Back to the Future

"Time is free, but it's priceless.
You can't own it, but you can use it.
You can't keep it, but you can spend it.
Once you've lost it you can never get it back.”
-Harvey MacKay

As you may have noticed I cover preparedness from many angles – health, economic, government, family, history, etc. But it seems I’ve neglected one group, Time Travelers. Imagine being stuck centuries in the past with no money. What you’re carrying now won’t be accepted as money or will be considered forgery. Fortunately some clever folks at topatoco.com have created the Time Travel Cheat Sheet with helpful details of what to invent or get patents for at different periods in time.

There are many things you can do as long as you’re not worried about changing history and altering the lives of your ancestors; resulting in your never being born. Laugh at time paradox and take credit for the germ theory of medicine before Dr. Lister and save lives. A modern person with just a little science and health knowledge can become a world famous doctor anytime before 1800. With hand washing, no bloodletting, and some first aid skills, you’ll be more successful than generations of medical practitioners following Hippocratic theories.

Beat Franklin to a scientific theory for electricity. Put your college degree to work – you’ll be amazed at the degree of ignorance in the world before the “Great Enlightenment” of the Industry Revolution.

Bottom Line

Besides technology, something often overlooked by time a traveler is language drift; image trying to speak Shakespearean English, or worse yet, Old English. If you travel to the future all bets are off – you’ll be the dunce on technology and have no literary history to help you with the new slang and new words. Here’s an example from L. Sprague de Camp’s essay, Language for Time Travelers.

"Now Jones looked puzzled. "I don't seem to understand you. What language are you speaking?"
"Wah lenksh? Inksh lenksh, coss. Wah you speak? Said, sah-y, daw geh-ih. Daw, neitha. You fresh? Jumm?"

See Scrabble tips for time travelers and Oldest English words identified for more on language change.