(November 6, 2019 at 7:32 pm)mordant Wrote:(November 5, 2019 at 1:49 pm)Rahn127 Wrote: 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 ?
3400 BC Mesopotamians didn't have the requisite intellectual framework to absorb such a book. Things aren't thinkable until someone moves the Overton Window concerning those particular thoughts. Handing them even a simple discussion of basic 18th century-level technology such as you describe, they would probably be terrified at the pictures, and destroy it because they think it's witchcraft or something. Either that or some elite would get hold of it, and use it to conquer everyone else.
Come to it, I'm not sure you could translate modern prose into Mesopotamian prose without re-casting it in terms of their own culture. Why would you build gears or a telescope? Remember how primitives and even some modern religious people fear photography as a soul-stealing process? Might be a similar reaction to some of that.
You're not sure that the language could be translated but the act of time travel is just fine....
From my primitive Google search, 3400 BC is right around when people started writing down stories. And of course reading them.
A million years before that, people out hunting had tool kits and stone axes. I think people in 3400 BC would have no problem understanding the concepts put forth in a very basic "How things work book"
Insanity - Doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result
