Would you live in Medieval Times

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Maxcady10001
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Would you live in Medieval Times

Post by Maxcady10001 »

I recently read A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and in the book a man time travels to the sixth century. and once there, he uses his knowledge of history and modern technology to become The Boss, or a wizard that holds an important position in their sixth century system. He is able to invent guns and the telephone, and at one point he challenges 500 knights with only two pistols. He does, in the book, what myself and many others imagine doing. So if you could go back in time, which period would you travel to, and would you attempt to conquer the people of the time? Also, do you believe you would have enough modern knowledge to conquer them? Assume you cannot bring anything with you, and everything you do is temporary, you cannot make any permanent changes to history.
If this kind of post has been done before, just ignore it.
Here is a link to a free pdf of the book if the idea interests you.

http://pinkmonkey.com/dl/library1/digi038.pdf
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LuckyR
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Re: Would you live in Medieval Times

Post by LuckyR »

I would go back to 1988 and spend a few extra days with my dad
"As usual... it depends."
Steve3007
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Re: Would you live in Medieval Times

Post by Steve3007 »

Maxcady10001 wrote:He does, in the book, what myself and many others imagine doing.
Shooting 500 knights?
Assume you cannot bring anything with you, and everything you do is temporary, you cannot make any permanent changes to history.
Can you take any memories with you? If so, I suppose I'd take with me the memory of six numbers and a date.

If you can't make any permanent changes to history, surely that stops you from doing anything at all, due to the whole interconnectedness thing? Remember that episode of The Simpsons where Homer goes back in time, accidentally steps on a dragonfly and when he gets back he finds that donuts were never invented? Nightmare.
Maxcady10001
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Re: Would you live in Medieval Times

Post by Maxcady10001 »

Yeah you can bring your memory. I guess if a person could time travel they could think of much better things to do, like visiting loved ones or playing the lottery. Whoever came up with the idea for the lottery, or running numbers, is the greatest genius to ever live.
I thought if you couldn't make any permanent changes, it would give you the go ahead to do anything, because no matter what you do, everything would go back to the way it was originally.
Steve3007
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Re: Would you live in Medieval Times

Post by Steve3007 »

Apart from my flippant answer about taking lottery numbers back in time, and taking onboard your idea of everything being temporary, so I don't need to worry about wiping out the collective human knowledge of how to make donuts:

It is interestingly difficult to imagine what advantage I might have over the locals if all I have is the knowledge that currently exists in my brain, and I'm not allowed to do any research before I go. I can't even remember the recipe for gunpowder. A knowledge of computer programming languages and the words to various songs and TV advertising jingles wouldn't impress them much, I suspect.

Of course, if I was incredibly lucky and went back to a point in time just before I know a solar eclipse is about to happen, then I could do the old "look! I'm a god who can cause the Sun to be eaten by a monster! Get down on your knees and worship me (within the next 2 and a half minutes) and I'll consider giving it back!" routine. But that's a long shot.

Failing that, I think I can remember the recipe for Victoria sponge. Perhaps I could impress them by baking a cake.
Maxcady10001
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Re: Would you live in Medieval Times

Post by Maxcady10001 »

I think I could introduce them to some modern food. Hamburgers, french fries, bacon (I don't think they had bacon in the 6th century), fajitas, pizza. All really simple to make, you just tweak what they already have.
Besides this, since I can already read and write, I could probably learn Latin in a reasonable amount of time. Maybe I could even teach them to write in English. I would know more about economic and business principles than anyone at that time (at least I think I would). So I might be able to earn quite a bit. I could also the little bit I know of game theory and modern strategic thinking to be of some use in warfare (but they would never put me in charge of their army, I don't know how to use a sword or a lance.) I would also bring hygiene to the table. Wash your hands after using the bathroom, brush your teeth (though it would have to be without toothpaste), and take showers daily.
Steve3007
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Re: Would you live in Medieval Times

Post by Steve3007 »

I don't think the health benefits of hygiene would be immediate or obvious enough to convince them to make you their king or anything. And I don't think the application of modern business principles would be relevant enough. You'd struggle to get them to see the genius of the supermarket loyalty card system, for example.

The food seems to me to be your best shot. See if you can establish yourself as the world's first celebrity chef.
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Scribbler60
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Re: Would you live in Medieval Times

Post by Scribbler60 »

Maxcady10001 wrote: December 11th, 2017, 11:36 pmSo if you could go back in time, which period would you travel to
I happen to be of the belief that we're living in the finest age of humanity. Science, technology, exploration, modern medicine, the shrinking of religion... all added up, it makes for a pretty spectacular time to be alive.

To be sure, there are downsides: trump and nationalism, environmental degradation, climate change, violent fundamentalism, anti-intellectualism.

But to answer your question, I wouldn't go back very far, nor would I want to change societies because I'd be concerned about the "law of unintended consequences" (read this PDF, A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury for a good look at how a small historical change might impact life.)

No, I'd go back to 1969, February, in the moment before I stepped off the curb and got hit by a car. I'd wait just three seconds longer. Had I done that, I wouldn't be in pain every day since then.
Littlemoon
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Re: Would you live in Medieval Times

Post by Littlemoon »

I guess I would like to see with my own eyes how it was like in the medieval times but I have to say, I'd miss the banal things we use today that would be considered a luxury in those times.
Just to think about the simple diseases we can treat with paracetamol for example, would be deadly in those times makes me ponder if I really wanted to live in those times.
This sort of reminds me the show westworld... Maybe only in those circumstances I'd live in the medieval times.
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Warden Majere
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Re: Would you live in Medieval Times

Post by Warden Majere »

I would introduce psylocibin (spelling?) Mushrooms and the smoking of marijuanna to midievil european culture. Odd, but my all time biggest fantasy is to take a bunch of shrroms with a king, or the pope during this time period. Maybe even tell them that is the manner in which you truly communicate with God, just to see how they take it. It would be even more fun to bring my cell phone, and amaze them with our moving pictures and seemingly endless amount of information at our fingertips.
Steve3007
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Re: Would you live in Medieval Times

Post by Steve3007 »

Warden:

I very much like your idea of introducing medieval kings to recreational drugs and seeing if you can convince them that those drugs give you some kind of private channel to the almighty. But I think your idea of taking a cell phone back there and showing them the wonders of the internet has a fatal flaw. There wouldn't be any internet. If you asked the king for the WiFi code of the router he keeps in his castle I don't think you'd get very far. And after approximately one day the cell phone would be a small uninteresting plastic brick.
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Warden Majere
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Re: Would you live in Medieval Times

Post by Warden Majere »

Steve:

I thought about the internet thing, and that's why I would download plenty of content before hand. You are right however, that this wouldn't be impressive for long... "Your Grace, where is the closest wall outlet? I'm afraid my phone has died.." Drugs though. The novelty would never wear off there! Watching Nepoleon loose his marbles on 3 hits of LSD would be fullfilling enough that I wouldn't even mind my subsequent execution.
Steve3007
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Re: Would you live in Medieval Times

Post by Steve3007 »

:lol:

If you took a diesel generator with you perhaps you could run it on bio-diesel and use it to charge your phone? I guess the storage capacity of the latest micro-SD cards that fit in phones would mean that you could probably download quite a lot of stuff to take with you. Perhaps take a few several TB external USB hard drives too. And make sure it's an Android phone so you can plug them in.
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Warden Majere
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Re: Would you live in Medieval Times

Post by Warden Majere »

Steve,

At th end of the day, I am just glad that I am not the only one that has given way too much thought to this particular idea hahaha! Could you imagine their reaction to dubstep? Pulling out that bluetooth speaker would be my last act before being hauled off to a witch trial.
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LuckyR
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Re: Would you live in Medieval Times

Post by LuckyR »

Warden Majere wrote: January 30th, 2018, 5:25 am Steve,

At th end of the day, I am just glad that I am not the only one that has given way too much thought to this particular idea hahaha! Could you imagine their reaction to dubstep? Pulling out that bluetooth speaker would be my last act before being hauled off to a witch trial.
Probably not as dramatic as your reaction to lunch.
"As usual... it depends."
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