168
Facts (quokk.au)
submitted 3 weeks ago by [A] to c/historymemes
17 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 13 points 3 weeks ago* (8 children)

They did not have the SYSTEMS we have. I don't think ANYONE traveling back in time would be able to build, say a functioning gun by themselves. Chemistry, metallurgy, etc, both as sciences and engineering fields just weren't there to supply the necessary parts.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 8 child comments
    •
  • [–] 9 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

    I've thought about this casually quite a few times. Provided you can get over the language barrier, and people don't just label you as insane, finding the academic elite of the country you're in and explaining to them what you know, you could rocket that country ahead of the rest of the world over a couple of decades.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
    •
  • [–] 8 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

    That's actually an interesting problem:

    How would you convince a group of Renaissance-era intellectuals that you are from the future and have unique knowledge?

    You need some scientific fact or discovery you could show them, that they don't already know, that can be proven quickly using relatively simple tools and equipment. Or you need some revolutionary invention you can build, again quickly with very few resources.

    Sure, I know a lot of scientific facts and information. If made the chief scientific/economic advisor to some Renaissance-era king or ruler, I would be able to substantially advance that country rapidly. But imagine being some rando today trying to get yourself a high-level position on a president's cabinet. Imagine trying to just talk your way into that, while having no prior connections at all.

    Yes, if put in charge of a historical country I could work wonders. But forget running the country, how do you even get past the palace gate? Imagine walking up to the residence of any president or prime minister today and trying to talk your way in the door by telling them, "I'm from the future and am here to rapidly advance your nation's technology. Please let me in to talk to your president/prime minister."

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 3 weeks ago*

    Renaissance could actually make it a bit easier to at least demonstrate you have knowledge they don't, as long as you don't pop up too early. If you show up after New World crops have already started popping up in Europe, yoe could demonstrate how tomatoes are safe to eat, provided you don't serve them on dishes or with utensils that they could leach toxins out of.

    It also helps mitigate the language barrier if you already speak a modern form of a Romance language and managed to get dropped in a territory where its predecessors were spoken.

    Of course, if you go further back in time, I think both aspects get increasingly difficult. Unless this is the first isekai story with a middle aged German academic as the protagonist, I doubt anyone would be remotely prepared to communicate if they got sent back to Anatolia and had to speak Hittite, or something. Then, the pool of candidates with a solid background in the appropriate dead languages gets reduced even further when you filter out those who also lack the technical expertise to be able to explain how to recreate some part of modern technology from scratch, including all the necessary backgrounds processes needed to have the basic technical foundation necessary to be able to implement the thing you know.

    If I find myself in that sort of situation, I know I'd be explaining electricity or something and get asked, "How do you get the electricity to start with?". And I would either have to say "Go kidnap some lightning," or "You pay the power company and then flip the light switch." Neither of which are very helpful.

    I figure my best bet is somehow getting to the New World first, and bringing back the necessary ingredients so I can invent tacos and burritos, revolutionizing cuisine with a sudden surge of Mexican food options in China or something during ancient history.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 1 point 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

    You can basically recreate all modern maths in one book (or scroll) without any expertise outside that field, and become another Euclid (or the first Euclid, if you happen to end up earlier than him).

    It did take people an embarrassing long time to figure out you can, despite it being irrational, still put pi on a number line.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    You could fairly easily build a single working gun analogue, it just wouldn't be even close to the guns of today.

    Though the difficulty, would vary greatly depending on the components you have to hand in the time-period you landed

    The mechanism of a shotgun or musket is relatively simple.

    Granted , the black powder chemistry is a bit tricky and requires intermediate chemistry steps AFAIK.

    If you needed to do metallurgy from scratch that would increase the estimation by a lot.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 4 points 3 weeks ago

    People overestimate the complexity of guns. Take bronze age metallurgy culture and add black powder and the idea of putting a bronze bullet in a bronze tube with that powder, and you have muskets super early.

    That would be honestly fucking crazy and an interesting alternate history, Romans failing to conquer an early musket Carthage

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent