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If you could change three small historical events by going back in time, what would they be and why? (ani.social)

submitted 16 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

24 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The act has to be small(ish). You can't say "Make everyone vote a certain way!" As an example I'll give mine.

Take all of the money I currently have in savings and invest in Nikola Tesla and attempt to slander Edison.
Ride the train with Edgar Allen Poe and make sure that he made it to wherever he was going safely and keep an eye on him for a few days to make sure he was ok.
Sit on top of the library of Alexandria with a SOPMOD and several hundred magazines worth of ammo.

Update: gotta say, there's a lot less "save my favorite musician from death" or some such than I thought there'd be.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

What is "small"?

Does placing a banana peel on a certain path that will cause a historical person to trip and injure themselves count as "small"?

What if I carefully place a banana peel on the path that Stannislav Petrov walks on and he end up having to go to the hospital on September 26, 1983?

🤔

🌎💥❓️

Okay so:

On the eve of May 7, 2012 (putin takes office as president): Place a small piece of paper inside Putin's food saying "Next time it'd be poison" (in Russian, of course). So he'd start speculating if someone is plotting against him and drive him mad. Maybe cause him to shuffle all his security and chefs.
Then after he makes changes to his security, on his birthday, place a dead rat inside his birthday cake (he does have birthday cakes, right?).

Might not change history at all, but good enough to fuck with a dictator.

Add a few bits of code to the Great Firewall of China that would make it malfuction and start letting all traffic through on February 4, 2022, right before the Winter Olympics begin.

Butterfly Effect 😉

[–] [email protected] 1 points 15 hours ago

Sir a respect.and commend your clever trolling of a dictators paranoia.