# 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:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/61 "2010-10-22T23:19:07Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Everyone in 1300 knew the Earth was round. The issue the Church had with a few people - mostly for reasons unrelated to science - was whether the Earth revolves around the Sun. > > The impact a globe (or even just a map of the world, for that matter) would have had would have been that the Europeans would then know where everything was, rather than having to figure it out by trial and error. A lot of early exploration was wasted travel where explorers wondered around just trying to find something to explore. If you had some idea where things were, the actual travel was not as difficult. If you’re starting out in Spain, for example, the Madeira Islands are only about as far away as Sardinia. The Azores are closer than Greece. And once you’ve reached the Azores, you’re already halfway to Newfoundland and the Americas. And even when you’ve reached land, there’s still a lot of uncertainty in unexplored territory. For example, if you landed in the vicinity of modern day Carti, Panama and decide to head south - you’ll find the Pacific Ocean less than forty miles away. Now let’s say your boat landed a couple of hundred miles to the east in the vicinity of modern day Arboletes, Columbia. The coast looks just about the same as it does around Carti. But if you headed south from here, you’ll travel over a thousand miles before you reach the Pacific. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/62 "2010-10-22T23:51:18Z")
Can I preprogram the device to the language of the person I’m sending it to? If so, a graphing calculator to Euclid ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/63 "2010-10-23T04:57:52Z")
Mostly just to mess with people’s heads - I’ve got no belief that people would actually figure anything out from it - but I’d send a crate of Tupperware somewhere, anytime. The material would be exotic enough to make people wonder just what it was, amazing enough by many standards - glass-like transparency, but so lightweight - and maybe non-threatening enough to be passed around some. Or kept as a special prize by the local duke. Or maybe just a box of Legos. Say, get those in the hands of that Leonard-from-Vinci guy… ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/64 "2010-10-23T05:39:36Z")
I’d send a copy of _Don Quixote_ back to Miguel de Cervantes in 1604. With a note saying, _“Heard you were working on a new book. Me too. Thought I’d send you an advance copy of mine and get your opinion on it. P.S. What’s your book about?”_ Just to be a dick. ---
**Author:** ![falcotron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3ab097/32.png) [@falcotron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/falcotron)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/65 "2010-10-23T05:49:29Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I’d send a copy of _Don Quixote_ back to Miguel de Cervantes in 1604. With a note saying, _“Heard you were working on a new book. Me too. Thought I’d send you an advance copy of mine and get your opinion on it. P.S. What’s your book about?”_ > > Just to be a dick. Why not just send the complete works of Shakespeare to a dozen or so different writers, just to make modern scholarship even more confused? ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/66 "2010-10-23T08:51:02Z")
Nemmind ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/67 "2010-10-23T19:36:18Z")
> [@EvilTOJ](#): > > Remember the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy? We don’t necessarily have to come up with complicated geegaws and whatsits, even something machined or what we would consider a toy would work for this scenario. > > I would give [these](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Hard_Townes) [guys](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Leonard_Schawlow) a handful of laser pointers in 1940. Nothing fancy, just anything you could order from SkyMall or ThinkGeek. all the colors too; green, red, blue, it’ll be awesome. > > I’ve been trying to think of a good time to send a Furby back to, but unless it was in the last 100 years it’d most likely just be burned as a witch. [That won’t stop Tickle Me Elmo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYGhmJD9LKc)… ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2010, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/68 "2010-10-23T20:03:44Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > How about sending a wagon wheel to the Aztecs and/or Mayans? Think I remember reading somewhere they never invented a wheel. A wooden version ought to be easy enough for them to replicate… IIRC, pre-Columbian wheeled toys have been found, but with no beasts of burden to pull a wagon the wheel was not terribly useful. So, along the wheel - include horses. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2010, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/69 "2010-10-24T00:57:16Z")
The two I thought of- pocket lasers and rifled muskets- have been mentioned. No world-changers come to mind. Maybe send a carved wood Rubik’s Cube back to- well, as far back as you want. Or for laughs, send a sample of gallium back to a medieval alchemist and watch him go crazy trying to figure out how someone managed to _partially_ solidify quicksilver. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2010, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/send-one-piece-of-technology-back-in-time-to-freak-people-out-and-turn-history-on-its-ear/557976/70 "2010-10-24T01:14:15Z")
> [@falcotron](#): > > Why not just send the complete works of Shakespeare to a dozen or so different writers, just to make modern scholarship even more confused? I think it’s fairly obvious that someone has already done that. [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=3)