# Star Trek: Shouldn't Vulcans' First Contact have been in 1986? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** star-trek-paramount\ **Created:** [August 24, 2023, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-shouldnt-vulcans-first-contact-have-been-in-1986/989036 "2023-08-24T13:55:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2023, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-shouldnt-vulcans-first-contact-have-been-in-1986/989036/61 "2023-09-12T21:39:20Z")
> [@Tripler](#): > > I graduated in '09, probably a couple hundred years too early. So you’re saying you should have graduated in '09 or '09 instead? ---
**Author:** ![Jay\_Z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Jay\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jay_Z)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2023, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-shouldnt-vulcans-first-contact-have-been-in-1986/989036/62 "2023-09-12T22:56:26Z")
I think knowing that certain things are possible and a vague idea of how they take place would be very valuable in past times. Even if you can’t build it all out yourself. Because no one else has that sort of knowledge. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2023, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-shouldnt-vulcans-first-contact-have-been-in-1986/989036/63 "2023-09-12T22:59:11Z")
> [@Jay\_Z](#): > > I think knowing that certain things are possible and a vague idea of how they take place would be very valuable in past times. I think it would be _dangerous_, not valuable. Imagine trying to explain tiny invisible bugs making people sick, or using bat poop as an ingredient in an explosive. And yet being unable to prove anything because you don’t know how to actually do anything. Your best bet is to just keep your mouth shut and not be locked away as a crazy person or burned as a heretic. ---
**Author:** ![Jay\_Z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Jay\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jay_Z)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2023, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-shouldnt-vulcans-first-contact-have-been-in-1986/989036/64 "2023-09-12T23:06:44Z")
I wouldn’t make rookie mistakes. I would abide by local customs and figure everyone else is busy enough with whatever they’re doing to leave me alone. Then find the smartest local person, someone who’s trying to invent something, and invest in what I know will work. With knowledge of what I know. I’m not running off to the king first thing like some doofus. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-shouldnt-vulcans-first-contact-have-been-in-1986/989036/65 "2023-09-13T20:26:21Z")
S what you need is detailed knowledge of tech that’s _about_ to be invented, whether that’s iron, gunpower, or warp drive. That way you’re in an environment that can produce the tools and ingredients needed to build your [whatever]. Telling Benjamin Franklin how to build a warp drive will not result in a functioning warp drive within your lifetime. Telling him how to build a battery or a dynamo would probably work great. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-shouldnt-vulcans-first-contact-have-been-in-1986/989036/66 "2023-09-13T22:57:26Z")
Even better would be to figure out the right fast-path to rapid technological development. Humanity went down plenty of dead ends when it came to tech, which could be avoided if you already knew what those dead ends were. You could also look at the evidence from other civilizations that went through their own development. There must be patterns among those that went through particular bottlenecks at a rapid pace, because for whatever reason all the necessary bits lined up just right. The economy of the civilization plays a crucial role, as even with infinite knowledge about how semiconductors work (for example), you can’t just make modern chips without all the other infrastructure, like CNC machines and lasers and so on. But there must be an optimal way to get a civilization to bootstrap its way to a state where it can do these things. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-shouldnt-vulcans-first-contact-have-been-in-1986/989036/67 "2023-09-13T23:08:22Z")
The comment I was responding to was about ordinary 21st century citizens being magically chronoported to the Middle Ages. For some sort of Federation that has seen lots of successful and failed development efforts, and seen both stagnation and rapid progress, then yes, the sorts of learnings you propose would be super-valuable. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-shouldnt-vulcans-first-contact-have-been-in-1986/989036/68 "2023-09-13T23:22:05Z")
Ahh, ok. I thought we were still referencing Guinan and similar characters, who lives for centuries and belongs to a species that should have broad knowledge of other civilizations. One would think they’d have picked up a few things along the way, but maybe they just watched TV and/or gladiator events for most of that time. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-shouldnt-vulcans-first-contact-have-been-in-1986/989036/69 "2023-09-13T23:29:28Z")
> [@TheTooth](#): > > Were a few hints about penicillin or not digging the outhouse too close to the well too much to ask for? I’m not sure how you give someone a hint about penicillin. “Hey, guys, there’s this mold that’s super good at killing infections. How do you get this mold? Well… leave a glass with some agar in the bottom on an open window sill and cross your fingers…” Sanitation would be easy to teach locally, but how do you communicate the idea beyond the immediate village you find yourself in? I’d imagine that there were, historically, quite a few villages throughout history that had surprisingly low levels of typhus, cholera, and other diseases caused by polluted food and water, because they had a disguised alien hiding out among them nudging them towards cleaner living, but the knowledge never got that widespread because there wasn’t a way to easily spread that knowledge beyond their immediate locale. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2023, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-shouldnt-vulcans-first-contact-have-been-in-1986/989036/70 "2023-09-13T23:31:35Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I’m not sure how you give someone a hint about penicillin. “Hey, guys, there’s this mold that’s super good at killing infections. How do you get this mold? Well… leave a glass with some agar in the bottom on an open window sill and cross your fingers…” In fact, from what I understand, the valuable strain that produces penicillin has never since been observed in the wild. It might have just been a super-fortuitous mutation. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2023, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-shouldnt-vulcans-first-contact-have-been-in-1986/989036/71 "2023-09-14T02:53:55Z")
Step 1: Throw me in stasis. Step 2: Load me onto the _Botany Bay_. Step 3: Revive me in 100 years or so. I’d be teaching those young whippersnappers how we dealt with UXOs in the Good Ol’ Days. Tripler Now write this down: I said “_Botany Bay_” **not** “_Nostromo_.” ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2023, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-shouldnt-vulcans-first-contact-have-been-in-1986/989036/72 "2023-09-15T15:14:17Z")
You might drift right through the core systems, and it’d really just be blind luck if a deep salvage team ever finds you. It’d be one in a thousand, really. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-shouldnt-vulcans-first-contact-have-been-in-1986/989036.md?page=3)