If you went back in time 1000 years...

[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?

[Zeneta]

The Wheel.

Invented?

or

Discovered?

Clearly civilizations “Invented” new and productive ways to use the wheel, but was it fundamentally “Invented” or “Discovered?”

Personally, I lean towards discovered.

[DBrow]

“Most likely all of us would be burned at the stake...”

That may happen to us here and now if the Warmists get enough power!

[DBrow]

Be a catalyst. Yes.

[Mad Dawgg]

I could advise people on the proper use of social media...

(which is "Don't because it's a huge time waster...")

[expatguy]

...There was a time when you could be severely punished for thinking you could make a vacuum....

That sucks.

[AFreeBird]

Well, if you tried to speak of who you are and from whence you came, not to mention your knowledge; you’d probably be labeled a heretic at best, or a witch at the worst.

Fun times would ensue.

[Mad Dawgg]

"First you’d have to explain that disease comes from tiny invisible creatures and not as a punishment from a deity."

And then you would be burned at the stake for heresy.

[DBrow]

Yeah it left me with an empty feeling too.

[Leaning Right]

imagine showing up at the US War Department on Friday, December 5, 1941. People might not take you seriously that day, but would probably want to talk with you at length the following Monday

Here's how a defender of the Principle would answer that:

You would not be able to show up at the War department on December 5th, or at any time before the actual attack. Nature would prohibit it, just as nature prohibits a person from jumping 50 feet into the air.

Perhaps your car would brake down on the way. Or perhaps you would fall into a coma on December 4th, and not wake up until December 8th.

I'm not saying I agree with any of this. But that's what a defender of the Principle would say.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

No, they had the bow and arrow.

The horse you are right about.

[P.O.E.]

In “The Time Machine”, Wilbur takes three books with him. What 3 books would you bring?

Also, in “Fahrenheit 451”, the characters memorize one book. What book would you memorize to take back in time?

[henkster]

If I went back in time 1000 years, I would warn against the man-made global warming of the Medieval Warm Period. I’d be rich. Screw the peasants.

[Fiji Hill]

imagine showing up at the US War Department on Friday, December 5, 1941. People might not take you seriously that day, but would probably want to talk with you at length the following Monday.

In the TV movie Time Element, a man goes to sleep in New York in 1958 and wakes up in a Honolulu hotel room in early December, 1941. At the hotel bar, he meets a sailor from the USS Arizona and tries to convince him not to return to his ship later that night. Of course everyone in the bar thinks he's crazy, and he's soon taken in to custody to be given a psychological examination.

When asked by his examiners who the president is, he at first answers, Eisenhower, then remembering it's 1941, corrects himself, saying Roosevelt. But when asked who the vice president is, he answers incorrectly Harry Truman, bringing stares of wonderment from the interrogators. He tells them that FDR will die and Truman will succeed him, then turns around and asks them if they know the meaning of terms such as rock and roll and Sputnik. He manages to escape immediately afterwards. Most of the interrogators conclude that he's a nut, but one of them is convinced that he is not crazy.

[DBrow]

If someone went back and changed the past, we’d never know, because we’d be in the subsequent new future.

LeGuin touched on this in Lathe of Heaven. There would be no way to know, since to us, history is what did happen.

The principle is unprovable.

[cripplecreek]

Be a catalyst. Yes.

Good word for it. Technology naturally spreads and grows with increasing speed as more people gain access to it.

I once read the theory that our civilization has taken a few hits over the millennia that have set us back by centuries. Things like the burning of the library of Alexandria or the fall of Rome wiped out vast repositories of knowledge just waiting for their time.

[Zeneta]

Well, if you tried to speak of who you are and from whence you came, not to mention your knowledge; you’d probably be labeled a heretic at best, or a witch at the worst.

Fun times would ensue.

--------------------------------------------------

[AFreeBird]

Oh, he’d definitely get burned at the stake. Perhaps drawn and quartered. I imagine a coin flip might call it.

[familyop]

Great question, great exercise! Haven’t looked at ‘em, yet, but at least a few of the thread comments are somewhat revealing by now.

Yes, good materials for tools and parts were available back then. Good knowledge of history along with willingness to be humble, patient and hard working would be needed. Wisely presented, ideas with examples would be valuable.

[HereInTheHeartland]

Sounds like the movie “Timeline”

[Billthedrill]

What would I do, transported back to 1015? Easy. I'd do what a great American hero did in that situation. I'd raise my shotgun and say:

Alright you Primitive Screwheads, listen up! You see this? This... is my boomstick! The twelve-gauge double-barreled Remington. S-Mart's top of the line. You can find this in the sporting goods department. That's right, this sweet baby was made in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Retails for about a hundred and nine, ninety five. It's got a walnut stock, cobalt blue steel, and a hair trigger. That's right. Shop smart. Shop S-Mart. You got that?

Problem solved.