travel back in time, naked

[quarky]

Imagine being able to travel back in time, say, 5000 years, to an area with human encampments. You don't get to bring anything except your knowledge.
What advantage, if any, do you think you might have with relationship to the primitives?

All I could come up with was certain comical noises, though it seems that one should be able to demonstrate all sorts of new advantages.
Any thoughts?

 

[Jimbo07]

Unlike popular kids' movies where demonstrating your command of video games allows you to rule kingdoms, most people would have severe disadvantages in this sort of scenario. Imagine surviving a plane crash for a month in the middle of nowhere, even today! How many would thrive?

 

[tkingdoll]

They'd kill me on sight. Hairless in funny places, you see.

 

[Taffer]

They'd kill me on sight. Hairless in funny places, you see.

<3

 

[Upchurch]

Unlike popular kids' movies where demonstrating your command of video games allows you to rule kingdoms, most people would have severe disadvantages in this sort of scenario.

Have to agree. Most people know that cars, heavier than air flight, cell phones, etc. are possible, but who could build one from scratch? Heck, my experience in the Boy Scouts would be of more use than anything I learned about math or physics in college.

Now, if you were talking 500 years, or even a couple of thousand, then modern knowledge might come more into play given the tools available. Imagine being able to teach something as simple as the concept of zero to the ancient Greeks. You could change the face of the modern world ...or get killed as a heretic. Whichever.

 

[Minarvia]

My first fear would be of getting sick and dying from simple things like drinking the water those people had to drink or eating what they did. In today's sanitary-conscious society I doubt I would have the constitution to survive simple things like that.
Plus no electric blankets or air conditioning or shampoo or even feminine hygeine products...my poor mind boggles!

 

[Jimbo07]

Imagine being able to teach something as simple as the concept of zero to the ancient Greeks. You could change the face of the modern world ...or get killed as a heretic. Whichever.

If movies about time travel have taught me one thing, it's that people in the past and future speak fluent english...

 

[Upchurch]

If movies about time travel have taught me one thing, it's that people in the past and future speak fluent english...

Hey, mathematics is the universal language.

literally.

 

[drkitten]

I
All I could come up with was certain comical noises, though it seems that one should be able to demonstrate all sorts of new advantages.
Any thoughts?

Well, I checked some web sites on the history of technology, and there are a few things that I could demonstrate fairly easily that would be useful.

At 3000 BC, the potter's wheel, the plough (including draft animals), the lever, and the wheel were all considered cutting-edge technology. I don't think I would have any trouble jury-rigging such things up although it would be a nuisance to construct a plough using local tools. Simple machines such as the gear, the screw and the rope/pulley were thousands of years in the future. I suspect that I could establish drkitten-and-company heavy-lifting as one of the dot.coms of that age. I could also have fun with digging wells and using pulleys and archimedian screws to drag water out of mines or deep wells.

The millstone, where grain is ground between rotating wheels, dates to about 300 BCE; I could improve upon this by several thousand years, and drkitten-and-company would be likely to be a very successful mill.

I also know enough metallurgy to be able to manufacture charcoal, which can burn hot enough to smelt iron. I couldn't work the damn stuff, but just being able to make cast iron swords would probably impress the locals.

Once we have wheels, the idea of a paved road is fairly obvious but would impress the locals tremendously.

I also do amateur homebrew, and would probably be able to whip up a still and show them what very bad whisky tastes like. THAT would impress the locals.

That said, I suspect I would almost certainly die of the creeping uglies fairly quickly. The amount of stuff I don't know -- like which mushrooms I'm not supposed to eat -- would kill me long before I managed to get enough money/power to start my roadbuilding empire.

 

[Upchurch]

Well, I checked some web sites on the history of technology, and there are a few things that I could demonstrate fairly easily that would be useful.

hm. You're right. I was thinking too much in the 21st century version of "useful". Touche.

 

[Roboramma]

In part it depends on where you go - Greek culture would be very different from Egyptian culture from Chinese culture 5000 years ago.

I think the most likely thing is death, pretty soon after arrival. Too many things stacked against you - not speaking the local language, not understanding the culture and it's taboos, not having any family, not having any connections through friends and friends of friends -something that I think was likely even more important at the time than it is now.
More than that, I'd have no understanding of how to make a living at that time. Sure, I might be able to impress some of the locals with some cool yoga poses, but is that going to buy me bread? I guess I could be a beggar... I know a guy who preformed yoga postures for food in Nepal for a while - from his description it doesn't seem like it's a very exciting life.

So, what sort of advantages would I have? A little bit of math knowledge, some understanding of science and medicine. If I could find some way to survive long enough to make some friends and some connections, the medicine might help - but probably not. I don't know enough.
I guess I could invent some simple machines - I know how an Archimedes screw works, for instance. But those sorts of things require first setting yourself up in the place and having time, resources, and most importantly connections to people who could make use of your knowledge. I find it unlikely that I'd be able to get such.

Set a chimpanzee loose in a territory with other chimpanzees he doesn't know, and see what happens. Probably the same thing would happen to me in this situation.

On the other hand, if I knew where I was going, if the language spoken was one that's still known and I could learn to speak it (possible? I mean, I'd have a messed up accent, but might be able to learn the local language quickly with some previous study), had a chance to do some research and prepare for the trip... things might be different. Hard to say.

 

[Cello Man]

If I'm traveling back in time, then clearly my objective should be to find Sarah Connor.

Seriously though, what does this have to do with Religion & Philosophy?

 

[Jimbo07]

How much study and prep time do we get?

Even now, I could build electric lighting and motors from first principles. All I'd need is sufficient:

- labour
- materials
- convincing the local blacksmith to draw wire for me



...

If I'm lucky, I'd just manage to avoid getting my head cut off long enough to beg for scraps of bread filled with little stones. I think the analogies to surviving in modern environments (after a plane crash, alien cultures, etc.) to be perfectly apt! How many of us have the skills?

 

[Beerina]

Unlike popular kids' movies where demonstrating your command of video games allows you to rule kingdoms, most people would have severe disadvantages in this sort of scenario. Imagine surviving a plane crash for a month in the middle of nowhere, even today! How many would thrive?

I recall a humerous short story where some scientists who invent a time machine time-knap someone from the future from their own college campus. He tells them about all kinds of technological wonders, and when they ask him how they work, he has no idea.

How many could make a coherent, much less remotely useful statement when asked "how does a TV work"? "How does a radio work?" How does a cell phone system work? How does a jet engine work? Or even a piston engine? Or even a steam engine? A simple DC electric engine? A DC generator? A simple telegraph system? "What? The atomic theory of matter is true? Why?"

 

[Upchurch]

How many could make a coherent, much less remotely useful statement when asked "how does a TV work"? "How does a radio work?" How does a cell phone system work? How does a jet engine work? Or even a piston engine? Or even a steam engine? A simple DC electric engine? A DC generator? A simple telegraph system? "What? The atomic theory of matter is true? Why?"

I could give an explanation on all of those except except the cell phone network. But having an explanation is a long way from being able to putting it into practice. I suppose it depends on how much supporting equipment and tools you would also have to create.

 

[Jimbo07]

Or even a steam engine? A simple DC electric engine? A DC generator? A simple telegraph system? "What? The atomic theory of matter is true? Why?"

I'd have a fighting chance, right now, of all of these... however, see my post for just some of the issues. I couldn't just run down to my local hardware store for some heavy gauge wire. Again, I'd more likely contract some kind of pox before ever getting one of these projects off the ground!

Should my wife and I ever get our little acreage with a brook/creek/drainage ditch, I might just play with micro-power just for fun!

ETA: Although I'd also like to get involved with a steam engine locomotive restoration project, I sometimes feel like the past can keep to itself. The future is where it's at!

 

[ImaginalDisc]

The millstone, where grain is ground between rotating wheels, dates to about 300 BCE; I could improve upon this by several thousand years, and drkitten-and-company would be likely to be a very successful mill.

A lot of your plans involves argiculture, which itself has benefited from thousands of years of develoment. Brussels sprouts, kale, cauliflower, and broccoli are all derived from the same plant, Brassica oleracea, which I'm sure was much less palatable back then. Rice? Archeolgists suspect that one variety, Oryza sativa, might have been in cultivation that far back. What was cultivated that far back, so you might crush that. Still, have fun eating sandy bread that wears down your teeth and kills you in a decade.

Frankly, you might be better off eating porridge.

 

[Rasmus]

"how does a TV work"?

I can't give a good answer to that. Especially not since even the bits I know little about require knowledge of the things I know next to nothing about - like tubes or conductors or resistors and stuff.

"How does a radio work?"
How does a cell phone system work?[/qoute]

See above.

How does a jet engine work?

I *might* *possibly* be able to describe the basic principles.

Or even a piston engine?

I think I could do that.

Or even a steam engine?

Since I just had to do a little reasearch on the history of the steam engine - yes.

A simple DC electric engine? A DC generator?

I think I might be able to build those, I am not sure I could describe them.

A simple telegraph system?

I was researching the history of those, also. Yes, I could rig up something very simple like that, too. Assuming I got my generator working first, of course.

What? The atomic theory of matter is true? Why?

Couldn't tell you.

 

[TX50]

I also know enough metallurgy to be able to manufacture charcoal, which can burn hot enough to smelt iron. I couldn't work the damn stuff, but just being able to make cast iron swords would probably impress the locals.

Cast iron is rubbish for making swords. You'd not impress bronze age smiths
or warriors with one of those.

Now, if you were able to find, mine, refine, smelt and work iron-ore to a
high standard (all on your own, starting from scratch) then that might be
different. Even then, though, the early iron swords had very little advantage
over the best of the bronze ones, so to impress the locals (and especially
their warriors) you'd need to set the bar for yourself very high - like carbon-
steel high.

The techniques used by bronze age smiths were sophisticated enough that
modern researchers still have trouble accurately reproducing them (this, for
example, is one of the reasons why authentically cast reproduction
bronze spearheads are almost unheard of).

Personally I'd think more modestly. I could tell more spellbinding stories than
anyone else ("A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..."), sing more
enthralling songs (Bronze Age rap), paint and draw with uncanny realism
(using modern composition and perspective). Once over the hurdle of
immediate survival, I think I'd get along OK. The "culture shock" would be
absolutely mind-buggering though.

 

[Upchurch]

The "culture shock" would be absolutely mind-buggering though.

Or, you know, a potential sitcom on ABC