I've been pondering off and on the concept of a time machine. I came to some slightly different thoughts about time machines than I've had before.
So often the thought is "If I had a time machine, I'd go back and change X and the world would be better." We've had numerous science fiction novels, TV Shows, Movies, and even games around this topic. One of the things that is popular to talk about is how changing the past in any way can have ripples and impact the future in ways that could not be foreseen. Perhaps the change might even eliminate the creation of the time machine itself in the future. It changes the concept of future to dynamic and unknowable.
Would this then be the best use for a time machine?
I don't actually think it would be.
The best use of a time machine would to be able to go back and invest, and make decisions based upon things you know are coming in the future. For example: Traveling backwards and buying a bunch of bitcoin when it was less than $0.01 per coin.
There could still be a ripple as there would be someone or several someones with more wealth than they had in the past. It wouldn't need to simply be wealth.
It is also important to consider that even doing this could still have ripples and would be changing the future. So it may not be as extreme as assassinating Hitler, but could we truly predict the ripples and changes that acquiring wealth and information we otherwise would not have had may have on the future?
I don't really need to write much more lengthy a thought on this. It is a simple thought, but it is one that it is easy to spend quite a bit of time chasing rabbits down rabbit holes.