[OT] [I mean totally OT] Re: What can you "new"

[Tomas Lindquist Olsen]

On Sat, Mar 28, 2009 at 2:22 PM, Christopher Wright <dhasenan at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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.
>

Are we playing some newsgroup based version of Civilization now?