Ask HN: If you had 24 hours in the year 2050, what questions would you ask?

[pmohun]

Assume that you cannot bring anything with you except a notebook and a pen.

You’re able to travel instantaneously between locations and the people there are expecting you.

At the end of the 24 hour period, you are returned to the present day.

What questions do you ask to maximize the utility of information you capture?

[dusted]

Sorry to be boring, but I'd go look up lottery numbers first.

Then stocks.

I'd then like to talk with someone who is knowable about the current state of affairs. What kind of quality of living do the general population have ? Are there classes? How is everyday life spent for most people?

I don't know what happens if I start asking about myself or things I directly influence, since I'll be bringing that knowledge back with me and so it would influence my actions in the past and.. loopy time.

[spywaregorilla]

Butterfly effects of your altered behavior upon returning could possibly mess up lottery numbers. Stocks are probably safer.

[bradlys]

Buy a lottery ticket within the same week. Very unlikely you’ll have any affect on the spin of the balls.

[spywaregorilla]

I'm not so sure. A dice thrown by a machine is pretty rigid. You won't affect the spin by your external meddling. A dice thrown by a human has tons of nuance. If the cumulative effect of your different actions results in a half a second deviation in the ball chooser's schedule, there's probably enough random noise in their choosing process to result in a deviation.

Although writing this I realize I don't know how lotteries are conducted

[bradlys]

You really do overestimate your contributions to the world. Buying a lottery ticket is not going to affect the spin of the ball when literally hundreds of thousands/millions are purchased every week.

[spywaregorilla]

If you drive to the store to buy a lottery ticket, you add a car to traffic. If you add a car to traffic, you adjust the timing of other people's traffic experiences. Someone hits one extra red light. They're now offset by 12 seconds from their baseline pattern. Things accumulate. It's hardly difficult to imagine how a tiny bit of noise results in a lot of differences. Again, I don't know the specifics of how lottery systems work, but if it's a pseudo random physical process with some degree of human input, I expect the butterfly effect would matter a lot. Dice are a good example. The amount of noise you need to add to make a parallel version of yourself roll differently on another timeline, even they both roll at exactly the same time, is probably trivial. Why? Because the human physical action is basically a random process in itself. Force, angle, hand position, landing angle, etc. People won't, and often can't, control these things with much precision and are largely driven by lots of tiny subconscious effects.

If an extra red light causes you to shake the dice or spin the balls an extra 0.1 seconds longer, it seems likely that the outcome will be different.

[flappyeagle]

What is considered morally reprehensible today that was common practice 30 years ago?

What were the most important historical events of the past 30 years?

What technologies have widespread adoption today that were rare or nonexistent 30 years ago?

[_moof]

That's not that long from now. Most people will have lived through the present day. Aside from the obvious "get rich quick schemes," I'd probably ask, "What do you think I should know?"

[bko]

How would you answer "What do you think I should know" from a time traveler from 1994?

[MarcellusDrum]

Assuming they are American:

1) Don't go to war in Iraq/Afghanistan, it won't be worth it in the long run, and you'll be ruining your life for nothing.

2) Amazon, Tesla, and Bitcoin.

3) Try to get a career in software. It will be a high paying job for decades to come.

4) Most cancers still aren't treatable, so stop smoking.

[bko]

1 is kind of useless. It's not really actionable. Plenty of people knew that. It would make it all the more devastating to watch it unfold regardless.

The rest is solid advice although it wouldn't really pay off until 2010+. 4 is solid advice but also pretty well known at the time. I don't know if smokers were banking on a cure for cancer when deciding to continue smoking.

What would we say to someone to give them that would help them live their best life?

[MarcellusDrum]

> 1 is kind of useless.

I'm talking about them personally not enlisting in the army and fighting in those wars.

[traceroute66]

> 2) Amazon, Tesla, and Bitcoin.

Pah forget all that.

If they're really from 1994, just tell them to beg/borrow/steal as much money as they can and shove it all in to Apple stock !

[spywaregorilla]

Knowing (2) invalidates the usefulness of (3)

[globalise83]

When you hear about something called bitcoin, buy a few.

[_moof]

Probably by telling them about 9/11.

[speedylight]

I would divide my time… first few hours would be about the general state of society… what happened with climate change? - Are people still dying from COVID? - How’s china doing (economy specifically)? - Is the iPhone still popular? - Did we get to mars? Another moon landing? - Are we still waging wars? - Did Elon succeed with Twitter? - Is congress still useless? - Is the queen still kicking? - Did the metaverse succeed?

Then a quick 15-30 mins on stock prices, crypto to make a quick buck.

The rest of the time I’d spend asking questions about any new discoveries made in science. - Did we discover any new elements or fundamental particles? - Did mRNA cure cancer? - Is fusion economically feasible and if so how? - Any new math equations? - Are micro plastics harmful? - Did Analog computers make a come back? - Did we achieve quantum supremacy?

In reality though I probably wouldn’t think about asking half of these questions.

[zeepzeep]

> In reality though I probably wouldn’t think about asking half of these questions.

"How did I get here?!" "Help me! Can anyone here understand me?"

[gaws]

> Is the queen still kicking?

She'll be dead by then.

[admissionsguy]

Where did the bombs fall?

What areas were free of fallout?

What areas survived the subsequent unrest and famine unscathed?

Where did the new centres of power form?

Who the powerful people are?

What did they do during/after the war that made them powerful?

[0xdeadb00f]

Damn..

[ammmir]

An interesting question on many levels.

Is a notebook and pen the only conveyance of information or will you have your memories retained on the return to the present day? Do you devise an encoding scheme prior to departure to maximize the bits of information that can be written in the notebook?

How will you act on the information when you return? Will people believe you? Do you want to come back with some verifiable information so people will believe you? Before leaving, announce that you will visit the future, and ask everyone with a private key to sign a message to their respective future selves, so that their messages from the future can be verified by the present self?

What is the goal of this endeavor, to personally profit or for all of humanity to profit for mistakes that will be made between now and 2050?

You could spend the entire 24 hours teleporting to various places on Earth (and possibly Mars and the Moon), talking to random people in all socioeconomic strata of society, all the while taking copious notes and have them write signed messages in your notebook. Kind of like a yearbook from the future.

Or do you ask specific questions about science, medicine, advances in technology, materials, so you accelerate humanity's progress forward?

When you return, do you decide to mint your notebook as an NFT collection? Auction it off? Go on Joe Rogan to talk about it? Keep stock, crypto, market prices to yourself so only you can benefit? Become a philanthropist with the profits?

So many questions.

[soueuls]

In 2050 my daughter would pretty much be the same age as I am right now.

I think I would just spend the afternoon with her, would be interesting to talk with your own kids as complete "equals".

Would not bother too much with climate change or scientific progress. I am an idealist, I like the idea of humans giving up their whole life for their one true obsession. I think, shortcutting this with insider information would make my regular life after I am back, a bit disappointing.

[trifit]

What’s the price of Bitcoin? Who’s the current president? What companies on the Fortune 500 are still the same as 2022? Does climate change have an impact on our lives?

[eimrine]

I can answer that now: 1. Several millions but you need to chose right fork 2. Some guy which is a random student now. 3. Not any but closest to that is TSLA. 4. Definitely yes.

[Ekaros]

2050 is what 28 years from now? With current trend current students are quite young to run for that office...

[rjmill]

> Some guy

C'mon, it's 2050! I sure hope the president isn't always a guy by that point.

[lancesells]

7 chances left. 6 if you leave off this next election of Biden / Trump.

[AnimalMuppet]

Hillary may run again in 2024. At a minimum, I don't think she's ruled it out.

If Biden doesn't run again, Harris almost certainly will.

[f0e4c2f7]

Probably a lot of physics and materials questions.

Y'all got any of those...superconductors yet?

[Ekaros]

Or any new fancy battery chemistries? Or other fun novel materials you are aware?

[f1refly]

Does the default gtk file picker have thumbnails yet?

[samjanis]

That made me rofl. XD I just had to reply.

[bradlys]

Lottery ticket numbers for immediate use when home. Best performing stocks (or whatever metric I need to leverage options effectively) and trends within the next ten years. (With some analysis on long term trends)

Where real estate goes up the most over the following 25 years. What cities/regions become most enjoyable to live in compared to now and have a clear upward trend still within them.

After that - I’d probably just look into safest, cleanest, and most reliable places to live because I’m stupid FAT at this point (billionaire status within a few years) and my only concern is my well being in life.

I’d also like to read books or find out information about how people viewed events from 30 years ago and what they think should’ve been done and what we could do going forward. Oh and if there’s any ground breaking research or inventions in the last 20 years that I could take back and make a fortune on. That’d be dope.

[quickthrower2]

1. A prediction for 2023 I can use as evidence that I have traveled to the future. And provide trust to set me up for the next step:

2. An important message for people currently in power in 2020s. Devised by the 2050s wisest people to persuade to avoid the big mistake we made.

3. And, well hoverboards yet?

[spywaregorilla]

We have a 24 hour period to defy causality with instantaneous travel and the scientific community is already expecting and prepared to run some experiments. This is no time for selfish self serving questions.

[tluyben2]

It is too short a timespan; the year 2500 would be better. Statistically I'll even make it to 2050. But yeah, it's so short that I think; what to invest in long term and memorize the larger financial/crisis recession points (there should be maybe 3-4 before that time). Obviously there are things that can jump out on your travels; if there was a nuclear war then you'll know or a significant other event and you can learn the dates and prep for them.

I would be more interested in knowing what people would figure 24 hours in 2500 though.

[danijelb]

What language is the most useful/widely spoken globally? What career is most paid? Which stocks or other investments gained most in each decade from 20s to 50s? What is the most useful new scientific discovery? What are the current political/economic blocks? Which things/trends that existed already in 2022 or earlier are still relevant in 2050? Describe the current youth/pop culture. Describe an average day of an average person

[t-3]

Honestly, I'd be most interested in whether or not I'm still alive. I'm sure there are plenty of ways to get rich or famous, but those aren't exactly interesting. It's highly doubtful any significant changes in society or human nature would come about in such a short time, and politics are more likely depressing than useful or inspiring.

[altdataseller]

How would that info be actionable?

[t-3]

How would any info be actionable? You're solidly in paradox territory here, might as well go for personal interest.

[jakelazaroff]

If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, wouldn’t that change what you did today?

[spywaregorilla]

Well I'd probably make sure to finally try out base jumping. Oh look, there's a spot open tomorrow. Hopefully not too late.

[AnimalMuppet]

Selfishly: Who won the Super Bowl each year since 2022? I could get a pretty nice return from Vegas on that info.

Scientifically: Do you have a theory that reconciles general relativity and quantum mechanics? What does it explain? What does it predict?

Socially: What admissionsguy said. Where did the bombs fall? Where was safe?

[libertine]

The funny question: Is Skyrim still being re-released?

The selfish question: where should I park my money to get the most out of it, like land, stock, etc?

The serious question: What message do you want me to pass on to our leaders back in 2022?

[jleyank]

If you’re a pessimist, take a Geiger counter and lots of iodine. If you’re an optimist, take a notepad and a pencil or two. And as others have said, get the name of the key startups and sports victories.

[Ambolia]

If there is a collapse maybe they would be the ones asking questions. Which key infrastructure know-how and technical knowledge would you take from 2021 to help the people from 2050?

[deanmoriarty]

I would write down the top performing public securities for every year, then go back and buy options on those to maximize my profits. Make it my new job. That would be soooo sweet.

[patrickz]

1. What are the best performance stock from 2022 to 2050? 2. When did the biggest bull and bear market happen? 3. Will I still be alive in 2050?

[Phithagoras]

1) Has the Riemann hypothesis been solved yet?

I'd have to think for a while for the others

[casion]

What year did I die? 2022 or did I get a few extra months out of it?

[carbonsoul]

1. What do I need to do in order to escape this nightmare?

2. How can I help others?

[Jaruzel]

I'd ask "Which tech or disruptive startup from 2023 onwards is now a massive success, and when did they start offering shares?"

Once back in my own time, wait and invest accordingly, then reap the profit.

[Jaruzel]

Tsk, downvoters.... you know you'd do the same. I'm just being honest.

[traceroute66]

Hello 2050 person, tell me more about Elon Musk's fall from fame.

;-)

[mbg721]

"Elon Musk? He's legendary! He singlehandedly made lucha libre the most popular sport in the world in the 2030s. What about him?"

I mean, how many people remember Ronald Reagan's acting career?