Back in time

[knowltok2]

Okay, I only have time to set up the premise, and if it doesn't belong in history, please some mod move it.

First respondant gets to pick the time period and set some of the ground rules. Location can only be a region, not a specific site (No automaticly apearing in Ford's Theatre at the right time to stop Boothe).

You are transported back in time as yourself at your current age.

You have only the knowledge that you currently possess, but your language skills are translated for the time period. If you speak one language and go to ancient rome, you will speak latin. Speak two languages and you can have latin and one other, etc. You also gain basic knowledge of local customs, enough not to get yourself immediately burned at the stake.

You are dressed in the local garb at a medium level of affluence.

You have immunities to local disieses, so this will not be a concern. However, if you go to Europe in 1800, you will still be suseptible to Malaria and the like if you travel to the tropics.

There is no limitation on changing history, or interacting with famous people or anything, but you are stuck in this new time, and will not be leaving.

The question is, what do you do? How will you try to fit in, and or change things? What challenges will you face, and how will you overcome them?

First respondant picks the time and place within the above rules.

 

[DingBat]

Heh, this could be fun.

Ok, time for a moral quandry.

Time: 1942
Place: 6th Army Headquarters, approaching Stalingrad

You are a staff officer attached to Paulus headquarters. The Soviet front has collapsed and elements of 6th Army are approaching Stalingrad.

We'll say you're not a Nazi (no sense pushing the moral quandry too far).

So, do you advise Paulus in such a way as to help the Germans win the battle, and possibly the war on the eastern front? Or do you sabotage 6th Army?

Have fun,
/bruce

 

[knowltok2]

Interesting thought, but the groundrules were that you were yourself, and that only region could be specified. I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but what I was get at is that you litterally pop into existance(out of sight), pretty much as you are now. Only a few basic changes to make you fit in.

So for yours, it would be lower level german officer's clothes (We can even go so far as to have your paperwork in order and 'in the system') in a random unit on the Russian front, 1942. Placing yourself in the headquarters is more percise than I had in mind.

If everyone wants to go on with this scenario, that is fine, but I am looking for more of a scope of what you would do over years as opposed to an individual moment or couple of days.

Also, while you aren't going to die of a local illness, you can still be killed, and this is your one and only life, you do not pop back into 2002.

 

[Jimcat]

Given those parameters:

1. I'd go back to 1980 and re-live the past two decades as an older and wiser me.

2. New York City in 1880. Try to get a job as an electrical engineer with Edison or Tesla. If they wouldn't hire me, start my own company and compete with them.

 

[knowltok2]

For #2 I am presuming you know your way around an electron. Would you just try to keep pace with historical electronic developments, or would you try to accelerate them?

What about other areas of knowledge you may have, would you try to get the ideas of what could be done into the heads of people in those industries? What about disasters? Presuming you were still alive (you'd be in your 60's I think) would you try to warn anyone about the Titanic? How about WWI?

Good time period and job, and certainly not ones that I would have thought of, but that's why I made the thread.

Also, anyone else should post their if they want to, or comment on this one. Especially any difficulties that you think Jimcat may face, or historical occurances that you want to know his position on.

Good one JimCat

 

[Hitro]

How much do your actions actually change the timeline in your scenario? I mean if he would develop electronics the Titanic would most likely not sink (if built at all) and maybe even WWI wouldn't take place. It's too much time in between.
But the time and place is an interesting choice, how much do you know about electronics, Jimcat? How far could you push it?

 

[Vrylakas]

"And there we are, it's all over. You can relax now. Congratulations, Mrs. Hitler, you've just given birth to a healthy baby b... Oops, so sorry. I seem to have dropped him. Hard. Oh well, better luck next time. Yes Mrs. Hitler, I am a real doctor...sort of..."

(Repeat for Mrs. Djugashvili, Mrs. Mao and the mother of the person who invented mint ice cream.)

 

[Jimcat]

I'm not a real electrical engineer. I don't even play one on TV. I just know enough about the principles of electricity, and the history of technological development in the late 19th century, that I could hope to get in front of the right people with the right ideas at the right time.

My objective would not be to change history or even to accelerate the development of technology. It would simply be to make the best possible living for myself in an era that I think is interesting. Some people made a lot of money marketing electrical light and power in the late 19th/early 20th centuries, so why shouldn't I be one of them?

As for the Titanic, the only thing I would do is make sure not to buy a ticket on it.

Let's see, if I was 33 in 1880, that would make me 67 in 1914. Even if I were a rich and well-respected American businessman by that time, I don't think I could do anything to change the course of the Great War. Henry Ford tried it and it didn't work. Besides, I don't consider it my moral duty to try to stop that war. Who knows what greater evils might result? I would run my business honestly and ethically, and with any luck I'd die rich and comfortable before the 1929 stock market crash.

 

[Jimcat]

Further thoughts:

If my business was successful enough to have a large work force, and I built up enough of a reputation to have some influence, I would encourage labor unionization and a forty-hour work week (radical ideas in 1900, and they could use all the help they could get).

I would also lobby Congress to block ratification of Amendment XVI of the Constitution.

 

[Jimcat]

And just to stretch it to the ultimate limit: I'd try to befriend Theodore Roosevelt, become a member of his Cabinet, and get his backing to run for President in 1908 (taking the place of William Howard Taft).

 

[Vrylakas]

JimCat wrote:

If my business was successful enough to have a large work force, and I built up enough of a reputation to have some influence, I would encourage labor unionization and a forty-hour work week (radical ideas in 1900, and they could use all the help they could get).

If you stick around long enough, I'd also advise you sell all your stocks in September 1929 and put the resulting cash either into commodities (gold, silver) or your mattress.

 

[Jimcat]

Originally posted by Vrylakas
[BIf you stick around long enough, I'd also advise you sell all your stocks in September 1929 and put the resulting cash either into commodities (gold, silver) or your mattress.
[/B]

Given my scenario, I'd be in my early 80's by then. Rather than gold or silver, I'd cash out and buy a lot of land in Massachusetts, and deed it to Edmund Kasprzak and Louis DiPasquale of Worcester.

 

[knowltok2]

Originally posted by Hitro
How much do your actions actually change the timeline in your scenario? I mean if he would develop electronics the Titanic would most likely not sink (if built at all) and maybe even WWI wouldn't take place. It's too much time in between.
But the time and place is an interesting choice, how much do you know about electronics, Jimcat? How far could you push it?

You can change it to whatever extent you want, IF you can actually do it. You have all the knowledge you have now, so if you wanted, you could try and keep the Titanic from sailing, or warn the captain to go slower, but somehow you are going to have to figure out how to meet him. I can't remember his name, and would suspect that I would have a hard time tracking him down, getting to talk to him, and then getting him to listen to me. You also have to live with the consequences of your actions in that time period. Vrylakas will have to dodge Mrs. Hilter's frying pan, and while you could probably get away with that one, if you wanted to kill say, Bill Gates, you are going to have to deal with not getting caught. There is no convenient popping back into your own time right before the switch is thrown on old sparky.

Great stuff guys.

 

[Richard III]

This would interest me if someone just said: hey, Rich III, you're in

Time,
Place.
Whaddaya do?

But so far, too much of it has been "where do you want to go," which not only replicates an earlier thread, it doesn't really present the challenge that Knowltok started with.


Although I would be dead without a daily dose of modern medication, so this is all somewhat academic.

R.III

 

[knowltok2]

Okay, Hey Richard you're in Boston January 1st, 1775.

Whaddaya do?

 

[Richard III]

Well, one alternative would be to say "if I have to spend the rest of my life here, the next few years will suck!" and offer to be a deckhand on the first ship out of there! But, in this time and place, what I am pretty sure I would naturally and actually do is:

1. Shiver!

2. Scout out likely places to crash for the night in an emergency - e.g the Commons. Check the area for safety: e.g. is there a place to hide? Is there a house with an exposed chimney I can curl beside so I don't freeze to death?

3. Ask around, claim I'm an immigrant from an obscure town in England, looking for printing houses.

4. Scout them out, check to see which one has the most radical leanings. Ask any soldiers in uniform which printers to avoid. Go to the most radical house and say, "hi, I'm willing to work, but I'm also a FANTASTIC copy editor!" If that fails, go to the next best until I find work.

5. Ask co-workers about decent lodging, cheap clothes. Get it, or bunk for a few days on the floor of some co-worker's lodging. If I choose wisely (e.g. not someone who will rob me or worse), this person will be a guide.

6. Find a decent C of E church and start attending. I wouldn't normally in the modern era, but I would be considered a freak if I didn't Cover for my lake of Church finery by offering to be a server to assist with the service (something I did with high anglican services as a kid, so if I asked several questions first, I'm sure I could fake it). Again, the benefit of all this is rapid integration into the community and building of trust.

7. Spend a few weeks keeping my mouth shut, earning my keep, working harder than I normally would to build some respect. Buy a pen. Buy some paper. Do some walking tours and map the city as best I can to assimilate quickly. Keep notes - hidden, of course - on errors of speech I make and need to correct, idioms, etc.

8. After the proscribed few weeks, start participating in the first political conversation I can. ***** alot about the injustice of the Quebec Act and the Stamp Act to develop a sense of irony. Be almost - but not quite - as radical as the most radical speaker in the room. A few days after that, show up to the boss and offer an essay of some sort or another for whatever newspaper is produced out of the printing house. Be certain the essay is mildly and responsibly rebellious, and insist I'm happy to do more. If he says no, wait, and try again later.

9. Enlist in the Massachusetts militia before the end of March. Spend my nights in late March and early April frantically practicing to reload a musket, even with a broom if need be. Keep writing.

10. It's April, and I'm ready. Ideally, by that point, I will be a budding young member of the rebels, talked about as "a good prospect in a fight." Spend my Sunday afternoons hiking outside the wall on the Neck, scouting. On the night of April 18th, don't go home, and instead preposition myself with a stolen, borrowed or bought horse (doubt I would have the money for the latter yet, but whatever) in a nice sniper's spot on the Concord- Lexington road in advance of the arrival of events.

11. Participate...

 

[Jimcat]

Well, Richard's detailed post gives me some more motivation to think of just what I would do in 1880 New York. I'd have some advantage in that I know New York quite well, and the key points haven't changed too much in 120 years. The first thing I'd do is take a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, just for the fun of it. Then I'd get down to serious business.

To keep my body and soul together, I'd look for employment where my day-to-day skills would be useful. My choices, in descending order of preference, would be: a railroad, a bank, a newspaper, the customs house, a shipping firm, a retail store, a restaurant or tavern. Chances are I'd find some sort of employment before too long.

Like many people of foreign descent, I'd change my last name. I'd probably have a better chance of getting hired as "James Edwards" than as "James Kasprzak". (also, if I became famous and influential, I wouldn't want to have too many repercussions on my real-life relatives of the era). I might give some thought to trying to pass myself off as a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (already a well-respected school by then; RPI engineers designed and built the Brooklyn Bridge), but if I got asked to design a suspension bridge, or someone wrote to the school to check for my records, I'd be in deep trouble.

After a few months of working at my job and establishing my life, I'd go to see Mr. Thomas Edison. I'd visit his labs and ask to talk to the man, saying that I admired his work and had some ideas of my own about electrical power, sound recording, wireless telegraphy, and moving pictures. Hopefully I could convince Edison or one of his assistants that I wasn't a crackpot, and then commence some serious work on electricity and its many applications.

Sooner or later (I don't have the exact date), Nikola Tesla would come along. He worked for Edison for a while, so I'd take the chance to talk to him about alternating current, and how we could cut the feet out from under Edison's DC power transmission plans. Tesla and I would take our leave of Edison, go to George Westinghouse, and commence the development of power plants to light up the Empire State.

I know I said before that I wouldn't want to change history or technology too much, but one exception comes to mind: with the right financial backing and advertising, Tesla and I could get radio started a few decades early. We'd start out by marketing it as a communications device for ships at sea -- I'm sure many shipping firms would see the value of it. Then we'd work on voice transmission and broadcasting.

The money would start coming in, and some of it would be invested in the stock of Westinghouse, General Electric, General Motors, Ford Motors, International Business Machines, and the railroads. Not to mention my own company -- hopefully in a few years I could leave Westinghouse and start my own company with the radio idea.

I'm thinking that all of this would take several years to accomplish. Let's say that with good fortune, I'd have a successful company by 1895 or so. If I moved in the same social circles as Tesla, I'd have met Mark Twain, the Astors, Morgans, Vanderbilts, and Rockefellers, and many other members of New York high society. Someone should be able to get me an introduction to Theodore Roosevelt, and I'd be sure to do plenty of work on the McKinley campaign of 1896.

After that, a lot depends on personality and the winds of fortune. Maybe I could get a place in the Roosevelt cabinet, but then again, maybe not. Maybe my presence would alter things so that Roosevelt was killed in Cuba, or that McKinley wasn't assassinated. Even with my best efforts, my chances of becoming President of the United States in this timeline would be slim, but a guy can still dream.

Of course, my worst nightmare would go something like: McKinley serves out his two terms and retires in 1904. Roosevelt runs and serves from 1904 to 1912. I become his confidant and right-hand man, and he hands me the nomination in 1912. Leaving me to decide whether I want to be in the White House when the Great War begins...