Since I posted some weirder ones, here’s one that’s a treat. I like both so much I can’t choose.

  • edgemaster72@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Spacetime travel, why learn from a book when I can show up on the spot and learn first person. Look into my eyes. I am the primary source now.

    Plus you could get future knowledge that isn’t in any book yet.

    • agamemnonymous
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      4 months ago

      Knowledge density. I can walk into my local library and run my hand along the spines of every book on the shelves faster than I can properly observe most individual significant historic events. You could consume all the written knowledge of Isaac Newton faster than you could even introduce yourself to him.

      Sure, there are benefits to primary sources, but there are benefits to curated compendiums.

      • ramble81@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        Downside. You’d still be stuck in this crappy world, it’d be interesting to see how much you could change it before becoming a target by the plutocracy.

  • remotelove@lemmy.ca
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    4 months ago

    Is the van painted yellow and driven by a bouncy redhead who seems to give her passengers massive doses of LSD? If so, I’ll take the van.

  • Mango@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Gimme dat TARDIS! I’ll get immortality tech from the future and read on my own time!

  • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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    4 months ago

    Van? I dunno. Can we make it a phone booth? And can I pick up Carlin and Kaufman and River on the way by? The world needs one of them at a time and we’re kinda out.

  • Lacanoodle@literature.cafe
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    4 months ago

    I feel like even if I absorbed the knowledge … I’d just forget it. Thats what happens with us all. Unless I get brain upgrades here it ain’t worth it.

    Also part of the fun of reading books is the experience of reading and learning, not the end product.

  • VelvetStorm@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    The van is far far more valuable to me. Time travel to the future and get cured of various issues plaguing my body and also get to just travel the world when I want? He’ll yes.

  • friend_of_satan@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    With the van you could bring other people with you, but the ring only benefits yourself. Van for sure. You could go back in time and grab Einstein, Carl Sagan, Feynman, Alan Turing, etc. and bring them to the current era, or the future.

    You could go back to 2016 (or much earlier) and change the modern political landscape.

    You could change global warming.

  • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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    4 months ago

    Van. I can read a book, killing baby Hitler (or equivalent) is another thing.

    A reasonable proportion of the paper books I meet are full of fluffy crap, anyway.

    • Zahtu@feddit.org
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      4 months ago

      That’s the reason why I am choosing the ring. I can’t honestly justify the implications of having the ability to time travel, and what changing the future would mean for humanity as a whole. Even if I am staying within my timeline, can I justify having the ability to change awfully things and not doing it?

      Knowledge please. Better yet, also intent of books so that all motivational and social skill books knowledge would be mine. Otherwise, having knowledge about all things is great, but being able to apply them is another matter

      • LowleeKun@feddit.org
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        4 months ago

        I mean the van can still teleport places without time. That in itself is pretty powerful. No need to travel time. You could also first travel to a remote place and then travel in time for minimized impact.

        But the ring of course is also extremely nice. Question i have is, would you start to forget the informations gained thorugh the ring or would it work like a magical brain library, preserving the stored information and being endless?

        I was torn between both but i would take the van. While knowledge could make me smart, rich and powerful, there are just so many places i would like to see. The van probably also fits more than one person, so i can take friends along.

        • Zahtu@feddit.org
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          4 months ago

          Good point. But it still are the moral implications of having the ability to travel through time, that would concern me personally. If I have the ability to do (supposedly) good, and deliberately not choosing so, i couldn’t have peace of mind anymore

  • southsamurai
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    4 months ago

    Knowledge please.

    While it would be more entertaining to travel like that, and you could eventually gain most of the knowledge that way, the absorption is more efficient, and you can then apply what you’ve learned in a wider range of ways.

    Mind you, I hate traffic, so I can’t say I wouldn’t pick the van for just that reason if it was offered at the wrong time :)