There’s a new program that lets people from past eras time-travel to the present for one week, as a type of vacation. The people traveling have taken language lessons so they can speak and understand modern English. They are all intelligent, curious and eager to see what the “future” holds. They have agreed to not use any information that they learn in the present when they return to their own time. You needn’t worry about exactly how this works, but rest assured that there is no danger of changing the past or messing up the time line in any way.
You’ve been asked if you would like to host one of these visitors for a week. You’ll meet them every day, travel with them while they sight-see, and explain the modern world to them. And of course you can talk to them about their own views and how they feel about what they see.
You have your choice of several travelers who will be coming from different dates and places. Which would you choose?
I could not choose one. I would have all, one after another. But only if they were the most powerful one of their time.
So they can see that my everyday life is more luxurious than they can imagine. Maybe 1940 America might not be as impressed though.
1940 America. I would also have voted for 1800s anywhere in the industrialized world. These are the folks with which we’d have enough commonality that we could introduce them to modern technology and watch their amazement. Go back much further and you’re dealing with a culture that would simply regard it all as magic or witchcraft. I might be wrong but I think there’s a good chance that the majority of individuals from such cultures would be fearful and unreachable. You might luck out if you got someone like Aristotle from c. 400 BC Athens, but I suspect people like that would be rare.
I would like an American from just after the revolution. 1940s American- he’d want to smoke- no sorry. And i knew a couple already- my parents- mind you I wouldnt mind talking to my Dad again for a day.
The dangers of smoking would be part of the “welcome to the 21st century” education you’d be providing. Ask them not to smoke and give 'em a nicotine patch – problem solved! This is what I mean about the problems of someone from a really ancient culture – you probably couldn’t connect with them at that level.
Does the host get to publish what their guest has told them about their time?
Do I infer correctly that, if these people take time travel as a kind of vacation, and they have taken language lessons (onerous ones, except for 1940 America and 1700 England), that they are from the upper class of their time?
No thank you. I love hosting one of my kids. I’d tolerate my brother or his son. But generally, our home is an oasis. The dogs wouldn’t be happy with a stranger, and I wouldn’t be able to really relax.
They’ve seen lightning, you can demonstrate static electricity(carpet and a doorknob if the conditions are right) and unplugging a running appliance. Explain the flash is different amounts of the same thing and that we can generate and control the electricity. Explain that it can still be dangerous if mishandled.
Children aren’t born with the knowledge of electricity - whilst it might be all very surprising to a time-travelling adult, to be plunged into a world where electricity is ubiquitous, the explanation of how it works needn’t be any different from how you would explain it to a child.
Before the age of scientific experiment, it might be a struggle to get over (as noted above) the instinctive resort to magic/witchcraft as an explanation for how and why a power-generating turbine works as it does.
