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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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To: trebb

“Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen) is a good go-back-in-time story by H. Beam Piper. It’s fiction but he put a lot of thought into introducing new tech, gunpowder in particular. The “bad guys” were not using an optimum formula for their powder, Calvin had a better way and it shot better, harder, faster. So the bad guys spread the word that THEIR powder was expunged of evil spirits- but Calvin’s powder was not, and anyone using it was doomed to an unpleasant afterlife! The novel was originally called Gunpowder God


201 posted on 04/13/2015 5:27:35 AM PDT by DBrow
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To: DBrow
First you’d have to explain that disease comes from tiny invisible creatures and not as a punishment from a deity.

Or you could explain that a vigorous soapy baptism of the hands/wounds/etc, accompanied by prayer, could remove unclean spirits.

202 posted on 04/13/2015 5:30:19 AM PDT by Pollster1 ("Shall not be infringed" is unambiguous.)
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To: MNDude

Reversing the question:

If the world’s technology went back in time 1,000 years, due to something like EMP that fried everything more advanced than hand tools and for whatever reason kept everyone from directly reconstituting today’s technology, what knowledge and education would we need to rebuild? How ugly would things get before we restored a stable level of technology? [Obviously pretty ugly because we couldn’t feed anywhere near 7 billion people for even one year without technology, chemical fertilizers, modern irrigation, modern harvesting and transportation.]


203 posted on 04/13/2015 6:12:29 AM PDT by Pollster1 ("Shall not be infringed" is unambiguous.)
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To: MNDude

It would be like a city slicker moving to a farm. One wouldn’t make it at all (even for a short period of time).


204 posted on 04/13/2015 6:13:02 AM PDT by RoosterRedux (WSC: The truth is incontrovertible; malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end...)
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To: Mad Dawgg
I could advise people on the proper use of social media...

"Draw a picture of what you ate for breakfast on this plank. Nail it to the front of your house. Spend the whole day wandering around the neighborhood, looking at your friend's drawings and writings. Argue about them sometimes. Tomorrow, different drawing. repeat, ad infinitum"

205 posted on 04/13/2015 7:33:04 AM PDT by Riley (The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column.)
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To: GreenLanternCorps

INDEX


206 posted on 04/13/2015 12:00:59 PM PDT by txhurl
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To: P.O.E.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071428674/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0071428674&linkCode=as2&tag=arohco-20


207 posted on 04/13/2015 12:08:40 PM PDT by mad_as_he$$
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To: DBrow

http://www.syfy.com/12monkeys


208 posted on 04/13/2015 12:10:57 PM PDT by mad_as_he$$
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To: Leaning Right
General relativity is so last century! I prefer the string(as in yarn) theory that you can kill your grandpa if you already exist in the future. Makes for better stories. BTW I am really enjoying the SyFy show 12 Monkeys.
209 posted on 04/13/2015 12:14:33 PM PDT by mad_as_he$$
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To: Rides_A_Red_Horse

Lamas baby!!!!


210 posted on 04/13/2015 12:28:52 PM PDT by mad_as_he$$
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To: MNDude

No way, too many unknown unknowns. I doubt if any of us would last more than a week; the obvious problem would be sanitation - we wouldn’t be able to eat the same food or drink the same water that the people of 1015 did. Montezuma’s revenge turned up to 11, and it would kill you, end of story.


211 posted on 04/13/2015 12:29:07 PM PDT by OKSooner (Chamberlain at least loved his country, please don't insult his memory by comparing him to 0.)
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To: mad_as_he$$

Are you the Witness?


212 posted on 04/13/2015 12:54:38 PM PDT by DBrow
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To: MNDude

I think I would plagiarize popular songs like Gangnum Style, Achy Breaky Heart, and Funky Town and I would be come filthy rich!


213 posted on 04/13/2015 1:08:39 PM PDT by MNDude
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To: MNDude

"You see this book?"

214 posted on 04/13/2015 1:13:51 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: DBrow
lol....No. But after the season's latest episode I can't wait to find out who is.
215 posted on 04/13/2015 1:19:09 PM PDT by mad_as_he$$
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To: Smokin' Joe

Precisely the point. Steep learning curve. ;D


216 posted on 04/13/2015 4:30:09 PM PDT by Nuc 1.1 (Nuc 1 Liberals aren't Patriots. Remember 1789!)
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To: mad_as_he$$

Good choice!


217 posted on 04/13/2015 4:42:02 PM PDT by P.O.E. (Pray for America)
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To: dfwgator
LOL!

Just as I surmised.

Biff would start making wager after wager, eventually winning a lot of dough.

It wouldn't take long for someone to find out just HOW biff knows these things, and they'd forbid him from betting.

Like someone who makes a killing in the casinos.

You'd quickly be "invited" to never return.

One of my favorite time travel movies is Time After Time, with HG Wells coming from 1890 to 1979.

He finds out that girlfriend is going to be murdered in the upcoming week by Jack the Ripper and goes to her apartment with a gun to protect her.

The cops nab him and question him.

He explains over and over to the police who he is, and how he came to the future.

Finally he says: OK, I'll confess to ANYTHING! Just send a car!

The police do and find a dead body in the apartment.

In the movie, the cops just say "I'm so sorry, you can go now"

In real life, no WAY they would just "let him go".

They'd beat him with a rubber hose until he spilled his guts on just what ELSE he knows.

218 posted on 04/13/2015 11:10:11 PM PDT by boop (Hey, stoop, that's got gears. It ain't no Ford.)
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To: DBrow
“Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen) is a good go-back-in-time story by H. Beam Piper. It’s fiction but he put a lot of thought into introducing new tech, gunpowder in particular. The “bad guys” were not using an optimum formula for their powder, Calvin had a better way and it shot better, harder, faster. So the bad guys spread the word that THEIR powder was expunged of evil spirits- but Calvin’s powder was not, and anyone using it was doomed to an unpleasant afterlife! The novel was originally called Gunpowder God

We got pretty precise with out black powder formula. My Dad made a balance scale with a sealed bearing and some metal rod. Once we got the ratios by weight (don't recall right now) we measured out aluminum foil and cut it ito 3 pieces by x-amount of square inches to use as the counter weights. We would put it in a tobacco can that was brazed to a fitting that allowed us to attach it to a motor held in the vise to do a some slow turning and let the homemade .45 slugs we put in it do the grinding process. When ready to test, we would put a small amount out and light it to see how it burned and check the residue. then we could fine tune it by adding what was needed to get the most complete burn. If we wanted a real fast burn, we would use a putty knife and a Masonite board to work the required amount into a talcum powder fineness - get a match any where near it and it would just go poof - made some nice cherry-bomb type devices with the real fine stuff....By mixture and how fine/coarse you made it, you could make it burn anywhere from instantaneous to a slow fuse fizzle.

219 posted on 04/14/2015 2:34:25 AM PDT by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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To: trebb

(A) - C - G - D - E (2x)

CHORUS:
A
Black powder and alcohol,
D
When the states and the cities fall,
G E
When your back is against the wall;
A
Black powder and alcohol.

A
Gimme charcoal to the measure two:
F
Send the bullet where you want it to.
D
Gimme sulphur to the measure three:
A
Make the powder gonna keep you free.
G E
Gimme saltpetre, measure fifteen:
A
Sweetest shooting that you’ve ever seen! (chorus)

Gimme water, yeast, and veggie-trash:
Leave it sitting in the slurry-mash.
When it’s ready, put it in the still:
If you can’t heat it, then the sunlight will.
Draw the alcohol away, and then
Put the slurry back, and start again! (chorus)

Booze’ll clean your cuts, or run your car.
You can make it anywhere you are.
Black powder in your cartridge shell
Will send the robbers running clean to Hell.
You can make them if you just know how.
So kids, remember what I tell you now! (chorus & repeat
chorus)

“Black Powder and Alcohol”, Leslie Fish. Leslie was worried about, well, the fall of civilization and wanted to pass along two key technologies, BP and EtOH. A catchy tune!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGJ7E0TkVa0


220 posted on 04/14/2015 4:26:15 AM PDT by DBrow
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