Ten million USD in 2024 is more than enough for me and my family to live out comfortable lives, to be honest. I'd just take that, live off the interest. It will present its own problems, of course, but I'm sure I can figure those out.

Going back in time with any specific goal or intent (like making lots more money than ten million dollars by 2024) is almost certainly going to end up being its own kind of hell in this situation and especially so when there's no guarantee that I'll actually be successful in that pursuit. No guarantee that I'd arrive at the new 2024 with more than ten million dollars, no guarantee I'd be able to "fix" anything without causing worse problems for myself and others, no guarantee that I'd get here alive again, sounds like quite a bit of a risk.

Plus, once I go back to age 6 and start making different decisions, a different future will necessarily emerge. Think about it this way, in order to not change the future (until you're at a point where you can reasonably execute a plan to reach your goals), you'd have to make exactly the same decisions you did when you were 6. Pretty much nobody has that kind of memory/recall, so it would literally come down to sheer luck. And the further along in time things progress, as you make more and more different decisions than you did originally, the more uncertainty it would introduce to the new future. Eventually, you may even find that you basically have no more ability to recall/predict the future than you would have otherwise.

So if you're in it for the money, just take the guaranteed money.

[–] krashmo@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Sure all that's theoretically possible, but realistically no one reading this post is influencing global events on any significant scale. Especially if you're just doing normal kid stuff. A random kid ordering spaghetti instead of chicken nuggets is meaningless in the grand scheme of things. The same goes for just about any choice you'd likely be presented with.

[–] numberfour002@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

realistically no one reading this post is influencing global events on any significant scale.

I'm not really sure where influencing global events comes into play with my prior comment, but I agree with you. However, when I posted my comment, I really mostly only saw people discussing relative and personal changes they'd make, so I'm also sort of thinking that global events are mostly irrelevant.

Especially if you’re just doing normal kid stuff. A random kid ordering spaghetti instead of chicken nuggets is meaningless in the grand scheme of things. The same goes for just about any choice you’d likely be presented with.

If you're focused on the ramifications of any one specific choice, then I feel like you're missing the forest for the tree (to coopt a popular idiom).

Every choice you make and everything you do differently will change things in some way, even if only to an imperceptible degree. From the moment you arrive back at your 6 year old self, you will constantly be making different decisions and doing things differently, whether you want to or not. The cumulative effects of these minute changes over time will make things increasingly more unpredictable and the new timeline and old timeline will necessarily diverge.

Then consider that some things in life are literally a cumulation of everything that you've done and everything that happened to you up to that point. Even small changes will have an impact. For instance, think of someone with biological children who goes back in time. The children they end up the second time around will be completely different people because of how random the process is that leads to two specific gametes being involved in the fertilization process. Literally eating spaghetti as a 6 year old could affect the outcome there, let alone the millions/billions/trillions of different actions that person would make over the decade(s) leading up to their child/childrens' conception. Perhaps having completely different kids is still inconsequential, but that's literally just one example, so I wouldn't get too hung up on the specifics.

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[–] ArugulaZ@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago

Is cyanide an option?

[–] rekabis@programming.dev 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

6 years of age would put me in 1978.

There is a lot I could do from that point onward, that would make $10M look like spare change. Like investing in Apple, or working with Tim Berners-Lee to more effectively launch an Internet that could better resist corporatization and enshittification.

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[–] Sharkictus@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Six is a bit early. If I could go back to between age 18 and December 2015

I could make money and have a way better career trajectory and love life.

Otherwise back spring/summer 2007.

6 is pointless. Knowledge and wisdom in a body and brain not equipped for it? Hardcore depression.

So yeah 10 mill.

[–] JATtho@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I ate both. Nothing really happened to me, but the matrix has been glitching though…

[–] SGG@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Red pill. I have so many new ideas on how to ruin my life!

[–] darthelmet@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

$10 million easy. Sure maybe you could get more if you were going back in time and insider trading on everything. But $10m is already enough money to live a comfortable life, especially if you just invest it in something safe. And that way you don't need to go through school and puberty again.

[–] ClockNimble@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Red.

[–] Jarix@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Restart my life

[–] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 years ago

Red pill.

I had a few pretty rough years in there... I wasn't suffering or anything like that, I was just.... Going in the wrong direction. Took me a while to get back on track.

[–] CADmonkey@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

I couldn't imagine the stress of knowing what I know now and being sent back to when I was six years old. I'd be trapped with my parents.

I'd take the money. My wife is amazing, and we are very happy together, but a lot of things had to fall just right for us to end up together.

[–] Souroak@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Could you imagine the psychological damage of having your adult mind shoved back into your 6 year old self? You'd be unable to relate to or even tolerate any of your peers, so say goodbye to any childhood friendships. You'd be unstimulated by the mountain of busy work in school and frustrated by all the topics you'd have to relearn. I personally would go through all of the procrastination troubles again. There are plenty of traumatic events that you would not be able to prevent or even affect. Nevermind that you are still carrying that trauma with you, you're just trying to not re-live it. Develop any chronic illnesses? Maybe you can get treated quicker but you still have to watch your health decline. It'll be a decade before you have any kind of autonomy to do any stocks or Bitcoin type stuff, unless you want to become some prophetic wünderkind. As far as I'm aware, mt gox was one of the only reliable places to get Bitcoin, until it wasn't. I don't know the day that it fell apart off the top of my head.

I never understand why anyone would choose the "do it all over again" scenarios.

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