Imagine you travel to year 1500. How would you prove you're a time traveler?

It would depend on your location in the year 1500. If you travelled back to the Andaman Islands, in the 1500's, I doubt very much the peope would be interested in being convinced that you have travelled back from the future. Additionally, you'd have to overcome the language barrier of the Andaman Islands. Similarly, if you travelled back to an "English" speaking country, you'd still have to overcome certain language barriers, (due to the evolution of language over the centuries).

If you travelled back to the Tudor period in Britain (1500's), then you'd have in theory travelled back to an alternate world line, and not the world line you read about in school on your original timeline. Why is this? Because the events you would have read about in school have NOW been altered by your presence in 1500 and your efforts in trying to convince people of your time-travelling exploits.

I personally think they're more fun and imaginable things you could do, other than trying to convince others of being a time-traveller.

 
In the 1500's you might just be burned as a witch if you claimed to be a time traveller. So careful what you wish for. :D
Click to expand...
The first thing I would do if I ever traveled back in time would be to teach Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. That would blow their minds, whoever they were.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Are we sure the notion of time travel was even a big thing in 1500? Remember, a lot o fthings we talk about today would make little sense or point for someone just a century ago, let alone five. Talking about infrastructure and mass transit would require a lot of explanation just to make people understand what it was, and I think time travel would be beyond what people commonly thought of, not to mention would need/understand proof of. Proving you had advanced knowledge might simply label you a weird foreigner, a great philosopher, or, yes, a witch.

Heck, even today, it seems a lot of people do not understand the ide of what TT is. When I mention it, people start asking me about reincarnation or going to other planets. Apparently, the basic idea of TT is not as rock solid as one would think. So I might have to start teaching the people of the time the idea about, well, time, as a seperate thing that could be travelled. Sure, they would know time existed, but we know that fire exists, and if I said "hi, I'm a fire traveller", I doubt it would make a lick of sense to anyone off hand.

EDIT: But to actually answer your question, assuming they would fully understand both time travel and the notion of proving it, I would start constructing a bunch of machinery with simple tools. I know the basics of mechanical computing, combustion, and distillation (yay stronger booze!) to kick some dirt up. What they would make of it, I haven't got the faintest...

 
If I were to travel back in time, I'd go to an advanced (for the era, at least) country, that has no linguistic ties to my language. The Middle East during that period was responsible for a lot of things we use now, such as our numerical system, and the Eastern knowledge that came back to Europe from the Crusades jumpstarted a lot of things.

So I'd go that way. Learn the language from the ground up in an era when writing wasn't critical to work, and just spend my time getting comfortable in the world. Like Henry said, we're now in an alternate timeline so anything that comes after won't matter at all. So I get good at a trade, and just gradually release things designed with modern influences into the world. All the while going to church and toe-ing the line, and when people ask where my ideas come from I say 'from God, in my dreams.' Since I already know English, I could safely write in my native tongue, and draw diagrams and so on, preserving my knowledge, and if I ever took disciples/apprentices, I'd teach them the system.

So basically, I'd go DaVinci, while NOT telling them I was a time traveler.

 
I think that,I would take my laptop and mobile and also photos and also some items like bodywash and other things which can fit inside the time travel machine. I think, showing them this and also could use the google translator which could help me in learning about them as well. Showing them these bits of technology will show that I am from the futurre and what will happen later on and will be amazed as well at the techology which can improve the lives of people.

 
I think that,I would take my laptop and mobile and also photos and also some items like bodywash and other things which can fit inside the time travel machine. I think, showing them this and also could use the google translator which could help me in learning about them as well. Showing them these bits of technology will show that I am from the futurre and what will happen later on and will be amazed as well at the techology which can improve the lives of people.
Click to expand...
The problem with that is that you have maybe five hours of battery time, and a limited amount of anything like body wash. The ingredients on the bottle don't mean anything to people from then, so it would be nearly impossible to replicate it. Google Translator won't work without an internet connection, and even if there was an offline version the translations it provides are shaky at best with modern languages, and the dialects from back then would be entirely different.I also see this being a one way trip, because anything you do or say then will change the time stream. Even if you did travel forwards in time to the date and time you left, the world could be entirely different than what you left, leaving you at best out of the loop on 'current' technology and customs, and at worst a completely foreign individual with no connection or knowledge of anything that is going on around you.

 
It should also be noted that any time-traveller to the 1500's will be a carrier of diseases and will also be vunerable to diseases of the 1500's. This is an era that was just getting over the black plague a century or so earlier (in Europe).

 
Back
Top