Say you’re given a time machine. How far back would you go and what would you do?

A recent study of 6,000 responses says the most common answer is: “I’d go back 90 years, to the 1920s, and assassinate the young Adolf Hitler.”

I can understand that. History is full of villains, but Hitler was responsible for the deaths of 50 million (mostly) innocent people. The sheer magnitude of Hitler’s offenses makes Nero, Attila the Hun, Ivan the Terrible, and Osama bin Laden seem like pikers.

How would subsequent history have been different if Hitler had met with an “unfortunate accident” in 1925? We can’t know. Perhaps an even worse leader would have arisen to lead the Third Reich. Germany in the 1920s was in deep economic recession and Hitler was not the only person with bizarre ideas vying for power there. Perhaps a better military strategist would have arisen and Germany would have won the war.

And what if that other German leader had begun research on the atomic bomb earlier than Hitler did, resulting in Germany’s getting the bomb before America got it? How many Allied capitals would he have incinerated? Perhaps he would have destroyed the entire planet and Earth today would be a lifeless, radioactive desert. Then wouldn’t you be sorry you’d done away with the young Hitler!

Any scenario for changing the past includes some strange paradoxes. The best known is the Grandfather Paradox in which you travel back in time and kill your grandfather, thereby preventing your own birth. Since you were never born, you could not travel back in time and kill your grandfather. Hence your grandfather would have lived, you would have been born, and you’d now be able to travel back in time and kill him, in which case you would (again) not be born, and…well, can you see how this ends? Probably not.

The Grandfather Paradox also invalidates the killing Hitler idea: if Hitler had been killed in 1925, you would not today be motivated to use your time machine to return to that year and kill him. In that case, Hitler would have lived and risen to power, and…well, here we go again. 

There’s also chaos theory, which I don’t fully understand, but it’s apparently got some scientific credibility. Chaos theory says that even tiny changes---say, turning a butterfly loose to flap its wings in China---can result in huge, unpredictable consequences later on. Better not tamper with time.

But the time machine idea intrigues many people. If I could travel back in time, I’d go to the first century of the Christian era and talk to Jesus a few days after his resurrection. I’d prepare a list of questions in advance for my interview with him. It would be a long list.

Then I’d go back to the late nineteenth century, to Louisville, Kentucky, and meet my great-grandfather, who launched a risky business venture there that has been a blessing to all his descendants. And I’d hang around long enough to meet my Dad as a young man. I think he was probably someone I’d have been proud to share a name with (though there were times later on when I couldn’t see that).

Then I might travel to Paris in the 1840s, where I’d look up Frederic Chopin and ask him to play the piano for me. I’d make sure Chopin stayed in good health so he could write many more waltzes, polonaises, and etudes than he did. Some people die too young, and this time around, I’d make sure Chopin wasn’t one of them.

And of course I’d visit Boyne City, Michigan, in the late 1940s so I could know my wife Pam as the winsome, charming little girl her Daddy knew her to be. But on that visit, would I be the 70-year-old man I am today, or would I be the little boy I was then? Would Pam and I even like each other as small children? Maybe not.

So I guess if I had a time machine, I wouldn’t go near it. It’s best to leave some things alone. But it’s still fun to think about.

Richard H. Schmidt is a retired Episcopal priest, editor and author who lives in Fairhope. He can be reached at courier@gulfcoastnewspapers.com.