In the Star Trek episode where Kirk has to push an annoying Salvation Army woman in front of a Mac truck (You may be a schmuck, Harlan Ellison, but they did ruin that script.) Spock complains about having to “construct a mnemonic circuit using stone knives and bearskins.” Ever since I saw that I’ve wondered whether such a thing would be possible. In that light, here is a scenario:
I am a chrononaut studying the birth of Neolithic culture in the late 10th millenium BCE. As my Timepod orbits the Earth, a sudden shockwave of narrativum particles causes the onboard systems to crash. I just have time to punch in the coordinates to the pod’s emergency escape mechanism before the pod explodes in five dimentions…
I awake dazed but unharmed on the soft ground of the riverbank. I have only my simple cotton jumpsuit and the contents of my pockets: an egg of glow-in-the-dark Silly Putty I promised my kid I’d pick up in the late 20th century, and an Encyclopedia Galactica, containing the complete historical and scientific, and technical knowledge (including detailed geological, topographical, and biological maps of every timeperiod) of my 22nd century civilization in a simple display module.
The Silly Putty can be molded into a Venus of Willendorf, or other mystical shape, and used to impress primative people with it’s eerie glow and uncanny ability to stretch when pulled but break when snapped. With it, I can convince any person or group I encounter that I am a god who should be obeyed unquestioningly. It has no other use.
The Encyclopedia Galactica can be used to obtain any information I might need and will retain power indefinitely. Unfortunately, due to complex trans-temporal copyright issues, it only contains the fifth season of The Simpsons in a bad Czech dub, so I must return to my own time, as quickly as possible. I can do this by transmiting a complex coded radio signal to the Emergency Temporal Beacon in geosynchronous orbit overhead. The code is contained in the Encylopedia, but to send it, I must build a device that can interface with the USB port of the Encyclopedia, convert the code into radio waves and transmit it with enough power to be detected by the satelite overhead, about .5 W, for at least 15 seconds with its own power supply. The Encyclopedia is shoddily made and cannot be opened or tampered with in any way without damaging it.
Bob the Hunter-Gatherer is coming up the riverbank now. He has just returned from the spot by the river where he spilled all the grain seeds the tribe had gathered that day last year, and he has a new idea that he wants to present to the tribe. I see him coming. I reach for my Silly Putty…
Assuming single-minded cooperation from Bob’s tribe and any others I encounter, and that I have chosen the best possible location to begin from, how long will my task take? Can it be done in a single generation? What about two? Ten? Presumably, interfacing with the USB port will require at least a simple integrated circuit and all the technology it takes to produce one, but any shortcuts possible can be used.