You wake up tomorrow in the middle ages. What do you do?

Wibbs

dpe wrote: »

ideas you can easily adapt like crop rotation and enclosure (although there's a three year payoff for that, so you'll need some quicker wins to impress the local baron)

They were on the right track with that already.

so wind and water mills for flour grinding would be an easy way to make an impression, and easily doable with local materials.

They already had water mills, but windmills could be a plan.

Then you can get more ambitious; I know the basic formula for gunpowder (75% potassium nitrate, 15% charcoal, 10% sulfur) and I know how to find/make all three. Cannon would be harder (with local tech you'd have to make them from bronze, they'd be absolutely massive, and they'd be as likely to blow you up as the enemy, but hey, that's what serfs are for, and they'd impress the hell out of everyone)

They had iron and could cast it up to a point and you could fill in the rest. Like I say invent the blast furnace and away you go. And then the piece de resistance would be moveable type.

Seanbeag1 wrote: »

Concrete shouldn't be too hard either

The Romans before them had concrete. They had pretty good mortar anyway. Look at the size of gothic cathedrals.

Actually maps as Zillah said would really impress the locals. So long as your geography was up to speed.

opinion guy

About the only thing I know enough about to 'reinvent' would be optics. Lenses, telescopes etc. Then when I have a working microscope I'd search out penicillin.
Of course I'd need to befriend a good glassblower first.

KonFusion

This short vid may interest.

It's about a man who, with all his modern know-how, tries to make a toaster from scratch

http://www.ted.com/talks/thomas_thwaites_how_i_built_a_toaster_from_scratch.html

NothingMan

KonFusion wrote: »

It's about a man who, with all his modern know-how, tries to make a toaster from scratch

Surely a fire and a stick was all he needed.

Snowie

have sex with all the sexy madans with big bossems

slay a dragan figure out how to make electricity so i could charge my mp3 player

opinion guy

Of course we are all forgetting the start a religion using your modern tech you have with you to impress the natives. Then live like a king

Malari

Regret not having learned the dates of solar eclipses. :cool:

opinion guy

Has anyone else started looking up how stuff works since reading this thread...you know....just in case ???:D

ConmanTheKiller

Just make sure you wear this Shirt

phasers

Probably kill myself

Caraville

I'd be totally enthralled by the dresses so would spend a good while trying them on- they give killer cleavage.

Then I'd be sorry I didn't take some contact lens solution with me & I'd have to spend my days blind in the corner of a tavern singing "Greensleeves" for a few drops of mead. Aw.

mikemac

Invent sliced bread, best invention ever :cool:

Spend my millions on mead and buxom maidens in the local tavern

4ndroid

Find out what grog is.........and then drink loads

deathrider

Scream "Freeeeeedoooooooooom!" and just get on with it really.

Miss Fluff

Set myself up as a psychic buxom wench and have everyone quaking in their boots

FloatingVoter

Marry my great great (whatever)........grandmother for a laugh. Bet she was a ride.:D

mconigol

I would write a letter to my future self and hide it in a secret location that I have already decided I will leave notes to my future self from the past in should that ever happen.

This letter will tell me exactly when I will magically end up back in the middle ages so that I will potentially have years to prepare and arm myself with the knowledge to survive and prosper.

It's not too difficult to prepare for this **** people. It's basically how Doc Martin escaped from the wild west in back to the future.

WindSock

Go check out this middle aged spread everyone keeps harping on about.

WolfForager

Create a **** loads of weapons of war (mech eng student), become a trusted advisor to a duke or even a king, marry his daughter, live like a king for the rest of my life. Sorted... Other than the huge amount of guilt for the deaths of thousands of soldiers on my shoulders....

EDIT: Or i could start teaching the soldiers Tae Kwon Do.... Make an elite group of soldiers that are feared all over Europe..... Damn... I need a time machine...

looky loo

Start a keep fit class in the middle of the village...:D

Dionysus

Nephinbeg wrote: »

You wake up tomorrow in the middle ages. What do you do?

Bring forward the military revolution. Organise the septs and clanns in late medieval Ireland out of this around a centralised political and military body which reflected the legal and cultural homogeneity across the island.

Mr Trade In

Go to any and all places in America I know in the future Gold Rush have sweet,sweet gold,dig it up,come back to Europe and set up my own dynasty by killing off all the Royalties. Also take over Britain and name it the Empire of Ireland.

Mr Trade In

One very important thing,destroy religion and all it stands for and make everyone an Atheist.

bnt

• Steal some oranges
• Wait for the Penicillin to grow
• Save people who would otherwise have died from a scratch
• Profit

im invisible

Mr Trade In wrote: »

One very important thing,destroy religion and all it stands for and make everyone an Atheist.

you could be like that guy, who used to wander around the wilderness, saying that the high priests didnt know what they were talking about, and telling people how to live right,and be nice to each other,,,

FloatingVoter

im invisible wrote: »

you could be like that guy, who used to wander around the wilderness, saying that the high priests didnt know what they were talking about, and telling people how to live right,and be nice to each other,,,

..wrong turn, he got crucified. Unless your dad is God, thats the wrong option. Stick with the get rich quick scams. Or the get laid quick scams. Both are less painful.

opinion guy

bnt wrote: »

• Steal some oranges
• Wait for the Penicillin to grow
• Save people who would otherwise have died from a scratch
• Profit

Ok but suppose you invented penicillin hundreds of years before it was actually discovered. Then lots of people who would of died over the years would have survived. And they would have procreated. Our population would be massively higher than it is now. The world would be massively overcrowded by the time of the invention of the atomic bomb and in all likelihood we would have annihilated ourselves by now!
And it would be all YOUR FAULT!!!!

Spread

WindSock wrote: »

Go check out this middle aged spread everyone keeps harping on about.

Oi!

TiGeR KiNgS wrote: »

Blast the King with piss

Having premonitions about the Wizard of Id would have saved your life


Why not check out Ye Olde Google toadstool

Capt'n Midnight

Milkmaid with cow pox, good plan.

Invent simple stuff like compound interest, or napiers bones (If I can remember)

and eye glasses / lenses , have to figure out a way to get cheap clothes before can invent movable type

they already had the plough and crop rotation so can't do much there

make electric motors / generators out of copper wire (need to make first fortune first) and varnish to produce light - actually town gas from coal would be easier (Chinese used bamboo to pipe it around)

copper wire would be good for morse code could sell that to the military , though you run the risk of the other side taking you out - a rising tide lifts all boats so you gotta keep everyone happy

amacca

make a head start on the whole three field crop rotation system, develop the heavy plow and set myself up as the focal point of a communal agricultural system (obviously rife with corruption with my henchmen ensuring I get my cut)

keep the powerful church at bay by providing lots of pike/scimitar fodder for their crusades


die of sexually transmitted disease from all the wenches in Cristendom I just wont have the will to say no to due to my position of influence.....and the fact that I managed to pervert slightly the codes of chivalry and courtly love that would have developed without my presence



different age.......same plan