If you were sent back to the roman era and could only bring a backpack of goods. What would you bring?

  • hglman@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    9 months ago

    You need good quality metal to make precise clockwork. You need to be able to make those metals.

    • Cypher@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      9 months ago

      Romans made decent steel, especially in terms of hardness which is what you need to make tooling.

      It wouldn’t be the biggest problem you would face in trying to industrialise Rome

          • bluGill@kbin.social
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            9 months ago

            That is what they used, but so much is needed that despite being easy to make it wasn’t available in large enough quantity. You get it by the basket, what you need is train loads.

            • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              9 months ago

              This guy is 100% correct. There’s no way you will ever be able to start the “industrial revolution”. There’s not enough people mining coal or metal ores. There’s not enough organization to do any of that.

              These are the technical dreams of children. The world wasn’t organized enough to even support feudalism. The average person was a subsistence farmer who made a little extra grain to turn into alcohol. They lived in family groups and barely knew what the emperor looked like.

              You may already know more important ideas that you use in your everyday life. You probably: wash your hands, wash your clothes, bathe regularly in fresh water with soap and wash your hair, filter or boil water to clean it, use the restroom away from where you eat, know that alcohol kills germs, and most importantly know that you should stay away from someone who’s sick. These things make you as knowledgeable as the best doctors in Rome.

              If you payed attention in elementary school, you may have a better understanding of astronomy than the best Roman minds. You may know enough mathematics to chat with Archimedes himself. You already know a superior numbering system to what the Romans used. Literally anything you remember from school would be priceless.

              If you bring anything, just make it a telescope and a book of Roman history. Give the telescope to the emperor.Tell everyone you’re a messenger of Minerva or something. They’ll put you in a temple where you can invent a sandwich one year and a toasted sandwich the next. Use the book to stay out of trouble.

              • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                9 months ago

                You don’t have to change a million peasants, just one aristocrat. Remember, they would import a boat load of wild animals from Africa for one show at the Circus. That kind of money could buy a lot of top workmen.

                You don’t need an entire railroad, just a few hundred Napoleonic rifles.

                One watchmaker can train fifty more in a lifetime.

                Take your example of the telescope. Imagine what one telescope would mean to an army of the time. You could send out scouts with signal flags that could be spotted a day’s ride away.