• antsu@lemmy.wtf
    cake
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    101
    ·
    1 month 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
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    95
    ·
    1 month 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.

      • anomnom@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        1 month ago

        I am by no means excusing anything. In fact, Feynman, Einstein and Edison have their issues too.

        Bohr, was Dutch…

        Leonardo was left handed?

        Anyway Marie Curie would be at least as interesting to talk to as any of them, just maybe bring personal dosimeter for peace of mind.

  • ssillyssadass@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    62
    ·
    1 month 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
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 month 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
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    56
    ·
    1 month 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?

    • cynar@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      24
      ·
      1 month ago

      Apparently he didn’t trust patents etc. He would come up with fanciful ideas, that sounded vaguely plausible, as cover for what he was actually working on.

      At this point picking apart the Good, the bad and the cover is an …interesting exercise.

      • Maeve@kbin.earth
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        27
        ·
        1 month ago

        Look what Edison did. I don’t blame him for not trusting how the business world works.

      • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 month ago

        i feel like the covers have ended up like star trek tech, made up nonsense but it gave people ideas that turned out to be good

  • Frezik
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    39
    ·
    1 month ago

    Feynman, over a beer, at a strip club.

  • stelelor@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    29
    ·
    1 month ago

    Feynman, mainly because he was an amazing professor and knows how to talk to people.

    Einstein and Newton disliked people, so they would be terrible conversationslists outside their areas of expertise. I think that was true of Leonardo as well. Edison is also out because he was a dick.

    • adhocfungus@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      1 month ago

      I was going to say Feynman for the same reason. Outside his classes it sounds like the guy was a lot of fun to be around.

      • Hadriscus@jlai.lu
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 month ago

        I liked the part from his autobio where he recounts cracking safes open. Pretty fun stuff indeed. Less so the ones where he invents modern plastic and helps with the atom bomb

    • Jankatarch@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 month ago

      You could absolutely blow leonardo’s mind away with modern knowledge such as “washing hands before performing surgery is good actually”

    • w3dd1e@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 month ago

      Yeah I was just reading a book that mentioned something Feynman said and it’s something I feel is true for me as well.

      Don’t remember word for word but it was something like “Any subject is interesting if you look deep enough.”

      I feel like Feynman and I could have a riveting conversation about knitting for 3 hours even though neither of us are passionate about it.

      Those are the people I want to talk to.

      • Echolynx@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 month ago

        Interesting that he supposedly said that, given how much he dunks on philosophers.

    • drath@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 month ago

      Feynman’s way overrated, though. Sure, he was a smart enough guy to land a job on Manhattan project and university prof afterwards, but the only reason people know him are the books written by batshit crazy groupies (he didn’t write any) and based on his elderly ramblings, so none of the stories in those are even remotely true.

      • j_overgrens@feddit.nl
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 month ago

        While not exactly on par with Einstein, Newton or Tesla, he did win a Nobel prize and is considered a luminary quantum physicist.

  • HiobsTriops@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    28
    ·
    1 month 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
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      1 month 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
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 month 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).

      • TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        1 month ago

        You’ll be the smartest person in the room (graveyard) as their brains have rotted away and you will win any discussion. They’ll have nothing to challenge your arguments. I don’t think this will have any scientific value though. Except maybe from a psychological perspective, as you’re an idiot trying to argue with a grave.

  • ragas@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    1 month 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
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      1 month 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
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 month 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
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 month 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.

        • Bloomcole@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 month 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!