Ask Lemmy

35023 readers

1194 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

6) No US Politics.

Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

Bluetreefrog@lemmy.world

TheSaneWriter@lemm.ee

TheSaneWriter@lemmy.thesanewriter.com

Asudox@lemmy.world

lemmy_bot@lemmy.world

beefbaby182@lemmy.world

ModeratorCan@lemmy.world

neidu3@sh.itjust.works

asudox@lemmy.asudox.dev

candyman337@lemmy.world

candyman337@sh.itjust.works

You wake up as a random 10-year-old in 2002 with your memories intact. In your hand is a USB drive with a backup of Wikipedia as of Jan 1 2025. You must keep your identity secret. What do you do? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by vateso5074@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

97 comments fedilink hide all child comments

If anyone wants a specific goal, have it be either

Earn a Nobel Prize by age 18

Become a billionaire by age 18

For the sake of the scenario, assume the following:

If anyone learns that you are mentally from the future, you immediately have an aneurysm and die. You somehow just know this and therefore must keep your true identity secret.
You wake up as a random 10-year-old specifically in 2002, not your 10-year-old self, and not the age you actually were in 2002.
You live in the same country, speak the same language(s), and are the same ethnicity as your old self. Your biological sex matches your gender identity (flip a coin if you are enby).
You have 2 parents and 1.5 siblings. Your family earns exactly the median income for your country.
The person whose identity you now inhabit left a diary. You have no other knowledge of your new identity beyond this.
If you try to look for your old family, you learn they had a different child in this timeline who is the same age as you but is not you. They will not believe any attempt to convince them you are related.
The USB drive is compatible with any standard USB Type A connector. It is just large enough to fit all of Wikipedia, including hosted media and files, and the drive is read-only. The drive cannot be reformatted.
Stock market trends remain generally consistent for 5 years. After that, assume the butterfly effect will start to skew the results, so you cannot predict what will happen after 2007. Sports become too unreliable to bet on with 100% accuracy after 1 year.
I feel like I shouldn't need to clarify this one, but no grooming kids. Assume there is a magical force that prevents you from dating anyone until both you and they are at least 18, and no one is attracted to you unless they would also feel okay dating someone who is your mental age.

EDIT - Additional clarifiers, if this helps:

The USB drive is not based on 2002 technology but is fully compatible with it. Assume it uses a novel architecture that can repurpose itself to be compatible with whatever system it is plugged into, as long as it fits the correct type of USB port.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That brings to mind how the fuck most of us are going to avoid spending a nice long time in mental health treatment for the sudden change of personality and loss of memory

[–] vateso5074@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Yep...you have a diary which likely covers big life events and chunks of recent history, but I hope you're a good actor.

My thoughts were similar to what others had suggested, find some way to simulate an accident, some sort of head trauma, or a serious illness to help sell why you suddenly can't remember much and why your personality is different. But I think a whole lot is going to require trying to be as invisible as possible for a while and try to pick up context clues from observing people around you.

And in the scenario above, even if simply explaining your situation honestly didn't suddenly kill you, I would hate to imagine the reaction of these parents who realize their child is effectively dead and has been replaced by some sort of fae changeling.