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Guy makes a knife from scratch. He has to make a smelter first.

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Re: Guy makes a knife from scratch. He has to make a smelter first.

#31

Post by InclinedPlane »

dstein wrote: post #9

It's reasons like this, that I really wonder if someone from today were to time travel into the past if anything they know would be useful at all. Medieval people would probably think we're all idiots.

An average person would not be overly useful, but a skilled and knowledgeable individual would have much to offer. A chemist can make nylon, gunpowder, matches, or plastic from relatively easily obtained chemicals even in ancient times, for example. There are also lots of other little tricks that are just as or more valuable. Things like germ theory, medicine, cooking, electricity, etc. In roman times it would have been possible to build telegraphs, without much difficulty, imagine how that would have changed the world.

Re: Guy makes a knife from scratch. He has to make a smelter first.

#32

Post by crocowhile »

sixtofour wrote: post #30

Some pictures are missing from the site and Google cache. You can see the pictures if you "view image" on the blank pictures. Hard reloading seems to pull some in too.

The link here has all the pictures: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2644988

Re: Guy makes a knife from scratch. He has to make a smelter first.

#34

Post by burgerbrain »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #31
dstein wrote: post #9

It's reasons like this, that I really wonder if someone from today were to time travel into the past if anything they know would be useful at all. Medieval people would probably think we're all idiots.

An average person would not be overly useful, but a skilled and knowledgeable individual would have much to offer. A chemist can make nylon, gunpowder, matches, or plastic from relatively easily obtained chemicals even in ancient times, for example. There are also lots of other little tricks that are just as or more valuable. Things like germ theory, medicine, cooking, electricity, etc. In roman times it would have b…

Even easier than the telegraph, but potentially even more dramatic: the phonograph.

Paper diaphragm, wax cylinder, a needle, and viola! You're a god! ;)

Re: Guy makes a knife from scratch. He has to make a smelter first.

#35

Post by dstein »

superkarn wrote: post #18
dstein wrote: post #9

It's reasons like this, that I really wonder if someone from today were to time travel into the past if anything they know would be useful at all. Medieval people would probably think we're all idiots.

Imagine the opposite: someone from the future were to time travel back to our present time. Certain knowledge the they bring would be useful. But a lot probably won't be until necessary technology becomes available.

That's kind of the same thing -- a person from the future would probably not really be able to guide us into the future any faster. He wouldn't even be able to show us how to build a time machine because the technology necessary to build the tools to build a time machine don't exist yet.

Re: Guy makes a knife from scratch. He has to make a smelter first.

#36

Post by cletus »

dstein wrote: post #9

It's reasons like this, that I really wonder if someone from today were to time travel into the past if anything they know would be useful at all. Medieval people would probably think we're all idiots.

If you're into sci-fi I urge you to read Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep [1]. It doesn't have a lot to do with this except that it has a fairly primitive society that has high-tech dumped on it in two different camps and what eventuates is an arms race.

In the same vein is CJ Cherryh's Foreigner series [2], which tells the story of human colonists who end up lost, unable to find their way home. They instead find a habitable planet with a native population that roughly has 19th century technology and build their space station above it. The station isn't sustainable though so they end up getting stranded on the planet.

So while not time travel per se, the whole subject of vast technology differentials is a rich vein of sci-fi that I personally really enjoy.

As for someone transported to a medieval era, any person with a high school education would have what is, for the time, a highly advanced knowledge of mathematics, astronomy, physics, possibly chemistry, biology, etc to the point where they would be immensely valuable in the right hands I would think.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Fire_Upon_the_Deep

[2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreigner_universe

Re: Guy makes a knife from scratch. He has to make a smelter first.

#37

Post by thesteamboat »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #31
dstein wrote: post #9

It's reasons like this, that I really wonder if someone from today were to time travel into the past if anything they know would be useful at all. Medieval people would probably think we're all idiots.

An average person would not be overly useful, but a skilled and knowledgeable individual would have much to offer. A chemist can make nylon, gunpowder, matches, or plastic from relatively easily obtained chemicals even in ancient times, for example. There are also lots of other little tricks that are just as or more valuable. Things like germ theory, medicine, cooking, electricity, etc. In roman times it would have b…

I'm curious as to what easy advances there were in cooking. Do you mean something along the lines of better heat sources or do you mean recipes?

Re: Guy makes a knife from scratch. He has to make a smelter first.

#38

Post by ChuckMcM »

wisty wrote: post #14
eli wrote: post #6

"Charcoal has to be chopped to a specific size for the operation to run smoothly. I chopped mine during the days before the run in little chunks about a cubic inch or less." Chopped using what?

Later on, he uses a forge, anvil, grinder, flux, chemicals for polishing, etc. He's not using cave-man technology. I think he built the smelter because you can't really buy them.

I agree, and he got his ore from the Ceramic store, no pick and hammer breaking down rocks from the quarry.

Re: Guy makes a knife from scratch. He has to make a smelter first.

#39

Post by pyre »

superkarn wrote: post #18
dstein wrote: post #9

It's reasons like this, that I really wonder if someone from today were to time travel into the past if anything they know would be useful at all. Medieval people would probably think we're all idiots.

Imagine the opposite: someone from the future were to time travel back to our present time. Certain knowledge the they bring would be useful. But a lot probably won't be until necessary technology becomes available.

The concepts would be invaluable though. If he/she were able to give of some of the base concepts for how those things worked, we could direct all of our energy towards those concepts rather than stumbling in the dark to increase our understanding.
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