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It's 2100-ish and we're experimenting on our new time travel device, or let's say time travel bunker. What we gathered of info so far are:

• We can't really go back in time, literally. Every time we visited the past, we got into a new dimension identical to ours to the point the visitor arrived. Then, it just changes direction chaotically, but nothing really changes on our timeline.


• Huge amounts of energy are used to visit this new dimension for the first time, although revisiting it demands a lot less.


• Weirdly enough, it's cheaper to explore this new dimension than to explore space and new planets.


• We can bring back goods from that dimension as efficiently as we can carry stuff there.


• We can't go forward, no matter what we try to do.

The higher ups are not that happy. They hoped they could win the lottery a few times I guess. The board members were afraid we would get shut down and devised a plan to rescue all the investments made on the project.

As we know now where all the natural resources are we could just go there and get it. And let's be fair, we could use some. Since the construction of the mega cities started, we've been on a major shortage. The thing is, when should we go? I mean, to what age should we go harvest resources?

It would be easy to say "just go now and gather that brand new duplicated nuclear frost free refrigerator", but I don't think we would be welcomed there. I mean, I would shoot dead anyone trying to rob my toaster and I don't think the military would allow any of that. It would be a large scale war between two identical forces.

We need to think of a time where resources where readily available and we could outmatch the military. The balance on that question is the answer.

The thing is the massive amount of energy. Sure you could go back and collect iron, coal, oil, etc but is it worth the expense?

Raw materials can be collected from space by asteroid harvesting and the energy to rip a hole in the fabric of time/space just to mine I suspect will be far greater than asteroid mining.

Now where you make your money is collecting unique things. Think Jurassic Park except you don't need to find DNA or clone anything. Think all the Van Gogh painting he burnt because his painting were worthless at the time. Think about all the books and scrolls burnt in the Library of Alexandria. Da Vinci first draft drawings. The items that were robbed from the Pharaoh's tomb and melted down.

The next thing is recordings of events. The Parthenon filmed just after construction. Life in Pompeii. The burning of Rome.

Finally you have the recording of crime. Who actually shot JFK? Who was Jack the Ripper actually? What happened to missing people? Where is the missing body?

All these things can make a huge amount of money far greater than any lottery.

Don't forget the potential value of selective kidnapping. Grab a few Da-Vincis, Einsteins and Hawkings during your travels. Build a think tank full of multiple instances of the greatest minds in history and ask them how to best use your unique time travel opportunity.

There are probably 3 main times that you want to go back, if you just want to steal the resources sitting there. I'm not sure of the actual time, so I'll outline the transition stage and why.

Right before the rifle was invented (1840). The invention of the rifle meant that instead of muskets, people now had guns that were accurate. If you want to have the lowest risk possible, hit them right before they have accurate guns and you don't have to worry much about losing anyone.

Before the Invention of the Machine Gun (1880). The invention of the machine gun. The machine gun marked a huge change in tactics and strategy. It wasn't about man power anymore. 1-2 people could hold down dozens of men with just a single machine gun. If you want to reduce the risk, but get more reward, you want to come around now.

Before handheld or portable communications were invented (1950s). Fast communications mean a faster response. If you appear with 100 men and start ransacking a place, it helps a lot of the people have to run all the way to a phone to get help rather than pulling out a hand held radio or mobile phone and dialing for help. Weapons are already pretty dangerous, so the main factor is how long can you go ransacking undisturbed before you need to leave.

The later you go, the more materials you will be able to obtain. Industrialization basically meant that the longer you waited, the more they were producing and the more you can steal. Its like dropping into a mine where its pickaxes and carts, vs dropping into a mine with machines carving mountains into nothing. After portable communications are readily available, you risk being caught, pictured and filmed which you don't want. Knowing something is possible is a very good incentive for investment and the military would certainly see the advantages of such a technology so you don't want them biting you back later on.

If you go too early, then you simply won't have the materials you want in a large enough quantity to be worth it. Think of the Effiel tower. It was essentially a display from France to show off how much iron they had. That much material now-a-days is a joke. Its 7,300 tons, but now we currently produce more than a million tons a day.

In fact... the best way would be to go back and rob yourself. Think about it. If you had a warehouse full of goods already. Go back into the alternative timeline, and steal everything you had. Now back in the original timeline you have doubled your goods. Just rinse and repeat. You only need to start with one big robbery, or investment and then you can safely double your goods with no resistance.

If length of time isn't a factor, you could always go back to before humanity evolved. I'm aware this is basically the plot of Terra Nova, but it means that you don't have to deal with any real resistance.

Homo Sapiens only evolved as a separate species in the last 300,000 years or so, and would only present serious resistance to a modern military sometime in the last 100-150 years. The Earth is 4.5 billion years old - even if travelling further back requires more energy, it's only in the last 100,000 years that humans managed to colonise most of the planet

Sure, you lack the benefit of preexisting mines and infrastructure, but if you don't care about preserving the world or timeline, you can basically strip mine the planet with no care for collateral damage. It also brings up the possibility of retrieving extinct species of plants and animals for studies - who knows what medicines could be found in the jungles of the Jurassic?

As an alternative approach - why do the work yourself? You presumably have access to highly advanced technologies, knowledge, and medicines. Travel back only a few hundred years - perhaps to the end of the industrial revolution - and trade with the inhabitants of the new world for resources. You could charge exorbitant prices in raw materials for mere pittances. If it's possible to travel back to several locations within the same parallel reality, you could start a bidding war between the nations of the time.