Other Times/Places Alive You'd Like to Have Been Alive

[Martinus]

The problem with any of these is it's easy to forget that the vast majority of people at such times were desparately poor.

For me I'd like to say some time during Victorian England (but even then to probably be an explorer / colonist, rather than in downtown London), but most people in the 19th century had a pretty rough life.

I think the implicit assumption in such speculations is that you could be a member of a relatively well-off upper class (without however being the ruler or any other "named" historical figure).

[DisturbedPervert]

No time in the past, that's for certain.  Reading about it is nice, a time machine would be great, but I'll skip the horrible disease, wife dieing in childbirth, random warlords slaughtering and raping my entire village, and shitting in to a bucket next to my bed.

[Agelastus]

Yes, the proviso is one would have to be rich. Plus the most interesting periods to see can be quite harsh on the rich. After all, one could say one would want to ride alongside Alexander, or see Gaul with Caesar...and then one looks at the next twenty years and realises exactly what did happen to most of the rich and important people who did do this at the time.

I think...I'd like to go back and see the Indus River civilisation, for the simple reason we still know so little about it and its' relationship with Sumer and the later Aryans of the Vedas.

[sbr]

No time in the past, that's for certain.  Reading about it is nice, a time machine would be great, but I'll skip the horrible disease, wife dieing in childbirth, random warlords slaughtering and raping my entire village, and shitting in to a bucket next to my bed.

Fo' Sho'

[Martinus]

My other picks: A French aristocrat during the middle of the 18th century. A philosopher in the court of Frederick the Great of Prussia.

[Caliga]

The future.  In like 800,000 AD.

MORLOCKS

[Ed Anger]

The future.  In like 800,000 AD.

MORLOCKS

or the past. I want to ejaculate into the primordial ooze.

[Josephus]

A French courtesan circa 17th century cause all they did was have sex.

[Razgovory]

I'll go on a limb here.  The US in the 1990's.

[MadImmortalMan]

Sparta, a week or so post Thermopylae. 300 widows to be serviced.

Though to be fair, being a Spartan, you'd probably be way more interested in the 300 young boys without "patrons".

Not to mention that Spartans were pretty happy to share their wives with each other. You don't have to wait until after Thermopylae.

Plutarch gives an anecdote something like this:

A Spartan visiting Athens was watching the law courts, where a man was being tried for adultery. One of the Athenians asked him,"What is the punishment for adultery in Sparta?". The Spartan replied,"There is no adultery in Sparta." Confused, the Athenian asked,"But, if there were adultery in Sparta, what would the punishment be?" The Spartan thought for a moment and then replied,"The offender would have to give the accuser one bull with a neck so long it could stand on top of a mountain and drink the water from the river in the valley." The Athenian said,"That's impossible. There are no bulls with a neck so long." To this the Spartan answered,"You are just as likely to find a bull with a neck that long as to find adultery in Sparta."

That's probably not it exactly, but it's mostly right.

[Admiral Yi]

The US right after WWII, as long as I'm not black.  Everybody is making money.  Your country owns the whole world.  Idiots are getting good jobs.  All women are thin.

[Agelastus]

The US right after WWII, as long as I'm not black.  Everybody is making money.  Your country owns the whole world.  Idiots are getting good jobs.  All women are thin.

And smoke. Are you a smoker?

[Martinus]

The US right after WWII, as long as I'm not black. 

Or Asian. Or gay. Or a woman.

[Admiral Yi]

And smoke. Are you a smoker?

Yup.

[Caliga]

or the past. I want to ejaculate into the primordial ooze.

You're not supposed to do shit like that.  Didn't you read that one book?  You'll come back to the present and find that we have President Hitler, not Obama.