I always thought it would be funny to take aluminum foil back in time to see the reaction. I mean, imagine if a time traveler showed you a roll of platinum that they use to bake cookies. That's basically what aluminum was for almost all of history.
this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2025
43 points (87.7% liked)
Ask Lemmy
34955 readers
2056 users here now
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
After further consideration, I would also give them a Solar-Powered TV that plays nothing but a Video of Hatsune Miku doing Fortnite Dances
A cube of pure tungsten. So when they pick it up they cant believe how heavy it is.
A coke bottle
Drop it from an airplane. Bet they would then say among themselves:
God Must Be Crazy!
Sharpies. Think off all the confused scientist that have to explain sharpie marks under acient paintings.
Let’s give some ancient peoples a couple books on modern maths and calculus. Really fuck with the development of tech.
Fuck yeah, just give the ancient Greeks hindu-arabic numerals and watch them lose their minds. Teach Zeno calculus and watch him try to prove it wrong.
Pretty sure the greeks knew about the hindu number system, they were neighbours for centuries. They just thought zero was of the devil and geometry was better that algebra and never adopted it.
A copy of Windows Vista
Furbies. Just to see if we end up with a furby based religion.
To fuck with? Contraceptives, obviously!
rip
Those little Roman devices nobody can figure out.
Imma come out and say it: they're old timey versions of copper coils or orgonite pyramids. Gnosticism got kinda big for a while and people were buying curses and prayers and stuff from people to write on little bits of broken pottery like little curses you'd write on scraps of paper in middle school. Somebody out there figured out how to weld little metal sacred geometry figurines and people were buying them because they look cool and some of them probably thought they'd resonate with the vibrations of the universe to cure dysentery or whatever.
Antikythera mechanism?
That's Greek and we have a pretty good understanding of them.
I think the person you're replying to is referring to these odd little dodecahedrons that we keep finding in former Roman provinces, but for which we've found no documentation as to what they were for, if anything.
No, those little dice things nobody can figure out at all. They're octagonal with a little ball on each corner.
It's how the Greeks played Minecraft.
If we’re including eras where people are able to read and write, a history book. They will see their future and will attempt to change it, for better or for worse.
Nuclear bombs.
That would fuck with them so hard.
You would probably be surprised at how quickly they would figure out how it worked, save maybe some things that have a ton of prerequisite knowledge. If they had the proper materials/tools, they might even be able to reproduce it.
The modern human brain evolved a long time ago, so on average they are just as intelligent as people today (more so in many respects due to necessity). The things that hold us back technologically are usually lack of resources and discovering/making new materials that unlock new categories of tools.
To answer the question: It really depends on how “ancient” we’re talking, but antibiotics have been invaluable to humanity. So literally just teaching early humans how to cultivate the molds that can kill bacteria would change the trajectory of human history.
So literally just teaching early humans how to cultivate the molds that can kill bacteria would change the trajectory of human history.
Shit just teaching them the concepts behind science and (present day) basic stuff ("no the volcano is not erupting because the gods are angry") could probably head off religion entirely.....SOMEBODY GET ME A DAMN TIME MACHINE
There are always gaps in scientific knowledge, and religion is very eager to fill those gaps. I think religion is a human inevitability as it is a shortcut to feeling a sense of purpose and belonging, which humans will always seek.
I suppose it's a matter of what the primary early driver of religion is. I think early on, that was moreso a way to explain the unknown and help quell fear and then came the purpose filling.
I think you may be right that it would develop no matter what, but if it truly does develop as a method primarily for purpose filing rather than as a method of control and fear soothing then maybe it wouldn't have been so entrenched the way it is. This "Religion first" mindset and then later on "religion first, science second". A simple change like "Science first, spirituality/religion second" would likely changed a LOT of things for the better in history.
Slinky
Antibiotics
Talk about butterfly effect lol. I wonder where we would be today if antibiotics were readily available before plagues became plagues.
Me, too. That’s why I wanna do it!
Meth
Cool Ranch Doritos
aluminum bars, they won't be able to work it into things like with iron. even if they do, they can't make more
Rubiks cube.
A polaroid camera so they can steal each other's soul
Nuclear bombs
If it's a civilization that hasn't yet had a writing system, a writing system.
However, I will teach them a (semi-)featural alphabet, kinda like if the Hangeul jamo were its own alphabet. It'd be fun how long the orthography will diverge from the spoken sounds, and how fossilized the orthography can be--and more interestingly, how they might evolve the writing system.
If it's a civilization that already is using a writing system, emojis that they can use alongside their writing system. It'd be interesting to see if they'd eventually turn into ideograms for human feelings and thoughts.
Go to that greek dude who invented the steam engine and give him the idea to make a train
Humanity - civilised Greeks or not - didn't have the metallurgical knowledge to be able to build locomotives and rails out of strong enough materials yet. Ancient Greece basically coincides with the Bronze age.
You'd have to not only bring (knowledge of) steam locomotive tech, but also every single bit of iron tech required to build one. You could skip the requirement for rails by opting for a steam traction engine, not a full locomotive, but those are far closer together in technological ability.
None of this factors in the propensity for steam boilers to explode, which you may or may not consider important.
There's a reason we were still using beasts of burden (horses, oxen, etc.) for traction until the 19th century.
Advanced maths and physics textbooks
Steam engines, clockwork and balloons. Hopefully they turn into a steampunk society.
Toothpaste. Try making that out of saltpeter and bronze!
[Solar powered strobe lights.](https://www.amazon.com/Solar-Strobe-Warning-Light-Flashing
/dp/B08HLL8JQL)
Sure the battery will fail after a few years but until then they will have something that won't exist again for centuries.
Walkie-talkies would be fun. They'd figure out how to use them pretty quickly and what they could use them for. At the same time they'd be completely like magic to them.
Kite & surfboard plus the appropriate colorful dress.
I'd show them once how it is done, then watch whatever happens.
Give them a 1/2 meter cube of stuff. Tell them its a device that summons god. Only true believers can do the ritual, heretics will die.
I pretend to pray, my partner flies in with the FG 204, 2nd Edition Ver. 2.31, I leave.
Its just a block of plutonium. Trollolol
(Sorry, my evil alter ego took control, I wouldn't actually do that, that's so fucking chaotic evil)