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If you went back in time 1000 years...

Posted on 04/12/2015 6:20:17 PM PDT by MNDude

If you time traveled back to 1015, would you have enough modern knowledge and education to improve your llfe?

I mean like could you invent gunpowder or serious medical advancements, etc?


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1 posted on 04/12/2015 6:20:17 PM PDT by MNDude
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To: MNDude

Not likely. At least not significantly. You’d still have 11th century tools and resources. Lets fact it, your predominant concern wouldn’t be inventing new stuff, but getting enough food to eat every day.


2 posted on 04/12/2015 6:22:10 PM PDT by bigdaddy45
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To: MNDude

Most of us, including myself, don’t possess the knowledge to live a year.


3 posted on 04/12/2015 6:23:14 PM PDT by SJSAMPLE
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To: MNDude

The basic medical knowledge we have in this day and age would serve one very well in an age where “bleeding” and astrological charts were the main medical tools..


4 posted on 04/12/2015 6:23:38 PM PDT by cardinal4 (Certified Islamophobe..)
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To: MNDude

Happiness occurs between the ears, it always has. Humans haven’t changed from whatever point you agree that they originated...they just haven’t.


5 posted on 04/12/2015 6:24:24 PM PDT by gorush (History repeats itself because human nature is static)
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To: gorush

Gunpowder, basic firearms, modern antiseptic methods. All would work


6 posted on 04/12/2015 6:25:20 PM PDT by rstrahan
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To: MNDude

One thing which I have always thought amazing is how Japan went from a medieval feudal society to a world power in such a short time.


7 posted on 04/12/2015 6:25:53 PM PDT by yarddog (Romans 8:38-39, For I am persuaded.)
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To: MNDude

Yessir, I could enlighten them and cause a renaissance.
But I suspect they would have some surprises for me. Those people knew the skies and other things to a degree that would astound us.


8 posted on 04/12/2015 6:26:27 PM PDT by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office.)
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To: MNDude
Knowledge is so specialized today that any one time traveler would not have the amount of knowledge to be able to develop a whole current technology in the past.

If I travelled back in time, maybe I could develop some water and sewer techniques they didn't know about, and some basic sanitation practices.

9 posted on 04/12/2015 6:27:14 PM PDT by Vince Ferrer
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To: MNDude
There is a principle in physics, called the Principle of Self-Consistency. This principle states that if you could go back in time (by whatever method), you would not be able to change anything.

In other words, what has happened cannot be changed.

For example, penicillin was discovered in 1928. You cannot go back in time and discover it in 1015. Every attempt you make to discover it in 1015 must fail.

10 posted on 04/12/2015 6:27:53 PM PDT by Leaning Right (Why am I holding this lantern? I am looking for the next Reagan.)
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To: MNDude

I’d do very well. My knowledge of Keynesian economics would make me popular with the nobility!

For a while... then I’d buy a boat and head to America before Europe inevitably descended into unrelenting poverty and war.


11 posted on 04/12/2015 6:27:55 PM PDT by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat/RINO Party!)
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To: MNDude

I think anyone with a halfway decent pre 1990 high school education could make major improvements. After all, most of us have a decent understanding of the basic principles of flight and how a combustion engine works. We know about germs and the importance of sanitation.

I could probably come up with a rudimentary generator to run off a water wheel.

I think it would end up being a very different world today.


12 posted on 04/12/2015 6:29:17 PM PDT by cripplecreek ("For by wise guidance you can wage your war")
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To: MNDude
Just cleaning up the water supply and improving the disposal of urine and feces would be a tremendous boost to survival of everyone, especially those under 5 years of age.

Soap: I know how to make it and when to use it.

I know how to provide a clean environment for childbirth.

I know how to suture a wound and keep it clean. A mild vinegar solution is an excellent antiseptic and useful as an irrigating solution to combat many infections. I know how to make vinegar.

I can make a solution of honey and salt to combat dehydration from dysentery. Lot's of children's lives saved there.

13 posted on 04/12/2015 6:30:27 PM PDT by wintertime (Stop treating government teachers like they are reincarnated Mother Teresas!)
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To: MNDude

How would you communicate?


14 posted on 04/12/2015 6:30:59 PM PDT by fso301
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To: cardinal4

Doctors who tried to advance the cause of simply washing hands between patients were singled out and ostracized.

Even when the science proved that washing hands before assisting in childbirth saved lives, the Jewish doctor who ‘invented’ it died a broken man.

It would be a lot tougher than we think


15 posted on 04/12/2015 6:31:54 PM PDT by Balding_Eagle (The Gruber Revelations are proof that God is still smiling on America.)
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To: MNDude

My Father lived to be 90. Mother to 86.

Both would have died early without modern medicine. Mother from appendicitis before she was 30.


16 posted on 04/12/2015 6:33:00 PM PDT by yarddog (Romans 8:38-39, For I am persuaded.)
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To: MNDude

Filby: Which three books would you have taken?


17 posted on 04/12/2015 6:33:22 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: MNDude

Anything involving “aluminum” or “polymer” would be useless. Printing? First you’d need to invent a cheap paper source.

And you could easily be tripped up by religion. There was a time when you could be severely punished for thinking you could make a vacuum.

I do think, though, that if you had a good tech background in 2015 and a knowlege of history, you could fit in. You won’t invent a loudspeaker with an aluminum voicecoil, but you could improve brewing, winemaking, fertilizer, metalworking enough to make a living. Push too hard and you’ll be burned as a heretic, though.

http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/201210/physicshistory.cfm


18 posted on 04/12/2015 6:33:22 PM PDT by DBrow
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To: Vince Ferrer

You should read “The Variable man” by Phillip K Dick. Its a short story written in the 50s. You can probably find it for free on the Gutenburg project website.

In the story a handiman is plucked out of WWI era Europe and taken to the super specialized world of 100 years from now and creates all kinds of chaos due to his “variability”.


19 posted on 04/12/2015 6:34:53 PM PDT by cripplecreek ("For by wise guidance you can wage your war")
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To: rstrahan

“modern antiseptic methods”
First you’d have to explain that disease comes from tiny invisible creatures and not as a punishment from a deity.


20 posted on 04/12/2015 6:35:37 PM PDT by DBrow
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