Posted on 04/12/2015 6:20:17 PM PDT by 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.
Most of us, including myself, don’t possess the knowledge to live a year.
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..
Happiness occurs between the ears, it always has. Humans haven’t changed from whatever point you agree that they originated...they just haven’t.
Gunpowder, basic firearms, modern antiseptic methods. All would work
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
How would you communicate?
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
My Father lived to be 90. Mother to 86.
Both would have died early without modern medicine. Mother from appendicitis before she was 30.
Filby: Which three books would you have taken?
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
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”.
“modern antiseptic methods”
First you’d have to explain that disease comes from tiny invisible creatures and not as a punishment from a deity.
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