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Sending a book back in time
November 5, 2019 at 1:49 pm
Ok, here is the scenario...
A small time machine has been created that has the ability to send something about the size of a book back in time. You can only send one book and it will be translated into any language you want so that the people of the time you're sending it to can read it.
The time machine was very difficult and time consuming to make and can only be used once.
What book would you send back in time and what time period would you want it to be sent to ?
For me - There is a "How things work" book that contains loads of information broken down to explain things on a child like level of how a windmill works, how a paddle wheel functions, using glass in tubes to see further, how gears work, etc.
I would send this book back to a time when humans first began to read and write.
Mesopotamia about 3400 BC
It would be interesting to see the impact of being given useful information before it was naturally discovered.
I'm sure I could think of a better book, but this one is the first one that came to mind.
What book would you send back ?
Insanity - Doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result
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RE: Sending a book back in time
November 5, 2019 at 1:54 pm
A portable nuke.
Jerusalem, 2100 BCE or possibly back to wherever Mohammed was from...
Oh, book?
A something along the lines you suggest.
Or Lord of the Rings.
Who knows, we might replace the Abrahamic religions with a Hobbitses one.
Playing Cluedo with my mum while I was at Uni:
"You did WHAT? With WHO? WHERE???"
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RE: Sending a book back in time
November 5, 2019 at 1:57 pm
(This post was last modified: November 5, 2019 at 1:59 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
A Brief History Of Time and The Universe in a Nutshell.
https://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Brief...0307291170
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
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RE: Sending a book back in time
November 5, 2019 at 2:08 pm
(This post was last modified: November 5, 2019 at 2:08 pm by LastPoet.)
Its a paradox. But for shits and giggles I'd send harry potter.
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RE: Sending a book back in time
November 5, 2019 at 2:50 pm
(November 5, 2019 at 2:08 pm)LastPoet Wrote: Its a paradox. But for shits and giggles I'd send harry potter.
Scare the shit out of them by sending Deathly Hallows.
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RE: Sending a book back in time
November 5, 2019 at 2:56 pm
(November 5, 2019 at 1:54 pm)The Valkyrie Wrote: A portable nuke.
Jerusalem, 2100 BCE or possibly back to wherever Mohammed was from...
Oh, book?
A something along the lines you suggest.
Or Lord of the Rings.
Who knows, we might replace the Abrahamic religions with a Hobbitses one.
Lets say you travelled back in time, to kill me as a baby, bbq and all. That would prevent you from travelling back in time to kill me in the first place. p -> q AND ~q
Going back in time is one of those things that we muse about. I wouldn't change anything in my life, hardships aside, it has been rewarding.
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RE: Sending a book back in time
November 5, 2019 at 2:58 pm
A how to book sounds like the smartest answer. Tell people how to make simple machines, or cure illnesses, or hatever other simple things that every grade schooler knows today, but would have been beyond adult understanding thousands of years ago.
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RE: Sending a book back in time
November 5, 2019 at 3:12 pm
(November 5, 2019 at 2:56 pm)LastPoet Wrote: (November 5, 2019 at 1:54 pm)The Valkyrie Wrote: A portable nuke.
Jerusalem, 2100 BCE or possibly back to wherever Mohammed was from...
Oh, book?
A something along the lines you suggest.
Or Lord of the Rings.
Who knows, we might replace the Abrahamic religions with a Hobbitses one.
Lets say you travelled back in time, to kill me as a baby, bbq and all. That would prevent you from travelling back in time to kill me in the first place. p -> q AND ~q
Going back in time is one of those things that we muse about. I wouldn't change anything in my life, hardships aside, it has been rewarding.
I know about the paradoxes.
I’m just musing about the fun I could pitentially have.
Playing Cluedo with my mum while I was at Uni:
"You did WHAT? With WHO? WHERE???"
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RE: Sending a book back in time
November 5, 2019 at 3:30 pm
(November 5, 2019 at 3:12 pm)The Valkyrie Wrote: (November 5, 2019 at 2:56 pm)LastPoet Wrote: Lets say you travelled back in time, to kill me as a baby, bbq and all. That would prevent you from travelling back in time to kill me in the first place. p -> q AND ~q
Going back in time is one of those things that we muse about. I wouldn't change anything in my life, hardships aside, it has been rewarding.
I know about the paradoxes.
I’m just musing about the fun I could pitentially have.
I'd send 'On The Origin Of Species' back about 300 years. Maybe all the kerfuffle would be over by now.
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
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RE: Sending a book back in time
November 5, 2019 at 3:39 pm
I would send "God Delusion" by Dawkins into medieval times so that people smarten-up.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
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