If you could travel forward/backward in time

[Zombie_Babies]

So thinking about this a bit...a hundred years ago, (December 1913)

• women could not vote in the US
• Woodrow Wilson was president
• Russia was a monarchy (but not much longer!)
• The Woolworth Building in NYC is the tallest in the world (the confluence of the safety elevator, 60 years old in 1913, and steel frame construction results in skyscrapers shoot up all across the US)
• Mexico was having revolutions
• The Mideast is still the Ottoman Empire
• Ford introduces the moving assembly line
• You can drive coast to coast on the Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental "improved highway" for automobiles
• Traffic signs have not been standardized (or, in some cases, invented).

Fun fact: penicillin wasn't mass produced until the mid-1940's! Honestly, I thought it was much earlier than that.

Medically, most of us are probably relatively safe from disease in 1913, since we'll still be vaccinated and since we are "downstream" of events like the spanish flu pandemic of 1918, and so have a greater chance of having had some exposure to a related virus (additionally, the H1N1 antivirus from 2009 apparently confers some resistance to Spanish Flu, which is also a H1N1 virus.)

I wonder if our best niche in the past would be as "efficiency experts" or consultants of some kind. I don't need to know how to build a moving assembly line to explain the concept to someone. There are probably a lot of things that we're not aware of that we benefit from every day that are system improvements, rather than feats of engineering or chemistry.

Hmm ... sort of a Six Sigma deal. That may work.

Here's a chilling thought for anyone in Europe: in 1913 World War I was only a year away. Not something you'd want to be caught up in, even indirectly.

I'm 35. The draft don't scare me none. Oh, and I wouldn't be on file anyway.

 

[Umbran]

I'm 35. The draft don't scare me none. Oh, and I wouldn't be on file anyway.

Neither would have saved you in WWI. This was before Social Security numbers, remember, so they didn't have anyone "on file". They held several rounds of registration for the draft for the War, eventually covering men from age 18 to 45.

 

[Zombie_Babies]

Neither would have saved you in WWI. This was before Social Security numbers, remember, so they didn't have anyone "on file". They held several rounds of registration for the draft for the War, eventually covering men from age 18 to 45.

My eyes likely would have. Always have a backup.

 

[sabrinathecat]

I'd be burned at the stake as a blasphemer, heretic, atheist, and several other crimes.

 

[Nellisir]

I'd be burned at the stake as a blasphemer, heretic, atheist, and several other crimes.

I'm not sure that was such a big thing in 1013. A few hundred years later, absolutely. In 1013 Christianity was still gaining a foothold in parts of northern Europe, but otherwise the Roman Catholic Church was pretty monolithic, and without an opponent, not so much zealotry. The Reformation was several centuries away. Even the first Crusade is about eighty years in the future.

 

[sabrinathecat]

I'm not sure that was such a big thing in 1013. A few hundred years later, absolutely. In 1013 Christianity was still gaining a foothold in parts of northern Europe, but otherwise the Roman Catholic Church was pretty monolithic, and without an opponent, not so much zealotry. The Reformation was several centuries away. Even the first Crusade is about eighty years in the future.

There may not have been an enormous organized purge, but anyone giving voice to ideas in the wrong area would be "in trouble" to put it mildly.
One version of the "Saint" Patrick legend is that the way Ireland was christianized was by killing all the Bards and Druids (so not only were the rituals lost, but so were their songs). Thus driving out the snakes. And that was 4th century.
Cromwell had the witch-finder general in the 1800s.
And then there's arriving in a non-christian area, which could be even worse.

No, my drafting skills might come into play anywhere after the industrial revolution, but that's about it. Otherwise, I'm back to swinging a sword (assuming I'm allowed to carry one in that culture).

 

[Nellisir]

Cromwell had the witch-finder general in the 1800s.

If you mean Oliver Cromwell, that was the 1600's. The Counter-Reformation was in full swing as Rome retaliated against the Protestants who had broken away. Six hundred years after 1013. George III was monarch in 1800.

"...the peak of the witch hunt was during the period of the European wars of religion, peaking between about 1580 and 1630. "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_trials_in_Early_Modern_Europe

 

[trappedslider]

Three part post --

Part the first:
The concept of a modern-day person seeming like a "wizard" when thrown back in time is a bit of a trope in fiction. But what would really happen?

Say you were thrown back in time, at least 100 years, would your modern skills and knowledge be helpful to you? Would you thrive in such a scenario? Or are your modern skills and knowledge pretty much a waste in a time before electronic technology? How about 1,000 years?



Bullgrit

I wouldn't last very long without my asthma meds..but if i were bale to plan for the trip then i'd want this shirt to be with me : http://www.topatoco.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=QW-CHEATSHEET&Category_Code=QW

 

[sabrinathecat]

If you mean Oliver Cromwell, that was the 1600's. The Counter-Reformation was in full swing as Rome retaliated against the Protestants who had broken away. Six hundred years after 1013. George III was monarch in 1800.

"...the peak of the witch hunt was during the period of the European wars of religion, peaking between about 1580 and 1630. "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_trials_in_Early_Modern_Europe

stupid keyboard... rushed typing...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I wouldn't last very long without my asthma meds..but if i were bale to plan for the trip then i'd want this shirt to be with me : http://www.topatoco.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=QW-CHEATSHEET&Category_Code=QW

That is a good shirt...