If you could travel forward/backward in time

[Quartz]

I can read and write and am numerate, and I remember my Latin and a smattering of Greek so I'd be pretty good 1000 years ago as long as I'm in Western Europe.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Well, first, I'd have to move to the North to escape the worst of the violent racism.

Then, in my 1 spare hour a day, I'd be typing on my second-hand or borrowed manual typewriter.

Then, I'd start submitting my stories to periodicals...

...just like other genre writers of the age.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I can read and write and am numerate, and I remember my Latin and a smattering of Greek so I'd be pretty good 1000 years ago as long as I'm in Western Europe.

You'd probably sound like a hick or foreigner...or the policeman from Allo, Allo.

 

[Zombie_Babies]

Well, first, I'd have to move to the North to escape the worst of the violent racism.

Then, in my 1 spare hour a day, I'd be typing on my second-hand or borrowed manual typewriter.

Then, I'd start submitting my stories to periodicals...

...just like other genre writers of the age.

And there were a great many who never got published and never made a dime.

 

[Janx]

Well, first, I'd have to move to the North to escape the worst of the violent racism.

Then, in my 1 spare hour a day, I'd be typing on my second-hand or borrowed manual typewriter.

Then, I'd start submitting my stories to periodicals...

...just like other genre writers of the age.

That's assuming you were successful in escaping to the north. Being of African descent, your doubly hosed as some chunk of the population was actively hostile to such back then.

For all we know, the original time travel experiment sent dude back, and one got beaten to death for being an escaped slave who lied about where he come from. Another got his head chopped off for heresy and lies about the queen. A third died from velociraptor evisceration.

As such because no word was heard back from the subjects, the project at MIT was scuttled in 2048 and the whole concept of time travel was poohpoohed as anti-Einsteinian conspiracy theory.

Meanwhile, popularity of blue Police Callboxes continues rise.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Hey, I'm just sticking to the original 100 year jump as originally proposed- "escape" being a relative term- because any further back and, well...it would simply suck to be a literate black in the southern USA outside of New Orleans. (It would still suck there, too, but not nearly as much.)

Yes, I know that many writers failed to make a penny, but they weren't operating with a knowledge of what actually sold...as well as what kind of technology was to come. Ditto events. While I can't claim to be able to write the classic pulp/Sci-Fi/fantasy/horror stories of 1913+ from memory, I do have the advantage of knowing general plotlines, as well as which periodicals were hungriest for that kind of material.

I think I'd start off with a bit of Asimov ("Nightfall"), utter time-theft of Leiber's Fafhrd & Grey Mouser stories, pre-invent the Eternal Champion, majorly steal from Gibson's Difference Engine, give the world a dose of Superman, and maybe a cautionary tale about a Second World War.

Which I'd follow up with some Christian allegories centered around children who find a fantasy realm and maybe a story about a quest centered on a powerful piece of jewelry...

I don't have to precreate the classics, just write good stories using...errhem...pioneering their tropes.

 

[Nellisir]

I can read and write and am numerate, and I remember my Latin and a smattering of Greek so I'd be pretty good 1000 years ago as long as I'm in Western Europe.

And can get to a priest who understands Latin.

 

[Zombie_Babies]

I think I'd start off with a bit of Asimov ("Nightfall"), utter time-theft of Leiber's Fafhrd & Grey Mouser stories, pre-invent the Eternal Champion, majorly steal from Gibson's Difference Engine, give the world a dose of Superman, and maybe a cautionary tale about a Second World War.

Slaughterhouse 5 would be an awesome warning. And, well, Vonnegut is still the best sci-fi author I've ever read so he'd be pretty good to, er, take 'inspiration' from.

 

[PigKnight]

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?

Dying in a ditch. With a lack of familial ties in alot of time periods and places would make you screwed.

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?

100 years I'd be fine. 1000 years becomes tricky.

[/quote]Part the second:
Say you were going to travel to the future, (suspended animation, a time machine, whatever mechanic you want), how far into the future would you have to go to reach something "futuristic," something truly alien to what you live in now? [/quote]
I have the feeling stuff wouldn't ever be truely alien to me. The future does not interest me.

Part the third:
If you were going to reach back in time and yank someone, (at least of average or better intelligence, and middle aged), forward to this day and age, how far back-to-forward would you have to bring someone to have them completely out of their world? Would someone from 1913 (100 years ago) be able to come "up to speed" with our world today? How about someone from 1813?

Bullgrit

I think people can learn to adapt. If anything it'd beeasier for them to adapt than for someone being thrown into the past. Also, any 1813 Brit could easily pass as being from the USA or Canada.

 

[Morrus]

I can't help wondering that 'discovering' laws of physics too early would just get you branded a madman or worse.

It's all very well knowing this stuff, but it's still going to be hard to get anyone to listen to you. You can't make a website.

I suppose you could demonstarte some simple experiments like a street magician, and just start working your way up the chain.