Do you have any useful knowledge or skills you could bring back in time?

SafeSurfer · 03-11-2019 07:07PM #1

If you were suddenly transported back in time to say, the Middle Ages. Would you have any skill or knowledge that would convince people that you were from the future or could improve their lives?

I could describe electricity, flight etc but I don’t think there is any practical skill I have that would be useful. Similarly predicting future events would be unconvincing unless you had a lot of knowledge about the Middle Ages.

Doctors, scientists, engineers may have useful knowledge but if the average Joe Soap was transported back in time they would be pretty useless in my opinion.

biko · 03-11-2019 07:09PM

I'd starve to death in a week

Ubbquittious · 03-11-2019 07:35PM

The middle ages are about the time when clocks were starting to be made. If I could get a clock maker to take me on I would have access to metal and tools and have a chance of reinventing some basic electric stuff.

I'd say most people would have more knowledge than they think they have. Anyone could reinvent the stove which would help people to stay warm. If you find a way to make a basic lathe or a milling machine your possibilities will open up.

corner of hells · 03-11-2019 08:13PM

biko wrote: »

I'd starve to death in a week

Did we have something similar to this recently, where most of us agreed we'd have have all ended up dead fairly quickly apart from the bloke who owned a sharp pointy stick ?

Leg End Reject · 03-11-2019 08:15PM

I'm not particularly useful now, so I don't think I'd be entertained for too long.

SmartinMartin · 03-11-2019 08:17PM

I'd be good at killin fookers. That, and making bread.

inthepocket · 03-11-2019 08:25PM

Importance of washing your hands, germ theory, hygiene in food preparation, sterilizing instruments before operations, cowpox/smallpox, that's about all I'd have to offer.

Twister2 · 03-11-2019 08:32PM

warn them about donald trump

arybvtcw0eolkf · 03-11-2019 08:32PM

With 35 years military service I'd make a pretty good mercenary leader.

I'm also a Judo black belt so if I chanced across Monty Python's Black Night I'd just throw him out of my way, break a limp or choke him out

Gynoid · 03-11-2019 08:36PM

Hmmmm. Now that I think about it my skills are mostly medieval, like gardening, cooking, weaving, herbal knowledge, etc., so I would be little use for innovation. Someone else would have to invent a computer so I could do my digital stuff. But I guess if really stuck there would be a few things I could surprise ye olde folks with, like show them some new crochet fashions, make a pinhole camera, tell them the plots of post medieval plays or novels and thus make a living as the first person telling those classic stories, design better bras and underwear generally for the ladies, make paper aeroplanes in the village square, show them disco dancing, sing I Will Survive at the campfire with dramatic expression...feck Im thinking now I could be an absolute LEGEND if there was a time warp.

03-11-2019 08:37PM

inthepocket wrote: »

Importance of washing your hands, germ theory, hygiene in food preparation, sterilizing instruments before operations, cowpox/smallpox, that's about all I'd have to offer.

Burn the witch!

Twister2 · 03-11-2019 08:40PM

you could jump forward a few centuries on stuff like electricity generation with a bit of knowledge like an EE degree

Immortal Starlight · 03-11-2019 08:41PM

I could cut their hair if I remember to bring my scissors. Have them all looking lovely in no time.

Capt'n Midnight · 03-11-2019 08:43PM

SafeSurfer wrote: »

I could describe electricity, flight etc but I don’t think there is any practical skill I have that would be useful.

https://pics.me.me/pd-love-to-go-back-in-time-and-blow-peoples-63715469.png

Odelay · 03-11-2019 08:43PM

Alannah Ripe Brush wrote: »

With 35 years military service I'd make a pretty good mercenary leader.

I'm also a Judo black belt so if I chanced across Monty Python's Black Night I'd just throw him out of my way, break a limp or choke him out

Wow! Really?? You should definitely mention this more often!

corner of hells · 03-11-2019 08:46PM

Odelay wrote: »

Wow! Really?? You should definitely mention this more often!

I've ten years combat experience in Call Of Duty.

BDI · 03-11-2019 08:47PM

I’d be like a grand wizard with my plumbing, electricity and air conditioning knowledge.

Could win the premier league as manager for the next two hundred years(probably called the first division back then) with my football tactic knowledge.

Play guitar enough to lead an orchestra to write a pile of songs that weren’t written yet.

I’d do better there than here.

Here I can’t even have a career in poetry.

SmartinMartin · 03-11-2019 08:51PM

Odelay wrote: »

Wow! Really?? You should definitely mention this more often!

Lol

corner of hells · 03-11-2019 08:52PM

Alannah Ripe Brush wrote: »

With 35 years military service I'd make a pretty good mercenary leader.

I'm also a Judo black belt so if I chanced across Monty Python's Black Night I'd just throw him out of my way, break a limp or choke him out

I've a friend with 46 years experience in the Army , you'd want to see in action with the saxophone and clarinet.
In combat his job is to carry a stretcher, as he says himself he'd have to be carried on to the battlefield on a stretcher.

arybvtcw0eolkf · 03-11-2019 08:58PM

Odelay wrote: »

Wow! Really?? You should definitely mention this more often!

Ah, I meet (online) one of my stalkers (jealous much?).

Nice to know I'm not going unnoticed by the little 'uns

standardg60 · 03-11-2019 08:58PM

I'd set up a pension fund for the over thirties.

arybvtcw0eolkf · 03-11-2019 09:03PM

corner of hells wrote: »

I've a friend with 46 years experience in the Army , you'd want to see in action with the saxophone and clarinet.
In combat his job is to carry a stretcher, as he says himself he'd have to be carried on to the battlefield on a stretcher.

Musicians had a very important roll in combat up to recent times. There are stories of pipers leading the lads over the top in the trenches of France in WWII

Then there was the little drummer boy during the US civil war.

In the Irish DF bandsmen and women are non combatants, they don't serve alongside us either at home or abroad so they're not even Military First Responders, but since the thread is history your friend who have played a very important roll in war.

corner of hells · 03-11-2019 09:13PM

Alannah Ripe Brush wrote: »

Musicians had a very important roll in combat up to recent times. There are stories of pipers leading the lads over the top in the trenches of France in WWII

Then there was the little drummer boy during the US civil war.

In the Irish DF bandsmen and women are non combatants, they don't serve alongside us either at home or abroad so they're not even Military First Responders, but since the thread is history your friend who have played a very important roll in war.

And hes a nice bloke.

Ubbquittious · 03-11-2019 10:13PM

riffmongous wrote: »

Burn the witch!

This will be a big problem for anyone going back. Trying to convince people you have useful skills so you get a source of income and access to materials but also not drawing too much attention to yourself.

Capt'n Midnight · 03-11-2019 10:20PM

Ubbquittious wrote: »

This will be a big problem for anyone going back. Trying to convince people you have useful skills so you get a source of income and access to materials but also not drawing too much attention to yourself.

Especially if few people even speak Ye Olde English and religious observances are very strict and you have no immunity to the endemic diseases or food adulterants.

Also no running water, toilets or central heating or double glazing. And I hope you like peas.

AMKC · 03-11-2019 11:29PM

Sure ye I could teach them a few things. Maybe invent the wheel if it has not been done yet, discover fuel, turf, light a fire, do some art, teach them how to build better house's maybe from stones and have patience. Explain gravity to them and show them how to use it use water for things like toilets cause feck that if I am sitting outside in some cold forest on a wet day doing the no1 or no2.
There is more I could teach too but I think that is enough to get started.

ILoveYourVibes · 03-11-2019 11:30PM

Condoms.

looksee · 03-11-2019 11:45PM

AMKC wrote: »

Sure ye I could teach them a few things. Maybe invent the wheel if it has not been done yet, discover fuel, turf, light a fire, do some art, teach them how to build better house's maybe from stones and have patience. Explain gravity to them and show them how to use it use water for things like toilets cause feck that if I am sitting outside in some cold forest on a wet day doing the no1 or no2.
There is more I could teach too but I think that is enough to get started.

I think by medieval times they had a good grasp on all of those things - except toilets.

buckwheat · 03-11-2019 11:46PM

Alannah Ripe Brush wrote: »

With 35 years military service I'd make a pretty good mercenary leader.

I'm also a Judo black belt so if I chanced across Monty Python's Black Night I'd just throw him out of my way, break a limp or choke him out

ILoveYourVibes · 03-11-2019 11:48PM

Better astronavigation.

Hygiene and its connection with health.

Better diet advice.

04-11-2019 12:01AM

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

Condoms.

You'd have to go back a long way for condoms to be a new idea.

The earliest apparent condom use was over eleven thousand years ago if the cave paintings at Lascaux are to be believed. If that's a little hard to take (pardon the pun) the Eygptians and Greeks were on the job (sorry) about five or six thousand years ago.

Condoms were made using, amongst other things, woven fibres, cleaned - or not cleaned - animal or human intestines with a knot at one end and a prayer at the other or alternatively, skins. And used repeatedly. The first rubber condoms were produced in the mid-1800's.

I think I could spin wool and fashion a crochet hook and bedazzle the ancients with my design skills and dashing line of practical and chic ponchos. Also introduce basic hygiene practices, hopefully in a way that wouldn't get me killed for not dying. Midwifery is where I would probably impress, but the midwife and the witch were often one and the same 'cunning woman' and any overt knowledge of where babies come from and how would probably also find me on a bonfire.

I'd probably be a goner in a month one way or the other.

Do you have any useful knowledge or skills you could bring back in time?

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