Time Travel? What's the benefit?

Question

I mean, I'm always reading questions about whether time travel could ever be possible, how it would be achieved, and what the consequences would be.

But now I want someone to tell me how humankind would benefit. For this, you have to suspend disbelief. So we're assuming that it is environmentally sustainable, that it's possible to travel in both directions along the time line, and that by visiting the past, we don't impact on the present.

BTW, if you accept that last point, then you have to concede that anybody who did visit the future, then returned to the now, could have no impact on that future already visited.

So let's go.

Answer 1

if you couldn't have an impact on the present then you would only be able to see and not act in that timezone. I can think of a few benefits for this; It would make a really cool holiday; Historians geologists, paelontologists and the like would literally have a field day. Benefit to mankind? Well it would be down to the professionals mentioned above; for instance what if it wasn't a meteorite or a massive volcano that killed the dinosaurs but a HUUGE monster that lives deep underground and only comes out when life is full on the planet. We could find out where he came out from and kill that sucka before he had a chance to kill us. Another thought- you could go back and see which politicans are lying to us and because you could do this they would have to stop lying. That would be an incredible benefit for mankind.

Answer 2

I believe that our physical powers are limited to the present. In other words, if we could go to the past, we would just be an observer without experiencing or influencing anything at all in that time zone. I believe that as we travel back to the present, there would not even be any memory left because we could not have experienced anything when we had gone to the past. If this premise is extended to the future also, it makes a lot of sense that we may travel and observe, but the moment we get back to the present, we would not have any idea of what was happening in the future when we went there..... hence we would be no better off with respect to what we do in the present by having visited the future.

It then of course brings us to the conclusion that time travel is not going to be of any use to us, even if we could find a way to do it. It can't bring any benefit to humankind.

Wonderful question!!

Answer 3

Awesome question... benefit of time travel would be getting to the future to get a field experience, TIME tested, true answer to your well worded question.
I dig it, I wish I had more to offer to you on this one... I'll think it over and maybe revise my answer...
Either way, I'm starring this one, it's a good one and that should go go the people in my network thingy with Yahoo!

Answer 4

You know what ...I dont realy understood this "Time travel" concept...because what I know time to be is...the 24 hr...a year...10 year...in the past and future...so time is just an illusion.

Answer 5

the benefit is only to the ego and a way to plaster over what is not to your liking in your life at either point in time...