[For a while, I’ve started most days writing 250 words about random topics just to prime the creativity pump. I have a big backlog, and will post a piece every Monday until I run out of good ones.]
In Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, 19th-century industrialist Hank Morgan awakens in 6th-century Britain, where his engineering knowledge makes him a rival to Merlin. He avoids execution because he knows a solar eclipse is coming, and threatens to extinguish the Sun. Morgan then “invents” gunpowder, firearms, landmines, lightning rods and such that make him the most powerful man in the realm.
It's a swell fantasy. Travel to yesterday and be hailed as a god! However, I don’t think it would go so well for those of us who haven’t memorized old eclipse almanacs or how to forge steel. We’re too stupid.
Even a smart phone would be mostly useless. The music, photo, and video apps would be marvels—until the battery died. Assuming you could convince anyone that someday Columbus would stumble onto the Americas or men would walk on the Moon, what value would that information have? You’d be thought mad, babbling in a strange tongue, possessed by demons.
Yes, I have overthought this.
If I had a modest blacksmith shop at my disposal, I think I could build a pendulum clock from scratch. Possibly a doorbell or telegraph (they work the same). Maybe a steam engine, if I didn’t blow myself up.
Probably the biggest bang for my future-knowledge buck would be in medicine. Simply understanding the Germ Theory of disease and the importance of sanitation would do a lot to improve ancient healthcare outcomes. I’d be a saint. Or a witch. Either way.
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