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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.

#111

Post by rmc »

kabdib wrote: post #68
pyre wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Like: "I know we could teleport. No, I didn't see any massive power supplies, it was just a box about the size of your 'car' and it cost as much as a loaf of bread to use it." or "I called my sister on Alpha Centauri every Sunday, and we'd chat about the weather." Just knowing it's possible, with gross engineering parameters, can be half the battle.

Even knowing some of the specifics would be helpful. Imagine a non-engineer from now going back to 1500s and talk about flying.

They can say that you need 2 wings on the side, and you need to go really fast in a straight line before you can take off. Sometimes you can see the little flaps on the edge of the wing move up and down. Though you can also do it with little planes. And if you want rotating blades then it has to be smaller than planes (helicopters).

This should help a clever person (e.g. Leonardo da Vinci) figure out how to fly.

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

#112

Post by wazoox »

WalterBright wrote: post #60

I'd like to see someone make a knife without using any modern technology precursors whatsoever. That means starting from using ones hands and what is available from nature in its natural form. I think it'd be quite an accomplishment.

Fictional but a great read : in Jules Verne's Mysterious Island the heroes precisely have to make their tools, clothes, etc from scratch, up to a house, a telegraph and a boat :) a hacker's dream.

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

#113

Post by hessenwolf »

kabdib wrote: post #11
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.

Simple knowledge, such as the disease model of sickness and "microorganisms exist, keep things clean" would be useful. You could probably cobble together a water-drop microscope and demonstrate the difference between (say) clean wounds and infected ones. Fleas = plague. All that. Knowing how to distill hard liquor would make you popular as well.

Just try saying 'micro-organisms' from the top of a witch-burning pyre.

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

#114

Post by hessenwolf »

harshpotatoes wrote: post #16
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.

I think if random individuals from today were to go into the past, we would mostly look pretty stupid. However, I think if a large enough group traveled into the past, we would have enough useful knowledge to wow them/revolutionize their society.

Conquer/enslave/pillage, but yes, probably the best thing about us is our development in cooperation.

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

#115

Post by hessenwolf »

harshpotatoes wrote: post #16
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.

I think if random individuals from today were to go into the past, we would mostly look pretty stupid. However, I think if a large enough group traveled into the past, we would have enough useful knowledge to wow them/revolutionize their society.

Conquer/enslave/pillage, but, yes, probably the best thing about us is our development in cooperation.

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

#117

Post by user24 »

kragen wrote: post #97
gaustin wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People already do this. Some only go so far as stone blades, or allow modern tools for certain steps. Others bootstrap the whole process from stone-age to steel. I've never done it. It's incredibly time consuming but satisfying, from the first hand accounts I've read. You can cut hours or days off of your work time by using modern tools for some of the most seemingly trivial steps.

Who are these people? Do they stop at steel? What should I be Googling?

start at [flint knapping] and work from there

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

#118

Post by lucasjung »

WalterBright wrote: post #60

I'd like to see someone make a knife without using any modern technology precursors whatsoever. That means starting from using ones hands and what is available from nature in its natural form. I think it'd be quite an accomplishment.

I'd like to see this taken one step further: a wiki that provides step-by-step directions for building anything from components. Links to the components and tools required would provide step-by-step directions for building them from more basic components, recursively until you're making things from absolute scratch by hand.

A wiki like this would let you jump into the process at any level, assembling something from pre-fabricated components, building it from absolute scratch, or anything in-between. I'd be curious to see how fast someone could use directions like this to start from the stone age and get to a microchip.

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

#119

Post by eli »

stephen_g wrote: post #107
eli wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, I get it and I think it's actually a neat project. But "from scratch" is an entirely meaningless phrase.

Would you rather the title was "Man builds knife from raw materials but using modern tools, and has to build a smelter first" or something?

kind of

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

#120

Post by gaustin »

kragen wrote: post #97
gaustin wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People already do this. Some only go so far as stone blades, or allow modern tools for certain steps. Others bootstrap the whole process from stone-age to steel. I've never done it. It's incredibly time consuming but satisfying, from the first hand accounts I've read. You can cut hours or days off of your work time by using modern tools for some of the most seemingly trivial steps.

Who are these people? Do they stop at steel? What should I be Googling?

What do you mean stop at steel?

Search for Tai Goo, Tim Lively and Wayne Goddard. Primitive knifemaking is another good term to search.

Ariel" rel="nofollow">http://www.aescustomknives.com/>Ariel Salaverria doesn't do primitive as far as I know, but he does have some tutorials for making some things that most makers buy/outsource. Tutorials for resin impermeated handle materials, like denim micarta.

This cool post showed up when I Googled "primitive knifemaking" http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/topic/40386#.TfYp7UfW5oEhttp://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/topic/40386#.TfYp7UfW5oE&#6...;

If you (or anyone else, for that matter) is interested in talking about this stuff, shoot me an email (it's in my profile).

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