If you could have lived in another time period, when would it have been and why?

As a women, the further back I go, the fewer rights I have. So, no thanks.

Syz, I can understand your point. But, would buying a Coca Cola for a nickel make you happy?

Rights > all the cola in the world.

Yeah, it would tough to want to live in a time in the past here in the U.S. if you were not a white male.

Times I would enjoy being a (magically immortal, uncrushable) fly on the wall:

Early modern England
Paris, 1781–1796
Spain, 1492

I’m pretty happy with having been born in 1971 – however, if I had to choose another, probably 1920 to 1930. I would have liked to be a (young) adult in the 1940s. Part of the WW2 generation.

From what I know, America was a more earnest, hopeful place. I like the music of the time, I like the clothes. I’m a bit old fashioned.

Of course, I could easily be romanticizing the era (as it often is).

And yes, to @tom_g‘s point, I am a big goofy white guy.

Who the f cares about buying a coca cola for a nickel if 1. as a woman, you have very few rights and 2, your income is less, therefore the price of the coke is probably roughly equivalent to what it is now, in comparison to your salary?

Ica, just a suggestion.

Anytime in the future, maybe whenever society has shifted towards a more egalitarian society.

Wild West.

I am Billy the Kid. Draw.

Early Celtic Ireland, where women were warriors. Just for a week. I don’t think I could deal with wearing dead animal furs that still smell like dead animals for the rest of my life.

The time when the human species was down to a few thousand. I would take the opportunity to finish them off once and for all.

Is the future a choice?

As a gamer, I fear that the video games I will want to play (fully interactive and requiring athletic ability) are going to surface long after my physical peak. I want to live around that time.

As a gay man, I cant even imagine living in the past. How did anyone do anything with all of the hate flying around?

Technology has hindered the need for confidence. Anyone can message someone on a dating site. Few people have the balls to start a conversation with someone they want to know more about anymore. Thankfully, I am one of those few.

If I could be wealthy, then I would like to live in the Medieval ages, as a strong, out-spoken woman who is loved by a strong, supportive man.

@WillWorkForChocolate
Then you could count the days until they burn you at the stake.

Nah. I’d take my shovel back in time with me and kill them first. :D

@WillWorkForChocolate
Jeanne D’Arc had a sword and steel armour. Did not help her.

I’m also really good at hiding, if need be.

56 BC…..around tea-time, because i’d look funny wearing a smock.

I would like to apologize in advance for this rather dark by nature response of mine. I would very much like to return to Jack the Ripper’s time and hunt him down in the foggy streets of London. Also, I would be overjoyed seeing New York City in the 1880’s.

Anything pre-internet. I understand the irony of me saying that here.

The world has gotten way too small for my tastes.

Early 1800’s in America somewhere west of what now is the Blue Ridge Mtns and east of the Rockies. I would be trapping beaver and hunting buckskins.

@mowens Not all cultures and generations were homophobic

I’d also like to go back to London in 1600 and solve the Shakespeare dilemma once and for all.

I don’t think I would have survived to be fifty in any time other than this. I know I never would have had children if I had been born earlier. I just really lucky to have been born in a time where technology and medical science can help people like me stay alive and reproduce.

I would prefer it if I were born in the mid 40’s so I was old enough to enjoy the coming of rock and roll. And so I would have been old enough to go to a Doors concert and see Jim Morrison in person. But then again, there was Vietnam which wasn’t very fun… But I think I would still pick then to be born. Oh yeah, and all the music festivals too. I’d want to be at those too. I honestly think I was meant to be alive in the 60’s.

I would like to live in the Medieval times. Courtly love appeals to me on some level and it would be interesting to experience it.

As far as living in another time period, I’d be okay with being born about 10–15 years earlier than I was. That would probably help guarantee my being more financially stable and secure than I am now.

Other than that, I’m okay with where I am, thank you. It’s a dark time right now in many ways, but it’s also the most medically and technologically advanced (as @wundayatta already pointed out), and the standard of living we’ve had for about the last 50–60 years is most likely as good as it’s going to get.

Now, if you’re talking about visiting another time period, that’s right up my alley. Would love to see Rome at the time of Augustus, and then perhaps again during Hadrian’s reign, so I could see Rome as it was at the end of the Republic (and when Augustus was rebuilding the city), and then see Rome and the Roman Empire at its greatest extent.

I also wouldn’t mind seeing the Aztec and Inca capitals at the height of their eras, Baghdad during the 9th century, and glimpses of India as it was under Gupta rule, again during the Mughal era, and finally, for comparison, India during the Raj.

Other visits would include Spain during the al-Andalus (Cordoba and Granada particularly), then again about the late 16th century, at the height of Hapsburg rule; Paris during the Belle Époque (and again, for comparision, a very quick look at Paris during the French Revolution, when it was still architecturally medieval); London before the Great Fire, and perhaps again during the Edwardian era; New York around 1650, again in the 1880’s, and again during the 1920’s; Boston around 1770; Charleston just prior to the Civil War; New Orleans around 1812, and again around just before WWI; San Francisco before 1906, and again about 1960; Los Angeles about 1940.

Finally, I’d love to just see the countryside, the environment, in just about every locale just prior to widespread European influx, to see what it was like before it started getting trashed.

whew Quite a list. Where’s Mr. Peabody and Sherman when you need them? ;-)

@linguaphile True, however many are. Not just in the USA.

@likipie

I saw the Doors in February, 1967 and March, 1968.

I also wish you were alive and that I could have met you in the 60’s.