Survival tips if you find yourself in the Middle Ages? • Hacker News Board

Re: Survival tips if you find yourself in the Middle Ages?

#91

Post by randallsquared » Mon, Jan 05, 2009, 1:34 AM UTC

nostrademons wrote: post #74

randallsquared wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost certainly not more efficient, but growing plants can't use oil directly, and since we can supply enormous amounts of external energy by the standards of a crop plant, engineering them to be able to use it more effectively is useful even if the plant itself is less efficient overall.

Almost any sort of mechanical or chemical process is more efficient than plants. Photosynthesis is only 3% efficient; by the time the energy enters the plant, you've lost 97% of it. Then you figure various biological pathways, and you're down to maybe 1-2% efficiency for the best plants. This, among other reasons, is why grain ethanol was such a scam. The worst mechanical processes, by contrast, usually get at least…

I did not know that. Thanks.

Re: Survival tips if you find yourself in the Middle Ages?

#92

Post by nazgulnarsil » Mon, Jan 05, 2009, 1:59 AM UTC

Tichy wrote: post #65

nazgulnarsil wrote: post #33

you'll die of infectious disease. I'm almost 100% sure of this.

Would it be much worse than traveling to a 3rd world country today, though? Granted, typically travelers get some vaccination, but overall, not that many (mostly Hepatitis?).

my girlfriend just went to india and got more than 10 different vaccinations and still got sick.

Re: Survival tips if you find yourself in the Middle Ages?

#93

Post by Darmani » Mon, Jan 05, 2009, 2:02 AM UTC

derefr wrote: post #83

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #68

Hope for 1200. 800 wasn't that great. Be humble, mute, and helpful. If you know latin, work on learning the current dialect/script -- you'll have a shot at declaring yourself a "wise man from the east" and go for the job of physician. I would be careful with the Prester John references, your mileage may vary. As one commenter pointed out, you should be able to make aspirin from willow bark and penicillin from mold. T…

As to the "man-at-arms thing": if you could bring with you to the past a suitcase or so of initial supplies, what would be the best investment in the long term to become a unopposable warlord (or just an arms dealer with a technological monopoly?) Just "a bunch of guns" wouldn't help once you had given them away, and even specifications wouldn't help because no one could engineer to the required tolerances at the tim…

The big question is how to stop worrying about the need to personally fetch water and make clothes, and how to start worrying about implementing your overall plans. That is, how to get enough production going where you wouldn't be screwed when the solar cells powering your electronics (you didn't seriously consider bringing batteries, did you?) wear out.

My basic plan would be: Convince a small village I'm God and chose them to build my kingdom, improve their farming and sanitation enough to produce some labor surpluses, and then work my way up the tech tree.

The basic sketch of that would involve fireworks, a single assault rifle, and a low-power device storing lots of specifications.

Re: Survival tips if you find yourself in the Middle Ages?

#94

Post by hapless » Mon, Jan 05, 2009, 5:18 AM UTC

Tichy wrote: post #65

nazgulnarsil wrote: post #33

you'll die of infectious disease. I'm almost 100% sure of this.

Would it be much worse than traveling to a 3rd world country today, though? Granted, typically travelers get some vaccination, but overall, not that many (mostly Hepatitis?).

Yaws and Smallpox, just to name two, are practically extinct today. You will have NO immunity.

Rubella, mumps, chicken pox, lockjaw etc were all common diseases then. Today, we vaccinate against them, even in the third world. You, like all adults, have probably relied on herd immunity to compensate for your fading resistance.

Intestinal disease was common in this era. It's very rare today. You would suffer from it for the same reason that modern tourists suffer in the third world. Tourists, soldiers, and aid workers grin and bear it in comfortable quarters with plenty of clean water. You would be bearing it... elsewhere.

Disease might not take you out, but it would certainly be more of a problem for you than for the natives.

Re: Survival tips if you find yourself in the Middle Ages?

#95

Post by thwarted » Mon, Jan 05, 2009, 6:16 AM UTC

daniel-cussen wrote: post #59

How to make gunpowder, from Wikipedia. Warning, gross. "Historically, nitre-beds were prepared by mixing manure with either mortar or wood ashes, common earth and organic materials such as straw to give porosity to a compost pile typically 1.5 meters high by 2 meters wide by 5 metres long.[3] The heap was usually under a cover from the rain, kept moist with urine, turned often to accelerate the decomposition and leac…

Didn't they extract potassium from urine somewhere in The Baroque Cycle?

Re: Survival tips if you find yourself in the Middle Ages?

#96

Post by davidw » Mon, Jan 05, 2009, 7:35 AM UTC

time_management wrote: post #88

davidw wrote: post #22

"Alright you Primitive Screwheads, listen up! You see this? This... is my boomstick! The twelve-gauge double-barreled Remington. S-Mart's top of the line. You can find this in the sporting goods department. That's right, this sweet baby was made in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Retails for about a hundred and nine, ninety five. It's got a walnut stock, cobalt blue steel, and a hair trigger. That's right. Shop smart. Shop S…

How much ammo would you carry? It'd be nice to have enough to make an impression on anyone who threatened you. Aside from that, you'd probably never have to use it.

It's just a quote from "Army of Darkness".

Re: Survival tips if you find yourself in the Middle Ages?

#97

Post by DanielBMarkham » Mon, Jan 05, 2009, 10:47 AM UTC

derefr wrote: post #83

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #68

Hope for 1200. 800 wasn't that great. Be humble, mute, and helpful. If you know latin, work on learning the current dialect/script -- you'll have a shot at declaring yourself a "wise man from the east" and go for the job of physician. I would be careful with the Prester John references, your mileage may vary. As one commenter pointed out, you should be able to make aspirin from willow bark and penicillin from mold. T…

As to the "man-at-arms thing": if you could bring with you to the past a suitcase or so of initial supplies, what would be the best investment in the long term to become a unopposable warlord (or just an arms dealer with a technological monopoly?) Just "a bunch of guns" wouldn't help once you had given them away, and even specifications wouldn't help because no one could engineer to the required tolerances at the tim…

If I wanted to fight (or assist) in a limited war, I'd go for a solar-powered backpack, night-vision goggles and radios (x5), water purification, gold (for money), antibiotics, and a taser.

The trick, as a sibling commenter pointed out, is that you could easily spend 99% of your time getting water, finding food, learning to communicate, etc. You have to find a way to move beyond that point -- and that's a non-trivial barrier.

It'd be much better as a team of seven or so.

Re: Survival tips if you find yourself in the Middle Ages?

#98

Post by Tichy » Mon, Jan 05, 2009, 1:53 PM UTC

evgen wrote: post #82

markessien wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your ideas about this period are similar to ideas that the chinese people have about the U.S - many think that the U.S is overrun by gangsters and terrorists and lots of other dangers. Why is that? Because people only write about the drama. If you actually travel to any existing country where there are small villages, you will see that strangers are always treated with great friendliness and respect. If someo…

Soap = fatty acid + lye. How can anyone not know this? Run water through wood ash, boil a bit to concentrate, then mix with any accessible oil. Use eye protection at all times for those trying his at home.

I don't think it would ever have occurred to me to try to turn ash into something I could clean myself with (given that jumping into coal is a quick way to get dirty). Should I find myself in the middle ages, I hope to remember your comment...

Re: Survival tips if you find yourself in the Middle Ages?

#99

Post by skorgu » Mon, Jan 05, 2009, 2:32 PM UTC

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #16

What would you do to prepare if you knew the journey back in time would start in one hour?

I'd grab my Wagner's Chemical Technology 1872, a Pocket Ref, a hatchet, my wristwatch (automatic movement, no batteries), my Leatherman, every knife in my kitchen and the entire contents of my medicine cabinet (asprin, alcohol, gauze, etc). That ought to fit in a large backpack. Maybe some nylon rope if I could dig it up fast enough.

Yes this is all stuff in my house at the moment.

If I had more time I'd buy a 9mm revolver, load up a Kindle with reference books from demonoid and start working out.

Re: Survival tips if you find yourself in the Middle Ages?

#100

Post by biohacker42 » Mon, Jan 05, 2009, 4:14 PM UTC

pg wrote: post #73

markessien wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your ideas about this period are similar to ideas that the chinese people have about the U.S - many think that the U.S is overrun by gangsters and terrorists and lots of other dangers. Why is that? Because people only write about the drama. If you actually travel to any existing country where there are small villages, you will see that strangers are always treated with great friendliness and respect. If someo…

There are a lot of stories about robbery, but in reality, human societies don't function when people steal a lot. By present standards, society didn't function in most of medieval Europe, especially in 800. That's why the flourishing trade of the Roman era was replaced by subsistence farming. Banditry had replaced pax Romana. The rich didn't ride in carriages in the period we're talking about. The roads were too bad.…

This discussion is going of the deep end, but... are you sure?

Pax Romana had little to do with common muggery. The Eastern Holy Roman empire, a.k.a Byzantine was still doing OK. And for that matter the barbaric peoples at it's border, like the ones I am descendant from were as the above poster described, mostly peaceful and friendly.