Hypothetical: Get your time travel assignment here.

[Rain Man]

Here's the situation: you show up for work on Monday morning, and as you're drinking your initial cup of coffee or Dr. Pepper, an e-mail arrives from your CEO with one of those red exclamation points on it. You open it up.

In a surprise move, your company is moving all operations to the Central African Republic. You can relocate there at a wage of 50 cents per day, plus the company will cover the cost of your first 100 rounds of self-protection ammo, or you can get laid off. You take the second option.

You start browsing through the job ads and come across this one:

Local community college seeks documenting historian. Must be open to new cultures, foods, and experiences.

You answer the ad and you get an interview immediately once they see your resume line item about proficiency in the Microsoft Office suite. You go to the interview and they ask questions about how much you need coffee and electricity and indoor plumbing. They seem satisfied with your answers.

A few days later, you get the nice e-mail that you’ve been accepted into the Twin Pines Community College Time Travel Project as a documenting historian. As it turns out, one of the dental technician students wired some machinery together oddly and created a time machine, so now Twin Pines is the world leader in time travel.

Your assignment will be to go back into the past, live for a year, and document what you see. You can pick your landing location anywhere on the earth. The only challenge is that the time machine picks a random year and no one can control it. You’ll arrive on January 1st according to the Gregorian calendar and depart on December 31st, but no one will know what year until you arrive. The machine overweights more recent years, so the odds are 50 percent that you’ll be more recent than the year 700 AD, and 80 percent that you’ll be more recent than 1,100 BC, but conceivably you could go all the way back to the earth’s beginning.

If you accept the job I’ll randomly assign you a year, and you’ll have to report back on where you would go and what you would try to document. Assume that you will be equipped with a translation device and that you will not change history if you interact with it. Any people or creatures will merely see you as an oddity and minor annoyance, kind of like Michael Strahan on TV shows.

Who wishes to enter the Twin Pines time machine? Volunteer in the thread and I’ll assign you a year.

[KC_Lee]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

You almost had a gimme other than a minus sign. You get 1492 BC, which still probably has a lot going on.

So far just a large group of people wandering around the desert so far. Wonder if they need some directions?

[Rain Man]

So remember, once you get your assigned year, you have to tell us where you're going and what you're going to study.

[Beef Supreme]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

You can pick your location after you get your year. (There's a little time-space dissonance involved in that, but don't worry about it.) I'm assuming that people are doing their research and will soon pick their locations and research plans.

The job pays $11.37 per hour plus health care benefits. You also get entry into the pension plan but absolutely cannot make contributions in the past.

You get the year 1994 AD. No one knows anything about that year since it was before the internet was really rolling.

Tonya Harding wins the national Figure Skating championship. Nelson Mandella becomes president of South Africa. Haiti invaded by USA. First Genetically Engineered Tomatoes Available — use of GM Foods in US approved.

Netscape Navigator released. OJ Simpson flees police in his white ford bronco. Major League Baseball Players Association begin 232 day strike causing 1994 season to be cancelled.

The Whitewater scandal investigation begins. A New Outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus. Lisa Marie Presley marries Michael Jackson. Kurt Cobain commits suicide

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by KC_Lee

So far just a large group of people wandering around the desert so far. Wonder if they need some directions?

It looks like you could clear up some confusion about when Thutmose I died and when Hatshepsut took over.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thutmose_I

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatshepsut

Hatshepsut would be a cool person to follow around. Female pharoahs were rare and she was notable.

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

You will enter a time of great turmoil and bad fashion. 1973 AD. You'll be able to see the development of cars such as the Pacer, Gremlin, and Pinto unless you opt for other areas of study.

I was born in August 1974 Idk the odds of you landing in the whereabouts of mom and dad conception of me. ?

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by KC Tattoo

I was born in August 1974 Idk the odds of you landing in the whereabouts of mom and dad conception of me. ?

I hope you don't go back to the day of conception, because that would be kind of perverted.

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

You will enter a time of great turmoil and bad fashion. 1973 AD. You'll be able to see the development of cars such as the Pacer, Gremlin, and Pinto unless you opt for other areas of study.

Lucky ****er.

[FlintHillsChiefs]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

You might want to bring your own fire. 45,984 BC. That one should be fun.

Too bad he can't invent the wheel and bronze tools/weapons and get all the cave-women.

In.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by BigChiefTablet

Tonya Harding wins the national Figure Skating championship. Nelson Mandella becomes president of South Africa. Haiti invaded by USA. First Genetically Engineered Tomatoes Available — use of GM Foods in US approved.

Netscape Navigator released. OJ Simpson flees police in his white ford bronco. Major League Baseball Players Association begin 232 day strike causing 1994 season to be cancelled.

The Whitewater scandal investigation begins. A New Outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus. Lisa Marie Presley marries Michael Jackson. Kurt Cobain commits suicide

You definitely should hang out with Kurt the day before ... you know... and how fun would it be to go along in the white Bronco?

[Beef Supreme]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

You definitely should hang out with Kurt the day before ... you know... and how fun would it be to go along in the white Bronco?

Maybe I could find Nicole's real killer.

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I hope you don't go back to the day of conception, because that would be kind of perverted.

That was for Dartgod. I'm gone back to 1331ad

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by FlintHillsChiefs

Too bad he can't invent the wheel and bronze tools/weapons and get all the cave-women.

In.

691 BC. There has to be a lot of cool stuff happening then. You should consider going Olmec to figure out those big stone heads.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by BigChiefTablet

Maybe I could find Nicole's real killer.

Oh, I hadn't thought about that. Excellent call.

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by Hammock Parties

You have 21st century knowledge at your disposal. Making a few denarii will be easy. Shit, you can probably find a drunk guard and steal his uniform and do whatever you want the whole year.

Life in 71 AD is not a video game...

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by KC Tattoo

That was for Dartgod. I'm gone back to 1331ad

It might be even more perverted for Dartgod to do it.

1331 seems like a good year if you like seeing medieval battles.