If you could travel back in time to any period, what object or piece of modern technology would you bring to scare, impress or generally freak out the local population?
Asked by
tirithalui (
408
)
August 1st, 2009
from iPhone
I’d just been thinking how terrifying most of modern life would be for some one from the past and how, if one had a time machine, you could have a lot of fun scaring people with a tv or a lava lamp.
What would you do?
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64 Answers
Take a battery powered boom box, and a pile of cassettes.
The time machine itself should impress them and if not a plane.
Two things come to mind. The car & the computer. Both would cause major mind blowing.
@allansmithee Huh weird, I read right over your answer :S
I suppose a portable DVD player playing porn would be funny :P
@Vincentt
I was editing it at the time.
Um on second thoughts, this would be too large but if there was anyway to show them we can get to the moon, that would impress them.
Well, something as simple as a Bic or a Zippo lighter would scare the crap out of the folks from the Middle Ages, only problem is they would declare you a witch and burn you at the stake, probably by using the lighter you brought to light the fagots, which would be ironic as Hell.
@evelyns_pet_zebra Yeah, you’d probably wouldn’t want to stray too far from your time machine, incase the angry mob with pitchforks mentality kicks in!
An ipod with an all Celine Dion playlist. Who’s scared now, natives?
A videotape player showing transgender surgery.
Or breast augmentation.
a fully loaded harrier jumpjet.
I always imagined myself going back to ancient Sparta in a car somehow. But I think it would have to be something more practical, and preferably something that works without batteries. Anywhere over 100 years ago and most of our modern technology becomes practically useless. Radios and TV sets but no stations, vehicles but no fuel, mobile phones with nobody to talk to, electrical appliances with nowhere to plug them into. Probably the most practical thing to take back would be something like a swiss army knife, or a thermos or maybe several hundreds of lighters.
I’d take a hang-glider and go visit Leonardo da Vinci. I think he’d be more fascinated than scared though.
I’d bring someone (presumably female) in modern female clothing.
If it wouldn’t totally cause their ruin, I wouldn’t mind bringing literacy to the good folks who painted the Lascaux caves.
@KatawaGrey, I love your answer. Confronting one of the greatest inventors of all time with examples of his own lifework would create such a paradox you would either destroy the fabric of time or give our species the greatest technological advancement imaginable :P
As for myself. I would rather go to the future for selfish reasons. If I had to go back I would probably do something lame like bring back a book with agricultural knowledge back to the middle ages. After that it’s just a matter of going back to the present and see if I made the world a better and hungry free place or if I caused total armageddon :)
Surprised nobody said iPhone.
@TheCreative
The reason I didn’t pick a iphone or pc is mainly because the people would have no idea how good it is. If I show them a plane it’s clear that it’s a huge piece of metal flying through the sky, a pc is just s box with lights to these people.
@allansmithee, I bring thee the gospel of Jobs! everyone gather around, but be quick because I only have 1 bar of energy left! Maybe you’re time machine could have one of those electrical lighter power converters to charge it. Come to think of it bringing the knowledge of solar power back to someone like Tesla would be kinda neat.
@markyy
Hehe,
Medieval man: What can this iphone do?
Time traveller: It connects to other people around the world and you can talk to them.
Medieval man: Do it then.
Time traveller: Well on one else has a phone yet and even if they do I have no signal, look at the shiny lights on the phone
Medieval man: Ooh
@allansmithee At least you’d be able to pour them a virtual glass of beer.
@allansmithee You know you could also say how it stores images that respond to the touch of your finger, stores music, movies, the games.. etc. I’m sure they’d still be surprised.
@allansmithee, but what about the terrorists of that time. If they figure out how to jailbreak it, you would give them the ability to destroy the United States before they are created! So I-phone is no longer a valid option, agreed?
I can’t believe the spellchecker picks up on misspelling iphone :S
@markyy
I’m sure they’d be more impressed about the concept of something more than how good that thing is, a phone from 1997 or iphone wouldn’t have too much of a different in response unless compared to each other.
I’d go to the 800s with a flush toilet!
@Jack79
oh now that you mentioned it, when i saw 300 i imagined going to sparta during the persian war with modern war machinery, jet-fighters, gunships, battleships and battlemechs.
@Sarcasm But Sarcs, you don’t know any women.
I just wanted to point out that @Sarcasm‘s current lurve score is 1066 for all you English History buffs out there. Just me? Oh, well, never mind, then.
@aprilsimnel : ….and All That
(Memorable History of England, comprising all the parts you can remember, including 103 Good Things, 5 Bad Kings and 2 Genuine Dates.)
I’d bring something like a RC car or a calculator. My immediate thought was my mobile phone but I suppose it wouldn’t work and would not be that impressive.
@aprilsimnel
I think RareDenver was being sarcastic, we all know what 1066 is famous for.
@allansmithee you know me so well
The first use in Britain of my surname can be traced back to the Norman conquest so I have to face the unfortunate fact that I’m a French tourist !!
@RareDenver
Who doesn’t know 1066 is Hastings direct number?
Na, I’m shocked aprilsimnel wasn’t getting it and assumed not many people know about the battle of Hastings.
aprilsimnel is crafting a response…
I’m sorry for being so dumb.
@aprilsimnel
If you’re from America it might not be as well know so I’ll let you off.
@allansmithee and @aprilsimnel
Stamford Bridge was the shittiest place I ever lived but my mother is buried in the churchyard there so it does hold a special place in my heart. Maybe it wasn’t the shittiest place ever but it was boring and most of the people tended to be quite narrow minded, let’s just say I didn’t fit in.
@RareDenver
Isn’t it also famous for football? More accurately riots at football matches? I could search but I’d rather not.
@allansmithee That’s a different Stamford Bridge, I lived in and the battle happened in Stamford Bridge (a village in the East Riding of Yorkshire about 8 miles east of the city of York)
Chelsea Football Clubs home ground is Stamford Bridge (a stadium in London)
Once Prince Williams ex-girlfriend got a taxi to go see Chelsea play and the Taxi driver took her to the Yorkshire village of Stamford Bridge !! How they didn’t realise they were going to the wrong place astounds me, they must have been going up the A1 with all the signs saying The North this way. I think it was her anyway, it was someone linked with the royals.
@RareDenver: Now that I have outgrown urban life, noise, pollution, and too many people, your little town looks very appealing.
The bridge, the river and the verdant landscape call for an oil painter. Where’s Turner when you need him?
@gailcalled me and the wife are having this issue at the moment, I’ve always been a city boy, she’s always been a country girl, we currently live bang in the middle of Leeds city centre but need a bigger place so are looking to move. We can’t agree on where though.
@RareDenver: That’s an interesting life decision. How are you going to compromise? Do your jobs or careers tilt the scales? Do you have kids?
Old Leeds looks charming; less appeal in Leeds city centre, at least for me. There is a river, however, which helps.
@gailcalled We both work in the city, me about a 40 second walk from our current home and my wife about a ten minute walk. We don’t have children (not sure that we can actually) What do you mean by Old Leeds? We live in an oldish building, late 1800’s I think. Leeds isn’t exactly a pretty city, unlike the one I’m from, York which is beautiful. Leeds is however a vibrant city with a diverse ethnic population and something for everyone. I love it. Not sure what we are going to do about where to live, we both agree we need somewhere bigger, we are going to look at Farsley as it’s not too far out.
@RareDenver: When I looked at photos of Leeds, there seemed to be an historic part and then many high-rises and generic bldgs in the center. Can you bike in from Farsley? (I’ll check that out now.)
I’m surprised no one mentioned firearms.
A pair of Berettas and they’d think you’re the Angel of Death.
Lab equipment for genetic fingerprinting. I would show this to all racists of the past for example the people who organized the slave ships because they thought Africans are not really human beings or Third Reich doctors who subscribed to the perverse concept of an “master race”.
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