sillyThe rules:
1) You can bring anything you want to the past, but you can't leave anything behind. So you can't bring back the polio vaccine and start treating people. It wouldn't work.
2) You can't take anything forward with you, either, except for information. So you could, say, travel back with a copy of a book and a pen, and have the book signed with that pen. Or you could bring a camera and take pictures. But all things must be somehow made from materials you carried with you.
3) You can't get sick in the past, but you could be eaten by a T-Rex. No one native to the time periods you're visiting will notice anything odd about you.
For my personal use, I would pack a bunch of digital cameras, Flip video recorders, and a gene sequencer, and hop back to Messina in 1347. I would then document the Black Death in ten year jumps, with lots of photographs and recordings of people trying to breathe as they fully expressed the virus. And then, when I got back to the present, I would drive the CDC insane...but I would finally know for sure.
For the good of all mankind, I would hop back to the pre-tape losses BBC archives with a tape-to-DVD portable recording rig (and a technician), and get copies of all the missing Doctor Who serials. Upon returning to the present day, I would probably also get knighted.
So what's your personal use? And what's your use for the good of all mankind?
April 22 2010, 01:54:13 UTC 7 years ago
For personal gain: -If the jumps forward could also go to different places- I'd start around 900 B.C.E. with pens/pencils, notebooks, digital cameras and a digital recorder (to leave notes to myself if I can't record people from the time period), and I'd document the origin of Beowulf, complete oral version, then jump ahead to the first time it was written down. Then I'd jump ahead to Renaissance Italy, snap pics of Da Vinci and his work over years (how much did he really paint himself), jump ahead to the era of British Romantics, just to soak in the atmosphere before jumping ahead to WWI and WWII to document with pictures and notes (talk about primary resources for research!), and I'd finish with a jump to the annexation of Hawaii, and then tell my younger to talk more art and history classes in college.
For the greater good: Go back to about 8 C.E. and document the childhood and young adulthood of Jesus (I'm working under the assumption that he is an historic figure), through the crucifixion and to the first written copy of the New Testament. I know even with photos and notes, probably a lot of theologians wouldn't believe me, but at least more accurate information would be out there. [Oh, would we understand all the languages of the places we visit?]
April 22 2010, 19:28:38 UTC 7 years ago
April 23 2010, 01:57:28 UTC 7 years ago