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Dalael posted:If I was to be stuck in ancient [insert favorite civilization here] the first thing I'd teach them is about vaccination and the principle behind it. Odds are that you'll catch something and die from it in the first few weeks, so vaccinating yourself would be very important. "Gaius, I ran into a gibbering illiterate in barbarian trousers in the forum today. He told me to start rubbing smallpox pus into an open wound." "Sounds good to me." I'd invent the toggling harpoon, and get a head start on exterminating the whale. Or maybe write a bunch of hit songs stolen from future musicians, as in the beloved sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart. Mr Enderby fucked around with this message at 23:56 on Apr 19, 2017 |
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Apr 19, 2017 22:17
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Was ancient paper actually any better than papyrus/parchment? Because china had paper by like 100 BC so that one was definitely possible with ancient technologies.
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Apr 19, 2017 22:19
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We usually settle on hull design as the best technology but it turns out none of us actually know anything about things.
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Apr 19, 2017 22:29
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cheetah7071 posted:Rubber wheels require a new world plant You don't necessarily need rubber, there's other things you can do like cloth or cork. Sure the wheel coverings will be a lot less durable and all, but not too bad. Your biggest issue is getting good quality gears and chains - and building frames that are durable enough to be worthwhile without being so heavy that they're really hard to use. Cork tire replacements were a mildly popular thing in late 19th century bicycles due to people wanting to avoid the chances of blowing out a tire on bad roads. Their problem was mostly that actually using cork for your tire is very expensive, and harder to put on and remove from the wheel than pneumatic rubber tires are by far. You could certainly make do with them in a world without any source of rubber though
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Apr 19, 2017 22:31
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cheetah7071 posted:Rubber wheels require a new world plant Fun fact, the bicycle actually precedes the introduction of rubber tires. Resulting in especially fun names like "boneshaker". "Arabic" numbers seems like by far the best and most straightforward element to try an introduce. You don't change the world by yourself, but possible that kicks off some sort of crazy chain intellectual reaction (or perhaps not, who the gently caress knows). Germ (and atomic) theory would be the other huge one, but I don't know that you'd be able to convince anyone of it without crazy good glass- and lens-making abilities. Not sure what sort of techniques the Romans had there. But yeah, the answer to any "bring stuff back in time" counterfactual is everybody scorns you because you don't speak any intelligible language and then you die of some disease. PittTheElder fucked around with this message at 22:56 on Apr 19, 2017 |
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Apr 19, 2017 22:52
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Yes, it's like a lava lamp.
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Whoa, that's cool in more detail than I had. I was thinking go simpler, start out with pennyfarthings to skip the gearing and chain issues. Maybe a bigwheel. Actually, if you want money and power, forget distillation - they already have opium, so make heroin!
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Apr 19, 2017 22:54
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xthetenth posted:It becomes an interesting angle to approach the various interlocking things that make societies work from, though. now i'm wondering, what idea or superstition could you introduce to best muck-up future human development?
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Apr 19, 2017 23:00
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Lord Hydronium posted:You can invent the first anti-vaxxer! The cold needles chill the blood, reproducing the effects of the snowy northern climes. It causes hairiness, excessive drinking and a big dick 
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Apr 19, 2017 23:04
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AriadneThread posted:now i'm wondering, what idea or superstition could you introduce to best muck-up future human development? "Hi, I'm Jesus" 
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Apr 19, 2017 23:06
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PittTheElder posted:Fun fact, the bicycle actually precedes the introduction of rubber tires. Resulting in especially fun names like "boneshaker". Antonie van Leeuwenhoek who invented practical microscopes and used them for the first real study of microbes, built his microscopes using lens-making techniques that were nearly as old as the Roman Empire and could have been done back then too. His method was the sort of thing that requires high individual skill rather than much in the way of a society's infrastructure. He was also a dick that refused to share the secrets of how he made microscopes and would only build lower quality microscopes for rival researchers so that he'd always be a step ahead. We're lucky that other scientists were able to reverse engineer the principles he used for wider production of microscopes.
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Apr 19, 2017 23:10
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AriadneThread posted:now i'm wondering, what idea or superstition could you introduce to best muck-up future human development? Platonism 
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Apr 19, 2017 23:59
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fantastic in plastic posted:Platonism More accurately, neo-platonism.
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Apr 20, 2017 00:00
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Stirrups are easy to make and they were a big deal in warfare once the Avars brought them. Also you could draw Romans a map of the world.
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Apr 20, 2017 00:04
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Doctor Malaver posted:Stirrups are easy to make and they were a big deal in warfare once the Avars brought them. They weren't all that bad at that themselves in fairness.
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Apr 20, 2017 00:05
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Disinterested posted:They weren't all that bad at that themselves in fairness. I could probably do better than this. 
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Apr 20, 2017 00:13
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Doctor Malaver posted:I could probably do better than this. ...what am I looking at here, exactly?
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Apr 20, 2017 00:16
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You could obtain all of the parts to make a voltaic pile in ancient times and it doesn't require technical sophistication to demonstrate.
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Apr 20, 2017 00:18
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fantastic in plastic posted:You could obtain all of the parts to make a voltaic pile in ancient times and it doesn't require technical sophistication to demonstrate. It wouldn't have much practical purpose, though. cheetah7071 posted:...what am I looking at here, exactly? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabula_Peutingeriana
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Apr 20, 2017 00:22
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cheetah7071 posted:...what am I looking at here, exactly? It's a portion of the Peutinger Table -- the far eastern end of a medieval copy of a late Roman itinerarium. The giveaway is "Insula Taprobane" (i.e. the isle of Sri Lanka) at the bottom right. The point of it is not to portray the world to any sort of scale, just to show the major roads of the known world and the landmarks they connect. Ancient geographers had much "better" maps than that, Ptolemy's for example
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Apr 20, 2017 00:28
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If you started vaccinating Romans, they'd invent trains by themselves.
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Apr 20, 2017 00:42
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Doctor Malaver posted:It wouldn't have much practical purpose, though. Gold plating, charging the iphone you brought with you when you time travelled...
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Apr 20, 2017 00:48
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Hogge Wild posted:If you started vaccinating Romans, they'd invent trains by themselves.
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Apr 20, 2017 00:58
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When I saw a bunch of new replies I thought that some wackjob must have been posting something insane. I'm disappointed!
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Apr 20, 2017 01:03
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cheetah7071 posted:...what am I looking at here, exactly? I wanna say....lasagna?
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Apr 20, 2017 01:04
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Ainsley McTree posted:I wanna say....lasagna? Some kind of small pastry
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Apr 20, 2017 01:09
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Strategic Tea posted:"Hi, I'm Jesus" I think you mean Joshua.
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Apr 20, 2017 01:09
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Negative numbers and double entry book keeping. This will probably also require Arabic numerals but I'll totally be beloved by all the educated Greek slaves while True Romans look down their noses at me.
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Apr 20, 2017 02:09
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ChaseSP posted:Anyone not saying distillation is a person who hasn't drank enough. The Coffey continuous still. I am going to be so loving rich.
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Apr 20, 2017 02:16
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Good luck getting listened to, you bunch of barbarians who probably don't know Latin, have a bunch of crazy ideas (wait, a symbol meaning nothing? Wooden blocks with letters written backwards you put in a wine press?) and no friends or patrons who can get people to give you a hearing.
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Apr 20, 2017 02:20
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Epicurius posted:Good luck getting listened to, you bunch of barbarians who probably don't know Latin, have a bunch of crazy ideas (wait, a symbol meaning nothing? Wooden blocks with letters written backwards you put in a wine press?) and no friends or patrons who can get people to give you a hearing. An iPad, ear buds, and a solar charger. I'll be god, conjuring music out of the ether. And they'll have air guitar competitions in the Colosseum, duck walking to Chuck Berry.
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Apr 20, 2017 02:48
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I would invent rap music
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Apr 20, 2017 03:00
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Speaking of music what, if anything, do we know about ancient Chinese/Roman/etc music? Was it all for plays and/or religion, or did they have concerts and stuff? What sort of instruments did they play?
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Apr 20, 2017 03:27
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Hogge Wild posted:If you started vaccinating Romans, they'd invent trains by themselves. Too late, the Greeks already did.
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Apr 20, 2017 03:44
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Jamwad Hilder posted:I would invent rap music Spoken poetry has been a thing for a long time, friend.
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Apr 20, 2017 03:46
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Elyv posted:Speaking of music what, if anything, do we know about ancient Chinese/Roman/etc music? Was it all for plays and/or religion, or did they have concerts and stuff? What sort of instruments did they play? Traveling musicians/bards would recite/sing verse to music in private performances as early as sometime BCs. Sappho has been called the first singer/songwriter pop star.
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Apr 20, 2017 03:49
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I dunno about the historical authenticity of a random youtube channel but youtube does have videos claiming to be Roman music.
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Apr 20, 2017 03:52
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SlothfulCobra posted:Too late, the Greeks already did.  The Science day: It is a mystery, why the steam locomotive wasn't invented in the ancient Greece. they had already invented the use of steam power Heron and the train. Hogge Wild fucked around with this message at 04:11 on Apr 20, 2017 |
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Apr 20, 2017 04:07
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Arglebargle III posted:Traveling musicians/bards would recite/sing verse to music in private performances as early as sometime BCs. Sappho has been called the first singer/songwriter pop star. Sort of the original t.A.T.u
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Apr 20, 2017 04:15
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Ynglaur posted:Spoken poetry has been a thing for a long time, friend. Ok sure but I said rap music specifically.
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Apr 20, 2017 04:16
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Jamwad Hilder posted:Ok sure but I said rap music specifically. I'm imagining an ancient musical resembling Hamilton, except it's about Cicero.
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Apr 20, 2017 04:21
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