a very bad idea. would create a morbid, unnatural relationship w/ the next person on the list.
Last edited by jeff mc on Thu Aug 11, 2011 9:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Time Machine - Travel to Year 2030
Someone from 1992 who comes to 2011 would be frantically paging through the paper looking for the stock tables and wondering why they weren't there.Boglenaut wrote:Computer? Internet? Will they still be around?
- ddb
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I most certainly did NOT have to look up his last name! Love those movies...rrosenkoetter wrote:+1 for the Back to the Future reference. Did you actually know Biff's last name or did you have to look it up?ddb wrote:Assuming a minute were available, I'd definitely pull a Biff Tannen and look for the Superfecta results of the 2012 Kentucky Derby.
- DDB
"We have to encourage a return to traditional moral values. Most importantly, we have to promote general social concern, and less materialism in young people." - PB
- JupiterJones
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You'd be betting, of course, that the Internet, HTTP, and web browsers would still be around, and that browsers in 2030 could still read your 2011-era HTML code.jeff mc wrote:i'd secure a quick-to-type but cryptic domain like zxcvasdfqwer.com
In the present day, I guess I could figure out how to use FTP or Finger or Telnet or some other old, pre-WWW technology that my past self might have used to leave me a prediction 20 years ago. But it would sure take me longer than 10 seconds.
Or maybe I'd find an old analog modem and dial in to a BBS (hoping I don't get a busy signal). That's probably more like what using the web-as-we-know it-today will be like in 2030. Some obsolete technology that modern hardware, software, and communications infrastructures barely even support any more.
JJ
Last edited by JupiterJones on Thu Aug 11, 2011 9:36 am, edited 2 times in total.
"Stay on target! Stay on target!"
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This doesn't actually make sense what he says, at least in the context of the OP.jeff mc wrote:sounds the most 'reasonable' given the unreasonable boundary conditions.dgm wrote:spend 20 years finding out what the exact best investment is that I could understand in 10 seconds. then leave myself a message at a predetermined location that i could get to in 2030.
in 2030 go to that website w/ the message to myself and read the instructions.
go back to 2010 and execute those instructions.
i imagine the msg would be something like.
"invest everything in symbol_name on X date"
The first quote above assumes time travel back in time and when you come back to 2030 you'd instantly have all the wealth that was built up - or would you? You have no way of knowing circumstances that would occur in the intervening 20 years that may cause you to liquidate, which therefore screws with your future self coming back in time....etc
well, again, to logically keep planning this gets pretty crazy and starts bordering on ridiculous. but... let's go to 2029... i'm sitting in my house made of gold, looking out onto my backyard airfield. i need to remember to redirect that old HTTP protocol website stuff to the new format. if http just doesn't exist, i'd have to buy or build a computer system with my vast wealth so that it can redirect correctly (or rebuild HTTP, or just keep funding it thru 2030)... billions of dollars used to create one successful redirect using a keyboard or other peripheral that a 2011 person would understand. or poof! the gold house vanishes, the suborbital jet fleet goes up in smoke.JupiterJones wrote:You'd be betting, of course, that the Internet, HTTP, and web browsers would still be around, and that browsers in 2030 could still read your 2011-era HTML code.jeff mc wrote:i'd secure a quick-to-type but cryptic domain like zxcvasdfqwer.com
I guess I could figure out how to use FTP or Finger or Telnet or some other old, pre-WWW technology that my past self might have used to leave me a prediction 20 years ago. But it would sure take me longer than 10 seconds.
Or maybe I'd find an old analog modem and dial in to a BBS (hoping I don't get a busy signal). That's probably more like what using the web-as-we-know it-today will be like in 2030.
JJ
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You'd have to tell yourself when to sell, also (a historical price chart would probably be the way to go. But why waste time with a stock that might not pay off for years?dgm wrote:go back to 2010 and execute those instructions.
i imagine the msg would be something like.
"invest everything in symbol_name on X date"
I think the instructions to myself would be a list of winning powerball lottery numbers by date. This would have a much better and immediate payoff.
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great thread:
I'd be afraid 10s wouldn't be enough for me to do anything on a PC 20 years from now.
Can I even login? Does it even have a keyboard? Speech recognition? "hello computer"
getting past the technology issues I'd probably have to ask somebody "hey who won the superbowl last year" and they'd probably be like "superbowl? what's that?"
heh
do like the idea of a time capsule or something in a predetermined location with a sweet list of actionable investments/sports bets/and dates but thats WELL outside your 10s window
for 10s I like asking the closest person to me "who won the superbowl last year", because I don't think I could figure out how to login to a PC in 20 years in 10s, and even if so, I don't think I could figure out how to get any kind of a search result in that time window not understanding the future UI. I mean I'm just thinking little things like being in some kind of shell that everyone decides to use in the future would throw me off, maybe a virtualized SaaS environment that is nothing more than a terminal, shouldnt matter much but I've only got 10s to play with, any misunderstanding means I lose
I mean just as an example take a non-professional long term PC user and ask them to use a Mac, as intuitive as that interface is, it still takes them a while
I'd be afraid 10s wouldn't be enough for me to do anything on a PC 20 years from now.
Can I even login? Does it even have a keyboard? Speech recognition? "hello computer"
getting past the technology issues I'd probably have to ask somebody "hey who won the superbowl last year" and they'd probably be like "superbowl? what's that?"
heh
do like the idea of a time capsule or something in a predetermined location with a sweet list of actionable investments/sports bets/and dates but thats WELL outside your 10s window
for 10s I like asking the closest person to me "who won the superbowl last year", because I don't think I could figure out how to login to a PC in 20 years in 10s, and even if so, I don't think I could figure out how to get any kind of a search result in that time window not understanding the future UI. I mean I'm just thinking little things like being in some kind of shell that everyone decides to use in the future would throw me off, maybe a virtualized SaaS environment that is nothing more than a terminal, shouldnt matter much but I've only got 10s to play with, any misunderstanding means I lose
I mean just as an example take a non-professional long term PC user and ask them to use a Mac, as intuitive as that interface is, it still takes them a while
but in the future the speed of the network combined with even better google alogrithms would make this possible !jeffyscott wrote:Yes, but can you find winning numbers from 19 years ago in 10 seconds? Quick, you have 10 seconds to find winning numbers from 1992...can you do it?Snowjob wrote:clearly lotto is the best bang for your buck.
200 million dollar powerball anyone?
Dang, all I got was an article titled "1992 Lottery Winner Kim Haggarty Teaches Figure Skating"...find her and steal her ticket?
Let me try again...got it, do I still have time to print this page?
http://www.lots0cash.com/numbers/PBresults1992.htm
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Re: Time Machine - Travel to Year 2030
Alas Google went broke during the Financial Crash of 2016.MekongTrader wrote:Kind of stupid but can't get it out of my head.
Time Machine
Assume you would be given the unique opportunity to travel to Year 2030 for 10 seconds only. Sitting at a computer which is connected to the internet in Year 2030. After 10 seconds you will travel back to today, Year 2011.
During these 10 seconds you have the opportunity to quickly check which investment will have performed the best. So you, may look at DOW, price of gold, etc. Or look up any other information.
What would you look at?
Check out the Superbowl winners from 2011 onwards and then place bets?
Lottery numbers?
What would be the most valuable information?
Which information would make you the most $?
Consider: you go to google finance and see that DOW is at 12000 meaning it stayed flat. This took you may be four seconds to check...
MT
The technology was bought by the Lightstone Company, which invented the infinite storage battery.
However since they now control the internet, my intrusion was monitored and I was arrested by the Time Police for Temporal Violations.
I am now in a 'treatment centre' (they don't have prisons any more,) to be cured of my criminal tendencies: it is located somewhen in the last Ice Age, somewhere in the dry cold Savannah where the mastodons still graze in West Texas.
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Re: Time Machine - Travel to Year 2030
This is of course an old radio serial story....MekongTrader wrote:Kind of stupid but can't get it out of my head.
Time Machine
...
Consider: you go to google finance and see that DOW is at 12000 meaning it stayed flat. This took you may be four seconds to check...
MT
and the answer is, the guy takes home a Wall Street Journal with next year's stock prices and makes his stock bets...
the last thing he reads though, in the paper, is his own obituary.
- MekongTrader
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All right, so it's a hypothetical exercise and let's assume that I do indeed have 10 seconds and no more.
The scenario depends on what your goal is. Here's one possibility, this doesn't necessarily guarantee a payout right away - look up the most successful/valuable companies, big names that are easily recognized. For example, Fortune provides a list.
Today, that'd be Google, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway. Then, you could just invest in those.
For a quick payout, lottery numbers, but I'm not sure you could find those in 10 seconds. Although in 2030, who knows.
The scenario depends on what your goal is. Here's one possibility, this doesn't necessarily guarantee a payout right away - look up the most successful/valuable companies, big names that are easily recognized. For example, Fortune provides a list.
Today, that'd be Google, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway. Then, you could just invest in those.
For a quick payout, lottery numbers, but I'm not sure you could find those in 10 seconds. Although in 2030, who knows.
- nisiprius
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The thermal inertia really cuts down on heating and cooling costs, but doesn't it interfere with your cell phone signal? I prefer houses made of caviar, myself.jeff mc wrote: i'm sitting in my house made of gold...
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness; Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.
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