Can I pick 2 and have them talk to each other instead? Would love to watch Hawking get Newton up to speed on some stuff.

To make it fair you should get extra time with hawking

"So, did you ever have any plans to build that helicopter thing you drew?"

"Chi sei? Dove sono? Come sono arrivato qui?"

"Sorry, what?"

None. I give my spot to someone who wouldn't waste it.

I can't speak on their level, and I'm okay with that. I've worked around some absolutely amazing geniuses in my career and I'm happy to be the worker bees in the arrangement. I'm no slouch, and I've done my own share of really cool stuff, but I wouldn't waste such an opportunity on me.

Give it to the Steve Baumels, the Tomas Bartas and the Jeff Linds of the world, the unsung bright spots in our tech march forward.

I'll save everyone a spot at lunch and try to get in on the group photo.

Are they time traveling to see me, or am I time traveling to see them?

Because if it's the latter, Hawking on June 28, 2009.

Feynman, mainly because he was an amazing professor and knows how to talk to people.

Einstein and Newton disliked people, so they would be terrible conversationslists outside their areas of expertise. I think that was true of Leonardo as well. Edison is also out because he was a dick.

Tesla. I feel there's so much we don't know, let alone understand, about his ideas. Have we overly sane/crazy washed him?

Edison but instead of talking to him, I Rick Roll him for three hours.

I would need like a decade of prep to have any meaningful discussion with any of them 😅

Hawking was probably way more familiar with the works, achievements and maybe even personal anecdotes of everyone in this post than I could ever hope to be. Thus, sitting down with him feels like the best deal.

Einstein.

He was a generally great guy and had very progressive social views, so it would be fun to talk to him about the current state of the world.

Also a lot of his theories around relativity and theories of quantum physics have been proven recently. It would be amazing to see his mind be blown when he realises both sides were right and what that means for how a theory of everything needs to look like.

With Marie Curie but perhaps via zoom.

Davinci for sure because of the breadth of genius and imagination seems more approachable to a casual conversation, plus history has less on him.

Other's have so much depth in their fields that I wouldn't be able to converse intelligently on anything they are famous for. Having a chat with Feynman would be my second choice because his talks to laymen audiences are quite good.

A pint or five with either would be fun.

Alan Turing, the father of modern computer science. I'd also probably s his d because he's technically a dilf. 🫦

Consent?

As if any of these people want to talk to ME for 3 hours?

Edison. For 3 hours, in a padded room, where no-one can hear his screams.

Bohr, for sure.
I've read Feynman's biography, which, for the record, I would not recommend to everyone.
But he's witnessed Einstein and all of these early physics luminaries, and by his memorable account, everybody was in awe of Bohr, and Bohr only.
So I'd like to hear what the ruckus was about.

Leonardo to blow his mind and maybe make a time paradox

Tesla to explain to him that he really needs to take some financial advice because it's not about him, it's about people using his techniques.

Edison to punch in the face repeatedly for an hour

Tesla. Gotta know about the death ray.

As a biologist, I'm offended that there isn't Darwin, nor Mayr, nor Lesquereux, nor Jay Gould nor Margulis.

So I take Leonardo. I also like to draw and paint. I would like to say Marie, but unfortunately I'm not immune to radiation.

Curie looks tired. If I'm gonna embarrass myself with anyone anyway, I'll invite her and we'll have a relaxing cup of herb tea at least.

God, I literally cannot choose. That list is probably my perfect list of scientific figures in history. Aside from Edison, he can burn in hell.

The only ones I might add would be Goodenough and Gauss.

Probably Einstein, because he seems like an interesting dude beyond his physics. He liked philosophy, for example, and is one of the examples that I invoke when I argue that university level science education should involve more philosophy — Einstein wasn't an anomaly in this respect, but a good symbol for discussing how the practice of scientists doing philosophy seems to have waned over the 20th century.

He was also pro-socialism, and had sensible takes about how science isn't a universal solution to stuff, but a specialised tool that is good for some problems but not for others.

Related: those who enjoy long video essays may enjoy this one from an awesome ex-astrophysicist: Einstein Was a Socialist; Should We Care? (1h16m)

Probably Edison but only to tell him how much of a fuckhead he will be remembered as.

Feel like I would just disappoint 3 different people. What a cruel thing to bring someone back from the dead for.

I'll take Richard Feynman for nine hours please.

I'd go for Leonardo. The others - while I understand things at a basic level - I'd likely not be able to understand most of their fields.

Maybe Tesla but I'm not sure if the conversation would end up centered around some of the neat science stuff I could grasp or pigeons with laser-eyes ...

Seems like it will be a one sided conversation. They're all dead.