www.ditl.org

A what-if situation, in which Q, or another omnipotent being, decides to toss the entire forum population of DITL on their respective locations back in time. Back to 1300.

What to do?

We would build tanks and aircraft and take over the world in the name of DITL.

The active members, or everyone who's registered? And we all stay in the same place? In that case, I'd probably have to find a friendly tribe to take me in before I froze to death, and those of you in Europe would probably be burned as witches.

Even communicating with the people of the era would be tough - not just because they couldn't understand concepts we take for granted (and vice versa) but because the language itself would have logged 700+ years of change. For example, even though we can "read" Shakespeare with relatively little difficulty (compared to Beowulf, certainly!) Shakespeare himself would hardly recognize a single word if he saw a production of Hamlet at the Globe theater today, because the very pronunciation used in Shakespeare's time is very different than modern English pronunciation. To think, our language was once indistinguishable from very early German!

That's true - look at Chaucer, and you'll see that even those of us in England would be pretty much unable to communicate with the people. The best thing, I suppose, would be if you knew Latin, so you could at least talk to some of the educated people.

Yes, all members registered would get displaced through time.

het gife cekere probleme int Diets. And that is just my approximation of the gibberish they'd speak around my area. But, fir the ease of the situation, let's say that you speak the local dialect fluently. Or that the locals understand you.

In which case, I'd do my best to blend in, while trying to get enough money together to get me a small workshop from which i try to use all my modern day engineering knowledge to improve that world. Things like usging levers, introducing the concept of electricity, anything i can come up with at that time, and of course learning some troubadours how to play rock.

As for the heresy, i'd create strong bonds with the clergy, and showing it to them, while I'd develop it.

Because I know there are like 3 Dutch DITL members, I'd try to find them, trying to get them to join me. If not, i'll use my connections in the church to 'stop them from rising to significant power'

I'd certainly take my mobile/cell phone with me. The Vodafone network reception back then will probably be just as f*cking good as it is now...

Find the only female members on the board and beg to f*ck their brains out, because I'm guessing most 1300's women would be horrible lays.

shran wrote:Things like usging levers, introducing the concept of electricity, anything i can come up with at that time, and of course learning some troubadours how to play rock.

Invent the steam engine!

Lazar wrote:That's true - look at Chaucer, and you'll see that even those of us in England would be pretty much unable to communicate with the people. The best thing, I suppose, would be if you knew Latin, so you could at least talk to some of the educated people.

That brings about another good point - what about those of us in America (or Canada - or New Zealand!)? In that case we wouldn't even be around people speaking any variant of English, or whose culture shares any strong lineage with what we consider modern Western culture. At least the ones in England would be able to chat it up with educated people about how cool those ancient Greek dudes were. Here, our very skin tone would mark us as outsiders at a time when different races were little known or understood! I personally would at least know I'm geographically fairly close to another member (Mikey) - once I get myself off this island I'm on, at least!

Yeah, I'd be screwed, here in New Hampshire in 1300 AD.

1300 AD in Canada? Hmm...my choices are, starve, freeze, live with the Natives, die of desease, die fighting Natives or try and build a boat and reach a place with a better standard of living. Great choices.

Maybe Q would take mercy on us and stick us all in one spot where we could plot.

Right-o. I don't suppose we would have our nice, cozy heated homes anymore. Starting fires can be done with practice, but the "sticks" method or whatnot aren't said to be easy at all for newbies!

Captain Picard's Hair wrote:Right-o. I don't suppose we would have our nice, cozy heated homes anymore. Starting fires can be done with practice, but the "sticks" method or whatnot aren't said to be easy at all for newbies!

Any outdoor survival skill I known come from watching Les Shroud on the Discovery Channel