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The original was posted on /r/nostupidquestions by /u/Driacle on 2023-09-09 21:54:20.
The way I see it, there are two possible directions that this scenario could take:
- I travel back in time to September 9, 2001 and it's my current mind in a child's body. I could attempt to get the attention of my parents or my elementary school principal, neither of whom would do anything but laugh at me.
- I travel back in time to September 9, 2001 and it's my current adult self. I could attempt to get the attention of my local police station or news channel, neither of whom would do anything but laugh at me.
Either way, it seems that if I were to invent a time machine and travel back 22 years, there's nothing I could actually do to prevent 9/11. Even if I somehow made it to the World Trade Center and pulled the fire alarms to evacuate the skyscrapers, that wouldn't stop any of the people on the four planes from dying. So how could an ordinary person convince the authorities to stop the hijackers from boarding the planes without any evidence? I feel like, even today, if I could predict a terrorist attack a few days into the future, there's nobody I could talk to who is powerful enough to do anything about it.