The best time/place since sliced bread.

[Argeus the Paladin]

Some people say Warring State Japan is the best place to be. These gets cast down from credibility as raging weaboos and shot.

Others say the Medieval Age is the place to be. These gets sneered upon as heavy armor fetishists and also shot.

Still others think it's better to live in Ancient Greece, esp. Sparta. These are accused of having read/seen nothing other than 300 and also shot.

Still others consider Rome at its height the place one should definitely be. These are alleged to overlook such atrocities as the crucifix and decimation, and also shot.

Enough with the jokes. On the topic at hand. Which historical period, aside from modern day, would you believe to be the best time, the "Golden Age" of humanity? I'm making ther assumption that modern day makes for a "Diamond Age".

[antaeus]

i'm with you in assuming modern day is a diamond age.

if i lived 100 years ago, i'd probably die of polio, influenza or small pox... 500 years ago, then the plague is gonna get me...

i like modern dental care.. i'd rather not have a tooth pulled just because it's got a small cavity. a ceramic filling that takes less than an hour to do and lasts 15-20 years suits me fine.

as for all the war? i'm in an age and a nation where if i want to fight in a war, i have to choose to.. and i have a military that respects human life enough to be concerned if even one person is shot in the line of fire. i'd much rather be sitting here in front of my computer than being forced to stand in the front of a shield wall or greek phalanx.

in short.. there's no other time i'd rather be, even if i was forced to make a choice, i'd probably say i was happy to live in the 1990s or 1980s cause at least in the 1980s there was alex kidd and in the 90s there was doom

[Argeus the Paladin]

But if you can choose another time, at least 100 years from this day? That's the point of this thread.

[antaeus]

But if you can choose another time, at least 100 years from this day? That's the point of this thread.

your op didn't specify a time, therefore i chose a time that was recent because i dont like the thought of dying of the plague or having teeth un-necessarily pulled.

for that matter, i'm not keen on being bled when i have a cold, or drinking mercury every time feel off colour. so that counts out renaissance europe and pretty much any period in chinese history. my sense of humour would have me burned as a witch or a heretic pretty much any time in european history...

so i dont have that many options left. my current life expectancy is somewhere just over the 80 years old mark... if i go back further than 100 years there are very few places on earth where the life expectancy ever went over 40 - including any and all chinese dynasties and ancient rome... in fact as far as i can find... the best places to live, pre 1900s western civilisation appears to be anglo saxon england around the year 1000AD where the life expectancy spiked temporarily at 40 or so.. (this is according to google's life expectancy through history pages) seems like an anomaly though cause shortly before and after it goes back to the usual 25. it could be because of the brief period of peace after the danelaw was absorbed and before cnut did his thing.. so.. i think i'm gonna have to be one of my anglo saxon ancestors in that brief period of prosperity.

http://www.google.com/search?q=life+...d=0CIcBEMkBKAs

[Charontas]

your op didn't specify a time, therefore i chose a time that was recent because i dont like the thought of dying of the plague or having teeth un-necessarily pulled.

for that matter, i'm not keen on being bled when i have a cold, or drinking mercury every time feel off colour. so that counts out renaissance europe and pretty much any period in chinese history. my sense of humour would have me burned as a witch or a heretic pretty much any time in european history...

so i dont have that many options left. my current life expectancy is somewhere just over the 80 years old mark... if i go back further than 100 years there are very few places on earth where the life expectancy ever went over 40 - including any and all chinese dynasties and ancient rome... in fact as far as i can find... the best places to live, pre 1900s western civilisation appears to be anglo saxon england around the year 1000AD where the life expectancy spiked temporarily at 40 or so.. (this is according to google's life expectancy through history pages) seems like an anomaly though cause shortly before and after it goes back to the usual 25. it could be because of the brief period of peace after the danelaw was absorbed and before cnut did his thing.. so.. i think i'm gonna have to be one of my anglo saxon ancestors in that brief period of prosperity.

http://www.google.com/search?q=life+...d=0CIcBEMkBKAs

Those life expectancies, are they expected averages? If so, then I would say that having a live expectancy of 25, 30 or 40 doesn't automatically imply that those years are the best what you could hope for.

I mean, weren't infancy deaths way more common in the past? I would imagine that all those early deaths really pull the average down.

So if you survived your childhood, and manage to avoid diseases, starvation and agression from your fellow man, I don't see any reason why you wouldn't be able reach an respectable age.

[antaeus]

So if you survived your childhood, and manage to avoid diseases, starvation and agression from your fellow man, I don't see any reason why you wouldn't be able reach an respectable age.

yeah that is true.. was just a 5 minute google search so i'm not totally convinced of it's accuracy.

you can always narrow down life expectancies down... i'm sure if you take slaves out of the equation, and infant mortality then life expectancy for a roman citizen who doesn't serve in the army is probably respectable. so long as you dont live in one of the periods of plague... you can do the same with modern life expectancy... mine is 80.25.. if you narrow it to males.. it drops to 77.9, if you narrow it further to my ethnicity, it climbs back up over 80...

i guess the thing is, prior to the 19th century, there was virtually no such thing as middle class... so you were either one of the diseased starving poor masses or one of the wealthy - the fact that there was more poor skewed stats downwards... but they are a fair representation of that society.

i think i'm gonna stick to my anglo saxon england.. just for kicks i'm gonna say it would be better to be an ealdorman than a peasant... i'm gonna avoid sweet foods like the plague so i dont kill my teeth too early..

[uzi716]

I love living in the modern world

but if I had to chose it would be when everyone feared the Muslims

[bushbush]

i love modern life, at least i can live past 40. But if i really have to choose something different:

maybe a mid-level official or a rich person in early and mid Tang Dynasty. It was the golden age of imperial China. The economy was prosperous. The ruler was competent. The intellectual atmosphere was open and tolerant. I would love travel with many of the greatest Chinese poets ever around the beautiful places in Southern China and party and write poems with them, unburdened by troubles of life.

[Argeus the Paladin]

^^ Before the An Shi Rebellion rolled in, of course.

That would have been the golden age of literature and philosophy in China, I suppose. Just one snag: like their Western counterparts, the greatest poets did not end well. Take Li Bai for instance. Even today they haven't found his remains, or so the rumors go.

[Ronojoy1917]

either as some Native American tribe or Australian Aborigines any time before the white men came

[Kawee]

I wouldn't mine living in the Golden Age of Athens or Rome at it's height, assuming I'm one of the richer people. Life is always so much easier at the top, of course.

[thursgun]

I wouldn't mine living in the Golden Age of Athens or Rome at it's height, assuming I'm one of the richer people. Life is always so much easier at the top, of course.

I was about to post the same. Rome during the 'Pax Romana' as a noble with sex slaves, roman baths and coliseum fights .

[bushbush]

I was about to post the same. Rome during the 'Pax Romana' as a noble with sex slaves, roman baths and coliseum fights .

just make sure you arent the slave lol

[Heathen Hammer]

Nazi Germany as a white German heterosexual male.

[bushbush]

Nazi Germany as a white German heterosexual male.

and die in a war?

[Babur]

and die in a war?

fighting against the USSR?

[Heathen Hammer]

fighting against the USSR?

Also against Americans, British and you get to wear a Hugo Boss outfit while at it. Sounds pretty sweet to me.

[CiviC]

In the Age of Louis XIV as a rich noble with the rank of marshal or admiral, either fighting in Europe either in the colonies. I just love musket volleys and salvos from wooden ships. To explore the Caraibes, or the Indian and Pacific Oceans in the Age of Explorations, to stay at Versailles and to participate at great battles in Europe is something that deserves to leave modern life. The period 1660-1740 would be the best for me.

[torongill]

Not the best place and time, but it would be great to see Nelson in person.

[Squiggle]

I guess if I was filthy rich I wouldn't mind living in the Pax Romana, but generally I like this time period. I mean, its bland relative to most of history, but its safe and all of lifes modern luxuries are, after you've tasted them, indispensable.

Edit: Or maybe the life of a pirate is the life for me, yarr harr! Could be interesting.