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It's reasons like this, that I really wonder if someone from today were to time travel into the past if anything they know would be useful at all. Medieval peo
by dstein 15y ago
It's reasons like this, that I really wonder if someone from today were to time travel into the past if anything they know would be useful at all. Medieval people would probably think we're all idiots.
- kabdib 15y agoSimple knowledge, such as the disease model of sickness and "microorganisms exist, keep things clean" would be useful. You could probably cobble together a water-drop microscope and demonstrate the difference between (say) clean wounds and infected ones. Fleas = plague. All that. Knowing how to distill hard liquor would make you popular as well.
- nosse 15y agoMaking hard liquor worth drinking is surprisingly difficult. It's lot easier if you know how to make activated carbon, but making activated carbon is difficult with equipment of that age(possible though).
- hessenwolf 15y agoJust try saying 'micro-organisms' from the top of a witch-burning pyre.
- harshpotatoes 15y agoI think if random individuals from today were to go into the past, we would mostly look pretty stupid. However, I think if a large enough group traveled into the past, we would have enough useful knowledge to wow them/revolutionize their society.
- hessenwolf 15y agoConquer/enslave/pillage, but yes, probably the best thing about us is our development in cooperation.
- hessenwolf 15y agoConquer/enslave/pillage, but, yes, probably the best thing about us is our development in cooperation.
- superkarn 15y agoImagine the opposite: someone from the future were to time travel back to our present time. Certain knowledge the they bring would be useful. But a lot probably won't be until necessary technology becomes available.
- dstein 15y agoThat's kind of the same thing -- a person from the future would probably not really be able to guide us into the future any faster. He wouldn't even be able to show us how to build a time machine because the technology necessary to build the tools to build a time machine don't exist yet.
- pyre 15y agoThe concepts would be invaluable though. If he/she were able to give of some of the base concepts for how those things worked, we could direct all of our energy towards those concepts rather than stumbling in the dark to increase our understanding.
- kabdib 15y agoLike: "I know we could teleport. No, I didn't see any massive power supplies, it was just a box about the size of your 'car' and it cost as much as a loaf of bread to use it." or "I called my sister on Alpha Centauri every Sunday, and we'd chat about the weather." Just knowing it's possible, with gross engineering parameters, can be half the battle.
- rmc 15y agoEven knowing some of the specifics would be helpful. Imagine a non-engineer from now going back to 1500s and talk about flying. They can say that you need 2 wings on the side, and you need to go really fast in a straight line before you can take off. Sometimes you can see the little flaps on the edge of the wing move up and down. Though you can also do it with little planes. And if you want rotating blades then it has to be smaller than planes (helicopters). This should help a clever person (e.g. Leonardo da Vinci) figure out how to fly.
- edkennedy 15y agoAn interesting look into that idea is "The Cross Time Engineer" by Leo Frankowski. The main character is an engineer, so he has extensive knowledge, but it's interesting in how that knowledge is applied to medieval times. It ended up being a series of many books.
- jackfoxy 15y agoRead Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. I think someone educated in science and engineering would do quite well, a dolt fully addicted to the entertainment industry, probably not so well.
- sixtofour 15y agoYou'd be at a disadvantage whether you traveled back or forward in time, because you haven't yet internalized the world model of the destination time. Anyone who lives in a particular time takes for granted the ways to operate in that time, and doesn't have to think a) how do I do this, or b) is this even possible. They just do, or move on.
- InclinedPlane 15y agoAn average person would not be overly useful, but a skilled and knowledgeable individual would have much to offer. A chemist can make nylon, gunpowder, matches, or plastic from relatively easily obtained chemicals even in ancient times, for example. There are also lots of other little tricks that are just as or more valuable. Things like germ theory, medicine, cooking, electricity, etc. In roman times it would have been possible to build telegraphs, without much difficulty, imagine how that would have changed the world.
- burgerbrain 15y agoEven easier than the telegraph, but potentially even more dramatic: the phonograph. Paper diaphragm, wax cylinder, a needle, and viola! You're a god! ;)
- biot 15y agoGreat idea. I'm sure many would love to hear a recording of a viola.
- burgerbrain 15y agoAbsent-minded spell-checking strikes again :)
- thesteamboat 15y agoI'm curious as to what easy advances there were in cooking. Do you mean something along the lines of better heat sources or do you mean recipes?
- rcfox 15y agoMaking sure to eat sources of vitamin C to prevent scurvy, having women who intend to get pregnant eat more folate to help their babies' brains...(Not to mention not drinking alcohol while pregnant!)
- 15y ago
- cletus 15y agoIf you're into sci-fi I urge you to read Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep [1]. It doesn't have a lot to do with this except that it has a fairly primitive society that has high-tech dumped on it in two different camps and what eventuates is an arms race. In the same vein is CJ Cherryh's Foreigner series [2], which tells the story of human colonists who end up lost, unable to find their way home. They instead find a habitable planet with a native population that roughly has 19th century technology and build their space station above it. The station isn't sustainable though so they end up getting stranded on the planet. So while not time travel per se, the whole subject of vast technology differentials is a rich vein of sci-fi that I personally really enjoy. As for someone transported to a medieval era, any person with a high school education would have what is, for the time, a highly advanced knowledge of mathematics, astronomy, physics, possibly chemistry, biology, etc to the point where they would be immensely valuable in the right hands I would think. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fire_Upon_the_Deep http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fire_Upon_the_Deep [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreigner_universe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreigner_universe
- DrCatbox 15y agoYou dont need sci-fi to ponder what happens when a superior technological culture meets a less technologicaly developed culture. Look at Europes "discovery" of the americas, and for that matter, look at how the nomads of the world react when they are even today being "discovered" by us civilized people. You could study anthropolgy if you are into this sort of thing, its not really sci-fi, this is the real deal.
- cletus 15y agoWhich me of another of my favourite books, Iain M. Banks' Excession [1], which is pertinent to your example. It's a great book but is probably best known for Outside Context Problem, which is the kind of problem which: > ...most civilisations would encounter just once, and which they tended to encounter rather in the same way a sentence encountered a full stop. Also: > The usual example given to illustrate an Outside Context Problem was imagining you were a tribe on a largish, fertile island; you'd tamed the land, invented the wheel or writing or whatever, the neighbours were cooperative or enslaved but at any rate peaceful and you were busy raising temples to yourself with all the excess productive capacity you had, you were in a position of near-absolute power and control which your hallowed ancestors could hardly have dreamed of and the whole situation was just running along nicely like a canoe on wet grass... when suddenly this bristling lump of iron appears sailless and trailing steam in the bay and these guys carrying long funny-looking sticks come ashore and announce you've just been discovered, you're all subjects of the Emperor now, he's keen on presents called tax and these bright-eyed holy men would like a word with your priests. The entry also notes the similarity to black swan theory [2]. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excession http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excession [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory
- m_eiman 15y agoThe 1632 book series is about an American town transplanted back into Europe in 1632. Since it's a whole town they bring more than just knowledge, but it's still fairly interesting to read. In my opinion the first or maybe first two books are enjoyable, after that it turns into too many layers of "what if". http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1632_series http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1632_series
- michaelbuckbee 15y agoHelm by Steven Gould has a central premise where a colonization ship makes the choice to take more people at the expense of more technology. They land on the minimally hospitable planet with a society engineered to maximize knowledge transfer of things like germ theory and nutrition (they are taught songs as kids about it, etc.) and with comprehensive scientific information in printed form, but no advanced manufacturing capabilities. What was most interesting to me were the people who denied that they had ever come from earth, that all the fantastical technologies of the past didn't exist, etc.
- hyperbovine 15y agoWell, if you had had a couple years' worth of graduate-level math and physics courses, you would be an intellectual demigod. The introductory sequences in analysis / algebra / geometry / mechanics / electrodynamics / relativity are a distillation of what the best minds in history spent the past 500 years figuring out. When I have no other motivation to study these topics, I just remember that Newton, Euler, Gauss, et al. would have /killed/ to get a look at my textbook :-) (Hopefully you'd remember the proofs!)
- alanfalcon 15y agoThis is why I own this shirt. http://www.topatoco.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TO&Product_Code=QW-CHEATSHEET&Category_Code=QW http://www.topatoco.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_C...
- HeyLaughingBoy 15y agoWhich someone? The average city dweller? Probably. A farmer? Not at all. What they do hasn't really changed; just gotten much, much more efficient. Same goes for a civil engineer; would be very useful in medieval times. Software engineer not so much!
- Tsagadai 15y agoI think you are dramatically underestimating the knowledge of modern farmers. Here are some areas that have changed: irrigation has changed radically in the last 40 years, fertilizers, companion planting, industrialized processes, storage and safer practices. Most farmers would make more difference than an engineer would make because in the past the majority of people were farmers. Don't forget that the main reason for migration to cities has been changes in agriculture (less labour needed, lower costs, globalisation).
- HeyLaughingBoy 15y agoOh, I'm not. I live on a horse farm surrounded by corn/soybean/etc farmers :-) I just wanted to avoid having to qualify my answer too much to a group of people who are (probably) mostly urban. I agree with everything you say.
- dedward 15y agoThat would very much depend on the situation and the people involved of course. Someone with a deep and practical (practical being the important part here) knowledge of chemistry at the right place and right time? Could be extremely useful - he should have a leg up on the local alchemist. A doctor, again with a good practical edge. Just being aware of bacteria and it's dangers, and using cleaner techniques would have changed everything. Discover antibiotics? Pure magic. Joe average? Computer programmer? Probably fall into the "idiot" category unless you're good at killing people or politics.