Not getting too much into the physics and theories, here is the basic (hypothetical) scenario:

NASA just built a very large ship that is able travel at speeds very near that of the speed of light (actually going the speed of light is impossible), and it is able to collect it's own energy as it goes, so it is very effecient and needs no additional fuel or work from the people aboard it.

The goal of this ship is to take individuals through space farther than any man-made craft has ever gone. It can go anywhere in our galaxy. It may discover new worlds, new beings, and so many things that we have yet to even wonder about.

Skipping the exact calculations, travelling at the speeds this craft is capable of going, it would take 21 years relative to those aboard it to reach the center of our galaxy.

The kicker: In those 21 years those aboard the ship experience, 30,000 years would have passed on Earth (as you approach the speed of light, time slows down. Because the ship is travelling so incredibly fast, time passes MUCH slower in the ship than it does here on Earth).

What this means is (and this is the important part), is that:
A - you would never see your friends or family again. Ever. In 30,000 years, them, their family, and their greatest grandchildrens great grand children would be gone. Yet you would only be 21 years older.

B - in 60,000 years (the time spent their and back), who knows if Earth will still be around. You may return only to find the planet destroyed, void of all life, or ENTIRELY different than when you left.

So the question is: Would you go aboard the ship? You would get to see places never before seen by man, learn things unimaginable, and possibly inhabit a new world.

I've been thinking about this all day, and honestly would not know how I would choose.

i wouldnt go

i was put here today not 60k later

why would i wanna leave everyone behind?

I'd do it, no question about it.

would I miss everybody and everything I know... you had best believe it. However, I am a firm beliver not only in reincarnation, but that the only thing that truely lasts is knowledge. The more you can learn, the more you can add to your community, your culture, your world, the more immortal you become.

Look at the great people of History. Plato, Aristotle, Socraties, Jesus (yes, he did exist) Buddha, Darwin, Einstein, and even Nobel (very truncated list) they are gone, most people do not even have a clue what they looked like, when they lived, or even what they did in day to day things.. but what they added to our world has lived on through the centuries. They each left an indelible thumbprint on how each of us looks at the world around is.

For a chance to do that, even if I was one of the forgotten ones and only a brief footnote in history, I would jump.

funny you should mentions this. i just got done with relativity about a week ago.

this is why traveling in the future is atleast a little plausible. traveling to the past would be much harder. me thinks we would have to find the exact vector to the center of the universe from earth, and travel towards that. we would be moving relatively slower than earth and thus time would slow down for us while time would continue on at normal pace on earth. then just travel back to earth to earth at a slightly faster pace than the earth is moving away so that you dont undo the affects of the reverse time travel by traveling close to the speed of light.

in the words of prof. frink on simpsons, "glivan".

and i would, so long as i had bare essentials on the ship(hot girl, beer, tiburon)

I'd go, take the tib, and score some hot alien chicks with 6 tits.

I don't think I would go. I did a project on this exact thing in grade 12, and just to throw a little twist into everything, I made a little time dilation graph, (time related to velocity) and made it hypothetically possible to go faster then the speed of light lol, and I had the possibility of going back in time after you crossed the asymptote of the speed of light,... and then the faster you would go, say at 3x the speed of light, you would go into another dimension? or a clone world? it was all for nothing a suppose, but fun to think about.
anyways, if it was possible to go back in time again,... then I would probably go ahead in time. otherwise not.

Id go. Id love to have that knowledge, and bring it to the community. 60k years is alot our world would be barley recoginizable. the tech would be so much better I cant even think what it will be like. Or it could be totally destroyed like those nuclear war vedios in which we'd be famous. So ourtrip would be rebirth to our world, major advance, or possibilly almost obsolete but I have no idea how it would work out. I know Enstein sad we couldnt go fasterthan light but I think we can because of acceleration from gravity or magnetics. I dont thikn wed be able to keeep that speed though

Interesting replies guys - especially redz lmao.gif

If I could go back in time and return to Earth in the time period I left, I'd go in a hearbeat.

But without that...I really don't know. I mean I'd LOVE that experience and to learn new things, but that would be such a hard decision.

You'd be leaving behind everything and everyone you ever knew. And who knows if Earth would still be around when you returned; there might not be anyone to tell about the things you saw and learned.

Or, humans might be evolved differently, speak languages you've never known, or be incredibly hostile.

If I did go, I think one thing that would bother me is knowing that each hour that passes for me, so much time on Earth is passing, and I would want to see the progress and developments on Earth overtime so badly. But that wouldn't be an option, since there's no turning the thing around once it leaves.

I wouldnt do it, it would be like futurama only probably not as nice.