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Time travel back to 1000 A.D.: Survival tips
Londenio, a loyal MR reader, asks:
I wanted to ask for survival tips in case I am unexpectedly transported to a random location in Europe (say for instance current France/Benelux/Germany) in the year 1000 AD (plus or minus 200 years). I assume that such transportation would leave me with what I am wearing, what I know, and nothing else. Any advice would help.
I hope you have an expensive gold wedding band but otherwise start off by keeping your mouth shut. Find someone who will take care of you for a few days or weeks and then look for employment in the local church. Your marginal product is quite low, even once you have learned the local language. You might think that knowing economics, or perhaps quantum mechanics, will do you some good but in reality people won't even think your jokes are funny. Even if you can prove Euler's Theorem from memory no one will understand your notation. I hope you have a strong back and an up to date smallpox vaccination.
Readers, do you have any other tips? Is there any way that Londenio can leverage his knowledge of modernity (he is, by the way, a marketing professor) into socially valuable outputs? Would prattling on about sanitation and communicable diseases do him any good?
Posted by Tyler Cowen on June 6, 2008 at 11:44 AM in History | Permalink
Comments
Could he attempt to reverse engineer or somehow build something which could conceivably be constructed and be useful in the year 1000AD? I'm thinking of something like a cotton gin or printing press?
Posted by: Mercutio.Mont at Jun 6, 2008 12:01:30 PM
A good understanding of mass-production would be a big help there. I'd advise him to start making something like wagon wheels on an assembly line, maybe also farming tools. He would be able to sell enough to establish himself, then expand and diversify into other areas. Eventually he could "discover" the printing press and mass-produce bibles. After becoming established, he should write down the philosophy developed during the enlightenment and, assuming he's not burned for heresy, his place in history will be assured.
Posted by: Dan at Jun 6, 2008 12:07:54 PM
Here's a similar post from Brad Plumer's blog back in 2004:
http://plumer.blogspot.com/2004_12_01_archive.html#110342192640892811
Posted by: ed at Jun 6, 2008 12:10:14 PM
Easy, basic chemistry and metallurgy will make you go a long way in making "new" weapons. You may also be able to build steam engines etc.
Posted by: Someone from the otherside at Jun 6, 2008 12:11:42 PM
Learn the basics of making soap. Even if you can't convince anyone else about good sanitation, you can still wash your hands.
Posted by: Sebastian at Jun 6, 2008 12:14:20 PM
Prove your intelligence and ability to a group of gullible, hardworking, not-so-intelligent people. Make yourself into a prophet and write a new book to the Bible. Then use your new army of devoted followers to win over the hearts of leaders until you can take over the rest of Europe. Then charter ships to the "New World" and use your knowledge of the Americas to become fabulously wealthy by employing the local peoples. This will ensure your place in history. You have ample opportunity and room here to become hero of humanity or most evil person ever depending on how you want to rule the world.
Posted by: shayne at Jun 6, 2008 12:15:04 PM
How well does he remember the shape of the world? Someone with a good recollection of global geography could do very well selling accurate maps.
Posted by: Milan at Jun 6, 2008 12:15:27 PM
First build grubstake by minstrelsy. I hope you remember some three chord Stones songs, or perhaps some blues. Next, I would suggest the magic of fractional reserve banking in a market town. Expand the banking operations to other market towns. Hire bodyguards. Loan money to the king. Loan money to the other king. Start a war. Loan money to the Pope, etc.
Posted by: Rebunga at Jun 6, 2008 12:15:47 PM
Interesting point about the notation, Tyler. I had been picturing geometry proofs but those might be more useful if you got sent back to ancient Greece.
Isn't there some sense in which you would be more wily (wilier?) than people a thousand years ago? I mean, you've read about a lot more cunning ploys and flashes of insight than these folks have.
Was it in Guns, Germs, and Steel where they discussed the role of literature in the conquest of the Incas? Something like, the conquistadors had read about these things and knew men were capable of such treachery, whereas it literally might not have occurred to the Incas that these white guys would ride in peacefully and then just go nuts on them.
I guess I'm wondering whether your reader could decide to take over the world.
Posted by: Bob Murphy at Jun 6, 2008 12:17:57 PM
An IUD birth-control device is just a t-shaped piece of copper. Introduce that into the 11th century, and you'd make a zillion dollars.
Posted by: Ragout at Jun 6, 2008 12:21:21 PM
Hasn't anyone heard of Mark Twain?
Posted by: critic at Jun 6, 2008 12:23:50 PM
Make you way to Rome and get a job with the Pope. once you learn the Latin, you'll have a cushy office job in the only beaucracy in the western world at the time. Way to be a big fish in a big pond...
Posted by: Diana at Jun 6, 2008 12:25:19 PM
I think it's probably a lot harder than people expect. My best guess would be get killed by disease or irate peasants within 3 days.
For a really good take on using knowledge of economic techniques in pre tech societies Charles Stross's series The Merchant Princes is a fascinating exploration of the issues.
Posted by: Benedict Leigh at Jun 6, 2008 12:26:26 PM
I'd start a shop that did nothing but boil water and then sell it. I'd market it as "de-spirited" water and sell it to midwives, priests, doctors - anyone who would be charged with the health of another. The boiled, micro-organism free water would dramatically improve the health outcomes for anyone with cholera or plague or infection. Even marginally better outcomes using clean water would bolster my reputation and business. Of course, barriers to entry would be pretty low in my business, but if I were widely copied, I'd start a health revolution. For that quantum timeline anyway.
Posted by: Mike D at Jun 6, 2008 12:27:01 PM
Make sure you can endure lots of difficult physical labor in case you have to spend all day working on a farm, building barns, etc. It might help to read some time-travel or historical fiction to get an idea of how different life was then. Someone mentioned Mark Twain. You could also try some of the Outlander Series books by Diana Gabaldon.
Posted by: RZ at Jun 6, 2008 12:27:43 PM
Sell your ring. Buy a boat. Fill it with diseased people. Discover the new world. Spread the disease. Become King of America.
Posted by: Erik at Jun 6, 2008 12:32:33 PM
Assuming like many professor I know you have a belly and soft hands (relative to the peasants in 1000AD) I say try to fool the locals into thinking you're a lost noble that's been kidnapped and just escaped. You'll provide them lots of wealth down the road if they help you know.
Posted by: Al T at Jun 6, 2008 12:35:06 PM
My list (using only things I personally could teach)
1) Wouldn't *I* be the one infecting everyone else, rather than the other way around, because I'll have
the antibodies for all the futuristic strains infesting me and they won't?
2) Tell them that the aeolipile (sp?) is not just a toy; steam power has untapped potential.
3) Teach them about mass production and automation. (actually, don't know what specifics I could give here)
4) Teach them about sanitation and hygiene.
5) Back up all claims with bets, putting up whatever wealth you can get as collateral.
6) Teach them Bayes's Theorem -- an even better epistemology than the scientific method.
7) Teach them the Put-Call Parity Theorem so they can discard their prejudices against usury.
8) Teach them Ricardian comparitive advantage so they can discard their prejudices against foreign goods.
9) Most of all, advise them, in no uncertain terms, not to be timist. (That's like racist, but against people
from a different time.
Posted by: Person at Jun 6, 2008 12:35:14 PM
Crichton wrote a very mediocre book on this very subject. The neat bit was how message were 'sent' forward in time.
My advice: Try to pass yourself off as a foreign noble and mooch off the nobility and clergy for a while. Then marry into nobility.
Posted by: Varangy at Jun 6, 2008 12:35:25 PM
Be a "wizard"/alchemist entertainer.
There are lots of technologies we can all make based on high school science that are sufficiently advanced as to be indistinguishable from magic for a peasant of the era.
A magnet and some wire and a water-wheel would get you electricity, which would totally amaze the yokels. If you had a lighter in your pocket when you were sent back you'd be friggin' Merlin in their eyes. A very basic steam engine could also be a plausible source of slack-jawed amazement. Longbow also comes to mind, as does rapier.
Posted by: Andrew Edwards at Jun 6, 2008 12:36:26 PM
Wouldn't the easiest way to use future knowledge to your advantage in 1000 AD be to know well the history of the time period and use that to become a successful fortune teller? The comparative advantage that you were actually right would be huge. Presumably your timeline would diverge rapidly from ours, but you could cement your reputation early and coast for a long time on it. Then, just write what would have happened in future centuries and you will be hailed as the greatest psychic in history when at least some of it comes to pass. But remember to be vague to account for the divergence, except for things that are unlikely to be affected by human history (e.g. Little Ice Age, volcanic eruptions, Tunguska asteroid strike, etc.).
Posted by: Sisyphus at Jun 6, 2008 12:46:30 PM
Useful easy to make tech
Bread mold and lotteries. Cowpox if you can figure out what it is. Maybe distilling alcohol. A low discount rate. Sobriety? If you can get sulfur, copper, smooth surfaces and glass I think you can make cheap mirrors, which are valuable. Your main problem is the extreme cost of metal. Hot air balloons don't need much metal. Neither do simple outhouses.
Useful skills
Martial arts or tactics? Maybe knowledge of geography? Definitely first aid, especially the sort of thing they have in books like "where there is no doctor". Definitely multiplication, geometry, trigonometry, and basic decision theory/probability.
Useful biology
Height and posture that marks superior birth (but possibly weakness or wimpiness). Unusually good complexion. Superior digestion and immunities due to evolution (but vulnerability to local bugs). Vaccinations.
Strategy
Identify as Christian, act like the locals in terms of superstition, but don't commit to what Christian means. Possibly investigate paths to the priesthood; you are literate. Your clothes are all valuable. Consider selling them and wearing local garb. In general head for Amsterdam, Spain, or Italy, which are relatively civilized. If in Spain, be Muslim and hospitality and cleanliness get much easier.
Posted by: michael vassar at Jun 6, 2008 12:46:41 PM
In AD 1000, Europeans didn't have Arabic numerals yet. That's probably your best bet, as either a calculating prodigy/performer or working as a bookkeeper for someone rich. (This assumes you've solved the language problems somehow; without that, you're just screwed.)
Bring a copy of Lest Darkness Fall with you; barring the specific politics, the problems are going to be similar.
Posted by: LizardBreath at Jun 6, 2008 12:47:34 PM
Invent WHISKEY!
Absolutely can't miss, and requires practically no expensive capitol, just the know-how (which is really quite simple).
Invent Dynamite
Very useful, easy to make.
Invent Champaign:
This may or may not take-off right away.
I'm sure there are plenty of others, printing press, etc. that you could work on once you've established yourself with your whiskey business.
Posted by: josh at Jun 6, 2008 12:47:35 PM
Although I'm having trouble finding data to back this up, I believe people of average height today would be six or nine inches taller than average in 1000 A.D. (this is based on my recollection of the heights of doorways and suits of armor from the period). If this is the case, it's very likely that you will stick out where ever you go, and you're likely to be very intimidating. For a man, this height may end up being a big advantage (if it doesn't get you killed), and for a woman, I'm not really sure.
In any case, I think that pretty much anyone from our time ought to claim that they're Chinese, or from some other land ``far, far away''. You're going to look very different from them anyway, and the foreigner card will probably excuse some of the inventing that here seem to want to do. I don't think you need to look Chinese at all in order to try this -- and if you're uncomfortable with all this, you could just make up a non-existent region that's far away.
As for what to do, I would consider trying to get people to keep cats as pets (``as they do in my home country''), since the cats will help with rat problems, and may help to stem the tide of the coming bubonic plague. I would take a look at http://www.krysstal.com/inventions_08.html for ideas on what you might want to invent, but I agree that things like mass production and boiled water (and crop rotation, etc?) are nice ideas too, and aren't going to show up on this list.
Posted by: Alex at Jun 6, 2008 12:48:37 PM
