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

[JoeMoma]

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 ...

I suspect a very small percentage of people would have the knowledge to refine metal. Do you have that knowledge without access to documentation (in your head now)?

 

[scruffy]

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.
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Just extruding wire from copper would be quite a challenge.

 

[ReinyDays]

I suspect a very small percentage of people would have the knowledge to refine metal. Do you have that knowledge without access to documentation (in your head now)?

We're talking about wrought iron here ... not any kind of modern steel alloy or anything ... there will be slag within the metal ... the process is easy enough, the difficultly is getting good iron ... and it would be a period of trial-and-error to get the ratios right ...

 

[JoeMoma]

We're talking about wrought iron here ... not any kind of modern steel alloy or anything ... there will be slag within the metal ... the process is easy enough, the difficultly is getting good iron ... and it would be a period of trial-and-error to get the ratios right ...

And most people wouldn't even know how to start that period of trial and error. Perhaps you do.

 

[Flash]

I know the steps to make simple penicillin. I have never made it but I know how to grow it and identify what it looks like.

The problem would be to purify it by separating it from other molds for medical use without having modern equipment.

That would be a tremendous leap in medical science.

 

[themirrorthief]

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?

yeah blacks drink like fish

 

[ReinyDays]

And most people wouldn't even know how to start that period of trial and error. Perhaps you do.

Iron ore and charcoal ...



The water breaks about 4'30" and the bloom is shown at the end ...

 

[JoeMoma]

Iron ore and charcoal ...



The water breaks about 4'30" and the bloom is shown at the end ...

That's great. Just keep in mind you will not have the internet or youtube help you know what to do. It all has to be your knowledge. And you may very well have that knowledge.. I assume that you do.

Most of my knowledge would be worthless.

 

[Dogmaphobe]

I would make them the BEST window treatments they had ever seen.

 

[ReinyDays]

That's great. Just keep in mind you will not have the internet or youtube help you know what to do. It all has to be your knowledge. And you may very well have that knowledge.. I assume that you do.

Most of my knowledge would be worthless.

Certainly not ... are you crazy ... I'm a carpenter ... you want me building your houses ... can't you take care of yourself? ... please tell me you know how to grow veggies and slaughter animals ... or are your just going to starve waiting for aluminum? ...

I know I know I know ... and it's long past time you started to learn some basic survival skills ... build a fire without matches, use sticks or stones, without that you're dead anyway ...

 

[JoeMoma]

Certainly not ... are you crazy ... I'm a carpenter ... you want me building your houses ... can't you take care of yourself? ... please tell me you know how to grow veggies and slaughter animals ... or are your just going to starve waiting for aluminum? ...

I can grown veggies if I can go buy the seeds and the fertilizers and pesticides. Being able to start from scratch to find plants from the wild to begin agriculture from the floor up is a different story. I suppose the point of this tread is to demonstrate how interdependent we are on the knowledge and resources of others/society. I suspect that your carpentry work would be very limited if you didn't have Lowes, Home Depot, etc to get your tools and supplies. You might need to figure out how to forge some iron to make a simple hammer or ax.

 

[ReinyDays]

I can grown veggies if I can go buy the seeds and the fertilizers and pesticides. Being able to start from scratch to find plants from the wild to begin agriculture from the floor up is a different story. I suppose the point of this tread is to demonstrate how interdependent we are on the knowledge and resources of others/society. I suspect that your carpentry work would be very limited if you didn't have Lowes, Home Depot, etc to get your tools and supplies. You might need to figure out how to forge some iron to make a simple hammer or ax.

Maybe you should clarify how far back in time we're going ... the OP says "thousands of years" ... so this is well within the time frame where cats brought us granaries and began the domestication process ... what we call today the "Agricultural Revolution" ...

If we go back further ... then we are hunter/gatherers without any permanent settlements (and NO BEER) ... but we'd still need fire ...

As far as my carpentry skills ... those don't depend on tools, or materials ... hewing beams with a stone axe is child's play ... mounting hewed beams so they support the weight of the roof, that takes a carpenter ... without iron tools, these things just take longer to build is all ... not that we can't build at all ...

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Blooming iron is the fastest way to higher technology in any primitive state ... and it's easier than brewing beer ...

ETA -- This is for WROUGHT IRON ... which isn't very good as far as metals go ... a decent quality bronze would serve us better ... but we don't have any tin, right? ... we're not in Afghanistan or anything crazy like that, rrrighhht? ...

 

[Bob Blaylock]

Maybe you should clarify how far back in time we're going ... the OP says "thousands of years" ... so this is well within the time frame where cats brought us granaries and began the domestication process ... what we call today the "Agricultural Revolution" ...

The OP effectively specified stone age…

The primitive people of the time are making tools from rocks and bones.

 

[Quasar44]

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 be dead in 10 days

 

[Lastamender]

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?

Couldn't an EMP do that now?

 

[ReinyDays]

The OP effectively specified stone age…

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Stone tools were abundant 2.5 million years ago ... double-bladed hand axes by 1.5 million years ago ...

Not even human ... Homo neanderthalensis gave us both stone tools and fire ... humans only invented warfare ...

Or should we go back to the Cambrian? ... would early lungs count as "primative technology"? ... this is certainly stone age, ocean creatures don't have refined metals ...

 

[JoeMoma]

Stone tools were abundant 2.5 million years ago ... double-bladed hand axes by 1.5 million years ago ...

Not even human ... Homo neanderthalensis gave us both stone tools and fire ... humans only invented warfare ...

Or should we go back to the Cambrian? ... would early lungs count as "primative technology"? ... this is certainly stone age, ocean creatures don't have refined metals ...

The intent of the OP was to start all human technology from scratch with resources found in nature.

 

[JoeMoma]

Couldn't an EMP do that now?

An EMP could knock out the power grid for awhile, but it would not remove all human technology and records/instructions for that technology from our society.

 

[ReinyDays]

The intent of the OP was to start all human technology from scratch with resources found in nature.

We're dead without clothing ... do we kill our weakest and use their skin to keep the strong warm? ... before technology, we had fur ... we don't survive without one or the other ... we lost our fur because we had technology, specifically fire ... which we inherited from the Neanderthals ...

 

[JoeMoma]

We're dead without clothing ... do we kill our weakest and use their skin to keep the strong warm? ... before technology, we had fur ...

Many people would not be able to survive for very long. Of course it would also depend on what part of the world the person is "placed" in. For the sake of this thought experiment, let's assume it would be a part of the world with a mild enough climate and access to natural resources that would allow for a human to survive for awhile.