If you had the capability in the future and the necessity to give a message to your past self (to save a loved one, give yourself financial advice, prevent a disaster) , what would be some ways to convince yourself that "you" are really "you",that you were sending a message from the future and it that it is not just some crazy nut or look alike, telling you some fantastic story?
What if this message could prevent untold suffering (killing Hitler before he rose to power, stopping the spread of a devastating global disease, preventing the murder of someone in your family) how would you convince yourself to take action.
Limitations, You would only be able to utilize medium that exists today I.e. Telephone, Radio, television, Email, to talk to yourself and not actually be able to talk to yourself face to face. You only have 15 minutes to give this information, so you would not have that much time to convince yourself that "you" are "you".
That is a tough question there. I know that I can convince myself that I am me by some of the stuff I had to go through in life. The war and my military career has give me plenty of stuff to use to be able to id myself as me.
The problem I would have is if I did go back in time and change something however small would I still be there in the future to actually go back in time to change it. What if that, lets say disaster, that I change actually causes more harm if it does not occur than it did by occurring. We have to think hard because what ever we do in the past will send shock waves into the future. Those waves are not always for the best.
The movie the butterfly effect kind of show the repercussions of messing in the past.
If it is only a matter of convincing me its me I have some very specific instances that I would quote. As far as I know no one else would have that information.
I am unsure if I would desire to change thing too much though as I firmly believe all tht happens is for a reason. We just do not see the why most times.