that's why you teach them how to make cards and peg boards and such or possibly even tubes and transistors.
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that's why you teach them how to make cards and peg boards and such or possibly even tubes and transistors.
You dont tell them how to make anything. You find inventors like the wright bros and tell them what works. They already have the technology. You just cut down on the R and D . You know more than you imagine that would be very useful. Even knowing that its possible for a computer to be made would advance its invention by many years. You would know all the problems of urban sprawl and traffic congestion and help stop these things from ever happening. Again anyone with an engineering or physics degree could preform miracles.Quote:
The trouble is that many inventions require a lot of background knowledge and development that they wouldn't have had 100 years ago. For example, you might tell them how to make the computer chip, but they wouldn't have any of the technology required to actually make a computer chip (i.e. they would not have machinery capable of producing things so small).
You could go back more than a hundred years to make that jump. 1835 would be on the money, I beleive. All you'd have to do is look up Charles Babbage in London, buy him a cup of tea to help him get over being rejected by the British Government, and offer to fund his wacky idea of a "difference engine."Quote:
Originally Posted by Gawain of Orkeny
They actually built his machine in the 1990s, using nothing but tech and industrial processes available in the early 1800s, and the darn thing worked. You'd be way ahead of the curve.
I thought Babbage's machine could not be made to work in the 19th century because of a lack of a few essential technical developments. Since then it's definitely known that it would have worked if it could have been completed.
If I recall correctly I read that he hired a very interesting woman to act as his, well his programmer. I can't remember who she was though. Someone remind me.
No, it was because Babbage acted like a bit of a fool. First, he fell out with the only person in the world capable of producing the very quality components he needed. Then, halfway through development, he completely changed his design for no apparent reason, so that the money ran out and Babbage's machine had to be scrapped.Quote:
Originally Posted by Taffy_is_a_Taff
ah, ok, someone had the components but he upset them, good job.
thanks
I'd teach a certain failed Austrian painter how to paint properly so he doesn't decide to go into politics... ~:)
On the Babbage thing,William Gibson 'n' Bruce Sterling wrote an alternative history postulating Babbage actually building the difference engine,heralding a steam driven computer age...great idea...book stunk though
I would try not to stirr up history.Who knows how much more horrible things would happend if i would chance something. :bow:
I suppose there are some things that you could quite easily do. For example, you could discover penicillin decades before it was discovered by Flemming and put it to use. Think how many lives you could save!
Paradox, sweet sweet paradox! the best thing to do if you'd travell back in time is to say something insignificant like Haha god the french smell of garlic (not a crack at france) because one small thing in the past changes one big thing in the future, watch butterfly effect to understand me. Plus i'd make the wright brothers english somehow and then we can claim THAT as us aswell