Funding your own oracle or acting as a physician with modern knowledge about microbes and what causes disease would be a much more profitable enterprise. Disclosing that you are from the future (a future without Greek gods, none less) would be a disastrous move. You simply couldn't tell the truth and remain alive
Challenge HN: Convince an ancient Greek that you are from the future
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Re: Challenge HN: Convince an ancient Greek that you are from the future
#12Pretty sure the Greeks have all the materials for these. Create batteries from dissimilar metals, using clay pots, weak organic acids, and copper wire. Once you have batteries, wind copper wire around a small, rough rod of iron to create a weak magnet. A mineral acid will produce stronger batteries, but require access to things like salammoniac and blue vitrol and the knowledge of how to heat them together and pass t…
Copper _wire_ requires you to be able to draw wire, not just refine copper. I'm not sure if the ancient Greeks knew how to do that.
Re: Challenge HN: Convince an ancient Greek that you are from the future
#13Go with Archimedes and teach him calculus. He will understand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrature_of_the_Parabola
Well first you'd have to teach him algebra, and even that would probably be impressive. Have you ever read Euclid's Elements? The notation is horrific, way harder to work with than modern algebra.
Re: Challenge HN: Convince an ancient Greek that you are from the future
#14A functional glider would do nicely I think. (Doh, they had those with Daedaleus and Icarus). I was going to suggest a boat or a hot air balloon, but Archimedes figured that one out. Another thought would be a simple steam engine. The Greeks had iron and knew how to work it. All the rest is knowledge that wouldn't surprise them, but they'd not put it all together. The Greek's theory of chemistry was all kinds of mess…
You could probably make a Cayley glider at least! https://yorkshireairmuseum.org/exhibits/pre-world-war-ii-air...
Re: Challenge HN: Convince an ancient Greek that you are from the future
#15Pretty sure the Greeks have all the materials for these. Create batteries from dissimilar metals, using clay pots, weak organic acids, and copper wire. Once you have batteries, wind copper wire around a small, rough rod of iron to create a weak magnet. A mineral acid will produce stronger batteries, but require access to things like salammoniac and blue vitrol and the knowledge of how to heat them together and pass t…
Copper _wire_ requires you to be able to draw wire, not just refine copper. I'm not sure if the ancient Greeks knew how to do that.
I'll admit that I was assuming that since many civilizations at that time knew how to make gold and silver filigree, that copper wire was also possible. One can probably replace the copper wire with gold wire, but you might have a hard time convincing the locals to loan you some for demonstration.
Re: Challenge HN: Convince an ancient Greek that you are from the future
#16Show them the reduction to absurd of square root two. Tell them that one day their culture will eventually come to an end and but will be forever remembered like Homer’s Odysee, however large parts of it will be lost, therefore they should keep some of their best written manuscripts hidden on some caves which I will visit when I am back, to the future, lol.
Also I don’t like to change the past, but someone should pass a note there saying that aside of Persia eventually the Arabian peninsula will create an even greater enemy.
Re: Challenge HN: Convince an ancient Greek that you are from the future
#17My idea would be to first study in depth every hallucinogenic plant and mushroom that could have grown during the time period, as well as common tactics of charismatic public speaking. After traveling backwards I’d quickly gather up as many of those plants as possible and prepare them in ways that can be easily ingested by the common folk through teas and what not. Then I’d sell them to the common folk as ways to see and talk with the gods, and hope to gain a cult following. That way I can actually have people listen to me without disregarding me. Then I suppose I’d have to teach them how to build as complicated of a technology out of simple materials, maybe a simple plane like the wright brothers, and go on to teach complex mathematics or something.
The first step is to just get people to listen to you. But I suppose that won’t help with your opening story haha
Re: Challenge HN: Convince an ancient Greek that you are from the future
#18[deleted]
Re: Challenge HN: Convince an ancient Greek that you are from the future
#19My idea would be to first study in depth every hallucinogenic plant and mushroom that could have grown during the time period, as well as common tactics of charismatic public speaking. After traveling backwards I’d quickly gather up as many of those plants as possible and prepare them in ways that can be easily ingested by the common folk through teas and what not. Then I’d sell them to the common folk as ways to see…
Indeed not, but I like that plan a lot nonetheless! :-)
Re: Challenge HN: Convince an ancient Greek that you are from the future
#20I guess start by describing what I know of orbital mechanics and how the solar system works.
After that, build a small furnace with an exhaust that can shift a propellor shaft.
After that, a flushing toilet.
Then describe a manual Blockchain and mint the world's first NFT.