Timeline for How might a Professor of Mathematics Change History?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
9 events
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| Aug 1, 2018 at 10:45 | comment | added | theGarz | @user28434: meso civs didn't care about gold, and so? The purpose of any trade is to exchange something that's more valuable for you with something that's more valuable for the other. Speaking of Americas discovery, gold was very profitable for Europe and because EU was stronger and won the war EU then had profict. If the mesocivs were stronger they would have conquered Europe because of cows and horses and/or maybe coal and/or whatever they thought it were profitable. Gold is only an example, not the main theory. Pre-dated manuals? Probably. Maps will be fine, continents wont' move in 10KY. | |
| Aug 1, 2018 at 9:10 | comment | added | user28434 |
@theGarz, we are talking about neolithic civilisations here, when they will get to americas from their england all your maps and interactions manuals will be most likely outdated or pre-dated(or about societies of your alternative-history world). And tons and tons of gold may mean nothing, like our world mesoamericans were sitting on them for ages, and so what did it to them?
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| Aug 1, 2018 at 7:47 | comment | added | theGarz | @user28434: what a short-term concept of usefulness... The correct paragon isn't a map of habitable planets but instead a map of ABITATED planets, what they can offer, how to interact with the inhabitants and -especially- instructions about how to improve our space travel capability. Yeah, it would be a minor side knowledge, in fact the America's discovery didn't increase the European market at all. Who cares about tons and tons of gold, plus the "discovery" of corn, tomatoes, etc? I'm still guessing why on earth England, Spain, Belgium, etc started a commercial race towards Americas... :( | |
| Jul 31, 2018 at 15:01 | comment | added | user28434 | @theGarz, giving map of the world to neolithic people would be as useful as giving map of habitable planets in the galaxy to the modern people: it's pretty cool and all, but also pretty much useless. Knowledge of things near you would be always more useful than knowledge about people on the other side of known world. | |
| Jul 31, 2018 at 12:15 | comment | added | theGarz | @Dhara: not only America, but also China, Japan, Australia and so on.. And not only places, he can teach also the other civs specific traits. Then you can choose to trade with them (you also know how to drastically improve vessel range) or to conquest them (with gunpowder, military tactics or reverse hygiene aka bacteriological warfare). I'm not saying that the professor will conquer most part of the world itself, i'm saying that the lucky civ that was enlighted will do. Probably in few centuries, but eventually they will. Speaking of a neolithic civ, it's something huge. | |
| Jul 31, 2018 at 12:05 | comment | added | Dhara | Except for hygiene, I am not sure if these are immediately useful (what would you do with the knowledge that Americas exist) or achievable in a lifetime (it takes a lot of resources to start smelting metals to cast them, making steam is easy, building machines to use steam is hard.. and so on.) | |
| Jul 30, 2018 at 19:22 | comment | added | JKreft | Being a mathematician who has actually thought through the scenarios for what I'd do if I was moved back in time to various eras, this is pretty much my exact plan. Teaching early people combinatorics won't do crap for them. Teaching them to wash their hands, basic genetic inheritance, germ theory of disease, gunpowder and basic machines will give them a jump to within the last 500 years. (Oh and a little political science: All people are people, treat them properly would help too.) | |
| Jul 30, 2018 at 11:02 | history | edited | theGarz | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 322 characters in body
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| Jul 30, 2018 at 10:55 | history | answered | theGarz | CC BY-SA 4.0 |