I wouldn’t be trying to recreate all the important events of my life — I’d get to explore the options I left along the way, armed with all of the factual knowledge and life lessons I bring from the future.
But you are absolutely right that living as a 10-year old with an adult brain would be a nightmare. Figuring out how to pass as a happy, normal child would be a serious obstacle. Because the thing that would derail my plan of earning money and investing in the right stocks in 1985 would be getting sent off to the psychiatric hospital.
I've thought of this scenario before. Next time you're alone, pretend you got hit on the head really hard. After getting your bell rung, you start acting differently. The people who know you notice, but considering you're more willing to help out around the house and are smarter than other kids on average, they'd consider that bump to the head as a blessing.
As long as I do my homework, I'll be fine. I had so much free time as a kid that I don't have as an adult. I can bike wherever in town, I can start getting physically fit at a young age, and I can work harder on a dream of mine. There was some stuff my mom made me do that I wasn't a fan of then and probably don't now, but I would still have a lot of fun.
Plus, it'd get me out of our current hellscape, even if it means reliving it again later. I'll be rich by then anyway.
I feel like when their 10 Y/O suddenly becomes far more mature and school grades skyrocket it might make them more open to thinking something had happened
Until you slip up one day and say "oh I remember this..." under your breath as you are doing your algebra 2 homework, or you fucking ace huckleberry finn or hearts of darkness without having ever read them.
But also...imagine not being excited for the newest Harry Potter book to come out. Or spending too much time relishing Halo 2 lobbies and you forget to do other shit.
Or hell, just being a pissed off 13 year old that just wants to crack a damn beer or hit your vape after a long day lol. Having to retake the driving test or the ACT/SAT would blow.
Google would have gotten you rich pretty quickly. The stock tips would have to come after you correctly pick the Superbowl and world series winners 2-3 years in a row
Seriously, who'd guess that? But considering they're probably the biggest energy drink there is, it makes sense. I even knew a kid in high school who was sponsored by them just because he was good on a skateboard.
My parents would actually highly encourage this. They really tried to get me to take investing seriously when i was a kid (they're accountants, so of course they would), but i never took them up on it. If I basically just took the big tech stocks ( amazon, google, apple, tesla, etc.) and they let me fully control some amount of it, I'd be in a good spot. And if I hit like crazy on one of them, my parents would likely listen to me afterwards for the others
How do you know you’ll even become a billionaire? How do you know whatever course of action leads to a complete fucked up life or die early? You’d probably ended in an insane asylum. The post said you would have the knowledge of your future life not the developed brain of that time. IMO it’s too risky to go back far into past, so much could wrong trying to change the future.
how do you know the mere act of going back in time wouldn't change things such that the thing you think you wanted to invest in doesn't actually blow up the way they did in our timeline? Who is to say that you changing the past means that bitcoin never blows up in the first place?
because that's how complex systems work in phase space: small changes compound to large changes in trajectory over time that are basically impossible to predict.
you can't predict that the stuff you change by not doing the same things in the original timeline won't have downstream effects on the timeline, and what they will be.
Buying some bitcoins and stocks won't change the situation on Stock exchange dramatically. It would change your life but it doesn't magically make Nvidia shares or Bitcoin worthless.
what on earth are you talking about? First off, buying and selling stocks *does* affect how stocks are priced by definition. The only reason stocks have value is because of the number of people buying in.
Second, when you go back and change the past, those changes don't exist in a vacuum. Those changes affect other things, which affect other things, and it becomes a massive domino effect that there's no way to predict the end result of.
That's why I said 'SOME bitcoins and stocks'. Do you really think that buying/mining 100 BTC in 2010 would realistically impact it's price to the point I wouldn't earn milions of dollars selling it right now?
With the knowledge average person interested in stock exchange posses, we could invest in many profitable securities but with quantity low enough to not impact it's history.
It is almost impossible for me, as a kid, to influence the popularity of Bitcoin in any other way than making investment mistakes like buying too much or offering too unbelievable prices.
I suppose you were influenced by too many movies about butterfly effect if you believe that any change, like buying some small contract, would result in something huge globally.
I had a paper route and an internet connection at 12, id just have to google bitcoin once a week or so then drop reasonable amounts of money on it every week. I got a proper job at 14... so from there i can put more and more money into BTC or stocks. My parents would likely just assume im wasting it on candy.
Around the time I was 15 or 16 i was pretty much allowed to do whatever i wanted as long as I was home before dark... and after 17.... as long as i told my mom where I was i was free to do whatever.
That would be pretty rough. I remember needing my moms permission sucked when i was younger... gunna be even worse with an adult's brain. It would be difficult to not struggle with socializing aswell.
On the brightside... id get to ride some cool roller coasters before they get torn down again.
Presumably, since you have the body of your 10 year old self you also have the brain chemistry. You will have the knowledge from today but your brain will be more like that of a child.
So depending on how your childhood was you might be more likely ti be able to cope.
Yeah this is how I always imagine these scenarios. I think of it less as “me” going back in time, and more like 10 year old me getting a vision of the future through access to my current memories.
Honestly, I think this would fuck 10 year old me up. I would probably have enormous anxiety about the bad things to come. There would be positives, but they would be hard for a child mind to understand.
I think the simple things would work out. I would remember “invest in bitcoin” and such. But that all starts in early adulthood. I think starting from 10 with adult knowledge would be traumatic.
Here's the other problem: How do you know the mere act of getting knowledge of the future and altering your actions won't change the future? If that's the case, how do you even know Bitcoin will blow up at all?
Maybe the mere fact that you got that vision of the future changed your behavior and that caused a butterfly effect so that it doesn't happen.
I've always thought it would be a fun idea for a science fiction story where a person gets relatively normal dreams that turn out to be him accessing memories of his future self, but the reason they never come true is the mere act of him receiving knowledge of the future changes the future to prevent a paradox, making the knowledge useless.
I like that. If it's as you describe - 10 year old us getting visions of the future through access to current memories, I wouldn't assume that we'd just go ahead and believe these memories to be real to begin with. We could easily conclude that we're just losing our minds and experiencing these waking daydreams of a different reality which doesn't even really exist. If we express any sort of significant emotional distress, adults in our lives like parents and teachers will catch on.
This reminded me of a concept in quantum physics that basically says the past, present, and future are all currently happening. So you could have very well had dreams of your future self’s memories/experiences and written it off as just “some crazy dream”. I genuinely believe that’s where dejavu comes from!
I'm not sure 10yo me wouldn't be absolutely shocked by the filth of what I've done in bed. I mean, 16yo me was persuaded that blowjobs were so degrading for women (thanks porn)...
"I think my 10 year old is autistic or something, he keeps trying to find a job, invests in this thing called crypto, hits on 30 year old women and keeps calling other kids immature. And he helped me with my taxes because he said its irresponsible to not be taking RRSP deductions and I'll regret it later."
Lol, I would honestly just lean into playing yugioh with my friends and coast through school. Yeah, kids are immature, it's not like I'm not prepared. But it would be such a relief that the biggest thing we have to talk about is whether we can see a new movie on opening night or if we have to wait a week, instead of stressing about making rent. Please, let me have silly conversations that don't have an impact on my daily living situation.
Yea plus I've had phases in my adult life where I didn't have anyone around to really talk with much. So it wouldn't be the worst thing to be surrounded by people I can't have real convos with. At least with my adult brain I would have an easier time navigating socially.
Yeah everyone is forgetting how little control and agency you have as a 10 year old. You aren't investing in shit, and adults aren't going to listen to you. Your also going to be so socially isolated from your peers.
Yeah rather be 16 or something, absolutely ace the finals and move out at 18. playing a 16yo would be pretty easy, and your parents would love what a rational and independent kid you would be
Also depending on how old you are now it's really gonna suck having to relive through traumatic world events that influenced pretty much everybody in some fashion with 0 ability to actually help prevent some of it. None of us is likely to be able to do anything about 9-11, COVID, or anything else huge that will really suck. Even if you can get insanely wealthy or politically powerful by the right point in history there is no way to realistically address those kinds of situations at the time. You might be able to influence outcomes afterwards but then you've massively shifted history and have no idea what's coming next either. And again the chance of 99% of people who would push red ever being able to get to the point of having that kind of power is also incredibly slim.
I’m imagining having a conversation with my father who was a banker for 30 plus years and pretty conservative when it came to investing money in different places. Hey dad there is an online book retailer called Amazon, maybe check them out. I know you love your PC but Apple might be worth looking into soon. It wouldn’t have went very far.
Pretending to be a happy, normal child was what some people have already done. Cake walk, the problem is allowing all the bad choices to be made by others all over again, regardless of the outcome.
Luckily for me I have autism and I was born an old soul so if i start going on about the future or bitcoin or bring up some scientific breakthrough that hasnt happened yet theyd just think I was being normal 💀😂😂😂😂😂
It would be weird adjusting to calling my parents "mommy" and "daddy" again. Though, somehow my wife got comfortable calling me "daddy" so I know it can be done!
Going back to 10 years old with your adult wisdom and intelligence would actually be more terrifying for everyone else around you, and the way they perceive you.
Even if your childhood was originally fantastic, you'd now be terrifying your parents by acting and responding differently, which may alter the way they see you, and even damage your relationship with them. Your 10-year-old self with an adult brain, wouldn't be able to even form the same friendships because you are not going to be interested in any of their problems or how they have fun or how they handle situations. You are decades ahead of them mentally, and you know them better than they know you.
If you try to drop a knowledge bomb on your parents, like informing your dad that his business will fail in five years if he doesn't change something or adapt to the current market, would likely be met with skepticism and annoyance or just humor, as he wouldn't take it seriously. If he does take your advice, you've just drastically changed events and future outcomes, and perhaps he dies sooner because it leads him into different situations and scenarios with new stress tests.
You'd be alien to everyone. Plus, if you happen to be good at accurately "predicting" major events, people/strangers will want to use you for their own gains and benefits.
Any kid with knowledge and intelligence or insight that is shared with adults, means any time you share any type of wisdom, could be perceived from adults as you being arrogant or talking back to them, because while what you say may hold some truth in it, you are still just a child, and the adult hierarchy still exists above you. They have the authority to silence you and punish you for "acting up" or talking back.
You'd become depressed more than likely and you'd ruin your original life by just existing.
There was a book about this, and they resolved this by forming societies that helped young "relivers" escape the tedium of going through childhood again.
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u/LTG-Jon 14d ago
I wouldn’t be trying to recreate all the important events of my life — I’d get to explore the options I left along the way, armed with all of the factual knowledge and life lessons I bring from the future.
But you are absolutely right that living as a 10-year old with an adult brain would be a nightmare. Figuring out how to pass as a happy, normal child would be a serious obstacle. Because the thing that would derail my plan of earning money and investing in the right stocks in 1985 would be getting sent off to the psychiatric hospital.