But a time traveler could invest like a sonofabitch. He would be the richest and could buy anything he wants.
Yes, that would be the easiest way to get rich, no doubt. It almost wouldn't be any fun though. I mean, you go back to 1978 or 2003 and find Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg. After that, you have all the money you need. What if instead, you could find out a company's strategies and seemingly interject yourself at the perfect time. You would be seen as a genius. Plus, you would know when a chick digs you and when you're wasting your time. Or if you have invisibility you could just sneak around and..... well, you know.
Imagine the land that you could acquire that would lie over vast oil fields or under new cities. Think of the valuable patents you could hold. You could buy 1000 shares of Berkshire Hathaway for $11,000 in 1963 with a worth of 1.54 billion today. If you are the richest man in the world it rains hot chicks and you don't have to be worry about them digging you.
Right, one trip to the past would make you richer than you could ever imagine. It just seems like it would get old. Plus, if you were to buy vast oilfields or gain a patent before anyone else, you may destroy or marginalize the technology and do harm to civilization. And don't think this can't happen. Look at Biff Tannen. To some extent, but this would never get old. EVER. I mean the chicks that hated you, you could spend time trying to change them. Even they'd be fun.
Get old? Think of the things that you could do! You could find the lost ark of the covenant a few days after it was lost by bribing a few ragheads. You could kill Mark David Chapman on December 7, 1980. You could be in Dealy Plaza with a Hollywood Panaflex movie camera pointed in the right direction. You could warn Napoleon that the Prussians were on his right flank at Waterloo. You could meet Leonardo and Abraham and Robert E. Lee and Einstein and Marilyn Monroe and Winston Churchill or your father as a young man. Not to mention travel into the future . . .
Stole my thunder. I think most people would choose flying or invisibility and both are cool, but how awesome would it be to go back and forth through time? That would be my pick too.
I don't think going back in the past or even forward in the future would ever get old. I just wonder if you went far enough into the future - past the day you died - how would that impact you? That said, invisibility does have it's appeal and it would be tough for me not to choose, but ultimately, I think you'd have more fun with time travel.