If Someone Randomly Appeared...
- Thread starter Slash
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Joey D
Premium
- 47,506
- Lakes of the North, MI
- GTP_Joey
- GTP Joey
That there is a black president and that I have access to pretty much all of the world's knowledge on a little device in my pocket. Also we managed to get through the Cold War without some massive nuclear holocaust. Oh and that the best selling car in America is actually a Toyota, not a Chevy.
Also the Russians now are pretty much only good for interesting dash cam footage of accidents, cheap vodka, and porn would throw them for a loop too.
Also the Russians now are pretty much only good for interesting dash cam footage of accidents, cheap vodka, and porn would throw them for a loop too.
- 4,797
- Antarctica
I'd sit them down and make them watch Grindhouse films. It should prepare them for the real world. 
- 27,219
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From 50 years ago, this:
From 100 years ago, this:
From 200 years ago, I suspect that even modern language would begin to get a little confusing, let alone using it to explain anything. But possibly, something as common as powered flight, or the modern automobile.
Actually, from more than about 150 years ago, telling people that the modern world has largely free trade, no major European or American countries are at war with one another and that people regularly interact with people worldwide at a moment's notice would probably be hard to explain. The last 150 years has seen the world change so hugely both politically, industrially and culturally that save for the odd bit of architecture it'd be basically unrecognisable to someone from the mid-1800s.
From 100 years ago, this:
From 200 years ago, I suspect that even modern language would begin to get a little confusing, let alone using it to explain anything. But possibly, something as common as powered flight, or the modern automobile.
Actually, from more than about 150 years ago, telling people that the modern world has largely free trade, no major European or American countries are at war with one another and that people regularly interact with people worldwide at a moment's notice would probably be hard to explain. The last 150 years has seen the world change so hugely both politically, industrially and culturally that save for the odd bit of architecture it'd be basically unrecognisable to someone from the mid-1800s.
- 9,058
- Murica
- BasedAckbar
American politics and MTV.
Sphinx
Staff Emeritus
- 6,724
- England
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If this someone was an ancestor, even from 50 yrs ago, there would be a good chance we'll struggle communicating because of the dialect used back then. See here for a good example of how my ancestors (my Mothers side) would speak English:
http://sounds.bl.uk/Accents-and-dialects/Survey-of-English-dialects/021M-C0908X0068XX-0300V1.
Crazy.
From a 100 yrs ago it would be hard to explain how we allowed ourselves to be plunged into two world wars.
Explaining the information highway would be very difficult. I'd imagine it would also be very difficult to explain why it plays such an important part in our lives.
Several hundred years; Explaining anything would be difficult.
http://sounds.bl.uk/Accents-and-dialects/Survey-of-English-dialects/021M-C0908X0068XX-0300V1.
Crazy.
From a 100 yrs ago it would be hard to explain how we allowed ourselves to be plunged into two world wars.
Explaining the information highway would be very difficult. I'd imagine it would also be very difficult to explain why it plays such an important part in our lives.
Several hundred years; Explaining anything would be difficult.
- 4,420
- nealcropper
Jimmy Savile.
I mean how did we let him get away with it for so long!?
That is all.
I mean how did we let him get away with it for so long!?
That is all.
- 4,420
- nealcropper
- 14,059
- Ireland
- driftking18594
- CiaranGTR94
To anyone coming from >100 years ago, I think someone would need a while explaining what science has discovered in the time they've skipped.
I wouldn't be surprised if someone from >300 asked why Catholics and Protestants aren't knocking the crap out of each other.
I wouldn't be surprised if someone from >300 asked why Catholics and Protestants aren't knocking the crap out of each other.
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You do realise that the sort of thing Savile did goes back far further than 200 years, right?
And that for much of history, it probably even verged on "normal" in many cultures. I'm with Tesla. Pedophilia is a very strange thing to suggest that someone from a few hundred years ago would be confused by.
- 4,420
- nealcropper
I wasn't suggesting that the act was what bemused me. It was the ignorance of people around him. Letting him get away with it for nigh on 40 years. Baffling.
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In that case, I doubt turning a blind eye to stuff is particularly new either...
- 4,420
- nealcropper
Yeah I suppose your right.
- 7,621
- Exorcet
- OE Exorcet
~500+ years ago, Big Bang/Why the Church doesn't have much power
~200 years ago, internet/computers or if they were from the southern US and a salve owner, black president
~50 years ago, hard to say. They had expectations about our time, some that we didn't meet, some that we sort of came close to. There would probably be a lot of equally confusing things.
~200 years ago, internet/computers or if they were from the southern US and a salve owner, black president
~50 years ago, hard to say. They had expectations about our time, some that we didn't meet, some that we sort of came close to. There would probably be a lot of equally confusing things.
- 5,210
- Essex, UK
From 50 years ago, depending on the age/culture of the person explaining about the Beatles may be an interesting one. But more significantly I would go along the path of the digital age development. That explanation would have to be consistent with any time jump to the current day. Even more so due to the way modern society revolves so heavily around the flow of information and interacting with people hundreds or thousands of miles away at any given point.
Sphinx
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You're assuming that everyone in that period would have full access to information so that they could have an insight in what was about to take place (WW1). People in cities and towns would have a better idea of what's going on, I accept that, but the best part of England was made up of secluded hamlets and villages and I would suspect many of them wouldn't have much of an idea what was going on until the big event actually happened and only found out why shortly afterwards.
- 87,564
- Rule 12
- GTP_Famine
To be fair, it's likely they'd be very confused by it. Two hundred years ago a forty year old man having sex with an eleven year old girl would be called "a marriage".
Joey D
Premium
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- GTP Joey
The Balkan War was already in full swing by 1913 and the "European Powder Keg" was known throughout Europe. Also Russia's influences weren't exactly secret either. People knew something was going on, especially those who lived in Europe. Maybe some backwoods hick in Virginia didn't know what was going on but someone who lived in the UK must have had some idea unless they'd been living under a rock.
I doubt a massive European war would shock most Europeans in 1913, it was really only a matter of time before it all went to hell. World War II on the other hand would have been much harder to predict.
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- neema_t
Well, the other day when I was sitting with my 90 year old Irish grandmother watching Strictly Come XFactor's Got Talent On Ice, she turned to me and asked: "Neema, what exactly is a 'd***head', anyway?"
Needless to say I struggled to explain that.
Needless to say I struggled to explain that.
- 23,800
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People from fifty years ago would be massively disappointed by the lack of flying cars and Moon colonies.
And Big Bird makes more sense than Cecil the Sea Serpent.
First you'd have to explain why it's illegal to have sex with or marry girls under 16... Then you'd have to explain equal rights for women.
And Big Bird makes more sense than Cecil the Sea Serpent.
First you'd have to explain why it's illegal to have sex with or marry girls under 16... Then you'd have to explain equal rights for women.
- 33,155
- Hammerhead Garage
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- United Kingdom
I still maintain that the above is one of the primary reasons I like electric cars. If you grow up watching sci-fi stuff on TV and believing the future will be like it is in the TV shows, it's disappointing when you get there to find everything is like it was in the decade you grew up, only with more debt. I want my future cars already, dammit.
Or Spongebob Squarepants.
