Would you time travel to prevent something major, such as a war or a death of a famous person who was important in history?

No, it might be impossible any way. If a person prevented something from happening in the past- then they might not have been born, so it would have happened any way. It could set up a problem with time continuum for which there is no resolution.

For all that we know- black holes might be the result of such a paradox. Some conjecture that the black hole that our solar system is traveling towards is the point in time when time travel becomes possible. Some even suggest the complete creation story was placed into our history by time travelers from the future earth trying to prevent the destruction of life on earth at a later date.

No, because if I did- then I couldn't!

No, you wouldn't want to change history, here are a few examples of why you wouldn't want to prevent disasters.

Great things came out of bad things. Such as WW2, the human rights came out.

After the death of FDR, we limited the presidential term to 2 terms.

The birth of modern medicine grew out of the black death.

Chernobyl is considered to be the worst nuclear disaster in history, and the only one to ever reach 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale. Seven is as high as the scale goes. It ended the Cold War. Or helped to, anyway.

End of WW1, The women's rights movement grew.

The crusades, what happened? 'Murica!

Great Depression, what happened? Social security.

WW2 again? Great Depression pretty much ended.

Vietnam? Oh boy, he's a long one! Surgical Glue - google it. The inventor of Super Glue, a.k.a. Krazy Glue delivered it to the US as a surgical glue to close wounds and since then has saved thousands of lives. An attitude to war - compared to Hiroshima where the world gained an attitude against nuclear weapons, the Vietnam War, particularly for US people have gained an attitude to avoid war. Helicopter Warfare - introduced in Vietnam for fly in/fly out soldiers has made warfare more tactical and precise and has reduced loss of life in battle. Halt to Chinese aggression - The VN war dramatically slowed down and in some cases halted Chinese military aggression and occupation. If not for the allied support of South VN, China would almost certainly invaded VN. Re-think and reluctance to use biological weapons. - Agent Orange (herbicide 245-T) widely used in VN, is now a banned herbicide globally and given the ongoing damage it has caused created a situation of attitude against poisons in warfare. Recognition of PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) - previously called shell shock, is now a recognized condition and treatments now discovered/evolved. Understanding of the "Golden hour". This is where the 1 hour immediately after being wounded is the most vital, if you can get someone to medical care in that hour, their chances of survival increase radically. Voting age reduced to 18!

So yeah, great things happen in result of bad things. We can't move ahead without awful things happening!

Well, the reality is those terrible things have happened so it's not logically possible for someone to go back and stop them. Causality means that if you did go back and stop the event then you couldn't possibly have grown up in a world where it had happened therefore there is no reason for you to go back in time to stop the event. Paradox.

if I thought i could do anything, yes. not necessarily famous people. i have often thought what an easy thing it would have been ti prevent the tragedy at Aberfan for instance - one would only have to do something to the school the night befor to make it be closed the following morning - set fire to it or something.

I did it just to get Shakespeare to write more plays. I grew up just loving his plays but was always dismayed about how, after he wrote "Henry VIII" his "Ann Boleyn" got him sent to the Tower and beheaded, and that play was burned. So I went back in time to warn him and, instead of writing "Ann Boleyn" he wrote a bunch of other stuff.

No, but I would time travel to kill the person who invented time travel.

You have posted in the wrong category.

everything happens for a reason. Please answer mine! /question/index?qid=20151...

no.