# Send one piece of technology back in time to freak people out and turn history on its ear **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 22, 2010, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976 "2010-10-22T04:29:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/21 "2010-10-22T10:22:57Z")
Drop off a wax cylinder gramophone in 1760 or so, with Ben Franklin or Thomas Jefferson. Plus 30 or so cylinders, & a couple of dozen blanks. Simple tech, that could easily be replicated in the era. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/22 "2010-10-22T10:48:48Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > **Blake** , the telegraph needs two telegraphs, a cable and a code. Well, no. It needs one telegraph. If someone understands the concept they can as easily build a full size model from one as from two. It needs a conductor, nothing more. The current can be conducted just as easily along metal plates, or even salt water or a graphite line. A code is of no significance whatsoever. One if by land two if by sea is as complex as you need for a working telegraph to be of invaluable service. > [@](#): > > A moving-type hand printer, the kind sold as children’s toys, to whichever the dominant culture of the time happens to be, any time between about 500bC and 500aD, around the Mediterranean basin. Nowhere near as complex as the full-size items, but easy enough to figure out how to use it and how to make bigger ones, and they already knew ink. The classical Greeks had already invented printing, but they rarely used it. So I suspect that the printing press would be lost as rapidly as it was lost in China. It’s an invention whose time must come, and its time is when there is a sizable literate population to both read and write, and a shortage of scribes. ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/23 "2010-10-22T10:50:40Z")
Send a functional hang glider to Da Vinci. Read the ensuing Dan Brown book laughing all the way. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/24 "2010-10-22T10:59:20Z")
The fact that I can send something back in time indicates that I have some sort of time machine. I’d send one of those to myself 20 or 30 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![willthekittensurvive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/91b2a8/32.png) [@willthekittensurvive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/willthekittensurvive)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/25 "2010-10-22T11:02:32Z")
I would appear a (1) lever operated thermonuclear device on the floor of the roman senate(2) to the year 10 BC(3), with a note attached \*\* > [@](#): > > _commodo operor non traho campester_ \*\* freak them out: check change History:check ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/26 "2010-10-22T11:24:37Z")
No instructions. Use must be somewhat self-evident; so saddles, yes but telegraph, no. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/27 "2010-10-22T11:57:53Z")
It’s nothing at all impressive to us these days, but I’ve often wondered what a Medieval peasant would make of my contact lenses. I mean, there’s this piece of glass(ish) that I’m putting on my eyeball? And it lets me see better? How f’ed up is _that_?! (Of course, I’d have to go back in time with them for full effect.) ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/28 "2010-10-22T12:06:48Z")
I’m skeptical about the whole meme of people standing around with astonished expressions, worshipping the god who brought this device to them etc etc People aren’t like that. We push and prod things and it’s not long before we can see the limitations of a device we’re presented with. Not long before we can see it is not magic but just a machine with fixed functions. Being introduced to a technology far beyond what you thought was possible is an experiment that happens thousands of times daily. People don’t freak out. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/29 "2010-10-22T12:10:03Z")
> [@Dag\_Otto](#): > > To tell the truth, I’m trying to figure out how you stab a balloon to death. You must be new [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=160851). 😃 to which I’ll add: A full on, high quality, mountainbike. Mechanics, tolerances, odd materials, _and it works_ without electricity or cellphone towers, or whatnot. It’s behavior can also be determined by observation. Sure, at the right time, a guy may be able to terermine those lines are -wires- on a cellphone motherboard, but what happens in those little black square things? ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/30 "2010-10-22T14:53:42Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Drop off a wax cylinder gramophone in 1760 or so, with Ben Franklin or Thomas Jefferson. Plus 30 or so cylinders, & a couple of dozen blanks. > > Simple tech, that could easily be replicated in the era. This is what I was going to suggest, although I was thinking a bit farther back to Antiquity – keeping in mind gramophones played flat disks, but the Edison phonograph and Bell graphophone played wax cylinders (phonograph and gramophone aren’t synonyms). Howard Goodall’s book _Big Bangs_, which is about major innovations in music history (musical notation, opera, the piano, etc) posits that nothing ever captured the public’s imagination and excitment the way the debut of the phonograph did in 1877. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/31 "2010-10-22T14:54:18Z")
Without clicking on it, I know where that link leads to 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/32 "2010-10-22T14:58:43Z")
> [@willthekittensurvive](#): > > I would appear a (1) lever operated thermonuclear device on the floor of the roman senate(2) to the year 10 BC(3), with a note attached > > * * * > > freak them out: check > change History:check Translate the Latin? ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/33 "2010-10-22T15:02:58Z")
Duct Tape. 200 BC 🙂 We’d be on the moon by 100 AD 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/34 "2010-10-22T15:03:57Z")
send an iPhone 4G back to Gene Roddenberry, just before they air Star Trek: TOS ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/35 "2010-10-22T15:05:10Z")
While technically possible, I don’t think the lever operated thermonuclear device has been invented yet (for good reasons). ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/36 "2010-10-22T15:48:44Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > It needs a conductor, nothing more. The current can be conducted just as easily along metal plates, or even salt water or a graphite line. OK, but whatever you use, it’s got to be technologically feasible, in the era you’re sending it back to, to put together a conducting line of one of these materials that extends a greater distance than can be easily serviced by Phidippides and several of his friends stationed at intervals along the way. The reason we use wire is that it minimizes the mass required to transmit a signal by this means. Sure, you can use metal plates, but who’s going to string together 100 miles’ worth of metal plates, even if there’s no better alternative? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/37 "2010-10-22T15:58:11Z")
> [@Dag\_Otto](#): > > Without clicking on it, I know where that link leads to 🙂 Which link? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/38 "2010-10-22T15:59:18Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > It’s nothing at all impressive to us these days, but I’ve often wondered what a Medieval peasant would make of my contact lenses. I mean, there’s this piece of glass(ish) that I’m putting on my eyeball? And it lets me see better? How f’ed up is _that_?! > > (Of course, I’d have to go back in time with them for full effect.) What the hoo-ha did Medieval peasants know of clear glass? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/39 "2010-10-22T16:02:48Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Which link? [This](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=160851) one. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/40 "2010-10-22T16:53:05Z")
I’d send a Gibson Les Paul, a Marshall Stack, and a portable generator back to Beethoven. What? ;)😃 ETA: by the way - cool thread. The more serious answers are fun and thought-provoking. What makes the most sense - enabling warfare because that tech is always in demand, or finding the right inflection point to insert a tech which could both gain traction and change the flow of history? The arguments against printing press are intriguing - as are the ideas for the horse collar and saddle and stirrups… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976.md?page=3)