At 10, I won’t have much money to invest, and I doubt I’d convince anyone to invest on my behalf. So, the butterfly effect on the markets will be at least 10 years away. I’d spend my first 5-6 years soaking up the knowledge that would be most relevant to me for the late 00’s, then from 16 or so I’d use that knowledge for well-paid gigs to earn money to invest, first into the stock market (short term), and later into startups I know will succeed. By 22, I’d start sponsoring the Cincinnati zoo, as a side project. By 24, I’ll use my influence at the zoo to beef up security in the gorilla enclosure. The kid will not fall in, Harambe will live, and today’s timeline will never materialize. Then I’ll retire. You’re welcome.

Bitcoin

Probably throw it through the wash on accident. First week.

First, see if they have the wining numbers for Powerballs that were never won. Something in the tens to hundreds of millions. Then use the entries on the stock market to invest in things that will take off, allowing you to sell before they tank.

Then take all that money and put it in to left wing think tanks that will make this mess go away entirely.

I would do anything to start transitioning before testosterone has a chance to wreck my body…

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Pretty horrifying scenario, my wife would be 21, I would be 10.

If I had money to invest in things when I actually waw back in 2002, I would have been set for life today. My high school economy class that year played some game that used real world stocks but with virtual money. We started with 10k and it went all school year; whoever had the most money at the end won a prize (a huge bag of candy). I won and all I had done was put half my money into Google and the other into Apple at the start and never touched it or even looked at it.

In this scenario, I still don’t know how the info would necessarily help me get rich unless it had enough technical knowledge to recreate things before they “naturally” were invented so I could take credit. Presumably, I still would not have real money. I could probably get a lot of bitcoin. I used to have like 2 or 3 coins people gave away for free becsuse, at the time, they were worthless.

Throw it in the trash, so Biff finds it and ruins the timeline.

I probably start voicing concerns about the housing situation in 2006 then bet everything shorting it in 08. From there I buy a foreclosed house study electrical engineering and attempt to get a solar panel startup going cooperatively in the hopes of pushing 2014 Obama to focus on full renewables.

I don’t need a lot of money, I need a future.

I can think of a few things I do not like about the world today that I imagine I could improve in a scenario like that. They include:

• Much of the world’s communication is mediated through centralized social media platforms that use opaque algorithms to determine what content people see. (Yes, this is a very Lemming concern)
• There is a significant rise in (mostly) right-wing populism worldwide, driven, I think in part by the above.
• Corporations and governments are increasingly able (and motivated) to block access to their digital systems from general-purpose computers that their owners fully control. Even the mainstream press saw Microsoft Palladium as a nightmarish power grab in 2002, but did not react the same way to Google SafetyNet in 2014.
• I do not own a Gordan Murray Automotive T.50.

Social media

2002 is before anybody had a convincing lead in this field, but blogs were already popular, and on the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog kid. I could start planting the seeds of more advanced federation capabilities through open source development right away. I’m assuming I have a computer of course, but I think even if I didn’t I could probably get my hands on something older just by expressing interest and aptitude.

After laying the technical foundations and establishing some credibility as a developer and technologist, my goal would be to build something with significant mainstream appeal by the time Facebook opens to the public in late 2006. I’d need access to money at that point, whether my own or through investors, though as a federated system, I wouldn’t have to bear all of the costs (nor would I have the ability to extract all the profits, but even a hundredth of Zuck’s net worth is obscenely wealthy).

Populism

I honestly do not know how much of this is due to the present day social media environment, but I’m sure it’s a significant factor. I like to think that by tuning the design of social communication tools for more thoughtful discussion, more thoughtful leaders would thrive. Barring that, if I was obscenely wealthy, I could put my thumb on the scale by less honorable means, and I like to think I wouldn’t be so terribly corrupted by the money and power as to use it for evil.

One idea that comes to mind for political discussion is used in Pol.is and (perhaps ineffectively) Twitter community notes: surface points where people who usually disagree are in agreement.

Protecting general purpose computing

This one is hard to the point I’m not sure it’s achievable, but It’s so important. The obvious approach is to launch a mobile operating system, which would have to at least stay even with Android. Microsoft tried this in 2012, and that was too late despite their entry attracting some diehard fans. If I have the superior OS and majority market share, I’m in a good position to resist attempts to mandate locked bootloaders and remote attestation.

The good news is it’s not hard to do a better job with some fundamental design decisions given perfect hindsight, and with Android being open source, it wouldn’t be hard to support Android apps. There weren’t a lot of dependencies on Google’s services in the early days.

This one would be reliant on the social media play for capital and credibility. It would need to be well underway by 2010, which is a tight timeline, but not impossible.

An absurdly expensive sports car

If either of the above plays works even moderately well, I can have my 11,500 RPM redline V12 three-seater. If not, I’d still be in a position to make a bunch of money, and I’d be trying some of them in parallel.

Nobody’s going to give a ten year old control of an investment account just because they say they have some good ideas about the stock market, but if my hypothetical parents are anything like my real ones, after a couple months of demonstrating nearly-unbelievable skill at investing fake money, I’d be able to talk them into letting me invest a couple hundred dollars of real money and snowball things from there. I’d also know which startup ideas worked, what decisions were important in their success, and which founders I wouldn’t feel bad about ripping off.

Even as reality diverges, I think certain trends were inevitable. Social media will happen. Smartphones will happen. Streaming will happen. EVs will happen. Generative AI will probably happen, but I think I might try to push that one back a few years if I was in a position to do so. Flying cars, fusion power, and space colonies probably aren’t happening by 2025 regardless of how many butterflies flap their wings.

Play Metroid Prime on my GameCube again.

Realize I’m somehow older than I actually would have been, would be the first thing I do. Next is do the best I can to act like a 10 year old and not cry over the fact I’m back in 4th grade again.

Though, knowing me, I’d absolutely get caught if I’m still mentally the same person I am now. I mean, if I inhabited the body of an extrovert, I’d be doomed because the parents would go from seeing their extroverted kid become immediately introverted yet unable to care what others think of him/herself. They’d see their child suddenly become a radically different person.

Also, ain’t no way I’d be able to make it through a few days before getting caught because I guarantee I’d be suspicious because my way of speech would absolutely slip through. There ain’t no way a 10 year old child would be spouting things like Chinese swears like NMSL or speaking Japanese words or short phrases or getting away with swearing, which if I’m still mentally me, would most likely if my internal filter comes with me on this nightmare.

And don’t even get me started on my movements when I’m at home. I don’t always walk like a normal person when I move and I’m pretty sure that’s the autism and not being corrected by my parents.

Well, my immediate problem is the general lack of memory and personality change (can’t really rely on a 10 year old’s diary.) So… I’m probably going to need some sort of convincing injury to blame.

After that is the hard choice. I could toss the USB and just live. But the nature of the situation suggests I’m supposed to do something. At minimum I’d want the means to investigate the scenario. Running away has merits, but this sounds like a safe, stable situation, and it seems wrong to abandon the family this kid belonged to.

I’ll need a side hustle that works for a 10 year old… maybe trading cards or something along those lines. The money does not matter as much as the hustle and laying the ground work for an early interest in business and money making schemes. After that, retail arbitrage, then a bigger payout. Cashing in a big prize for a discovery or winning the lottery would draw too much attention, but sports betting could work. Then use that to move into financial markets. Moving slowly but setting things up to ramp gains by 18. I know that misses the goal, but doing it earlier depends entirely on the family situation. 20 is probably more doable.

So what you’re saying is that I have 14 years to kill him