If you could give one ITEM to someone 3,000 years ago?

Bicycle sounds good, but what I would give them is the knowledge and instruction of making steam power. This could be used in many ways like motion and power generation. Don't have to rely on sails all the time if you have a steam powered shaft with a propeller moving your boat, etc. etc.. Actually I'm kinda torn, because I see also the World Atlas being a good for the past also.

My first thought was a Bic lighter, but then I thought better and figured I'd show them how to make a battery ala the Baghdad Battery.

alot of these posts aside from electronics stuff are things that already existed in antiquity but were just not fully potentialised.. romans had indoor plumbing, concrete, and even appeared to have a mill industriaqlised in a kind of "assembly line" powered by water.

archimedes made a pump, that could move water great dsitances if need be. predating windmills, it was and is a true stroke of genius.

bagdad batteries... piri reis map... ancient steam engine... antikethera computer...

i think the best we could give them they may already have thought of. i think this thread kind of marginalises the intelligence of early men. they were not retarded, they were just like us.

the problem they had was lack of being able to convey thier ideas to any kind of mass audience. they built the library of of alexandira, a place where this kind of thing could be done. anyone could submit knowlegde. and people coudl go and study there... till it sank.

so given all that we have lost i think the best thing we could give them is the knowledge that so many of thier idea would die ... and that they should reproduce and seal thier ideas is many places as best they can. an idea to store for the future...

ps mesopotamia didnt rise 3000 years ago. people really need to understand we are in about 8000 years of "civilisation" about 6000 bc was mesopotamia... according to year 8 (junior high) text books. they were the first civilisation. city builders... before that was supposedly just farmers with no cities....... ?? seems wierd and kinda sudden.. but i wasnt there i dont know! rome lasted 1000 years as its own distinct empire

from about 750 bc till around 475 ad. then its power transfered to constantinople where it morphed into holy roman empire lasting until 1400 ad.

this flag, so african americans will be treated as gods, instead of induced into slavery, thus having nothing to be so spiteful about.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/7e0d24eb6f6d.jpg[/atsimg]

(the 13 stars of the WB replacing the 13 stars of the confederate flag)

[edit on 21-9-2009 by TheFaiThfulSkepTic]

No matter what "knowledge" in any form was sent back 3000 years ago it most probably would end up in the hands of the kings and rulers and therefore horded or hidden and corrupted to some selfish ends. So I would therefore create a stile of polished marble or something almost indestructible with pictographs depicting over and over again the total destruction of king-nobility-priests, etc who abuse, misuse, oppress or otherwise harm the common man. Intermixed within the pictographs would be messages of the golden rule but focused on the ruling classes treating the common man well and riches and blessings resulting in good, kind behavior on their part toward the common man. Messages of equality and the education of the common man along side of the upper classes, living together in cooperation and harmony. It will probably be hidden or suppressed but it sure will mess with the minds of the nobility. But then again, maybe it would get through to them and change the course of history for the better. I really doubt it but it's a nice "what if" thought.

I would give them a picture of a cake and say THE CAKE A LIE!!
The best thing i can think of is info on how to make a simple water filter.

I starred the posts that suggested an atlas, penicillin, and mathematical formulas.

Oh, and the idea of a screw was a great one too...

I read through most of these pages and I didn't hear anyone mention a microscope and of course diagrams of how to make another one.

reply to post by TheFaiThfulSkepTic


That's just plain tasteless...

Second line.

reply to post by Echo007


But the cake isn't a lie. I voted for cake, long live cake (oh wait, wrong website) Honestly I can't think of anything that would wouldn't come back to bite us. So I say Pizza. I feel really pathetic for not being able to come up with something better than that.

Originally posted by Marius Blackwood
My first thought was a Bic lighter, but then I thought better and figured I'd show them how to make a battery ala the Baghdad Battery.

I was going to say a Zippo, but seeing as these both serve the same purpose scratch that.

I think a Leatherman tool would be a good one. Useful for so many activities; whittling wood, rigging up your fishing rod, and the pliers can be used for about anything. Some ancient civilization would have found it very useful.

A translated encyclopedia

For you young computer-age newbies, an encyclopedia is/was a basic
overview of all accumulated knowledge...kinda like wikipedia, but
slower and ~heavier~

I'd leave them a manuscript written entirely in code. And I would hide the
key in a place I know that is just being explored know, that way people would ponder over it for centuries but it would make no real impact on life until now. Hopefully once deciphered it would help us.

The text would read, "When the time is right you must destroy currency or it will destroy you." To validate it I would then "prophecize" about shadowy global bankers that seek to control all forms of human life through the manipulation of currency... and then drop a couple names. I would then go into class struggles and class warfare making references to my "civilization"(leading most to believe alien origin) and how I seen with my own eyes these things destroy many innocent lives, the freedom our society had, and, ultimately, the planet we live on(I wouldn't be lying either). I would then go on to plead for the proper treatment in the relationships of man-to-planet, man-to-man, man-to-woman and man-to-spirituality. Saying religion and non-religion are both based on love. One the love of faith, the other the love of knowledge. Also, saying that all religion is based on the love of god and should be treated as such, and not a catalyst for hate and destruction. The underlying tone being that we are all one and the same no matter what creed,race, or religion and we should find to love each other and help each other not hate and destroy. At the end of it all, I would leave an ominous warning saying "save yourselves our we will destroy you and take what you took for granted".(Once again making it seem alien). I feel if this came out it would be a shocking wake up call.

Originally posted by Republican08
Not even a bud light manuscript in their language, with .... well we'd all be alkys! by then!

They already had beer, at least the Egyptians did....

Id go back to my ancestors and Give them a Solar powered Tank with enough ammo to take out 99% of the population! No?

The answer is obvious.
I would introduce them to the wonders of toilet paper.

An engraved pictograph of some people digging up a dinosaur skeleton

Why?

When "God" wrote the Bible He didn't know dinosaurs had existed. I'd want people to get started on evolution and science earlier. Although it all might end up the same except in Genesis 1 they'd have written God created the dinosaurs, and it was Bad, so He created man.


[edit on 21-9-2009 by notreallyalive]

Easiest question ever.

A copy of Richard Dawkin's The God Delusion.

Originally posted by Schmidt1989
Easiest question ever.

A copy of Richard Dawkin's The God Delusion.

Lol, then we'd have Richard Dawkins as the Messiah of Enlightenment!

lol i'm surprised, unless I missed it, that nooone has said A textbook version of ATS

reply to post by Republican08

A crank powered EEE PC with the sum of all human knowledge
in files compressed 96:1 so more could fit on the storage media,
with the first lessons being that of Gandhi.

already mentioned,
but i'd give a lighter, a magnifying glass (to be used to start fire and to use as a solar oven) and a bicycle.

other things that come to mind are:
- an alien poster
- the equipment to watch star wars
- some tasty micro-brews
- battery operated vibrators
- peanut butter
- the equipment to watch star wars
- tablets of nice drawing paper and graphite sticks
- velcro
- zip ties

in no particular order or outcome of usage.