What knowledge could YOU bring to the dark ages

Recommended Videos

Splyth

New member
Jan 30, 2009
147
0
0
Country
United States
Okay here's the deal you are teleported back to the dark ages. Now assuming that mucking with the timeline isn't a problem what knowldege do you have right now that you could take back and share/use.

Note: when you show up you just have the clothes on your back and whatever fits nicely into your pockets.

I know where to find penicillan and I know the basics of medicine and CPR. I also know enough about steel to probably help invent damascus.
 

Splyth

New member
Jan 30, 2009
147
0
0
Country
United States
Y'know man I really hope you end up venice cause I'm pretty sure that the church didn't take kindly to that vein of thought
 

DazBurger

New member
May 22, 2009
1,339
0
0
Gardenia said:
"There is no god."
I'm sorry if this ignites a flamewar, but I had to.
What? Its actually a really good one!
Genocides made in Gods name would be avoided. Kings would fall and the people rise to power.
Witchhunt would end and the holy-mens shunning of new technology would be gone.

With the technological pitfall that is Christendom gone, a world of enlightenment would prosper.
 

Scarim Coral

Jumped the ship
Legacy
Oct 29, 2010
18,157
2
3
Country
UK
Well first thing, personal hygiene (althought it will take more than that to stop the black plague). Second thing would be gunpoweder, imaging the knights had guns? Well I guess I have to tell them how to make armour piercing rounds.
 

DEAD34345

New member
Aug 18, 2010
1,929
0
0
Damn, my computing knowledge would be pretty much useless. I know a bunch of stuff about physics, biology and chemistry too, but not really enough to actually invent anything useful. I could tell others what I know, but I doubt I could actually prove much of it so I don't think people would really believe me.

Maybe I could build an early mechanical computer that plays tic-tac-toe, and then get burned for witchcraft?
 

A Weakgeek

New member
Feb 3, 2011
811
0
0
DazBurger said:
Gardenia said:
"There is no god."
I'm sorry if this ignites a flamewar, but I had to.
What? Its actually a really good one!
Genocides made in Gods name would be avoided. Kings would fall and the people rise to power.
Witchhunt would end and the holy-mens shunning of new technology would be gone.

With the technological pitfall that is Christendom gone, a world of enlightenment would prosper.
Hmm... I wonder how he would deliever this wisdom without getting burned alive.
 

Sewer Rat

New member
Sep 14, 2008
1,236
0
0
DazBurger said:
Gardenia said:
"There is no god."
I'm sorry if this ignites a flamewar, but I had to.
What? Its actually a really good one!
Genocides made in Gods name would be avoided. Kings would fall and the people rise to power.
Witchhunt would end and the holy-mens shunning of new technology would be gone.

With the technological pitfall that is Christendom gone, a world of enlightenment would prosper.
Sorry but this is assuming that they actually listen to him. More likely then not they would start looking for a duck and their largest scales and get the firewood ready.
OT: Proper hygiene and decent medical care, think of all the plagues that could be avoided if you just don't drink water filled with human shit!
 

tahrey

New member
Sep 18, 2009
1,124
0
0
I try to take this with me in my pocket, if I'm forewarned enough.


If not, having it saved in my phone and knowing how to make a simple battery in order to recharge it if necessary (and assuming I'm able to clandestinely get hold of writing materials to hurridly copy out the gist of the text) should do the trick.

Maybe I should start learning it by rote, too.

Also, I don't think it's on there, but I could probably have a decent shot at coming up with a printing press, and so long as I can find a source of germanium, a variety of basic electronic components.

I could probably also, with the help of a moderately competent blacksmith and some time spent producing progressively more precise tooling, come up with a reasonably good (bio-)diesel engine, bypassing all of that steam-powered and highly inefficient gasoline nonsense, and once that was in place as a primary generator and a good source of copper secured, try to move on to a renewably-generated electricity based energy economy. Think of all those wind and water mills that hadn't yet fallen into disrepair... stick a decent generator on each one, and we're in business.

And once the electronics are refined to a practical level, the efficiency both of the electrical systems and the diesel motors can be jacked up by at least a third. Also, bring in LEDs before incandescent lights are even thought of, and promote Passivhaus type building rather than just chucking loads of energy at heating/cooling leaky buildings.

I would also leave a stark warning of the potential environmental destruction that could be wreaked by overuse of either tech - the smoke doesn't just disappear into the aether, and there's only a limited amount of generating capacity that can be squeezed out of the environment (and even if we come up with decent solar collectors to cover shortfall, it is dumping energy in unnaturally concentrated and distributed patterns, when a lot of it may have just been reflected into space) - to prevent reaching a level of overdependence.

The third part of this world saving, utopia ushering trifecta - assuming we've done the whole "don't drink where you shit" and pencillin/pasteurisation/cowpox/wash your goddamn hands already gig - would be working towards a revolution in midwifery, birth control and childcare. You don't need to pump out six or more kids as rapidly as possible when there's a good guarantee that both they and their mother are going to survive to see a good clutch of grandchildren, and when mechanisation will ultimately save the majority of citizens from a life of manual toil in the fields, home or factory. We didn't come to that realisation for a couple of generations after the fact... hence considerable overpopulation (and unemployment) that's now going to be rather difficult - and take several generations - to get rid of without some natural or man-made mass die-off... if we ever manage it at all.

(From a personal perspective, on that front, I'd try to get some kind of premature birth care going on (I was 3 weeks early and plastic-boxed; wouldn't have survived prior to about 1920), and diagnosis/treatment for pulmonary embolism, uterine bleeding and other potentially fatal complications (the former of which I have been involved in diagnostic scans for... though as that required a rather complicated, bulky electronic device, and a good supply of radioactive tracer, some lateral thinking will be required rather than straight application of 20th/21st century technology) in order to bring about that result)
 

Bloedhoest

New member
Aug 11, 2011
271
0
0
Gardenia said:
"There is no god."
I'm sorry if this ignites a flamewar, but I had to.
Drawn and quartered in 5 minutes.

A Weakgeek said:
Hmm... I wonder how he would deliever this wisdom without getting burned alive.
That goes for all knowledge we have today I'm afraid.
 

A Weakgeek

New member
Feb 3, 2011
811
0
0
Bloedhoest said:
Gardenia said:
"There is no god."
I'm sorry if this ignites a flamewar, but I had to.
Drawn and quartered in 5 minutes.

A Weakgeek said:
Hmm... I wonder how he would deliever this wisdom without getting burned alive.
That goes for all knowledge we have today I'm afraid.
Well I don't know... If you went through the proper channels any sientifically provable fact ( and i know this technically applies to god aswell) could be recieved well. But in medieval times (in europe) god was a pretty big guy even among scientists.
 

JYzer

New member
Apr 12, 2011
12
0
0
DazBurger said:
Gardenia said:
"There is no god."
I'm sorry if this ignites a flamewar, but I had to.
What? Its actually a really good one!
Genocides made in Gods name would be avoided. Kings would fall and the people rise to power.
Witchhunt would end and the holy-mens shunning of new technology would be gone.

With the technological pitfall that is Christendom gone, a world of enlightenment would prosper.
Hello lord king, today we learned that there is no god, haha! Get your ass off that throne son.

What's that you say? God may have given you the throne, but you keep it using those hundreds of armoured guys carrying fuckoff big swords and axes? Ah. We'll go back to farming mud now. Enjoy that Droit du seigneur!
 

Simeon Ivanov

New member
Jun 2, 2011
824
0
0
I would teach them that God isn't everything, and that there's more to life that needlessly spending every second of your life kissing his overrated ass.
 

DazBurger

New member
May 22, 2009
1,339
0
0
A Weakgeek said:
DazBurger said:
Gardenia said:
"There is no god."
I'm sorry if this ignites a flamewar, but I had to.
What? Its actually a really good one!
Genocides made in Gods name would be avoided. Kings would fall and the people rise to power.
Witchhunt would end and the holy-mens shunning of new technology would be gone.

With the technological pitfall that is Christendom gone, a world of enlightenment would prosper.
Hmm... I wonder how he would deliever this wisdom without getting burned alive.
Invent the flameproof suit first ofc.!
 

bakan

New member
Jun 17, 2011
472
0
0
I'm studying physics, so I could teach them a lot of stuff, especially classical physics will improve their everyday life.

Some knowledge about biology will help fighting all these nasty diseases, oh and I still know some chemistry stuff.
 

Realitycrash

New member
Dec 12, 2010
2,779
0
0
Eh, I'v studied Philosophy, and could probably teach Thomas of Aquina a thing or two about Epistemology and Ethics.

You know, before they all call me a heretic and burn me.