Sending a book back in time

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The Naked Lunch

[EgoDeath]

Martha Stewarts Cookie Perfection

[brewer]

Almost didn't open this thread. Thought it was going to be about overdue library books and bitching about fines.

OK, now I'll play, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

[Rahn127]

I like the question because beyond the humorous side of things, most everyone is going to send something back that will potentially instruct people with information that will uplift them, like a parent teaching a child. Information about the world that will make their lives better and teach them to think rationally.

If we received information today from some 2000 years in our future, that information would be a library stored on a micro dot that would graft into our skin and interface with our brains or if they had to dumb it down, my phone has the capability of holding a 2 terabyte micro SD card.

Can you imagine if people from 2000 years in our future sent us a book about Santa Claus ?

You would truly have to wonder about the intelligence level of someone who would send such a book.
My first question would be "What happened to us as a people ?"

[The Valkyrie]

The bible, in Aramaic and Greek, with special emphasis on the suffering of Jesus on the cross.

To: Jerusalem about ten years before the nailing up of Jesus.

Addressed to: Yeshua ben Joseph.

[BrokenQuill92]

The Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by Anne Rice

[Gawdzilla Sama]

All the Game of Thrones books, with a note "lament for your future!"

[mordant]

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.

[Rahn127]

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"

[mordant]

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"

I didn't express any misgivings about the ability to translate -- rather, for the target audience to comprehend.

It's not that humans were any dumber back then compared to today, but they didn't have the benefit of generations of gradual buildup to where we are today. If a resident of the 15th century would be terrified at an airplane or automobile or television (and they would be), it isn't a stretch that someone from 5400 years ago would be terrified of a telescope or windmill. They would be too distracted by the cognitive dissonance around something they can't understand.

That's why I thought you'd have to break it to them gradually rather than in a single book resplendent with color photos or even illustrations.

I could be wrong of course, particularly if your package landed with an exceptional individual.

I have always thought that if I were plopped back hundreds or thousands of years into the past with nothing but a cell phone loaded with some videos and spare batteries, it would be the height of stupidity to show it to just anyone, without a shit-ton of preparation and trust-building, and probably not even then. I'd give some serious thought to destroying it, actually, or at least hiding it for my own nostalgic purposes. But I can't think of a way that anyone prior to a couple hundred years ago could handle color sound videos of 21st century life. Maybe a young child, with some preliminary tutoring, would accept it. But not virtually all adults. Too much superstition and entrenched, culturally reinforced ignorance. All in all, it would be a good way to get oneself burnt at the stake.