• antsu@lemmy.wtf
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    5 months ago

    Can I pick 2 and have them talk to each other instead? Would love to watch Hawking get Newton up to speed on some stuff.

  • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Are they time traveling to see me, or am I time traveling to see them?

    Because if it’s the latter, Hawking on June 28, 2009.

  • ssillyssadass@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    “So, did you ever have any plans to build that helicopter thing you drew?”

    “Chi sei? Dove sono? Come sono arrivato qui?”

    “Sorry, what?”

    • samus12345@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      You could use a phone to translate what people who speak in modern languages are saying, but I don’t know how well it would translate to and from 15th century Italian.

  • Maeve@kbin.earth
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    5 months ago

    Tesla. I feel there’s so much we don’t know, let alone understand, about his ideas. Have we overly sane/crazy washed him?

  • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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    5 months ago

    None. I give my spot to someone who wouldn’t waste it.

    I can’t speak on their level, and I’m okay with that. I’ve worked around some absolutely amazing geniuses in my career and I’m happy to be the worker bees in the arrangement. I’m no slouch, and I’ve done my own share of really cool stuff, but I wouldn’t waste such an opportunity on me.

    Give it to the Steve Baumels, the Tomas Bartas and the Jeff Linds of the world, the unsung bright spots in our tech march forward.

    I’ll save everyone a spot at lunch and try to get in on the group photo.

    • ns1@feddit.uk
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      5 months ago

      This was my first thought as well, sadly I’m probably not clever enough to fully appreciate and understand any of these people. If I’m not allowed to transfer my place then at least I can have some fun telling Da Vinci about planes and stuff

      • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        I spoke with Mr Baumel, socially for instance, on a few occasions.

        He carries on two conversations actively, about completely unrelated subjects, and can speak with authority on any of them in turn. And he’s listening to another conversation so if economics of late Sumeria or gauges of railways in Europe vs China get boring to him, he can ditch one and talk about artwork of early Iceland as vikings adapted their style with the change in local materials; or something.

        It’s dizzying to hear. He’s just not on our level.

  • DaddleDew@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Probably Edison but only to tell him how much of a fuckhead he will be remembered as.

  • HiobsTriops@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Hawking was probably way more familiar with the works, achievements and maybe even personal anecdotes of everyone in this post than I could ever hope to be. Thus, sitting down with him feels like the best deal.

    • cynar@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      He could give lectures, but the computer massively slowed conversations. He also apparently had a bit of a temper. Some of his colleagues took to wearing steel toe cap shoes because of him (electric wheelchairs are heavy).

    • lunarul@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Exactly what I was thinking. Plus he seemed to have a good sense of humor too. But on the other hand, it would take him much longer to respond to questions on the spot (usually he’d prepare answers ahead of time for interviews and such).

      • ohulancutash@feddit.uk
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        5 months ago

        He had a good sense of humour when it was about how great he was. A bit of a notorious asshole in other regards.

  • ragas@lemmy.ml
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    5 months ago

    Einstein.

    He was a generally great guy and had very progressive social views, so it would be fun to talk to him about the current state of the world.

    Also a lot of his theories around relativity and theories of quantum physics have been proven recently. It would be amazing to see his mind be blown when he realises both sides were right and what that means for how a theory of everything needs to look like.

    • parricc@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      To say he was a generally great guy really overlooks how awful he was to women. He was no doubt brilliant, but he had some very serious character flaws. And unfortunately, he had an echo chamber of peers and a rockstar celebrity status that only worked to reinforce his shitty behavior and backwards views. It’s not super uncommon for brilliant people to be absolutely nightmares on a personal level. Imagine being an absolutely brilliant scientist that gets married only to be completely forbidden from science and the things you love, and then reduced to being a maid for a madman with tons of insanely particular demands.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Yeah I’d love to discuss just the world and life with him.

      Curie would be fun too.

      Keep Newton away from me. And wasn’t hawking on the epstein island?

      • phx@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        As far as ones who actually did things there I’m not sure that Hawking would have even been physically capable at a point where he was famous.

        • ohulancutash@feddit.uk
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          5 months ago

          Hawking left his wife for his much younger nurse. Then, 20 years later, he left her for another much younger nurse. Proving that not only does nature abhor a vacuum, but that some people are only happy when someone else is doing the sucking.

        • Bloomcole@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Hawking was such a feminist he didn’t want to see women get on their knees.
          And he was so smart he figured out kids don’t have to!

    • mholiv@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Why? He was relatively contemporary and lived a pretty normal life relative to most of us compared to the historical figures.

      That and he was a mega sexist who made the lives of women in science much worse for literal decades.

      https://youtu.be/TwKpj2ISQAc

      • 4grams@awful.systems
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        5 months ago

        To be frank, if you put Angela on this list my answer would be her a thousand times over. Shes just so damn engaging, love her content.

      • 😈 Sat 🐱@infosec.exchange
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        5 months ago

        @mholiv Feynman was a smart theoretical physicist, but popular he was in “public” for being an asshole, unfortunately.

        Meaning: Feynman was surely popular among physicists, he did a lot of important work, but among public he was famous not for his work, but for normal stories like StreepClub :ablobcatpopcorn:

    • Cenotaph@mander.xyz
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      5 months ago

      100%. Not only can he explain all this physics to an idiot like me, he’s got more stories than anybody there

    • 4grams@awful.systems
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      5 months ago

      Agreed, not the person I respect the most or believe is going to reveal the most truth. But he’s the best one on the list to keep you engaged and entertained for 3 hours.

    • beemikeoak@lemmynsfw.com
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      5 months ago

      Feynman 100% as a man of the scientific community, I love having someone draw ridiculous diagrams to teach even crazier things.

  • MTK@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I would need like a decade of prep to have any meaningful discussion with any of them 😅