Keep someone alive...

[NoOne852]

I'm not sure if he qualifies, but I think Steve Jobs would be someone worth keeping around. I would be curious to see what else lied inside that mind of his. Not saying he was on par with Tesla, but he certainly was one creative guy.

If not Jobs, then I would say Tesla himself because of what I think are obvious reasons. Not to mention that his justification has already been said earlier in this thread.

...Now I wonder what it would be like if the two were to meet...

 

[Xanadu84]

Tesla seems the obvious one, but I have a soft spot for Turing. Also, the circumstances around Turing's death were horrific.

 

[DugMachine]

Do musicians count? Jimi Hendrix, Curt Cobain, Nick Drake, Dimebag Darrel

 

[DugMachine]

ubersnipzornova

Just wanted to say I love your avatar

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

Random thought from Fatso's mind #3498725:

If only Scharnhorst didn't die after Dresden...

Anyway, pick a historical figure who you believe died before their time... then postulate how the world would be a different place if they lived an extra... however long you'd want them to live after their date of death.

I'ma gonna go for Frederick III & 12+ years... Europe would be a better place for it, with the possible exception of a lack of a Poland (no disrespect). No WWI/WWII, France/Germany would bury the hatchet quicker, Britain wouldn't have so many 'don't mention the war' jokes and the US/Russia wouldn't be lording it so much. *shrug*

For me I would have to say Sun Yat Sen, I would love to see how China would be different if this pro-democracy figure was alive and didn't have Chiang Kai-shek ruin the KMT/pro-democracy in China.

 

[Dangit2019]

Tesla, an additional hundred years so that the rest of the world can catch up to him.

After I read the Oatmeal's comic on him, I wish that he took all the years of life Edison had and kept them for himself.

 

[chadachada123]

Tesla seems the obvious one, but I have a soft spot for Turing. Also, the circumstances around Turing's death were horrific.

Indeed, although I don't know a whole lot about his impact (other than 'freaking huge'), his legal punishment at the hands of the UK were certainly disgustingly cruel.

Tesla, an additional hundred years so that the rest of the world can catch up to him.

After I read the Oatmeal's comic on him, I wish that he took all the years of life Edison had and kept them for himself.

That EXACT thought popped into my head. I seriously considered typing "Would it be possible to just make Edison not exist ever and give those years to Tesla instead?"

The good news is that the land and building where Tesla's lab was located is abandoned and is being put up for auction. There's a website run much like Kickstarter that is used for non-profit events, called IndieGoGo, with an IndieGoGo campaign specifically set towards buying this land and, if possible, turning it into a goddamned museum for the late Mr. Tesla.

It's located here if you want to contribute (27 days left), and has already surpassed its goal by over $300,000! (From $850k estimate and goal for purchasing the property)

Though you may already know this if you saw the second of his two comics on Tesla.

Link: http://www.indiegogo.com/teslamuseum

True fact: There's not a single freaking Tesla museum in the country. We should change this right now. I'm just glad the land now likely won't go to the guy that wanted to build luxury condos there.

 

[Aerosteam]

Edd Gould.

Damn it, leukemia! Why did you do this?!

 

[Dallas-35]

Randy Rhoads - He was so young and yet his skills on the guitar rivaled Eddie Van Halen's, it would have been amazing to see how good he would be today.

 

[deadpoolhulk]

H.P. Lovecraft. because i like his stuff and wish there was more of it. selfish i know

 

[Filiecs]

Jesus, forever.
Just to see the reaction.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Buddy Holly or really any musician that died too young, like Hendrix, Jim Morrison and so forth.

You'd rather they were alive today and something like the Eagles or Aerosmith? Creaky doddery 60-80 year olds still desperately trying to keep the magic alive while the audiences get smaller and smaller?

I wouldn't keep anyone alive. Without all of the people who died in the very specific ways that they did I wouldn't be the person I am or possibly even exist. So for the sake of my own being I'll let the universe lie.

 

[Corax_1990]

Leon Trotsky and JFK.

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

Bill Hicks and Lenny Bruce.

Truth tellers gone waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay before their time. And would probably have a field day with the current condition of the United States.

Reagan, probably the greatest president since Lincoln.

Well, speaking of Bill Hicks...

 

[SckizoBoy]

snip

Apologies if the message is too long, but I'm a history student and this is the kind of "what if" stuff I live for.

Ah, a man after my own heart...

Still, if there was ever a fault of Alexander, it was ambition... he was just as capricious as his kinsman Pyrrhus in the sense that he could never really sit still. That said, had his army been willing, it may have been interesting seeing him attempt to take on the western Mediterranean, though one, he undoubtedly preferred eastern aesthetics and two, as you say his Persian holdings would've disintegrated within a year of his departure.

One thing that never ceases to puzzle me, though... how did Seleucus get the lion's share of the empire afterwards? He was a relative nobody in the Somatophylakes, wasn't he??

The Kaiser.

It'd be fun to see how WW2 would have played out, if it would have played out at all, if the Kaiser had not fallen from power. Perhaps his defeat in The Great War would lead to Germany never becoming involved in the fight.

I think that's a case of 'stayed in power' rather than continued living, because he died in exile (in the Netherlands rather ironically) in 1941...

 

[crazyfills]

I know that it would be hardly world changeling but if Robert Pershing Wadlow hadn't died from his infection I would have loved to see how Mutch he would have grown
(he was the tallest man In recorded history)

 

[Thaluikhain]

Kitchener?

Dunno how he would have dealt with the problems of trench warfare better than the others, but losing the UK's best regarded soldier in 1915 was a blow.

I've heard that the problems were insurmountable, though, that so many people were sent to their deaths because there wasn't a way to win, but they didn't have the option to stop trying.