# You are transported to 1950. Can you convince anyone you are from 2009? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 30, 2009, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-to-1950-can-you-convince-anyone-you-are-from-2009/523025 "2009-12-30T06:13:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-to-1950-can-you-convince-anyone-you-are-from-2009/523025/21 "2009-12-30T13:48:02Z")
We’ve had several threads started now along these lines, always with 1950 as the other year (ie “what technology would impress someone from 1950?” “if a time traveller from 1950 landed in 2009, what would shock him the most?” and the like) - am I crazy to suspect someone’s time machine is broken and needs our help? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-to-1950-can-you-convince-anyone-you-are-from-2009/523025/22 "2009-12-30T14:08:38Z")
> [@Quintas](#): > > You are suddenly sent to 1950 in your pajamas. No smartphone in your pocket or anything. Do you have any knowledge that could convince someone from 1950 that you are from 2009? i’m disallowing predicting elections or World Series champs or anything like predicting the future. I know the result of every World Ser… … Oh. Well, darn. Coming up with an invention won’t convince anyone you’re from 2009. Nobody thought Thomas Edison was a time traveller. Really, the only way you could convince anyone you were a time travellers, in the absence of physical evidence, is prediction. > [@](#): > > Do you contain in your brain anything that could jump-start 1950 tech? Technological improvements since 1950 have all been pretty complex. The transistor was invented in 1925 in Canada and against in 1934 in Germany. By 1950, they’d been working on improving transistors for years. They may not have actually produced a working silicon transistor until 1954 but the concept was certainly understood. So, **engineer\_comp\_geek** , unless you have pretty deep understanding of materials science - do you know how to grow crystals? - and how to make a better transistor, as opposed to just makings things out of transistors, you’d not going to be able to convince anyone of much of anything, much less that you’re a time traveller. Even if you do know how to grow and work crystalline structures, you’ll just be seen as a very clever scientist, not a time traveller. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-to-1950-can-you-convince-anyone-you-are-from-2009/523025/23 "2009-12-30T14:26:21Z")
I’m not sure it would convince anyone that I’m from the future, but I could invent the dot matrix printer (and the inkjet), the computer mouse, touchscreens, hovercrafts and probably a few other things, once I noticed their absence. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-to-1950-can-you-convince-anyone-you-are-from-2009/523025/24 "2009-12-30T15:02:51Z")
Also, the Hula Hoop. You know? - for kids. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-to-1950-can-you-convince-anyone-you-are-from-2009/523025/25 "2009-12-30T15:23:33Z")
> [@dhkendall](#): > > We’ve had several threads started now along these lines, always with 1950 as the other year (ie “what technology would impress someone from 1950?” “if a time traveller from 1950 landed in 2009, what would shock him the most?” and the like) - am I crazy to suspect someone’s time machine is broken and needs our help? Nonsense. Could never happen. By the way, does anyone know where I can get a flux capacitor to fit a Dodge Wayfarer Sportabout? I can’t seem to find one on your Internets machines. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-to-1950-can-you-convince-anyone-you-are-from-2009/523025/26 "2009-12-30T16:38:34Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > I’m an engineer. I know stuff about transistors and such that they hadn’t quite figured out yet in 1950. Wasn’t an FET designed in the 1920’s but unbuildable for lack of pure material? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-to-1950-can-you-convince-anyone-you-are-from-2009/523025/27 "2009-12-30T17:37:18Z")
If I could convince someone with a few bucks to invest as I suggest. . . ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-to-1950-can-you-convince-anyone-you-are-from-2009/523025/28 "2009-12-30T17:44:49Z")
> [@Quintas](#): > > You are suddenly sent to 1950 in your pajamas. No smartphone in your pocket or anything. Do you have any knowledge that could convince someone from 1950 that you are from 2009? i’m disallowing predicting elections or World Series champs or anything like predicting the future. > > Just describing 2009 life is probably not gonna be convincing. Do you contain in your brain anything that could jump-start 1950 tech? My mad stock picking skillz will make them True Believers in no time. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-to-1950-can-you-convince-anyone-you-are-from-2009/523025/29 "2009-12-30T18:01:32Z")
I could predict a whole lot of “current events”, the next presidents, the picks for vice presidents, notable quotes, the Checkers speech, etc. Yeah, I think I convince some people that I was from the future. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-to-1950-can-you-convince-anyone-you-are-from-2009/523025/30 "2009-12-30T18:12:40Z")
I’m pretty sure I could because I don’t own pajamas and I’d show up in just a pair of boxer-briefs. And I’m sure to Lucy and Desi and Ethel and Fred those things would look like space aged underwear. Or they’d think I was wearing a fucked up girdle. Either way … I’d be fun at parties. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-to-1950-can-you-convince-anyone-you-are-from-2009/523025/31 "2009-12-30T18:15:29Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > If I had enough time, just the fact that I’m a woman who knows chemistry might be enough to convince someone that I’m from a very, very strange place. In 1950? Not so much. A rarity, yes, but not at all unheard of. After all, Marie Curie had won the Nobel Prize (twice!) before 1915. Edit: Too add to the thread…eh, I can’t think of much I could do to convince people I’m from 2009. I can help with a lot of medical technology, but a lot of it will be starting from so far behind what I’m used to, I can’t really provide any kind of “ok, here’s how to make a pacemaker from the ground up using 1950 technology” kind of thing. I guess I can _try_ to explain an MRI and get them to build it 20 years early, but all I can do is provide the idea, I’d have to really on current electrical engineers to actually design the damn thing…and even then, I can’t imagine the computing power needed would be available till at least the late 60’s. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-to-1950-can-you-convince-anyone-you-are-from-2009/523025/32 "2009-12-30T18:21:18Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > My mad stock picking skillz will make them True Believers in no time. 😉 This is pretty much like “predicting the future,” isn’t it, and therefore disallowed by the OP. But OK, let’s let it slide. Do you know exactly what stocks are going to break out in the particular year - or month, or week - you find yourself in? I think I would probably be able to pore over a list of new-ish companies in 1950 and make some pretty shrewd investments, sure. But I’m not knowledgable enough to say _exactly_ when my picks will come to fruition. So it’d likely take a while for my portfolio to grow to impressive proportions… and even then I’d probably be seen as a Wall Street whiz but not necessarily a time traveler. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-to-1950-can-you-convince-anyone-you-are-from-2009/523025/33 "2009-12-30T18:26:34Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > “Hello, President DeGaulle? Might I suggest you cut your losses in Algeria and Indochina and leave now? Seriously, it’s going to be better for everyone.” Good luck getting Charles de Gaulle to influence French foreign policy in 1950, seeing how he was completely out of power at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Brandus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@Brandus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brandus)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-to-1950-can-you-convince-anyone-you-are-from-2009/523025/34 "2009-12-30T18:29:40Z")
I have a feeling the citizens of 1950 wouldn’t consider us special in any way. The average person would not have a clue what the citizens of 1950 care and think about, we could only make vague predictions like, “Eisenhower will be the next president”, “We’ll walk on the moon in about 20 years”. It wouldn’t be useful to anyone at the time anyways. The further back we go the less useful we are. A common fantasy is to be warped back to the Dark Ages and be treated like a wise and benevolent god because of all of our advanced knowledge. Unless you are a historian, what can you possibly tell a King at the time to help him? I have vague ideas about the 100 years war, Charlemagne, uh… vikings? I would be totally useless to Britain circa 1300 AD or something. The only thing I could hope for is to help them with better hygiene with my knowledge of germs but before leading a wave of medical reform, I’d just as likely be beheaded for being a sorcerer. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-to-1950-can-you-convince-anyone-you-are-from-2009/523025/35 "2009-12-30T18:38:14Z")
Sure, I’d just find my friend Doc and tell him I know how he got that cut on his forehead . . . ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-to-1950-can-you-convince-anyone-you-are-from-2009/523025/36 "2009-12-30T18:39:20Z")
I wouldn’t want to jump start anything. I’d just keep my head down and mosey along making investments in certain companies. By the time the 90s hit, I’ll hopefully have the funds to invest like crazy in the stock market and then pull out just before everything hits the shitter. I’ll be rich, baby, rich! ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-to-1950-can-you-convince-anyone-you-are-from-2009/523025/37 "2009-12-30T18:43:25Z")
I would discover the “Female Orgasm” that should do the trick. ---
**Author:** ![Todderbob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@Todderbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Todderbob)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-to-1950-can-you-convince-anyone-you-are-from-2009/523025/38 "2009-12-30T18:51:44Z")
There are probably a few things I could do that would help. I’d maneuver myself into position as the director of NASA. I’ve got a limited but working knowledge of rockets more modern than they had back then, I believe, as well as a bit about fuels (nothing perfectly precise, mind you, but enough generalities to point them in the right direction). By this time, in my altered timeline, we’d be hopefully have a semi-permanent population on Mars. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-to-1950-can-you-convince-anyone-you-are-from-2009/523025/39 "2009-12-30T18:52:12Z")
> [@drachillix](#): > > I know enough about computers to make for some serious strides in computers and **gaming**. That and find a way to own part of a lil company called Blizzard when it starts up. > > bolding mine What “gaming” did they have in 1950? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-to-1950-can-you-convince-anyone-you-are-from-2009/523025/40 "2009-12-30T18:53:57Z")
> [@Brandus](#): > > I have a feeling the citizens of 1950 wouldn’t consider us special in any way. The average person would not have a clue what the citizens of 1950 care and think about, we could only make vague predictions like, “Eisenhower will be the next president”, “We’ll walk on the moon in about 20 years”. It wouldn’t be useful to anyone at the time anyways. > > The further back we go the less useful we are. A common fantasy is to be warped back to the Dark Ages and be treated like a wise and benevolent god because of all of our advanced knowledge. Unless you are a historian, what can you possibly tell a King at the time to help him? I have vague ideas about the 100 years war, Charlemagne, uh… vikings? I would be totally useless to Britain circa 1300 AD or something. The only thing I could hope for is to help them with better hygiene with my knowledge of germs but before leading a wave of medical reform, I’d just as likely be beheaded for being a sorcerer. The question is not whether it would be useful in terms of some concrete benefit to the person, but only useful in terms of convincing them you have foreknowedge of something. Like Nixon talking about his wife’s “Republican cloth coat” or the “Have you, at long last, no shame, Senator McCarthy?”. Nobody’s gonna make any money off this stuff – well maybe you could make some money in bar bets, but it would be very convincing that you could predict quotes from public figures. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-to-1950-can-you-convince-anyone-you-are-from-2009/523025.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-are-transported-to-1950-can-you-convince-anyone-you-are-from-2009/523025.md?page=3)