Re:Would you have survived in the middle ages?
by zackattack on Monday May 11, 2009 @05:46AM
(#603238)
Honestly, besides the natural teleological questions this prompts, if I were transported back to the middle ages there's not all that much I'm sure I could invent. For example, I have no idea how a computer is actually built, from the ground-up. Maybe I could have a few acute scientific observations ("try penicillin!"; "use tungsten for your light bulb!", "b-b-boil that milk!") and I could probably derive Calculus. But... that's about it. The vast majority of human knowledge is culturally transmitted; few humans have cumulative "clones" of the current "repository" of human knowledge stored in their memory.
[ Parent
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Yes. Though knowing that certain directions are promising, would help. You know where to search.
For example, I could not build a steam engine, but I know enough to describe how one could build a basic atmospheric steam engine, and that to improve upon it, you'd need to separate the condensation of the steam from the rest of the engine.
But I guess I would have a lot of problems, convincing any sane medieval person to take my ideas seriously.
You could leave one helluva Leonardo-style sketch notebook, at the very least, if you could be spared the parchment.
Re:Would you have survived in the middle ages?
by HeyLaughingBoy on Monday May 11, 2009 @01:10PM
(#603822)
You don't need to invent much. Think of what you already know:
Wash your hands before eating; boil the water before drinking; put toilet facilities downstream of drinking water; cover open wounds and keep them clean.
In short, you already know about the biggest contribution to human health: Just Stay Clean. Everything else is icing on the cake.