-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
[Poll] Would Era rather...be forced to one-way time-travel 500 yrs to the past or future? [Topic II]
- Thread starter brainchild
- Start date
1518 is a bit too early for the industrial revolution. And back then the Ottomans were quite comfortable competing technologically with Europe, iirc.
But if you're going to give everyone an early industrial revolution (including presumably the Americas, for fairness' sake), how would you go about that? The steam engine saw early use in the 1600s, but they were not very effective and it was more convenient to use other methods.
Last edited:
Give everyone a foundation of early industrial revolution and beginning to develop the scientific method. Without that, no industrial revolution is possible. Plus keep everyone at the same page.
OP
OP
I disagree. I seriously pondered about this question for 3 days as if I were really forced to choose. Both options terrified me, and neither is an easy choice.
Had I removed the stipulation that you had to choose one or the other, I'm almost certain that everyone would choose neither option.
So you've got 6 months of preparation to get yourself in a state where you can bring the world up to pre-industrial standards and teach the world's early researchers about the scientific method. Remember that all science is built upon earlier work. You've got to know the fundamentals else you're just learning by rote and you can't refine or re-adapt your knowledge to suit different situations. Teaching several countries advanced technological secrets also has its pitfalls, since at some point one of them is going to bump you off so they can maintain a technological advantage over their rivals. This is all assuming you don't die senselessly from unrelated causes somewhere along the line.
How would you personally spend these 6 months to prepare for your task? What advice would you give, how would you make sure it reached the people who could make use of it, and how would you ensure that your advice is fairly distributed so as not to cause a catastrophic power imbalance?
Tbh i rather go to 14AD.(roman empire) change history there and make sure the roman empire doesn't collapse.
I wouldn't give them advice i will let them do what they want with it. then i go back to the future to see what happened. I know it's silly but i would let nature decide with it.
The future. The past is truly a one-way trip. The future - giving I'm time-traveling from its past - should possess improved time travel technology, as long as mankind hasn't been decimated.
That may be a big "if", of course, but I don't see that timeframe in history as very appealing.
That may be a big "if", of course, but I don't see that timeframe in history as very appealing.
OP
OP
Sorry if I'm being a pain but I'm a bit confused here, what are you giving them, is it a book?
Also unfortunately the OP stipulates it's a one way trip, so you'd be stuck without seeing the consequences of your actions.
OP
OP
For the purposes of this scenario, you are not allowed to return to the present from the future, even assuming the technology is possible.
Well, I've read history books 'n stuff, so I already know what the 1500's were like, and they seem a bit rubbish.
So I'd pick the future, and hopefully spend a few hours wandering around the ruins of humanity's long-gone civilisation, while bathing in the ionising radiation of 500 failed nuclear power stations, then dying of heatstroke.
So I'd pick the future, and hopefully spend a few hours wandering around the ruins of humanity's long-gone civilisation, while bathing in the ionising radiation of 500 failed nuclear power stations, then dying of heatstroke.
You'd need proper permanent magnets too. Big ones if you're using water wheels. You could probably forgo rubber covering, they used jute for a bit, but make sure the wires don't get so hot that it burns.
Also you'll need to what you can build to make use of the electricity. A motor at the very least.
To be honest I think steam would be more feasible. At least there was precedence for steam engines back then.
I would be dead without modern medicine. Future easily,if it's a nuclear hellhole at least it'll be over quickly.
Gotta be the future.
500 years in the past will be awful no matter what. That's the 1500s people. Where disease could wipe out entire cities, absolute monarchies ruled the world and there's a huge chance you would be branded a witch and burned at the stake if you even tried to explain how anything actually worked.
With the future it's a 50/50 shot. It could be a nuclear hellscape or a virtual paradise. I'll take those odds
500 years in the past will be awful no matter what. That's the 1500s people. Where disease could wipe out entire cities, absolute monarchies ruled the world and there's a huge chance you would be branded a witch and burned at the stake if you even tried to explain how anything actually worked.
With the future it's a 50/50 shot. It could be a nuclear hellscape or a virtual paradise. I'll take those odds
The past. I would use my knowledge of the future to live like a king.
All you guys choosing the future, enjoy our lifeless planet. No way it lasts another 500 years.
All you guys choosing the future, enjoy our lifeless planet. No way it lasts another 500 years.
I sort of feel that deflates the notion that the future is unknowable within the scope of the question, though. I was making an assumption - even if it were ultimately false - based on having no information about the future. If the scenario is, "Travel to the future - oh, by the way, you cannot time travel again from that point", then there are a LOT of assumptions one can make as to why that is and it makes the future less enticing.
If 500 years into the future, an existing technology is not only unimproved but missing entirely, I would have to choose the past. The only assumption I can make is that we've blown ourselves to bits and I'm walking into a nuclear hellscape or something.
OP
OP
Well, it was never completely unknowable because otherwise there would be no way to travel to the surface of the planet in the future in the first place. However, you personally know nothing of the future, and the existence of time-travel technology in the future upon arriving there does not change the fact that -- for reasons unbeknownst to you when making this decision -- you cannot travel back to the present from the future.
At any rate, you're allowed to change your vote, so feel free to do so if you want.
I would give book of history of our time then science lol. What would you do??
I like history, but the real past was pretty awful. In the future maybe I can just go chill at Westworld or something and pretend I'm in the past.
Why the fuck would I, as a black man, want to travel 500 years into the past? lmao.
Wait, do I get to pack some bags too? Technology and weapons? If so, it seems plausible that my presence, technology and appearance would significantly alter the future. Because I'd 100% use whatever I had to prevent the beginning of the European slave trade. And with my near-magical technology, I'd be able to do it, as world leaders would want to hear what I have to say and I'd snuff out the very idea before it could be fully conceived.
This would probably result in most of you never being born.
Wait, do I get to pack some bags too? Technology and weapons? If so, it seems plausible that my presence, technology and appearance would significantly alter the future. Because I'd 100% use whatever I had to prevent the beginning of the European slave trade. And with my near-magical technology, I'd be able to do it, as world leaders would want to hear what I have to say and I'd snuff out the very idea before it could be fully conceived.
This would probably result in most of you never being born.
Frankly I wouldn't go back in time at all. My impact could range from anything from completely irrelevant to catastrophically misjudged. I could cause a lot more harm than good even with the best of intentions. That's assuming I even live to make changes at all.
So I'll stick to the future. At least then it's only one person (me) who needs to catch up on 500 years of science and history. And by that point they might have actually written a book broad enough to cover 500 years of global information in enough detail to replicate beneficial results reliably. Because I'm pretty sure we don't have one right now.
Hernan Cortes was extremely curious about the origins of the Stranger.
It had been just three years ago, in 1518, that the Stranger claimed to have mysteriously appeared in the back alleys of Sevilla from his distant homeland. And in the years since he had made a name for himself among the guilds in Sevilla and was known as far away as Venice and Alexandria.
Charlie had never been to Mexico in his life, despite living in the Southwest for most of his life. The closest he ever got was the drive thru at Filibertos, he thought, and even then the food wasn't even authentic. The chorro was though. But he was able the catch brief glimpses of the approaching coastline, nothing but a dark smear on the horizon but it contained his goal.
Somewhere within the interior was the distant lake capital of the greatest Pre-Columbian empire, the Mexica Triple Alliance, and Charlie was going to save the Alliance and with it the indigenous peoples of the Americas
It had been just three years ago, in 1518, that the Stranger claimed to have mysteriously appeared in the back alleys of Sevilla from his distant homeland. And in the years since he had made a name for himself among the guilds in Sevilla and was known as far away as Venice and Alexandria.
Charlie had never been to Mexico in his life, despite living in the Southwest for most of his life. The closest he ever got was the drive thru at Filibertos, he thought, and even then the food wasn't even authentic. The chorro was though. But he was able the catch brief glimpses of the approaching coastline, nothing but a dark smear on the horizon but it contained his goal.
Somewhere within the interior was the distant lake capital of the greatest Pre-Columbian empire, the Mexica Triple Alliance, and Charlie was going to save the Alliance and with it the indigenous peoples of the Americas
Either that or they accuse you of witchcraft and burn you at the stake. I think people are severely overestimating how open minded people would be back then.
Future. Yeah the future might be a gamble and I could get into some Mad Max shit, but I could also get into some awesome utopia shit as well. The past is going to suck no matter where I end up.
Well, doom and gloom about the immediate future aside, odds are better of with going into the future than to the past. There's a chance that the language barrier can be dealt with and that you can reintegrate with society, while 1518 it would probably be much more difficult. And look at it this way, someone time traveling from 1518 to 2018 would be a lot better off than someone time traveling from 1518 to 1018.
1518? Eh, unless you look like a spaniard you'll be out of luck on the continent of America :p
But we would right on time for the Dancing plague!
Future it is.
Next time travel poll should be: Would Era rather be forced to one-way time-travel 10 years to the past or future?
But we would right on time for the Dancing plague!
Future it is.
Next time travel poll should be: Would Era rather be forced to one-way time-travel 10 years to the past or future?
OP
OP
You get a compass, world map, and the clothes on your back.
Also, remember that you have 6 months of prep time to teach yourself basic wilderness survival skills, which is probably the most useful thing you can do when preparing for either situation. You're not guaranteed to ever make human contact.
Why would you go to the past? You really wouldn't be able to change shit, stuck in a weird ass time far more backwards and fucked up than the present?
I guess it only makes sense if future means certain death.
I guess it only makes sense if future means certain death.
I honestly don't see what there is to ponder. But to each their own.
As a black man there's nothing in the past I'd want to experience first hand enough to want to be stuck in a measurably worse time scientifically and philosophically
OP
OP
For me the most important factor is that we know that the Earth was habitable for humans 500 years ago. We do not know if that is the case 500 years into the future. In either case, you will likely end up in the water and drown, but on the off chance that you made it to land, with enough preparation for survival, your chances are better for survival in a inhabitable wilderness than an uninhabitable wilderness, so that's why I'd personally choose the past.
DFW - In the year 2525
The skeletal remains of Dallas-Fort Worth were visible for miles around on the clearest days. The local Tejano population had already cleared out most of the salvageable materials in the centuries following the Great Tribulation, leaving behind an empty husk for Charlie to find.
According to the village elder he spoke to in what remained of Santa Fe, the Great Tribulation was caused by the rising heat that rendered most of the Global South inhospitable to even the most hardy nomads. The changes caused a second Migration Period as refugees from as far off as the Sahel and the Middle East headed north to avoid the climate-exacerbated conflicts in their homelands. This lead to the rise of popular authoritian governments across Europe and North America that rejected the refugees and sound climate science. The ruins of the cities of his era were their handiwork.
In the centuries following his departure, Charlie saw the results of the slow, but steady recovery. Mediterranean Europe and North Africa was home to a collection of maritime city-states functioning at a Late Medieval developmental level alongside the neo-steppe nomads, whose influence ranged from the shores of the Black Sea to the borders of the Juche state.
Most of this is just things I thought of while reading the thread. Tell me what you think!
The skeletal remains of Dallas-Fort Worth were visible for miles around on the clearest days. The local Tejano population had already cleared out most of the salvageable materials in the centuries following the Great Tribulation, leaving behind an empty husk for Charlie to find.
According to the village elder he spoke to in what remained of Santa Fe, the Great Tribulation was caused by the rising heat that rendered most of the Global South inhospitable to even the most hardy nomads. The changes caused a second Migration Period as refugees from as far off as the Sahel and the Middle East headed north to avoid the climate-exacerbated conflicts in their homelands. This lead to the rise of popular authoritian governments across Europe and North America that rejected the refugees and sound climate science. The ruins of the cities of his era were their handiwork.
In the centuries following his departure, Charlie saw the results of the slow, but steady recovery. Mediterranean Europe and North Africa was home to a collection of maritime city-states functioning at a Late Medieval developmental level alongside the neo-steppe nomads, whose influence ranged from the shores of the Black Sea to the borders of the Juche state.
Most of this is just things I thought of while reading the thread. Tell me what you think!
OP
OP
Basic survival in the wilderness, provided you don't drown in the ocean, as these are your likely outcomes in either case. The improvements you could make to society are simply things you'd do if given the chance; they wouldn't be the ultimate deciding factor (at least, not for me).
500 years in the past is way too recent for me to care, send me back to ancient babylon or greece and sure maybe I'll pick it, but only 500 years? No fucking way.
500 years in the future my a massive unthinkable margin.
500 years in the future my a massive unthinkable margin.
OP
OP
I considered something similar to this but ultimately decided against it because I felt the near future would be too predictable.
OP
OP
Sounds pretty cool! It's fun to think about how the future will turn out centuries from now.
EDIT:
Maybe 'cool' isn't the right word to use, lol. What I mean is that the scenario you painted is pretty interesting to think about.