# The Butterfly-In-a-Box Effect **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 9, 2014, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-in-a-box-effect/678391 "2014-01-09T21:24:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Yaxche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8dc957/32.png) [@Yaxche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yaxche)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-in-a-box-effect/678391/61 "2014-01-10T18:47:20Z")
How about a solar powered flashlight? Might be able to last for a long, long time, and perhaps change the nature of industrialization down the road. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-in-a-box-effect/678391/62 "2014-01-10T18:50:17Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Might they have a better chance of figuring out a simple box camera? They’d have to have knowhow of developing the film and keeping it unexposed (i.e. not opening the film compartment.) An instant Polaroid avoids these issues. I imagine, they’d inadvertently click the button, and the polaroid would spit out the white, still-developing square picture, exposed to the lovely Mediterranean sun, as it develops magically before their eyes. Perhaps a blurred image at first, but the Greeks were no dummies at that time. I think they’d pick up what the device did in no time. Once they got it, who know’s what they might snap pics of. Caesar even? This clear Christian miracle might even be preserved by the Pope at the time (Benedict VIII no less), and end up in the archives of the Vatican. And hence, Catholicism would take an unlikely scientific bent, averting the dark ages! It could happen. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-in-a-box-effect/678391/63 "2014-01-10T18:54:26Z")
Some kind of small hologram device that will display an actor pantomiming the time travel rules so they don’t fuck up and send something back in the box that’s not allowed by Czarcasm. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-in-a-box-effect/678391/64 "2014-01-10T18:58:08Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > Some kind of small hologram device that will display an actor pantomiming the time travel rules so they don’t fuck up and send something back in the box that’s not allowed by Czarcasm. Like Rufus playing the Wyld Stallyns Air Guitar Salute? ---
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-in-a-box-effect/678391/65 "2014-01-10T18:58:46Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I would ether send back a model glider, or a replica of the U.S.S. Constitution, the destination being Norway. > [@Czarcasm](#): > > …and what do you hope would be the result? Care to complete the request of the OP?🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-in-a-box-effect/678391/66 "2014-01-10T18:58:57Z")
> [@Yaxche](#): > > How about a solar powered flashlight? Might be able to last for a long, long time, and perhaps change the nature of industrialization down the road. What country would best be able to figure out how it works? ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-in-a-box-effect/678391/67 "2014-01-10T19:01:15Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Have considered switching to decaf? It’s just a simple “what-if” scenario, dude-nobody is forcing you to play along with the premise. It’s not that you were technically wrong, it’s that you pointed out a loophole that I subsequently closed. I wasn’t wrong at all…dude, and apparently it’s not that simple if the premise is so shakey that you have to keep adding rules. And thank you for pointing out that no one is forcing me to play, you must be fun at parties. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-in-a-box-effect/678391/68 "2014-01-10T19:02:13Z")
If you just want to fuck with them, there are countless things you can send back, but if you want to accelerate technological development, there are only two types of things you can send: 1. something that the technology exists in their time to make, but the idea hasn’t been come up with yet, or 2. something that they’ve had the idea for, and have most of the technology to make, but they just need a small clue to develop a missing manufacturing technology. I can’t think of anything off the top of my head that will fit either of those two conditions, but even if I could, it probably wouldn’t advance any development by more than a hundred years, if even that, over our history. A better way to make a difference would be to find a war where the winning side came up with a key war winning technology that the losers immediately understood and began to copy, but too late to make a difference, or the losing side came up with an idea that could have won, but they came up with it too late. I can’t think of an example from 1000 years ago, but a modern example would be the tank in WWI. If the Germans had come up with it a year before tanks were _actually_ developed, they might have won before the US got involved. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-in-a-box-effect/678391/69 "2014-01-10T19:03:35Z")
> [@August\_West](#): > > Care to complete the request of the OP?🆒 Absolute conquest of the civilized world, of course 😃 ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-in-a-box-effect/678391/70 "2014-01-10T19:05:57Z")
A walkman with all logos and markings removed, with only one cassette preloaded, and with only one song recorded and rewound, sent to Germany. As soon as someone hit the “Play” button, Rick Astley’s _Never Gonna Give You Up_ would blair across the royal courtyards. Yeh, I just Rick-Rolled Henry II, King of Germany. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-in-a-box-effect/678391/71 "2014-01-10T19:09:10Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > A walkman with all logos and markings removed, with only one cassette preloaded, and with only one song recorded and rewound, sent to Britain. > > As soon as someone hit the “Play” button, Rick Astley’s _Never Gonna Give You Up_ would blair across the royal courtyards. > > Yeh, I just Rick-Rolled Henry II. According to the revised rules, no recorded words…but I’ll allow non-vocal music. And probably send back “Music Box Dancer”. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-in-a-box-effect/678391/72 "2014-01-10T19:09:55Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > What country would best be able to figure out how it works? Again. The Greeks. Trust no one else. The Mongols ruled China at the time. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-in-a-box-effect/678391/73 "2014-01-10T19:30:06Z")
No wait, I’m wrong, Genghis Khan didn’t show up on the scene until the 1200s. Maybe China, then. ---
**Author:** ![Yaxche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8dc957/32.png) [@Yaxche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yaxche)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-in-a-box-effect/678391/74 "2014-01-10T19:33:40Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > What country would best be able to figure out how it works? Let’s say England. Not so much that they’d figure it out first, but trying to nudge the industrial idea of ‘always on’ to ‘available when you need it’. It seems like the steam engine (and it’s descendants) powered the constant need for energy we have now, and it was a bit of ideological thinking on my part. The ‘renewable energy’ resources were there before, with windmills and such, and maybe this would help demonstrate we have come all the way back around to thinking along those lines. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-in-a-box-effect/678391/75 "2014-01-10T19:35:36Z")
Given the criteria in the OP I will go on record saying I don’t think there is anything you could possibly send that would make any difference in history other than possibly creating a puzzle for present day scientists when they dig whatever it is up and wonder how it got there. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-in-a-box-effect/678391/76 "2014-01-10T19:41:45Z")
How about a 2’x2’x2’ cube of uranium to the Vatican? ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-in-a-box-effect/678391/77 "2014-01-10T20:00:27Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > If an Uzi fits in a 2ft x 2ft x 2ft box, it’s a go. In case of such a paradox, the event occurs but the original cause of the event(you) is wiped from history. > [@Lemur866](#): > > Without smokeless powder and precision manufacturing and modern metals a 15th century Uzi is just going to get the operator killed. For what it’s worth, my mention of “an Uzi” was just to illustrate the “kill my ancestors” paradox and not a real decision. I’m sticking with my llama-wagon choice. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-in-a-box-effect/678391/78 "2014-01-10T20:01:32Z")
How about [this compound bow](http://www.libertyarchery.com/) to the Chinese? ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-in-a-box-effect/678391/79 "2014-01-10T20:22:54Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > How about a 2’x2’x2’ cube of uranium to the Vatican? A pair of uranium cymbals. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-in-a-box-effect/678391/80 "2014-01-10T20:36:54Z")
> [@Penfeather](#): > > A pair of uranium cymbals. Because the Roman Catholic Church is heavily into cymbalism? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-in-a-box-effect/678391.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-butterfly-in-a-box-effect/678391.md?page=5)