this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2026
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me_irl
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Had a thought about me being in a scenario like this.
My answer on what to teach would be early industrial mechanisms. Show them the concepts of machines that paved the way towards the industrial revolution. Water wheels, gears and cogs, powered tools like saws and hammers, pumps. Then I would lead them forward towards more advanced metal working.
All of these would be pretty easy to engrave into your memory without relying on lists of facts. I already understand a lot of them just by playing video games and watching stuff like How It's Made.
The Qing empire concluded steam engines were "clever, but useless" to actively harmful, and thats after seeing them in the rest of the world. Rome built a steam engine, and didn't particularly care as they had slaves for productive work. The Ottoman Empire used steam to turn kebab, and that's it. Spain (and every other empire) actively sabotaged industrial development in the colonies, since that represented competition, and production of higher-value goods means less cheap labor and resources. Today we can feed everyone, but don't because its not profitable. We could educate 10x more scientists, but choose not to.
The point is the bigger blocker isn't scuentific knowledge, but social development.
Welp, I’m an autistic woman and I’m not that good at masking. I guess it was good while it lasted, friends.
Social development doesn't mean the development of social skills in this context lol.
(Emphasis mine) I didn’t mean like that, lol. They’d just find me… undogmatic, to say the least.
Yeah, its a useful concept, but the writing is kinda dogshit idealism, focusing on social structures instead of their causes.
Yeah, I’m mostly considering the attitude towards difference, whether it’s because of the church or not is irrelevant. I mean, I already know that I’m not the ideal for any religion (except maybe Neoplatonism), whereas I only suspect that would be the case for any culture with low social development.
But, just to be clear, my original comment was related to being a loud, persnickety weirdo, which is generally punished by cultures with low social development, not with my personal “social development.” I brought up masking because I’m just not good enough at shutting up and blending in to fly under the radar.
Well that's sucks lol
Eh, it just changes what your task is; social development is driven by the evolution of the means of production, which is largely influenced by technology; as a rule any progress is going to be opposed by any faction that would see its power decrease, and embraced by the group that stands to gain.
Weavers and kings aren't going to embrace the automatic loom, but theres certainly some rich, lower nobility/merchants who want power over the peasants and upper nobility will.
"One day you will be rich tech oligarchs and rule the world!"
Ruling class: "We already rule the world, that tech is going to fuck up the bag. Guards, stab him."
Merchant: "I have 100 ships currently hauling from 10,000 farms, and you're telling me anyone can make it anywhere? If this catches on, Ill be ruined. Stabbing you is basically self-defense"
Peasent class: "Wait so the lord will only need 1/10th us to do ?? Fuck that shit, you want 90% of us to get drafted into some dumb war? We gotta stab him before the lord finds out."
Alternative merchant route: "I could save the 100 ships worth while making all the money. … But he knows too much." stabs you in the back.
Also more likely, since merchants were the smarter, more educated ones.
Fewer people have 100 ships so there's less competition, but here's the weird part: The market doesn't grow proportionally, so not only does the spread of this new invention require the capitalist invest more to remain competitive, it decreases the profit they get per dollar invested.
The highest reward:lowest memorization ratio has got to be introducing people to Pasteur’s spontaneous generation experiments, and it’s not even close. That kick started the modern understanding of germ theory and revolutionized healthcare, and all you need to demonstrate it is someone that knows how to blow clear glass.
Meanwhile I’m just strapping slices of moldy bread to wounds and hoping for the best
I wonder what the best suitable substitute for agar would be
IIRC the original experiment used broth? Or maybe grape juice, I can’t remember. Anything that spoils would work.
Broth sounds like a good option
Yep, because you boil it already.
Pretty sure you're a witch.
- those ancient folks probably