Timetravel: what to take?

[iago]

I got this from a really awesome blog.. what do you think?

You’re about to go back in time. You’re going to land somewhere in Europe during the High Middle Ages, in the range of 1000AD to 1300AD. You’re standing in your house. This trip will take you and about a loaded suitcase worth of volume. If you attempt to take more you won’t be able to predict what will be left behind. What do you take with you?

You’re going for good. This is a one-way trip. You don’t know exactly where or when you will land within the given window, or what time of year it will be. (Let’s assume you can be confident that you’ll land on solid ground, though. Don’t worry about appearing over the ocean. inside of rock, or 100 meters off the ground. You’ll arrive safely. After that it’s up to you.)

Don’t worry about changing history. It’s inevitable, so don’t go in trying to preserve the original timeline.

So… what items will you put in your suitcase before you go? What’s the plan when you get there?

Answers might perhaps be long. Leave them in the comments, or put them on your blog and I’ll link back.

Oh, and the goal? Survival.

[Sidoh]

a science book, several science experiments, so i can be accused of witchery (that always sounded like fun)

a taser, a cattle prod, a shotgun, clothes..

Those seem like the bare essentials!

[rabbit]

Glock 17, the Anarchists' Cookbook, and the rest of the suitcase stuff with as many 9mm bullets as humanly possible (including shaving a mm or 2 off of the inside of the case just to increase volume).

[MyndFyre]

I would personally prefer to take a .22 - although it has much less stopping power, you could still get by with a couple shots, and a brick of 500 .22 rounds takes up about the same space as two bricks of 50 9mm rounds.  My roommate has a Walther P22, and I've found that it's generally easier to shoot than my 9mm Ruger.

The flip side is that I probably would like a shotgun.  And a chainsaw that mounts to my left arm.  That seemed to work out for Ash.

[iago]

How about...

Tough book (or two), complete set of Wikipedia, Wikihow, and other online sources, and plans to make a hydro generator (really, it's just a magnet, wire, and water ).

Also, and most importantly, this shirt

[rabbit]

I would personally prefer to take a .22 - although it has much less stopping power, you could still get by with a couple shots, and a brick of 500 .22 rounds takes up about the same space as two bricks of 50 9mm rounds.  My roommate has a Walther P22, and I've found that it's generally easier to shoot than my 9mm Ruger.

The flip side is that I probably would like a shotgun.  And a chainsaw that mounts to my left arm.  That seemed to work out for Ash.

Fuck bricks.  I'm just gonna buy a shit ton of bullets and dump them in the suitcase.  Also, I don't know how well a .22 would stop a fully armored knight (neither I nor the Mythbusters have ever experimented) or a warhorse.

[nslay]

I can't imagine why you would want to time travel at all.  Living in the present while contemplating the future is already quite a lot of effort and work.

[iago]

I would personally prefer to take a .22 - although it has much less stopping power, you could still get by with a couple shots, and a brick of 500 .22 rounds takes up about the same space as two bricks of 50 9mm rounds.  My roommate has a Walther P22, and I've found that it's generally easier to shoot than my 9mm Ruger.

The flip side is that I probably would like a shotgun.  And a chainsaw that mounts to my left arm.  That seemed to work out for Ash.

Fuck bricks.  I'm just gonna buy a shit ton of bullets and dump them in the suitcase.  Also, I don't know how well a .22 would stop a fully armored knight (neither I nor the Mythbusters have ever experimented) or a warhorse.

Bullets would tear right through old style armour.

I can't imagine why you would want to time travel at all.  Living in the present while contemplating the future is already quite a lot of effort and work.

You're being held at gunpoint? You were forced to do it by the government? Aliens? You're the only one that can fix a problem in the past that's about to destroy the world? You want to make it with some 11th century ladies of negotiable affection? *shrug*

[rabbit]

On second thought, I'd bring a portable, rechargeable time machine, use that to go into the future to get a BETTER time machine (and a badass weapon), then go BACK to right when I left the present and kill all the aliens and government and shit.  And if I am literally the only person on Earth who can stop a problem, I'd call bullshit.

[warz]

I'd bring some halloween costume of something crazy so they think I'm a God. Then I'll just live the high life and have bitches stomp my wine out.

[nslay]

I can't imagine why you would want to time travel at all.  Living in the present while contemplating the future is already quite a lot of effort and work.

You're being held at gunpoint? You were forced to do it by the government? Aliens? You're the only one that can fix a problem in the past that's about to destroy the world? You want to make it with some 11th century ladies of negotiable affection? *shrug*

Hmm, but maybe preventing the pending world destruction results in something worse.  Suppose preventing a nuclear holocaust results in an overall worse time line with the addition of world destruction by a slow and painful war grade virus?

That's why I ask "why?"  So many "ifs"...  Visiting the past is a big gamble.  And you know whats great about time travel, the joke is on you!  You will have tried to change history for the better, possibly making it far worse and having to live its development all over again.

[Newby]

I'd bring some halloween costume of something crazy so they think I'm a God. Then I'll just live the high life and have bitches stomp my wine out.

^

And a flamethrower.

But on a serious note, I'll remark on this when I'm done taking my midterm in half an hour!

[iago]

I can't imagine why you would want to time travel at all.  Living in the present while contemplating the future is already quite a lot of effort and work.

You're being held at gunpoint? You were forced to do it by the government? Aliens? You're the only one that can fix a problem in the past that's about to destroy the world? You want to make it with some 11th century ladies of negotiable affection? *shrug*

Hmm, but maybe preventing the pending world destruction results in something worse.  Suppose preventing a nuclear holocaust results in an overall worse time line with the addition of world destruction by a slow and painful war grade virus?

That's why I ask "why?"  So many "ifs"...  Visiting the past is a big gamble.  And you know whats great about time travel, the joke is on you!  You will have tried to change history for the better, possibly making it far worse and having to live its development all over again.

My point is that it doesn't matter why -- talking about it is pointless. Just assume that it's going to happen, for one reason or another, in order to properly answer this.

[truste1]

Magic Genie

[BigAznDaddy]

toilet paper.