If you were magically sent back in time to a time period with primitive to no technology, how much could you make/create?

[JoeMoma]

Imagine that you were magically sent back thousands of years. There are no grocery stores, no hardware stores....nothing. The primitive people of the time are making tools from rocks and bones. How much could you advance the technology of the day based on what you know having to basically start from scratch?

 

[Winston]

Imagine that you were magically sent back thousands of years. There are no grocery stores, no hardware stores....nothing. The primitive people of the time are making tools from rocks and bones. How much could you advance the technology of the day based on what you know having to basically start from scratch?

Who are you kidding. We would all die of starvation within a few months. We have lost as much, if not more, knowledge than we have ever gained.

 

[Confederate Soldier]

Considering that I make arrowheads and other such things as a hobby, I think I'll be okay.

 

[jackflash]

Imagine that you were magically sent back thousands of years. There are no grocery stores, no hardware stores....nothing. The primitive people of the time are making tools from rocks and bones. How much could you advance the technology of the day based on what you know having to basically start from scratch?

Rocks & bones? You must be talking about the 1960's era!

 

[Bob Blaylock]

Imagine that you were magically sent back thousands of years. There are no grocery stores, no hardware stores....nothing. The primitive people of the time are making tools from rocks and bones. How much could you advance the technology of the day based on what you know having to basically start from scratch?

Probably not much. There's a huge gap in prerequisite technology from making tools out of rocks, to making any of the kind of technology that I know well enough to help reintroduce it. I know, for example, how an internal combustion engine works, and could build one if I had the necessary skills, materials, and technology, but I don't know enough about metallurgy to recreate that underlying technology to the point that I could build an internal combustion engine.

I know about electricity and electronics, but again, to do anything with that would require a huge amount of underlying technology that I don't know.

I think that nearly anything I know about modern technology, others would have to recreate much of the underlying lower technologies before any of my knowledge could become useful.


Maybe, if they haven't figured out windmills or waterwheels, perhaps I could help recreate that, but the level of carpentry to build either of these is probably beyond what is possible with stone tools.

 

[progressive hunter]

Imagine that you were magically sent back thousands of years. There are no grocery stores, no hardware stores....nothing. The primitive people of the time are making tools from rocks and bones. How much could you advance the technology of the day based on what you know having to basically start from scratch?

are you saying we can take the knowledge we have now with us or will we be as ignorant as the first human that walked out if the sludge??

 

[progressive hunter]

https://www.youtube.com/@primitivetechnology9550/videos

 

[JoeMoma]

are you saying we can take the knowledge we have now with us or will we be as ignorant as the first human that walked out if the sludge??

You would know what you know now.

 

[progressive hunter]

You would know what you know now.

I could survive just fine but prolly wouldnt thrive,,

to thrive it takes groups of people to develop the infrastructure to really thrive,,

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Imagine that you were magically sent back thousands of years. There are no grocery stores, no hardware stores....nothing. The primitive people of the time are making tools from rocks and bones. How much could you advance the technology of the day based on what you know having to basically start from scratch?

No problem! We would be able to build the Pyramids of Giza, Sphinx and carve andesite stones perfectly like at Puma Pukku

 

[Orangecat]

I could create babies with ugly, hairy monkey women, AKA modern liberal feminists.

 

[ReinyDays]

Imagine that you were magically sent back thousands of years. There are no grocery stores, no hardware stores....nothing. The primitive people of the time are making tools from rocks and bones. How much could you advance the technology of the day based on what you know having to basically start from scratch?

I would start by blooming iron ... we could work wood with stone but we'd need wrought iron to work stone ...

We don't need to be at iron's melting point to get refined metal ...

Bloomery - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

i.e. -- instant iron age ...

 

[Flash]

I would talk a good game but actually producing something useful out of what was available, I don't know.

 

[CarlinAnnArbor]

I would migrate to an African tribe where they had all the modern technology while my people were still living in caves. Did none of you learn anything from black history month?

 

[TroglocratsRdumb]

Rocks & bones? You must be talking about the 1960's era!

If we sent a 20-year-old back to the 60s they would cry.
no smartphones
no computers
no internet
only three networks

 

[Bob Blaylock]

If we sent a 20-year-old back to the 60s they would cry.
no smartphones
no computers
no internet
only three networks

By “networks”, you mean television, right? ABC, CBS, NBC?

Though there were also local, independent TV stations, not associated with any networks. But nothing like what we have now.

Crazy thing is, at sixty years of age, I now cannot imagine being able to exist, to function, without many instances of technology that I am old enough to remember not having.

Cell phones, internet, personal computers, microwave ovens (invented in the 1940s, but didn't become common until the 1970s).

 

[TroglocratsRdumb]

By “networks”, you mean television, right? ABC, CBS, NBC?

Though there were also local, independent TV stations, not associated with any networks. But nothing like what we have now.

Crazy thing is, at sixty years of age, I now cannot imagine being able to exist, to function, without many instances of technology that I am old enough to remember not having.

Cell phones, internet, personal computers, microwave ovens (invented in the 1940s, but didn't become common until the 1970s).

yep, we have clear HDTV now
back then we had NTSC TV with a fuzzy picture

 

[toobfreak]

Imagine that you were magically sent back thousands of years. There are no grocery stores, no hardware stores....nothing. The primitive people of the time are making tools from rocks and bones. How much could you advance the technology of the day based on what you know having to basically start from scratch?

A lot. First I'd invent the wheel, next gunpowder, finally, I'd invent glass and forging iron.

I would own the planet within a week and have them all working for me dirt cheap at the first 'Walmart.'

 

[Bob Blaylock]

Crazy thing is, at sixty years of age, I now cannot imagine being able to exist, to function, without many instances of technology that I am old enough to remember not having.

yep, we have clear HDTV now
back then we had NTSC TV with a fuzzy picture

Television is a luxury. I'm glad to have it, but if it went away, completely, forever, I could live just fine without it.

There are many technologies that have become inextricably woven into my life, into my very way of living, that it would be very difficult, if not impossible, for me to adapt to not having them, if they went away, but television is not among these.

 

[JoeMoma]

A lot. First I'd invent the wheel, next gunpowder, finally, I'd invent glass and forging iron.

I would own the planet within a week and have them all working for me dirt cheap at the first 'Walmart.'

Don't ya mean "Toobfreak-mart"