1000 bc

[bombshoo]

Wasn't there actually some famous Roman who taught that most diseases were caused by parasitic animals much too small to see? I don't know that this helped much.

That would be Marcus Terentius Varro but that was still around a thousand years after question in the OP. Nonetheless, with considerably more background in the subject I might have more ability to make my case.

Is there any reason you couldn't try to give them microscopes (and telescopes and eyeglasses while you were at it)? They already had glass working in most of the options given, although China was a bit slow in this area. It was mostly used for colorful decorative beads, but you could try to get the artisans to make them clearer and flatter until you had functional lenses.

I suppose you could try to make a microscope, but it would still be difficult considering clear crystal glass didn't appear until much later (and I have no idea how that is made) and you need a lot of light to be able to see through a microscope well anyways. Regardless, even if you managed to create a well functioning optical microscope you could only show bacteria, not viruses since they require an electron variant.

 

[Ice_Tyrant]

Would they know I am from the future? Like, I dunno, would I jump out of a portal or, just something that would happen to let hte people know I am not of their time?

 

[Darkwind]

Are we traveling back naked? Can we bring back any tools / weapons to protect ourselves?

Without those it might be hard to convince the locals to believe in you..

I would travel back to China, at least they already have a dynasty and some proper tribal government set up (so they probably already know what is "teacher" and "school"). Its much easier to start there than from scratch.

 

[Dachs]

Ew. 1000 BC? What a horrible time period.

 

[Hygro]

I think anyone who has played civ has had a similar daydream. I think I could be useful in the political-economic organization of societies and could help them along with elementary things. I'm sure I could reinvent some industrial technologies but mostly I would just hope I wasn't to late to bring some popcorn and catch the Trojan War.

My mission would be to make sure whatever happened in my legacy, they would above all else preserve the knowledge in books and share that knowledge wherever they went.

 

[AL_DA_GREAT]

I could teach them a lot of math and science. Also I would improve their written language. I could teach many basic concepts.

I could teach about fertilizer and hygiene. I am fairly sure I could make great advancements in their civilization and make many ideas much easier.

One problem is that I know a lot of stuff that I can't prove. I could make a fairly good periodic table but proving that it is true is way beyond my head.

 

[Winner]

Ah, I thought this was 1000 AD, which would be far more interesting.

I'd get rich by selling vitamin supplements to sailors (to prevent scurvy) and primitive antibiotics to the rich to treat their illnesses. I'd also explain how the solar system really works to those willing to listen, but only if it was not dangerous.

Otherwise, I'd become the leader of the Slavs, codify their native religion and language, and conquer the rest of Europe.

But yeah, 1000 BC is boring.

 

[Tee Kay]

First I'll make guns, forge alliances, overthrow the ruler and become king.

Then I'll start teaching my subjects about sanitation, basic medicine, electricity, steam power. Also, communism.

 

[Artifis]

Mathematics is about all I could teach them. Anything other than that would turn into quasi-religious mulch.

To be honest I've been dittying with this idea for a while now, what exactly I would do if I were somehow sent back into the distant past with no prospects of returning back to my time. And let me tell you that I'd be one depressed time-traveller. Knowing that Da Vinci, Zheng He, Benjamin Franklin etc. etc. all don't exist, knowing that you won't be there when they do, knowing that you're all alone.

I mean, it pretty much turns your past into a dream because you have virtually no chance of emulating it ever again.

 

[Winner]

First I'll make guns, forge alliances, overthrow the ruler and become king.

Then I'll start teaching my subjects about sanitation, basic medicine, electricity, steam power. Also, communism.

You'll teach them to overthrow their oppressive rulers and establish a classless society? Good luck to you then

 

[Hygro]

Kind of hard to teach a people a form of society that requires a technological progression beyond their imagination.

 

[Darkwind]

Instead of having individual idea one by one, why don't we discuss what is the best way to introduce technology to people in 1000 BC? We should work together man!

I think the first step is to gain trust of the locals and avoid being killed by the king/chief/ shaman!

 

[GoodSarmatian]

First they'd have to accept me as a ruler if I don't have any magic tools to declare myself god.
Do I start with an agricultural civiliation ?
I guess I'll start with Sumeria.

Working only with my knowledge, I'd start with mendel genetics. It should give the agricultural output quite a nice boost together with crop rotation and enable my rtibe to breed war horses.
Then I'd use my above average knowledge of chemistry and metallurgy to create steel after inventing iron working. Know I don't have "the knowledge of iron working", but I have a general idea of hoo a blast furnace works. Might take a couple of years to figure it out. The next Civ technology is metal casting and now we have an efficient agriculture, mass produced steel swords and horses strong enough to wear armor and an armored rider.
My mighty fleet will be mass produced Carthage style, with interchangeable parts.
That's enough military for now.
Now about medicine: I don't need to convince the people that germs exist and cause diseases, I can start with laying down some quasi-religious rules for diet and hygiene and if my people are healthy and live long other tribes might join us without conquest. I can always introduce germ theory at a later point when my people have the infrastructure and knowledge to build microscopes. I don't have to invent everything myself if I introduce the scientific method to them and develop the economy and infrastructure.
I don't know yet how I'll administrate my empire, but I'll start with ripping off what I know about the Achaemenid empire and Qin China.

 

[Winner]

Meh, no, I hate hydraulic empires - making them into the foundation of modernity is a recipe to "1984".

I'd much rather start somewhere in the woods of Central Europe. It's much more environmentally stable, and its very nature makes despotic rule hard to maintain for long and over large areas of land.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Nothing wrong with despotic rule if I'm the despot. I'd be relatively liberal.



You unironically said 'hydraulic empire'.
I disapprove (-10)

 

[Winner]

Nothing wrong with despotic rule if I'm the despot. I'd be relatively liberal.

Unless you were immortal God-Emperor, your successors would inevitably screw up your legacy.

You unironically said 'hydraulic empire'.
I disapprove (-10)

I love the term. Try to say it in English, it sounds awesome - hajdrolik empaie...

 

[GoodSarmatian]

It migh sound OK in English, but it's on the same intellectual level as trickle down economics or liberal peace theory.
And I would teach my son to be a competent ruler, not some pampered prinecling with an inflated ego and a sense of entitlement.

 

[Winner]

It migh sound OK in English, but it's on the same intellectual level as trickle down economics or liberal peace theory.

In other words, you don't agree, so these concepts must be intellectually inferior? Come on. The concept of hydraulic empires is pretty powerful, unless you want to dissect it into small parts, isolate them, and then "debunk" them by giving examples of situation in which they failed to appear - which is what most "legitimate scholarship" seems to consist of these days (misinterpret, misapply, denounce as racist, dismiss). I think the basic idea is sound.

And I would teach my son to be a competent ruler, not some pampered prinecling with an inflated ego and a sense of entitlement.

I see you're an optimist

 

[Benefactor]

Wouldn't we be more likely to kill the ancients with disease than the other way around? While I imagine hygiene was terrible back then, they did live in relatively static populations. We may not have (as much) urine and feaces in our food nowadays but people constantly fly all over the world bringing their diseases and viruses from the other side of the globe with them.
I could see popping out of the time portal and everyone around me dying of cold and chicken-pox.

 

[Winner]

Wouldn't we be more likely to kill the ancients with disease than the other way around? While I imagine hygiene was terrible back then, they did live in relatively static populations. We may not have (as much) urine and feaces in our food nowadays but people constantly fly all over the world bringing their diseases and viruses from the other side of the globe with them.
I could see popping out of the time portal and everyone around me dying of cold and chicken-pox.

Not unless you're infected and infectious at the moment of transfer.