1000 bc

[GoodSarmatian]

Well what would be a good antibiotic, oh Great Sage?

A new one every couple of years, but I doubt you'll be able to set up medical research facilities.

 

[Synobun]

A new one every couple of years, but I doubt you'll be able to set up medical research facilities.

Well to be honest, simply incorporating penicillin would do wonders for the medicinal aspect of the ancient tech tree and society. Multiple antibiotics and such would be better, but just that alone... Already a huge impact.

 

[holy king]

Well what would be a good antibiotic, oh Great Sage?

vancomycin.

 

[Winner]

Unfortunately, it's impossible to produce antibiotics in useful quantities without an industrial laboratory, so...

 

[Tycho Brahe]

I would make soap and make people wash their hands.

Perhaps make a alkoholdestilery, although I´m not shure if you need equipment made of bronze or glass? Can it be mnade with pottery?

 

[jtb1127]

I'd bring all the hand sanitizer possible and dump it all over the place.

 

[warpus]

Here is the situation. You are sent back 3000 years with only the knowledge in your head and fluency in the local language. You could be in China, India, Egypt, or the Ancient Near East.

Your mission is to technologically advance these people as much as you can. What sorts of things could you teach them?

I would go to the middle east and teach them how to eat bacon.. and that it's alright to do so. Then we would FEAST

It wouldn't be advance them technologically but it would be delicious

 

[dwaxe]

I would make soap and make people wash their hands.

Perhaps make a alkoholdestilery, although I´m not shure if you need equipment made of bronze or glass? Can it be mnade with pottery?

You have bronze

 

[Colonel]

Well I could improve on their sword designs and how to get better metals ala steel. I actually made a sword when I was a teenager. Besides that basic military doctrine and more successful military formations. I have a limited knowledge of farming so I would be able to help a little bit with that. Last would be how to make basic muskets\ hand cannons.

 

[Synobun]

Well I could improve on their sword designs and how to get better metals ala steel. I actually made a sword when I was a teenager. Besides that basic military doctrine and more successful military formations. I have a limited knowledge of farming so I would be able to help a little bit with that. Last would be how to make basic muskets\ hand cannons.

So all you'd really do is give them the upper hand against everyone else?

 

[Singularity]

First I would freak out knowing that I would never go on the internet again.

Then I would try to learn the local language of wherever I am while trying to convince the locals that I had some use eventually and that they would keep feeding me and give me roof over my head. I'm 1.95 meters tall(6foot5) so the local bully would probably challenge me to a duel and chop off my head just for the cred he would get from killing a mutated giant with blonde hair, blue eyes and thin arms.

Eventually, probably before I properly learned the language - and if I was lucky enough to still be fed and housed - I would find a suitably high cliff and throw myself off it because I missed the internet and anything resembling social interaction on a meaningful scale.

 

[dwaxe]

First I would freak out knowing that I would never go on the internet again.

Then I would try to learn the local language of wherever I am while trying to convince the locals that I had some use eventually and that they would keep feeding me and give me roof over my head. I'm 1.95 meters tall(6foot5) so the local bully would probably challenge me to a duel and chop off my head just for the cred he would get from killing a mutated giant with blonde hair, blue eyes and thin arms.

Eventually, probably before I properly learned the language - and if I was lucky enough to still be fed and housed - I would find a suitably high cliff and throw myself off it because I missed the internet and anything resembling social interaction on a meaningful scale.

Don't worry, you start with knowledge of the local language. Although you don't have the Internet...

 

[Dachs]

Not to mention a lot of ancient ideas were accepted simply because it worked for them. To impose a foreign cultural custom on them risks destroying the fabric of their society.

see: Empire of the Great Qing, 1905-11

 

[holy king]

So all you'd really do is give them the upper hand against everyone else?

no matter what you do will give "your" tribe/society the upper hand over the others. (except for doing nothing, of course.)

 

[innonimatu]

I would try to promote the development of philosophy a bit earlier than it happened. Technical knowledge would be useful mostly as tricks to impress and gain influence. Knowledge of geography and metallurgy would prove useful.
And if I got influential enough I would play with the idea of starting a new major religion, just on the basis of promoting a lesser evil for the sake of denying the field to madmen prophets to come.

 

[Synobun]

no matter what you do will give "your" tribe/society the upper hand over the others. (except for doing nothing, of course.)

Not directly. Handing them better weapons is a direct attempt at giving them a militaristic advantage. Handing them better farming gives them the potential of a militaristic advantage.

 

[Dachs]

Not directly. Handing them better weapons is a direct attempt at giving them a militaristic advantage. Handing them better farming gives them the potential of a militaristic advantage.

Semantics. Both lead to the same outcome.

 

[Synobun]

Semantics. Both lead to the same outcome.

Not really. It is up to the society and culture to use the better farming or better metalworking (or something rather) for military usage. Directly giving them weaponry doesn't really open any other window of usage.

 

[Dachs]

Not really. It is up to the society and culture to use the better farming or better metalworking (or something rather) for military usage. Directly giving them weaponry doesn't really open any other window of usage.

But ultimately, making a given group of people better able to sustain higher levels of population than their neighbors or better able to craft technological implements than their neighbors will lead to conflict, whether you actually tell them where to point and shoot or not. You're just trying to avoid responsibility for it.

 

[Synobun]

But ultimately, making a given group of people better able to sustain higher levels of population than their neighbors or better able to craft technological implements than their neighbors will lead to conflict, whether you actually tell them where to point and shoot or not. You're just trying to avoid responsibility for it.

That's entirely their choice, as I said. If you give better domestic technology, you gave it to them in the hopes of a peaceful advancement. If they choose to use it for war, that is their choice. However, if you hand them a grenade and tell them how to make it, it's a direct invitation from you to throw that at their enemy because there is no other use for it.