If you could travel back in time ...

ourkind (Carlos) · #1 02-10-2012, 01:55 AM

If you could travel back in time say 2/3000 years could you build a Telescope or a Computer or a phone or make some penicillin, perhaps generate electricity

I often think what do I know and what's something useful that I could teach someone from the past? Honestly there's not much

So to get the ball rolling ...

I would teach them about hygene.

Larryp (Laurie) · #2 02-10-2012, 05:56 AM

With what we know and our modern technology, Carlos, we would seem like gods to these people

jenchris (Jennifer) · #3 02-10-2012, 06:18 AM

How do yo think Jesus got such a good rap?
I think I would invent something serious like CPR

Baddad (Marty) · #4 02-10-2012, 07:15 AM

You'd be deemed an evil wizard or a witch and burned at the stake.
People of that time were very supersticous.

Cheers

bartman (Bart) · #5 02-10-2012, 07:23 AM

I had to re-read your post a few times before I got it!
With the knowledge we have now, but not the technology......exactly,....what could you teach them...?

As you suggested, Hygiene would be a great start, but me thinks that that would only make it worse as the population would now be xTimes larger, which would lead to hunger.......

If I had the skills, I would try and teach people how to turn a desert into farmland...

Bartman

AstralTraveller (David) · #6 02-10-2012, 09:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baddad

You'd be deemed an evil wizard or a witch and burned at the stake.
People of that time were very supersticous.

Cheers

Quite likely, though I thought that the real fixation with witches was mostly in the 14th century. One story I heard (it may or may not be right) was that as the climate cooled into the Little Ice Age there was a series of natural disasters which were blamed on witches. (I suppose we will soon start to burn climatologists

)

The other possibility is that you would be exposed to a whole lot of bugs you'd never seen before and die a horrible death. Living like a god or king sounds great but dying in pain on the mud floor of a straw hut is less appealing.

The person who first decided that hygiene was important (eg washing hands before delivering a baby) was very unpopular because he implied that there was something 'wrong' with the doctors. This was in the 19th century and he was in charge of a hospital and so he wasn't burnt but in earlier times .....

I think the safest thing to teach is something they would really appreciate, like better ways to kill their neighbours.

Baddad (Marty) · #7 02-10-2012, 09:13 AM

Hi David,

I suppose we will soon start to burn climatologists

)

I would be inclined to introduce birth control methods. After all much of the problem we now have is the huge population. All requiring energy and food, resulting in pollution.

Cheers

Miaplacidus (Brian) · #8 02-10-2012, 09:20 AM

The seed of some primary school mathematics would probably give them a good kick start.

ourkind (Carlos) · #9 02-10-2012, 09:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jenchris

I think I would invent something serious like CPR

Nice one

Quote:

Originally Posted by AstralTraveller

I think the safest thing to teach is something they would really appreciate, like better ways to kill their neighbours.

That would be very popular!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Miaplacidus

The seed of some primary school mathematics would probably give them a good kick start.

Another good one

ourkind (Carlos) · #10 02-10-2012, 09:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bartman

I had to re-read your post a few times before I got it!
...

If I had the skills, I would try and teach people how to turn a desert into farmland...

Bartman

Sorry about that I think clearer than I type

That's cool but what about with the skills you currenly have? That's what I mean I would like to show them heaps of things but only really know a limited amount about each "jack of all trades, master of none". I wouldn't even be able to lead them into the Iron age let alone the Bronze age

GrampianStars (Rob) · #11 02-10-2012, 10:21 AM

weed out the Ranga's then there would never be a J Gillard PM

Waxing_Gibbous (Peter) · #12 02-10-2012, 10:23 AM

If you think about it, there is very little in the way of technology you could actually transfer. Medicines, power tools, cars, baby buggies, food processors etc. etc. all require a high level of preceding technology such as metal smelting and casting, milling machines, drilling rigs for oil, refineries to make plastics and organic chemicals - you get the idea.

Knowledge of how to build all that stuff would certainly transfer easily enough if you could find someone of sufficient intelligence - but you'd need to speak the local lingo and you'd still be left with the problem of how to get the raw materials in sufficient quantity to get the balls rolling.

You probably wouldn't have to worry about ancient diseases.
If it didn't kill your ancestors, it won't kill you.

If I could impart any bit of wisdom it would be: "Don't listen to that Plato guy. He'll have you gazing at your navels while you should be out learning to build dune buggies"!

Exfso (Peter) · #13 02-10-2012, 10:31 AM

I think I would like to go back far enough to ensure I never met my 1st missus again. Whew would I save some money then...

von Tom (Tom) · #14 02-10-2012, 10:32 AM

Star Wars

Waxing_Gibbous (Peter) · #15 02-10-2012, 10:39 AM

Come to think of it - it's the downtimers that would be in danger from 'your' bugs!
They'd have no immunity to modern viruses or bacteria.
Heck - just sneezing could wipe us all out before we started.

Waxing_Gibbous (Peter) · #16 02-10-2012, 10:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Exfso

I think I would like to go back far enough to ensure I never met my 1st missus again. Whew would I save some money then...

+1

lacad01 (Adam) · #17 02-10-2012, 10:41 AM

If I could go back in time that far back and still be in Australia, at least everywhere would be a dark sky site

AstralTraveller (David) · #18 02-10-2012, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Waxing_Gibbous

You probably wouldn't have to worry about ancient diseases. If it didn't kill your ancestors, it won't kill you.

But they did kill my ancestors, sometimes in massive numbers. Just because some people survived the black death doesn't mean I'm immune.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Waxing_Gibbous

If you think about it, there is very little in the way of technology you could actually transfer. Medicines, power tools, cars, baby buggies, food processors etc. etc. all require a high level of preceding technology such as metal smelting and casting, milling machines, drilling rigs for oil, refineries to make plastics and organic chemicals - you get the idea.

Very true. You have to crawl before walking and running. And even if you took technology back how much use would it be? Your cordless drill will go flat and your iPhone isn't much use by itself. Some things could still be used of course. A wind-up watch would be good for years and binos would last basically forever.

What about some glass tube and mercury? You could make barometers and get into weather forecasting.

Larryp (Laurie) · #19 02-10-2012, 11:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Exfso

I think I would like to go back far enough to ensure I never met my 1st missus again. Whew would I save some money then...

+2

jjjnettie (Jeanette) · #20 02-10-2012, 11:56 AM

At the risk of crossing the boundaries of the TOS, I would prevent the rise of a certain institution that was to blame for the Dark Ages and the Witch Burning and the holding back of technology. Imagine how far ahead we would be now if people weren't living under terror of inquisition and accusations of blasphemy.