Ask Lemmy

A book with pictures detailing all the processes required to make paper, and the schematics for a printing press. I know better than to presume my knowledge of electricity will be of any use, I know better than to think that I understand math better than ancient mathematicians, and I know better than to try to convince them that tiny little creatures are what cause illness. What I can do is jump-start humanity's ascent to modern technology by improving literacy a few centuries early

Current geological mineral distribution map. A dozen ball screws, some linear rods, bearings, grease. A dozen staters of various sizes, and a few hundred thousand diodes, maybe millions. Then as much enameled copper wire and magnet steel as I could carry. Then a e-paper tablet with a long list of patent documents, along with text books from Primary school clear to graduate level physics, chemistry, and math.

Then I would lug a vintage mini lathe over my shoulder for the few steps I have to take because you didn't specify how far I have to walk.

I should be able to make the industrial revolution from there.

...welcome to 1500 years in the future...now!

I'm either gonna bring a bunch of 'For Dummies' books to speed up development and get executed or make a fortune selling meth and get executed

If I'm going to be transported to the European peninsula too, besides time travelling, I'd want at least:

• my laptop. Download everything from multiple Wikipedias, including the Italian one for good measure. (Why Italian? Largest Wikipedia in a Romance language that I'm proficient with.)
• some charger for the above. I don't even mind if manual.
• Latin vocabulary printed book. I can speak some but I'm not proficient in the language.
• Some silver and gold. Money back in Roman times was still based on the value of the coins. And money never hurts.
• Clothes carefully prepared to not look Roman, but typical enough from the times. The idea is to pass as a cultured barbarian from a tribe that is too far away from Rome to bother.

Gray's Sports Almanac 1950-2000.

There's a legend that the Roman Emperor Tiberius executed the inventor of flexible glass.

After the inventor swore that he was the only man alive who knew the manufacturing technique, Tiberius had the man beheaded. He feared that the glass would devalue gold and silver, since the material might be more valuable.

So y'all better watch out with any plastic...

Old Roman artifacts so I can confuse them with how rusted and dirty they are, great conversation starter.

Modern cannabis seeds, because if I'm going to be in Ancient Times I still don't want to smoke schwag.

A (tape) camera to document how I obliterate the roman empire by spreading pathogens that have yet to evolve but I have developed immunity for.

And something like a time capsule to burry the camera in.

Remember that old reddit post where someone asked "what if a battalion of marines were suddenly zapped back to the roman era with all their gear and stuff, what would happen?" and somebody answered with a full on novel they titled "Rome, Sweet Rome" and some time later some Hollywood dude bought the rights to it?

A towel. Maybe some peanuts.

20 identical ereaders packed with every book I can fit, solar panels, and batteries.

And the rest of the volume with gold.

The recipe for making soap A general practitioner’s medical book A dummies guide to Latin A compass Water bottle with filter A taser Instructions on how to make a battery Instructions on how to make gun powder The rise and fall of the Roman Empire books

Portable power supply

Portable dvd player

Portable display

Bluetooth speakers

A copy of Morbius on dvd

Without doing any research, the answer is "watchmaking tools." Equipment to make small things like watches, and revolvers and what ever you'd need to start a factory. A few things like microscope, binoculars.

They had good craftspeople on hand, just need a little push to start an Industrial Revolution.

A bag of dildos to hand out at parties so I can be dildo guy

Probably mostly medical supplies. I don’t want to die of a stubbed toe.

A laptop with the essential human knowledge, big enough abtteries to power it, and a portable solar generator to charge its batteries.

Oh, and probably a bunch of gold to hire mercenaries and engineers.

An English-Latin phrasebook, a survival manual explaining how to recognize plants, grow food, handle livestock, set traps, and make simple shelter, e-reader loaded with modern books and a usb solar panel, a multitool, sewing kit, a small dagger, cerium/magnesium flint, first-aid kit, antibiotics, water treatment (Sodium Dichloro-S-Triazinetrione), preservative and neutralizer (sodium metabisulfite), salt, potassium chloride, peanut butter.

But I'd probably be quickly ambushed and killed nonetheless, or hauled off to the slave markets.

Cipromax, isoproyl alcohol, neosporin, and and as many Band-Aids as I could stuff. I'll make room for an English-latin dictionary.

Maybe one of those "facts about everything" almanacs in the outside pocket, because I'm too stupid to remember my sines and cosines or the difference between sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate. I can figure out the rest from there.

Either 1, a bunch of textbooks and encyclopedias. Or 2, a tablet/computer with said texts downloaded, a battery pack for said tablet/computer, and a few fold out solar panels or maybe one of those hand crank things. If I still have space I'd bring a soldering iron, a bunch of tips for it, flux and a bunch of different solders. Maybe a few spare parts for the laptop.

A sports almanac would be all I need

A latin/english dictionary.

I'd fill the entire backpack with antibiotics, and vaccines for TB, Polio, and Smallpox.