7bob7:
Around 25-30000 years ago when the worlds population of
homo sapiens was about 2 million (as far as we know)
no pollution no tv just an existance where you rely
on yourself and not your dead end job for everything.
Yes I am anti-social and yes there are too many of us

THIS. I want to be a caveman. Life would be so much more simple. You just live your life with none of the modern bullshit we're subjected to.

ForestFox:
A jungle planet, populated by dinosaurs.

Give me a knife and I'm a god.

This is before the raptors get you. What?

The problems with past times is that they're always lacking in things we take for granted and would have a hard time living without, at least if we knew what we were missing. If we weren't we wouldn't know to be happy about the time we lived, especially not with all the problems of past ages.

The romanticised image of the middle ages is great, but they were called dark ages for a reason. If you retained your knowledge you'd most likely be burned as a sorceror, if you tried inventing comfort from today too. Then we had the plague, and not very much food. If you're lucky enough to be a noble and get some medical attention you'd be better off with suicide.

The same goes for many other ages. Sure, ninjas and samurais were cool, but you'd live in almost constant warfare, and no matter you're rank (unless you're emperor) you'd be not much more than a slave.

Pirates, don't even get me started.

Greece, roman times, is probably a pretty good bet. You have a society that (mostly) values knowledge, and is pretty refined, you have working medical procedures (better than most other times), you don't have to fear war as much, or getting gunned down by mobsters, you won't have to deal with homophobia as much as in other ages (unless in some (most) cities if you're female). But especially the romans ate pretty disgusting food, and their life expectansies weren't too great.

Taking all this into consideration, I think it would be pretty nice to be a native American before the arrival of the new ones. Cherokee, or one of the horse tribes that I can't remember the name of, perhaps.

The vikings were also sometimes a people that would be pretty pleasant to live amongst. Especially the Swedish vikings, who traded more than they thought. The norwegian ones that discovered Vinland (America) would be pretty nice as well, but they were usually more aggresive. The problems with the vikings were their disregard for the value of human life. Many people were killed in sports (one popular sport was for one village to raid the other, all for good fun, and not seriously, they wouldn't take any goods, but they would fight and with real weapons, not with the intent of really hurting or killing, but it did happen) for example. The advantages would be that they were very concerned with hygiene, when compared to other groups at the time, and that they had an abundance of food and trade goods.

Silver, that's a great analysis. It's also waaaay too intellectual for me. But when you can't beat 'em, don't take 'em on...

Me Ug Big-Club. Want fight now!

(Yep, I'd be a caveman...)

I think the best age is yet to come, but I'm an optimist like that.

If pressed, I'd say the Roman Republic, circa Marius/Sulla. I'm a ancient history junkie from way back.

I'd say about now; I'm torn between curiosity of the future and paranoia of a 1984 type world.

Last week, when I was on vacation.
Or a more make sensical suggestion:
I've always adored Steampunky things like Industrial revolution Britain, or simply artsy things like renaissance Venice.

Definatley the 60's, if only to see all the raygun-gothic diners.

Give me the 1920's anyday. The fact that I could walk around in a suit all day and not look like an estate agent or fancy-dressed reveller would be marvellous.

EDIT:
Obviously I would have to be fairly rich, and either survive the Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression or simply avoid 1929 at all costs.

Probably late 1800s, in some country not being colonized and not being America (too much racism in anything before 1970s). An awesome era in the arts. But if I was being honest, I'd have to say now just for laptops and iPods.

sammyfreak:

Jeroen Stout:

Any ol' Post-Modern life would be awesome. A world in which comminucation and information are seamless, filled with people who know the cliché's of life but accept it.

I am just curious, how would seamless comminucation and information improve the world? Would people really be happier for it?

The people of today wouldn't be -they're used to locking themselves in ;)- but the people of that world would be used to it, of course :)

Just about all the time that Judaism was still the predominant monotheistic religion on earth. (Dam you christians, stealing our thunder!)

Also the time when the Russian communist revolution was still seen as successful by anyone besides Russian dictators (How long did that last, a few years?)

corporate_gamer:
roman times, around the transition from republic to empire.

Got to agree. I'm reading a novel based in those times (First Man In Rome) and it's all quite fascinating stuff.