# What use is an unprepared time traveler? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 24, 2003, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-use-is-an-unprepared-time-traveler/197286 "2003-08-24T05:54:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2003, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-use-is-an-unprepared-time-traveler/197286/1 "2003-08-24T05:54:30Z")
…Inspired quite a bit by [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?postid=3886878#post3886878), I’ve come up with the following scenario… I, a fairly intelligent American man from the year 2003, am happily playing around on my iBook laptop, when… _Bam_ Due to some cosmic fluke in the fabric of space-time, I’m transported back to January, 1942, landing in the Oval Office, and interrupting president Roosevelt’s meeting with the British ambassador. Now, I’ve got the 21st century laptop with me, I’m wearing a bunch of synthetic fiber clothes, and I’ve just teleported out of thin air. I say I’ve got at least a _slight_ chance of not being seen as an Axis agent. So, _if_ they buy my “unexpected time travel” story…exactly what good am I to the government of the past? The lap top is brand new, and doesn’t have any sort of CD/DVD-ROM “encyclopedia” with it. I’ve just got a newish flight sim, the new “Wolfenstein,” and the other “sundry” software that came with the operating system (a Chess program, MP3 player, etc.). The only other knowledge about future history, technical developments, and the like is what I can remember myself. So…I ask you, exactly what value would I have, to a someone in 1942? ---
**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:** [August 24, 2003, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-use-is-an-unprepared-time-traveler/197286/2 "2003-08-24T06:08:14Z")
A lot depends on your knowlege of history. For example, in January of 1942, the Soviets expected the German Spring offensive would be aimed at Moscow but the Germans attacked in the South instead. Knowlege of military things like that would obviously be useful. You could tell people the German A-bomb program wasn’t going to work. If you knew names like Philby, Blunt, Fuchs, and Rosenburg, you could share them with American and British intelligence. You could also offer general knowlege about future events; the Communist victory in China, the Middle East wars, independance in India and other colonies, the Vietnam war, the development of jet aircraft, TV, and computers, the cure for Polio, the Baby Boom, etc. And your laptop would have more computing power than every computer on Earth combined in 1942. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2003, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-use-is-an-unprepared-time-traveler/197286/3 "2003-08-24T06:24:52Z")
Well, if you know anything about the major events of the war, you’d obviously be of considerable intelligence help. Likewise, even if you are not an expert on technology advances since '42, what you do know would have you sitting in debriefing rooms for months, if not years. The laptop would be of great interest from a research standpoint, but would simply using it be of more immediate help to the war effort than dismantling it for research purposes? Well, I’m not familiar with the standard suite of applications for an iBook, but if there’s an on-board calculator with scientific functions a la Windows, that alone would be of great service; for one thing just having that little calculator would probably significantly shorten the design processes for various high-priority efforts such as the design of the atomic bomb. If you’ve got a word processor and spreadsheet program, all the better. Then there’s the technologes embodied within: semicondictor ciruits, magnetic and optical media, lasers (in the DVD drive), the LCD display, even the exotic (for '42) plastics of the case. The clothes and games: of some interest, perhaps, but a definite sideshow to the iBook. Anyway, you’d probably never have to buy a dinner again. OTOH, the government of the time would likely make sure you remained in thier custody for the rest of your life. ---
**Author:** ![apricot\_syrup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6f9a4e/32.png) [@apricot\_syrup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/apricot_syrup)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2003, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-use-is-an-unprepared-time-traveler/197286/4 "2003-08-24T07:52:24Z")
Your knowledge of history wouldn’t help in the long term. As you shared with them what you knew about immediate affairs, your actions would sway history in ways that would render your knowledge about later decades completely obsolete or at least very unreliable. Oh, and you’d get lots of chicks. Chicks love a time traveler. ---
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2003, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-use-is-an-unprepared-time-traveler/197286/5 "2003-08-24T18:39:17Z")
> [@](#): > > but if there’s an on-board calculator with scientific functions a la Windows, that alone would be of great service; for one thing just having that little calculator would probably significantly shorten the design processes for various high-priority efforts such as the design of the atomic bomb. If you had any knowledge at all about how to program, you could use the laptop to decode messages from the enemy. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2003, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-use-is-an-unprepared-time-traveler/197286/6 "2003-08-24T19:16:52Z")
Indeed. Keeping the iBook intact would be the primary priority… but knowing _that_ it worked would be enough to advance computing science by decades. They don’t have the tools to make the tools to make the tools to make it yet, but… certainly can give a boost. In that computer is enough raw horsepower, even if you’re just using unix shell scripting, to beat all the world’s supercomputers until, eh, '80 or so. Not to mention television! Or the highways… or that we _would_ beat the Soviets… in time. Or what you could do to help the space program! You’d be surprised what you can remember if you work at it. Basically… for WWII alone, you’d be worth about what the Manhattan Project was. ---
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2003, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-use-is-an-unprepared-time-traveler/197286/7 "2003-08-24T19:29:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Little Nemo \* > \*\* > And your laptop would have more computing power than every computer on Earth combined in 1942. \*\* I am fairly certain that there weren’t **any** computers in 1942. ---
**Author:** ![Scoo8b](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Scoo8b](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scoo8b)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2003, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-use-is-an-unprepared-time-traveler/197286/8 "2003-08-24T20:31:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Muad’Dib \* > \*\*I am fairly certain that there weren’t **any** computers in 1942. \*\* From [http://www.iastate.edu/about/pride/las.html](http://www.iastate.edu/about/pride/las.html) “The world’s first electronic digital computer (Atanasoff-Berry Computer) was invented at Iowa State in the late 1930s by mathematics and physics professor John Atanasoff and graduate student Clifford Berry.” ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-use-is-an-unprepared-time-traveler/197286/9 "2003-08-25T00:17:17Z")
And if you were up to it, you could write your own programs, specifically to decrypt enigma intercepts. How? Believe it or not, that laptop has a copy of Debug.exe. With that, and enough knowledge of assembly language programming for the pentium chip, you could write your own executable programs. Oh, and having the patience of Job might help. Tris ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-use-is-an-unprepared-time-traveler/197286/10 "2003-08-25T00:42:15Z")
All I can say is: I hope you brought the power lead. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-use-is-an-unprepared-time-traveler/197286/11 "2003-08-25T01:31:20Z")
Hey dumbass!! Don’t you watch time travel movies? The good guys WON WWII! Don’t DO ANYTHING to fuck it up! If you try to help, odds are you will either be locked up in a mental institution or accidently kill Roosevelt or Patton or something. Either that or you will become the bonehead that allowed the Japanese to sneak attack Pearl Harbor. “If you just look at this laptop screen…_ZZZZZZZZ_ YOU SHORTED OUT POWER ON THE ENTIRE ISLAND!!” If Kirk Douglas couldn’t prevent WWII with a modern carrier group, what makes you think you could do anything with your laptop? ---
**Author:** ![DreadCthulhu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-use-is-an-unprepared-time-traveler/197286/12 "2003-08-25T02:31:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Triskadecamus \* > \*\* > With that, and enough knowledge of assembly language programming for the pentium chip, you could write your own executable programs. > > Tris \*\* That might be pretty hard using and **iBook** 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Roadfood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc348/32.png) [@Roadfood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roadfood)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-use-is-an-unprepared-time-traveler/197286/13 "2003-08-25T03:26:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ranchoth \* > **The lap top is brand new, and doesn’t have any sort of CD/DVD-ROM "encyclopedia"** Yeah, but it does have a modem, so you could just get on the net and . . . Oh, wait; nevermind.😉 ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-use-is-an-unprepared-time-traveler/197286/14 "2003-08-25T03:58:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by msmith537 \* > \*\*Hey dumbass!! Don’t you watch time travel movies? The good guys WON WWII! Don’t DO ANYTHING to fuck it up! > > If you try to help, odds are you will either be locked up in a mental institution or accidently kill Roosevelt or Patton or something. Either that or you will become the bonehead that allowed the Japanese to sneak attack Pearl Harbor. “If you just look at this laptop screen…_ZZZZZZZZ_ YOU SHORTED OUT POWER ON THE ENTIRE ISLAND!!” > > If Kirk Douglas couldn’t prevent WWII with a modern carrier group, what makes you think you could do anything with your laptop? \*\* Yeah, but in that [movie](http://imdb.com/Title?0080736), Kirk Douglas couldn’t act his way out of a paperbag. It also appears to be the inspiration for Europe’s _sole_ US hit. Two big strikes against it, IMHO. There’s tons of things you could do to help the Allies. Simply telling them that they won the war would be a big help, because at that time, the news from the battlefield was mostly bad. (Of course, seeing the “Made in Japan” on the components of your laptop might not help your case.) Letting them know what’s going on in the concentration camps might save a few lives as well. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2003, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-use-is-an-unprepared-time-traveler/197286/15 "2003-08-25T10:12:22Z")
There was an SNL sketch along these lines (called something like _B- Time Traveller_) in which Janeane Garofalo played a girl travelling through time who hadn’t really paid attention in high school history (or anything else). So we saw her trying to talk to Columbus in really bad Spanish about how one of his boat sinks but she can’t remember which one, or to Washington at Valley Forge (where all she could remember was “something about shoes”) or MacArthur (“this will be the worst military debacle since Washington capsized in the Delaware with all those shoes!”). Very droll.