Would you be interested in meeting your direct ancestor, let's say, same gender as you, but 2500 years older?

Question

you meet each other in a time machine, and are both the same age. Language differences... translator present.

What would you think would happen?

Answer 1

I would loooove to meet an ancestor from that time.  They could tell me all about the things that were going on then and how they did things.  It would be so awesome!

Answer 2

I would tell him not to kill Jesus but to listen.

Answer 3

Yes. I'd like to meet an ancestor like that even though he would probably bash me over the head with his club and sacrifice me to the god of the volcano or something.

Answer 4

That is a great idea...wouldn't we all love to do that.

Answer 5

I'd love to! I'd probably talk their ear off asking about them and what things in their time were like. They'd run away screaming that they'd never have children after I was done with them... :)

Answer 6

It should be easy for me to say yes, but difficult to act on it!

Answer 7

if you are travelling forward in a time machine and see yourself comming back, probably best to avoid eye contact.

Also dont drive with your arm out of the window of the time machine, your elbow will fossilise.

Answer 8

How about 100 years ago ??

Answer 9

What the h**l......that might be cool.

Answer 10

uh... that would be 500 BC.... uhm... she'd tell me about the latest new fashions from Rome and I would give her a packet of hair bleach, so she wouldn't have to use urine to bleach her hair. Yep, that's what they used back then.

Answer 11

I would not want to meet such a person; as to a translator, where would the translator learn the language?

Even though I grew up in a very primitive lifestyle, it would be so advanced compared to someone 2,500 years ago.  We would have nothing to talk about, nothing in common.

Answer 12

I'd rather meet my desendants from 2500 years in the future

Answer 13

Yes, that would be very interesting. But which one...?

Answer 14

no not really they would probally be boring as h**l, you'll have to explain everything that has happen in the past 2500 year

Answer 15

I would think its awesome

Answer 16

I think most people would be interested in meeting their ancestor.  The real interesting question is what would you ask them if you only had a limited time?  Since you meet in a time machine each does not get to see the world the other lives in.  Say you had 3 hours to talk to your ancestor from 2500 years ago in an area completely separate from the world either of you know.  I (being an anthropologist) would want to know as much about subsistence patterns, material culture and religious concepts.  I would try to share the same types of information with them.  They would not know of the world in the same way I do.  I would try to explain how small the world had gotten, how we can and do travel great distances in very small amounts of time.  The immense variety of languages, cultures, religions, governments, etc.  I would tell them of the ghastly errors we humans have made in our relations with each other and that I hope the information can change things (but I doubt it would do any good).  I would also share one of my favorite quotes with my ancestor...

But we were born of risen apes, not fallen angels, and the apes were armed killers besides.  And so what shall we wonder at?  Our murders and massacres and missiles, and our irreconcilable regiments?  Or our treaties whatever they may be worth; our symphonies however seldom they may be played; our peaceful acres, however frequently they may be converted into battlefields; our dreams however rarely they may be accomplished.  The miracle of man is not how far he has sunk but how magnificently he has risen.  We are known among the stars by our poems not our corpses.  

- Robert Ardrey

Answer 17

oh that would actually be really cool id like to meet every single ancestor of mine my age i just love history

Answer 18

Intrepid, We all will be doing that soon I think, but not in time machine.   Jimmy.

Answer 19

who wouldn't want to meet one of their ancestors. it would answer questions about where they came from. people at earlier ages care less about ancestry but when you get older you care and wonder more and more about your ancestry