Walter Bright wrote:
Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
Sometimes I run these crazy calculations: how much modern firepower
would be just enough to turn the odds in a classic battle? At
Thermopilae, I think two Vickers with enough ammo would have been just
about enough. Also at the Lord of the Rings 2 night castle defense,
one machine gun would have sufficed (better protection and fewer
assailants).
Sometimes I think what if I were dropped naked back in time 20,000 years
ago? Assuming I didn't get promptly cooked for dinner, what technology
could I deliver that would have the most impact?
I can't decide between iron, agriculture, or writing. I suspect writing.
Every time humans got better at communicating, there was a huge increase
in the rate of progress.
Writing allows you to keep solutions to problems that only come about
rarely. Disseminating these is very time-consuming, though; copying a
manuscript by hand takes months. But 20,000 years? I think basic
sanitation comes first. It also doesn't take very long.
Once you have writing, though, it becomes *much* easier to approach
things scientifically, especially with a bit of arithmetic. So that
might be more worthwhile, since they can arrive at sanitation eventually
anyway, and sooner if they have writing.
Of course, in any case, you need to get around two obstacles: the
language barrier and your ignorance of whatever you're trying to teach.
I know less about agriculture, probably, than any stone age farmer. I
don't know anywhere near enough about ironworking or mining to be able
to offer any meaningful advice. But most people know enough about
writing to create a writing system for another culture, if they just sit
down and consider the problem for a few hours.
So in your case, I dare say the only technology that you listed that you
could deliver is writing. Even a metallurgist might have significant
trouble providing ironworking to a culture without the typical modern
tools of that trade.
