under the dorsal guiding feathers of unladen swallows.
obviously a European..not a migrating African.
Posted on 10/14/2012 8:02:34 AM PDT by trailhkr1
What would they be? A gun? Then you are only allowed to bring 2 bullets..see how that works?? Some basic ground rules..has to be a realistic items you can get you hands on today..no tanks etc. You are going with just the clothes on your back + the 3 items to survive an mingle with the folks of the day. Never coming back.
Saw this question on another site and wanted to see what you guys would come up with..I will post that link tomorrow after everyone has a chance to come up with their ideas..some people came up with good ideas (detailed history text of the time in Europe, antibiotics) and other people's ideas..not so much.
Ok - still, narrow it down a bit - France? Italy? Is Great Britain Ireland/Scotland/Wales considered “Europe” in this scenario?
Yes, MichaelTArchangel!! Weapons to stop the damage that Mo and his Minions from Hell will cause in the future.
1. A Cold Steel Grosse Messer, with which I could fit in and get most everything else I might need.
2. A good dagger: a bunch of them I could live with, but lately I’m partial to the Gerber Mark II.
3. A 2 oz gold bar to cash in for local currency.
There are more than 3 pages in the bible. There are more than 3 part to the 1911. etc. I am assuming the gun is fully loaded since you are not counting parts of items.
For readers, TalBlack means there was a forger working at the same time as the Master Ulfbert but making very inferior swords. But they probably looked good enough to fool people. But if one of these rip offs broke in the middle of the battle, which the inferior ones were prone to doing, you’d be in pretty deep do do.
The master signed his swords +Ulfberh+t and the forger (or forgers) signed them +Ulfberht+.
There was the Viking invasions on one side and the Muslim invasions on the other. It was a pretty crappy time. No wonder the period of history was called the Dark Ages.
Glock 19 , case of ammo, and good tent
A toothbrush, penicillin tablets and a lifetime supply of toilet paper.
As Leroy Jethro Gibs would say.... never go anywhere without a knife...
A Delorean, a hover-board, and an orange vest jacket.
It wasn't until around 1490AD, that citrus was widely available in the greater European areas.
So if I get plunked down in southerner Italy, no problem, in northern Great Britain, I need vitamin C and a coat.
I think what you take is less important than the preparation you do before you leave.
Understanding the beliefs, morals, superstitions, history of the people you are going to be living with would make all the difference.
Roll playing expected scenarios would be helpful. Say you bring a cache of Viagra pills. How do you get one to the King and what do you do when the cache runs out?
It’s not the “magic” things you take with you. It’s how do you make the things you find there “magic”.
1. A slide rule
2. A pound of salt
3. A Latin-English dictionary
Leo Frankowski wrote a series of SF novels on exactly this subject, starting with THE CROSS TIME ENGINEER. In it, a modern engineer gets transported back to 13th century Poland ... and decides that if he’s going to be living there, he’s going to make it worth living there! I should go back and re-read those. Pretty fun books (with a lot of engineering shoehorned in).
If the swallows dropped the coconut on me, would I only get a flesh wound, birds are cowards?
But the technology you want to give to the Native Americans or Australian Aborigines was originally created by Europeans. Don’t you see the irony in what you are saying? You want to show the “Euroweenies” that the American Indians are more advanced than they are by giving European and Euro-American technology, inventions, and discoveries over to them, while they invent nothing. Don’t you see the incongruity here?
And American Indians not warmongers? I think you really need to brush up on your tribal history.
Besides I don’t think wishing away the United States of America would really be all that good for world history.
3 items?
Time machine.
Ohio class submarine.
Full load of Trident.
ping for later
Look at it this way.
The native Americans had as much time to develop technology as the Europeans, African and Asians....and they didn’t.
They were content in their lives of what ever depending on the part of the continent.
As an example the north eastern Indians, slashed and burned, exploited the land and moved on.
Bring those three things and the natives would think you were a God.
Do I spend too much time on this site?
Depends on where you landed in 742 AD. The world was much less populated at that time. There’s a good chance that you land somewhere that a human being has never put eyes on. Or for that matter you may end up in the middle of the Pacific, or Antarctica. It says when, not where. I could shoot a pound of gravel out of a musketoon and do a hell of a lot of damage before my demise, and 25lb of black powder can make a very nasty bomb(s).
Before I can answer your question, I'd need to know if I would be able prepare ahead of time by doing such things as learning the language and customs of the people as well being able to wear period appropriate attire?
Solar powered note book full of all technological advances
Kevlar vest
100 pounds of peppercorns
Does the Library of Congress count as one item?
1. The best 21st century knife I could find.
2. The biggest piece of flint I could carry.
3. A combined copy of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution to bring enlightenment to the backward masses.
This does assume that my Latin training of 40+ years ago comes flooding back to me.
A really good tri-lingual Greek-Latin-English dictionary.
A document or book with a detailed description of the metallurgy, engineering and chemistry needed to construct match-lock era fire-arms and cannon (ideally also tri-lingual).
A large sack of gold.
(742 is an unpleasant choice — the Empire is in the hands of the Iconoclast Constantine V Copronymous — of course at this point Rome is still Orthodox, so I think I’d hope to end up in Rome and offer my services to Pope Zacharius.)
2. A mattress
3. carton of cigarettes
Actually, being killed as a heretic for technical knowledge would be vanishingly unlikely in 742. Before the 11th century, the Church, both East and West, followed the wisdom of the Fathers that the execution of heretics was a horror to be avoided — heretics needed to be silence, but they also need to be given a maximal chance of repenting — all the great heresiarchs of the Christological controversies (and the Orthodox they accused of being heretics when they had the ear of the secular authorities, cf. the treatment of St. John Chrysostom) died in exile. Likewise the belief in witchcraft was condemned as pagan superstition until about the 11th century, so it’s unlikely technical prowess, especially if one showed how it was done, would be treated as witchcraft.
(In the East these attitudes continued until they finally broke down in Russia in the 17th century — in the West, heresy as a capital offense and the belief in witchcraft seem to have been picked up from Muslim Spain in the 11th century.)
Rosehips. The rugosa varieties get the size of small grapes.
HitchHikers Guide to the Universe
Towel
BabelFish
endless supply of STD defeating antibiotics since I am sure to be rather popular with the girls given my tools will make me popular
***************************************************
The “French Pox” (if in England) or the “English Pox” (if in France) can be defeated with pills ,, however you will have to get used to women with hairy legs and pits who bath once a year...
OK, here is my go at it.
year 742, 3 things.
1) A modern made sailing ship capable of carrying cargo. (I’ll hire crew there.) it will have solar powered water desalination with a few solar powered luxuries, and a small solar powered engine, so I can pilot it myself if need be to a port (slow, but needed until I get some crew).
2) modern sea charts showing the full world and major currents. I will let cartographers copy them for a fee.
3) A solar powered computer (kept on my ship) with a detailed history including the recipe for gun powder and the locations of early Spanish goldmines in Cuba.
The goal, hire some crew, including armed and armored fighters, make raids on the Aztecs, take some quick and easy gold. Use that to convince the English to conquer Cuba, and the new world. and push Britain into world power status long before anyone else is even aware of what is going on.
I would be the new Columbus and hated by the Left today.
I’d say the most obvious choice is some sort of survival/swiss knife...depending on your balance of protection vs tool.
But while certain books are a good idea, large volumes, or anything large you are going to have to carry around, keep dry and hope no one gets curious about until you, hopefully, can develop some sort of secure base...but who knows how long that could be?
So imagine having to actually carry or wear what you have, and most likely not want anyone to see it.
As for language, I would also say you can LEARN a lot of things before going, and those who have good memories might be able to absorb a lot of knowledge rather than just count on a huge book that might disappear two days in.
Another big question is how bad one’s eyesight is and how much that factors in...tough call there.
2: A good book on metallurgy
3: Special Forces field manual on medicine
In other words useful knowledge.
AND you need the time machine to get home to a Hero’s welcome.
And if you’re plopped down right in the middle of Aquitaine or the Dordogne high and dry? All but useless other than the solar powered computer. I’d be interested in seeing one of those, by the way. Who makes one? If we’re talking vaporware I’m going to change one of mine to a solar powered flying car, lol.
Funny how many people on FR are relying upon solar for this little exercise in time travel. Every thread I’ve ever been on that broached the subject, solar is trashed. I’d like to see it succeed and become broadly viable, personally, but many FReepers appear to disagree.
Regards,
GtG
I just want ONE thing JUST ONE OF THESE....
A fully armed and well supplied
Nuclear Aircraft Carrier.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgkPhdrNXJo&feature=related
1.) money in the form of a large sack of gold/silver and copper coins common to the 8th century, including the roman "bunga bunga" coinage pictured below. (I'll buy a good knife and passage to a warm climate ASAP!)
2.) a survival book detailing how to make penicillin , water filters and such.
3.) a sack of seeds , "heirloom" varieties of corn , carrots , beans , onions , tomatoes etc. etc.
I’d take that Chia Pet stuff and, like johnny Appleseed, i’d be putting it everywhere. Gives a 1300 year head start to it and might stop them from make that annoying cottage industry and its stoopid song.
My three things from the future I would take with me would be 1. A time machine 2. The self-replicating Big Mac 3. 2018 Corvette.
The major Plague epidemics occurred in 540 at Pelusium, Egypt, reached Constantinople in 542 and spread into Europe and Asia (the Plague of Justinian) in the following decade; 14th century Europe, following the caravan routes, it was in the lower Volga River basin in 1345, the Caucasus and Crimea by 1346, Constantinople by 1347, Alexandria in the autumn of 1347, Cyprus and Sicily in that year, Italy by winter 1347, Marseilles by January of 1348, Paris in spring 1348, followed by Germany and the Low Countries in that year, Norway in May 1349, eastern Europe by 1350, and finally Russia in 1351, but smaller outbreaks continued for about 200 more years; Austria in 1711; the Balkans from 1770-1772. The last major pandemic ran from 1855-1896 worldwide, but mostly in China and India, wherein more than 12 million died. Manchuria in 1910–1911 witnessed about 60,000 deaths due to pneumonic Plague with a repeat in 1920–1921; and a minor outbreak occurred as recently as the summer of 1994 in Surat, India closely following an earthquake in September 1993.
From 1150-1200 there was a major warming throughout Europe. This, coupled with the rise of the mercantile class, led to improved diet and greater population growth. By 1340, Europe was significantly overpopulated. This was followed by the so-called Little Ice Age, which ended by 1351. The resulting climate was colder and wetter than normal. With population higher than it had been in some time, and crop yields reduced, per capita caloric intake fell precipitously, general health declined, and the pest population increased. Not a welcome combination of circumstances.
LOL ... post of the thread! Can’t top that one.
mark
Give me these three things, and you can send me back naked for all I care.
If all goes as planned, by the time I die the world will have advanced by 1400 years. Plus I would have destroyed the concept of Islam and most other pagan religions. God willing of course.
You can PR me with the information I need to collect my prize for winning, because after checking out all the other choices made, mine are a lock.
 The Interlinear Bible: Hebrew/Greek/English  English Grammar for Students of Latin: The Study Guide for Those Learning Latin  "MINERALS OF THE WORLD" - by Ole Johnsen |
Give me a month to record the information I’d need, and 3 notebooks. That’s all I’d need.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.