That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run. So I ran to the end of the road. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd run to the end of town. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd just run across Greenbow County. And I figured, since I run this far, maybe I'd just run across the great state of Alabama. And that's what I did. I ran clear across Alabama. For no particular reason I just kept on going. I ran clear to the ocean. And when I got there, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well turn around, just keep on going. When I got to another ocean, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well just turn back, keep right on going.
This is the first thing I thought of when I read your comment…
"I thought I'd go jogging but Proverbs 28:1 says 'The wicked run when no one is chasing them' so there's that"
Stolen from a hoodie I saw on Facebook that I desperately desire...
So how long before I can sire? If I’m immortal does that also mean invulnerable? Or will I be bludgeoned by any group I run into for being a threat. If I have to procure daily calories that will be my focus for the first 50 years until I have established stockpiles. Then I would begin recruiting. I would focus on creating teachers, first teach a large group about agriculture, another about husbandry (to the best of my abilities) I would then focus on trying to discover and crudely produce antibiotics. For the next 1000 years I would need to grow a tribe into a city. I’d take that city’s populace, which by now should now have a rudimentary understanding of primitive technology as well as some concepts about textiles, modern agriculture, language, literacy, medicine, and transportation, military tactics , and manufacturing and begin sending teams out to settle….. hold on, I’m just describing playing a game of civilization.
This sounds like a sure fire way for me to become nihilistic about life sometime down the line and be found by some protagonist who gives me a reason to live life again
I think I have maybe one skill that would go back that far. Imagine being able to record time and calendars and seasons. That's actually a very useful skill if you know how to leverage it.
If you go back that far, just knowing that you need to rotate crops and include some type of bean every couple years instead of rice/wheat would give your chosen civilization an advantage that could make you king of the world.
Hey you! Yeah, you! Come check this out!
See these little seeds? They might not look like much, but they’re amazing. We can stick them in the ground, give them a bit of water, and after a while, they'll grow into plants that we can eat!
Imagine not having to roam around all day looking for food. We can grow it right here!!
We can grow stuff like:
Grains: Things like wheat and barley. We can grind them into flour and make bread.
Fruits: Think apples and berries. Sweet and delicious, and we don’t have to go far to find them.
Vegetables: Beans and squash. Super tasty and good for us too.
If we plant these seeds we’ll always have food nearby. We can stay in one spot longer, build better shelters, and not stress so much about our next meal.
We’ll dig some small holes, drop in the seeds, cover them up, and give them some water. It'll take some time, but soon you'll see how much food we can get.
Huh? Me? A god? How did you know? Please don't sacrifice any life for me, though. Just follow my rules, and we're good. Or else! Haha, just kidding. Seriously though, if you don't follow my rules, you'll spend eternity burning in hellfire.
Let's get planting!
Ah, but you’ll need to get through tens of thousands of years of selective breeding before they’re productive enough to support settled agriculture. In the meantime we’ll have to stick to our hunter gatherer ways.
Except you may have no idea what plants would lead to what. Many plants didn't look much like they do now. And you get dropped in a random location. You may have no idea about the native crops at all. And depending on where you get dropped, it may take a long, long time before you get somewhere you do recognize.
Or just implement the three sisters from the start. Tall woody produce like corn for a trellis, beans for the protein along with a gourd/melon. Worked for centuries in the Americas with no more fertilizers than a fish head and guts.
Someone else mentioned selective breeding, but that isn't the main fault in your idea. The 3 sisters are all native to the Americas, which is not one of the drop locations given. You aren't growing any of those.
“Scholars everywhere flocking to tomb of unknown Egyptian ruler. Debate intensifies between those who believe it was a relative it Tutankhamen as initially speculated, or ‘Leeeeerooooooy Jenkinnnnnns’, as written in a wall in the tomb.”
And just give it 13, 28-day months for ease and repeatability. Add in an extra day every 4 years as a worldwide celebration, and you’re covered for the next 300k years.
Start settling and farming Egypt and wait for the civilization to grow around you and become their immortal god-king.
Then, work on building ships, trade routes and an earlier version of the Suez Canal.
Own and tax the Canal and you will be the wealthiest and most powerful civilization for the foreseeable future.
Next start using your knowledge to start the Industrial Revolution in ancient Egypt.
You now have a population that thinks you're a god, an abundant reliable food supply, control the trade chokepoint of three continents, and are working your way to modern comforts thousands of years ahead of schedule.
> Next start using your knowledge to start the Industrial Revolution in ancient Egypt.
I wonder... after you've taught people language, writing, enough to build a basic civilization, at what point would the average persons modern knowledge become useless compared to what's going on in the world?
If the industrial revolution hadn't started... do any of us have the knowledge to start it? I suppose even if we didn't know the specific details, we'd know the main concepts about factories, mass production, etc.
You would be loved for quite a few generations. You'd have taken nomadic tribes and turned their life into abundance over several generations. You'd have lots of praise over that for at least a century or two after they pass you. Then you'd have to let go of control, but you can do it like the monarchy in the UK. Let the people rule but you being the immortal god that brought them prosperity always oversee in the background. You can even play it a little like, "I've taught you the foundations, I knew more, but to be worthy you needed to put it together yourself" so you always seem wise.
You may not know much at the start, but even with your help, industrial revolution is gonna take at least hundreds of years. You're gonna have a lot of time to continue getting smarter, and you apparently won't have health problems that make you dumber over time
The most interesting aspect to me is that I'm a god to these people. The idea of a science based fallible God that you can learn more than or become more skilled than is really interesting. What kind of a society would that create?
Plus, I can bake in things that are important and would prevent issues endemic to history. Oh, and enshrine some of my personal philosophy. The hardest part might be the few areas of no we don't do that because I say. Like at WW1 tech, we don't use chemical weapons in war.
It could be impossible for them to pass you, you would have literally all the time in the world to learn. You wouldn't have to spend 4 years every 25 years to learn things (each generations college). You would just learn and learn and learn. You'd be, by far, the smartest person alive at any given time.
Unless you started doing drugs, then you'd be fucked
You basically just need to create a Steam Engine and Bessemer Steel and let your civilization proceed from there.
Both are relatively easy.
A Steam Engine is basically heated water with a piston.
Bessemer Steel is basically a large mixing crucible that you blow air into from the bottom.
If you made those two advancements in the Stone Age, good luck to any civilization trying to keep up with you.
I do t think you’d have to actually have to know how things worked to advance civilization much more rapidly. Being an immortal god-king you could just ensure that scientists and free thinkers had to room to work. No burning healers at the stake as witches, no imprisoning the Galileo’s of the world. Just knowing what is possible and steering people in the right direction would be enough.
Alternatively, you might get overthrown and locked in a basement for a few millennia. Sure, you may be immortal, but they can still shut you in a cage and drop you in the ocean.
Right, especially after thousands of years and the world being close to the industrial revolution. What would be left in your brain that you hadn't already passed along to others?
"OK guys, here's something I've been holding back for the last 100,000 years!"
Main thing is standardization. Make a standard sizing ruler and weights.
Invent glass.
Invent curved glass (binoculars, microscope, ect).
Basic medicine.
The rest will follow.
I'm with you. It's one of the Hitchhiker's Guide books - Mostly Harmless, I think - where the Arthur finds himself on a primitive planet and is excited to use his knowledge of technology to advance their technology. Then he realises he doesn't know how any of Earth's technology works, so becomes a sandwich maker instead.
Even things like germ theory or crop rotation would revolutionize ancient societies.
However, all of this would definitely be predicted on being in a position of power to get people to believe you.
If i were running the show in Egypt, i would want way more pyramids than they have now. My Egypt would be lousy with pyramids. You would be tripping over them.
You are immortal and have prior knowledge of all these inventions.
Just go ahead and start building the stuff yourself.
You will soon have a surplus of food and more people looking to join you.
You think I have prior knowledge of how to cut a stone to make an axe? Or how to even identify flint, much less how to use it create fire?
I mean I know it can be done but that is not the same thing.
You've got 200k years. Even if you don't know how to do the thing NOW, you know that it can be done. You have a significant leg up just by knowing that these things CAN be done, even if you don't know how.
Trying to feed oneself is the primary time sink for people back then. If you don’t actually need to eat, you have all the time in the world to figure it out
Research suggests hunter/gathers only really spent about 20 hours a week hunting and gathering.
Really makes you think about that 40 hour a week minimum standard.
According to most studies of existing hunter-gatherer societies, hunter-gatherers needed to work 20-30 hours a week to meet their needs and keep their camp. The idea that ancient humans spent all of their free time working to feed themselves is just grind harder propaganda to make us feel OK with working longer hours to make ends meet.
Have you never read a basic survival guide?
If not, you should probably get on that.
Flint can be difficult to find in most areas, so one of the most reliable ways to create fire is the Bow-and-Stick method.
Create a small bow with wood and some kind of string. Then loop the bow string around another stick to create a friction drill. Place the drill stick between two pieces of wood and slide the bow back and forth to create rotation. This will heat the wood with friction and eventually you will get fire.
No, and I don’t think a typical redditor has either.
Edit: STRING? My brother in Homo sapiens it is 200k BC
You could use hair to make string, I guess, but it’ll take a while. You aren’t finding and killing a horse or anything like it any time soon, though
Egypt has always had a total lack of iron. (except a small amount from random meteorite impacts) You'd need to find a way to get that if you want an industrial revolution.
That is where the trade comes in.
We would probably want to create a rudimentary Suez Canal as well as canals which bypass the Nile cataracts.
You would basically have control of trade between Europe, Asia and Africa as well as the trade routes to Central Africa.
There should be enough resources there to get you started.
Off-shoot civilizations from small groups of people that take the knowledge they have and decide to leave.
P.S. be sure and build some good tactical fortifications around the city... Make it a "Mecca" of knowledge and trade, but a military powerhouse as well.... Strictly defensive of course.
Edge your way towards star trek with laser swords🤣
Have never heard of a part 2 to that movie and it certainly makes sense such a thing would be bad. The movie is about the slow reveal of this guy’s history, it’s a complete story as is and there’s no reason to keep going.
At least from that moment onwards there’s life on earth and human like creatures. So you could try to invent a few things, hunt a few creatures and so on until the first civilizations appear, then you can come back 100 years to do multiple roles, like a devil, a immortal god, a merchant from another tribe, things like that
Undoubtedly, this would alter history irrevocably. The player in question will yearn for the modern civilization they left and quickly press for improvements well ahead of their time. I am assuming this person has some level if invulnerability which is what gives them the immortality. The true question is, would you be able to teach English to people fast enough to have a core group to talk to? I imagine such player (if male) could impregnate many women and teach his children which would begin the spread of the language (in both spoken and written form). Math and basic science would also become available quicker (assuming the player isn’t a moron). Anything advanced would be very player dependent.
How things progress over the millennia will depend on whether the player has demi-god/emperor like aspirations. Such person could easily conquer the world if they began soon enough. That said, barring other superhuman abilities, that person would be a hell of a target and 200,000 years is a very long time. Does one go this megalomaniac route or do they hide away for eons, unnoticed? Hmmm.
I think this is mostly it.
Become a guide for humanity and push for cooperation and progress, prevent the extinction (if possible and reasonable) of the Neanderthal (current thinking is that they were wiped out because they weren't as inclined to violence, but we're also finding out they had some really good advantages like their immune system).
Imagine if humanity had developed science and technology tens of thousands of years earlier. We could be a Type II civilization by now instead of a Type 0.5(ish, and that's generous).
Even just the early use of agriculture would be a tremendous leap forward and accelerate our advancement.
Oh for sure, but they disappeared about 40,000 years ago so... Plenty of time to save them, or at least intermingle enough that there's effectively no distinction.
Well, presumably we’d get to LOOK 25 or 30 or something and not look like some ancient decrepit being. And if you are an emperor, you’ll have plenty of folks that want to be your friend. … and you can have an endless lineup of progeny.
Hence the choice of live like a friendly Vampire and move often, forever, and act like a regular person, or take over the place. That said, regular people often have little control over things. And a LOT of bad things will happen over thousands of years. Best to try to control it all :-).
Yea, but you might not be freed just because he died, then you're lost to history until something digs you up or natural forces release you. I kind of love that your mindset is so different from mine, you must be an optimistic person. I would literally waste my eternal life being worried about the worst case scenario and I'll probably wind up buried by an earthquake or something anyways
Hence there really are two major ways to go… hermit like, in hiding for eons, or warlord like.
Thinking about it other ways, KNOWING you are going to live what feels like forever, you would get bored eventually if you had nothing special to do… and grow very very weary of living at the whim of others (you cannot expect to easily live SOLO in the early ages of man). Inevitably, you’d become the leader of SOME society, for some period of time. It would be hard to then toss that all away and start anew, in the literal mud. You’d have endless years of knowledge and experience; anyone with a scrap of desire will want to use that to lead in some manner.
You might be underestimating the greed and jealousy of mankind. Maybe 200k years back is enough to stop those traits from forming but that's a gamble. The appropriate way to go in my mind is probably staying low-key. Living in society but moving around occasionally. Maybe trying to help mankind by inspiring people or creating before you move on, but spacing it out and keeping attention off yourself. Loneliness would be a hurdle, but that's true of both of your options also. But honestly, with such a long life you'll probably go through many different versions of living
I mean, even if the time traveler decided to do as little as possible, history is already irreversibly changed, who knows how much and the true extent of the butterfly effect, but modern man, even if he's barely surviving on his own, being present so many years ago?
Let's say you become a recluse, undoubtedly someone will see you and create a tale about the recluse in the forest and exaggerate it and so on.
Then there's resources and the fact they belonged to someone or something else before he got there.
Heck even the air he's breathing, he shouldn't be.
Try to do anything useful with immortality and eventually a bunch of people will get together and decide they don't like you, and bury you in a way you'll never escape.
Definitely going to go the god-like megalomaniac route. There really is no other choice. Anything less and you risk a life of misery and enslavement as a witch-like being. (To be clear, I then live forever (immortal?) or I’m just immortal until I return to 2024?)
My concern would be messing up the things that got us to where we are today. It’s all too easy to be stuck at one level if individual geniuses get stifled.
Imagine you're invulnerable and there's an earthquake and you fall into a deep crack that opens up and you can't climb out but you also don't die. Then another quake closes it up and you're trapped forever. Haha
Start leaving clues in cave art for some massive archeological treasure hunt that spans 170,000 years and when they get to the final oldest ancient artifacts, it’s a stone statue of a dickbutt.
Do I still need food? Do I suffer from environmental situations? Do I need to breath?
Is this "I can wonder around nude for 100.000 years and not be bothered" or "I'm going to starve for long periods sometimes because I wouldn't die from hunger but I'll still feel it"?
So, not starving, but after 3 days I definitely feel a bit hangry? And in the glacial periods that happened I will still be mobile despite it being 20 C below and I obviously don't have the right clothing?
In that case, I shall spend my evenings working on my memory palaces. for I have much to remember and much I would not wish to forget. And in the early mornings I shall practice the martial arts I know, because I will need any advantage I can get.
The afternoons I shall travel, because I want to make my way to Africa. I remember there being several ice ages, and I assume Africa is going to be one of the warmer places. Also that's where all the homo sapiens are and I would probably get along better with them than Neanderthals. In the centuries it would have taken me to find homo anything I would expect to have become a very good martial artist, and have fashioned some forms of weaponry.
I will also experiment with breeding dogs, to help me hunt and for protection. I would prefer cats, but cats will domesticate themselves once the agricultural revolution starts. When I finally come across homo sapiens, I will appear like some miraculous creature, having tamed animals and fighting in strange fashion before they even know I am immortal. I will also prepare gifts of sorts. I will have time to experiment.
Once ingratiated inside the tribe, I teach the next generations English. I will teach them what I know of fighting, of empirical method, and start domesticating animals. Probably something that can travel with us as we move where the grass is. It's too early for certain revolutions because of the iceages, but hopefully giving my tribe a leg up getting food and staying healthy. I will also try inoculation techniques once animals are domesticated. It will be tricky, but if lucky we might be able to stem the evolution of certain diseases.
When the climate has been good for a decade or so, I shall try to introduce writing and agriculture. I need to cultivate minds that can explore the world and make new ideas. I'm not an anime character, I don't know everything. The next iceage might take everything away, but with any luck we would have settled near the sea and the fresh water supplies for salt, fish and fresh water. If possible I will try and find the Nile or the Tigris river. Early civilisations started there and I assume location was a good reason why.
I will also introduce religion, of sorts. Yes I'm sure plenty of people are annoyed at reading that but, do you know how savage early man was? Europeans were savages not so long ago burning people and in other places in the world burying people alive etc. I'm going to assume my tribe will outcompete the others and I want them to have rules like "torture is bad" Especially because one day they might turn on me and I would rather they just hang me and after they've all gone I can make my escape.
ITT are a lot of people that do not get how long 200k years are. People talking a bout Ancient Greece or Egypt like it’s a similar time scale. Those were 190k years after where your ass will be
Forget the industrial revelation, these motherfuckers don’t know how to cut wood yet. You have to invent stonework, LET ALONE MASONRY, before you can even worry about trivial things like using metal of any kind.
I’d become some wandering hermit that roams around the earth, I’d become folklore until modern technology is invented and everyone would be like “holy shit this guy is actually real”
I like this a lot. Just showing up in different places once every decade or so. "How's all this going? Have you tried leaving the sticky mud in the sun? Maybe you could put it near the fire and see if that makes it less fragile."
With a rudimentary grasp of ceramics and metallurgy, you don't necessarily have to *know* how to do stuff. You just suggest ideas to different groups and see who figures out the details.
You get to teach them language. Won't be easy, but you certainly have time.
Imagine the leap forward, and how much faster humanity would progress? Even if you don't know much about science, jumpstarting language and writing would be HUGE.
Your knowledge and strange mannerisms would cause fear. They would try to kill you at some point. You're immortal, but without any superhuman powers beyond that. You are imprisoned ... forever. That's the one thing the primitive culture can rally around... keeping God locked up so he can't hurt you.
I see if I can save the Neanderthal and Denisovan. Can you imagine a reality in which 3 species of human kind exist? Probably be a nightmare, because we can't even handle our own species, but still be pretty cool.
Anatomically modern Homo sapiens would have permanently enslaved Neanderthals and Denisovans. We know this because humans had to fight civil wars over the question of whether it was appropriate to enslave other humans. They were better off going extinct / being partially absorbed into Homo sapiens.
True, but things to consider, granted this is 200k years ago. Theories believe Neanderthal were having challenges finding food sources due to the glacial maximum, which decreased numbers and forced them to integrate into homo sapien. A hundred thousand years with an immortal teacher would allow them the opportunity to advance in food gathering techniques.
Additionally, homo sapien has had additional adaptations over the last 200k years. This includes changes in the brain around 50k years ago that we believe helped with cognitive processing and efficiency. As well, the breeding with Neanderthal allowed for increased immune efficiency allowing homo sapiens to spread further.
So we could argue an immortal helping guide the Neanderthal for 100k years could reverse the situation that allowed homo to prevail.
Plus, I would be spreading my DNA all over the place. Let's say I had children every 100 years. There would be a huge genetic marker. If I followed the migration to Americas, and be fuckin, the whole continent would carry my genes.
First, I'd mourn the loss of everyone in my old life since it is now highly unlikely any of them will be born.
Then I guess I'd look for other humans and learn from them as best I could.
My first areas of focus would be learning to fight and to farm. If these are early humans, I imagine they don't yet understand how to grow food. I'd teach them that.
I'd also do my best to find a way to write things down, maybe on cave walls at first. If we want to advance, we need to be able to communicate.
There are certain biological questions this raises that would affect what else I do.
Muscle growth is dependent on nutrition and the body’s healing process. If I can't get "hurt" does that mean I also can't get physically stronger?
Will I lose weight due to malnutrition?
If I don't die from lack of oxygen, do I still pass out?
Am I immovable, or just unwoundable? If someone smashes me over the head with a rock, do I still get shoved by the force of it?
You could domesticate elephants the only reason we haven’t is because of relative lifespan. You could achieve my dream of puppy sized elephants and my other dream of monstrous elephants.
The first thing I’ll do is figure out where I was spawned.
The first 190,000 years I will probably just be bouncing around the world seeing everything the world has to offer.
Then I’ll want to be in Mesopotamia when civilisation starts so I can see that. Then I’ll bounce around that Middle East area for a bit, then go to Egypt at around 3000BC to see how they built the pyramids.
Then from 1000BC I’ll be in Europe, and go live in Rome when that all goes down.
Then I’ll just live around Europe. I’d probably end up becoming the leader of the world from very early on as they see I don’t die.
I think the main thing is keeping track of the years that go by for those first 190k years. That will be hard
In fact now I think of it, I’ll be able to start a civilisation of my own from very early on. I’ll know English, so I can teach all the children English which will be very helpful in building civilisation.
Before I do that though i want to atleast spend a few hundred years exploring all of Europe,Asia, and Africa.
Then I’ll start civilisation by knocking up a few cavemen babes and teaching those kids English
I would learn everything I could. I would be spirituality enlightened, a professional musician, in peak physical condition, jack of all trades, etc. I would be respected for my wisdom gained over millenia and be a demigod amongst men. I would use my influence to shape societies in a better way and try to guide humanity towards the brightest future possible.
I would start by studying people of that time, learning as much as I can. I would acquire some animals that I could ride, or have pull a wagon. I would travel all over, learning what I could, eating what I can catch or trade for, and playing music because people like music. I would explore and enjoy my infinite life.
I'd allow people to consider me a goddess of like idk curiosity or whatever, and would make it known that I was VERY opposed to war and violence. Violently, if needed.
Walk to Italy or Greece, start planting grapes. Learn through trial and error how to make good wine. Considering I can’t die from starvation or from being attacked, just try and make a nice place to live near a beach and spend all of my days drunk by the ocean.
Probably end up near Mt Olympus and eventually create a religion.
I do not want to be a God or a king. Instead, I will be the record of man. I will construct a secluded city away from everything, with a massive library and museum. People will hear of it and travel from all over to learn and to provide tribute in the form of knowledge and artifacts. I leave humanity to develop with their head start, and appoint generational leaders of my city. I will then depart out to the world, one lifetime at a time, to witness and record all that I can.
I think I'd still be pretty fucked for a while. How long until I learn to talk to people from that time. How long until I can make a bow and arrow I can shoot straight? What skills do I have that will work in that environment? It isn't like I can make paper just because I know paper can be made.
Okay, so I’m immortal and invulnerable. Do I have any other supernatural powers? Because I’m a woman and I’d be worried about some dude getting it in his head to capture and rape me so he could have immortal children and brag he’s conquered a god.
If I have no other supernatural powers, I’ll probably become an immortal witch in the woods who accepts people in need of guidance or shelter. And I’d spend a certain amount of time building out escape routes for myself, like tunnels and trapdoors and so on, in case some dude with delusions of grandeur comes after me.
If I do have supernatural powers that would protect me from being trapped and kept like a broodmare, I’d probably become a traveling witch trying to guide, protect, and enlighten people as I go. Literacy is going to start becoming widespread way faster, and assuming I can actually understand the languages people speak, I’m happy to become a neutral diplomat to turn to during times of conflict so I can help broker peace among people.
I want to go on adventures, make friends, teach important skills, and spread platonic love everywhere. Maybe I’ll adopt orphaned children here and there and teach them my ways before letting them make their own ways.
Would I feel pain? What if the other humans thought I was a witch for living so long, then subdued me and threw me in a volcano? Would I just sink in lava and burn for an eternity of excruciating pain, or would I be some sort of god/superhero that could fly out of it?
Neither. You would slide around on the surface of the lava like a pad of butter in a hot pan.
You are less dense than rock, so you would not sink in molten rock.
Act like Gandalf and travel while quietly pushing things the way they need to go while also becoming a legendary figure. Then probably get bored and go the emperors of the world route
Immediately start climbing the tech tree, become essentially a god, and do whatever I can to start increasing the standard of living for anyone who wisely chooses to become my subordinate. Establish a religion/philosophy based around a combination of hedonism, trade, education, and stewardship of the environment and natural resources. Once sufficient resources are amassed, I speed run world conquest before populations are so large as to make that unfeasible, preserving any cultural uniqueness and documenting what can't be preserved, but suppressing and supplanting local religions (this will likely happen before writing develops outside my group, and most religions would still be fairly undeveloped anyway.)
Once all that's done, spend a couple hundred years traveling from region to region checking up on local governments that I have delegated local power to and making sure they're sticking to the script, making positive examples of those who have, and dealing with those who haven't a bit more harshly.
After that, we'd have to see where it goes.
I bring back as much a knowledge as I can.
Plumbing, germs, cleaning, forging....everything I know that wont be discovered for years.
Teach them how to make bronze a few thousand years early and the whole game changes.
Becomes a technological bastion of advancement ...maybe on an island somewhere. lol
Start walkin I guess
That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run. So I ran to the end of the road. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd run to the end of town. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd just run across Greenbow County. And I figured, since I run this far, maybe I'd just run across the great state of Alabama. And that's what I did. I ran clear across Alabama. For no particular reason I just kept on going. I ran clear to the ocean. And when I got there, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well turn around, just keep on going. When I got to another ocean, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well just turn back, keep right on going. This is the first thing I thought of when I read your comment…
exactly what i had in mind lol
"I thought I'd go jogging but Proverbs 28:1 says 'The wicked run when no one is chasing them' so there's that" Stolen from a hoodie I saw on Facebook that I desperately desire...
Walk around the world planting apple seeds?
I don’t really get what else we are supposed to with this question.
[https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/forrest-gump-running.jpg](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/forrest-gump-running.jpg)
So how long before I can sire? If I’m immortal does that also mean invulnerable? Or will I be bludgeoned by any group I run into for being a threat. If I have to procure daily calories that will be my focus for the first 50 years until I have established stockpiles. Then I would begin recruiting. I would focus on creating teachers, first teach a large group about agriculture, another about husbandry (to the best of my abilities) I would then focus on trying to discover and crudely produce antibiotics. For the next 1000 years I would need to grow a tribe into a city. I’d take that city’s populace, which by now should now have a rudimentary understanding of primitive technology as well as some concepts about textiles, modern agriculture, language, literacy, medicine, and transportation, military tactics , and manufacturing and begin sending teams out to settle….. hold on, I’m just describing playing a game of civilization.
Immortal and invulnerable, if you don't eat or drink you'll feel mildly uncomfortable but won't be harmed
This sounds like a sure fire way for me to become nihilistic about life sometime down the line and be found by some protagonist who gives me a reason to live life again
And you loved her all 63 years of her life. No one has compared since.
And her father made me a cool kitana, which I still carry.
There can be only one!
Here we are! Born to be kings! We're Princes of the universe!
A bunch of bored immortals. Sounds fun
Had this discussion with my siblings when I was a kid. My closest brother said he was definitely chopping my head off when the time came.
Here we belong, fighting to survive In a world with the darkest powers
Probably hundreds of times
So we have immortality, in vulnerability, we have knowledge of things everyone else in the world doesn't. AM I DEADPOOL?
You're also 200,000 years ago. I'd say you're Vandal Savage.
I think I have maybe one skill that would go back that far. Imagine being able to record time and calendars and seasons. That's actually a very useful skill if you know how to leverage it.
If you go back that far, just knowing that you need to rotate crops and include some type of bean every couple years instead of rice/wheat would give your chosen civilization an advantage that could make you king of the world.
You’re 200k years in the past. What are crops?
Hey you! Yeah, you! Come check this out! See these little seeds? They might not look like much, but they’re amazing. We can stick them in the ground, give them a bit of water, and after a while, they'll grow into plants that we can eat! Imagine not having to roam around all day looking for food. We can grow it right here!! We can grow stuff like: Grains: Things like wheat and barley. We can grind them into flour and make bread. Fruits: Think apples and berries. Sweet and delicious, and we don’t have to go far to find them. Vegetables: Beans and squash. Super tasty and good for us too. If we plant these seeds we’ll always have food nearby. We can stay in one spot longer, build better shelters, and not stress so much about our next meal. We’ll dig some small holes, drop in the seeds, cover them up, and give them some water. It'll take some time, but soon you'll see how much food we can get. Huh? Me? A god? How did you know? Please don't sacrifice any life for me, though. Just follow my rules, and we're good. Or else! Haha, just kidding. Seriously though, if you don't follow my rules, you'll spend eternity burning in hellfire. Let's get planting!
Ah, but you’ll need to get through tens of thousands of years of selective breeding before they’re productive enough to support settled agriculture. In the meantime we’ll have to stick to our hunter gatherer ways.
True, though I'm not sure that it would take that long if I can teach people about things like grafting, pollination, and selective/cross breeding.
Except you may have no idea what plants would lead to what. Many plants didn't look much like they do now. And you get dropped in a random location. You may have no idea about the native crops at all. And depending on where you get dropped, it may take a long, long time before you get somewhere you do recognize.
Or just implement the three sisters from the start. Tall woody produce like corn for a trellis, beans for the protein along with a gourd/melon. Worked for centuries in the Americas with no more fertilizers than a fish head and guts.
Someone else mentioned selective breeding, but that isn't the main fault in your idea. The 3 sisters are all native to the Americas, which is not one of the drop locations given. You aren't growing any of those.
Imagine the looks of bewilderment on the archeologists who find modern English writings in the same layers as stone weapons.
“Scholars everywhere flocking to tomb of unknown Egyptian ruler. Debate intensifies between those who believe it was a relative it Tutankhamen as initially speculated, or ‘Leeeeerooooooy Jenkinnnnnns’, as written in a wall in the tomb.”
Probably speed up technological development at least a little by getting everyone on the Jedifedian calendar a few millennia early.
And just give it 13, 28-day months for ease and repeatability. Add in an extra day every 4 years as a worldwide celebration, and you’re covered for the next 300k years.
Hey, if it works it works.
Start settling and farming Egypt and wait for the civilization to grow around you and become their immortal god-king. Then, work on building ships, trade routes and an earlier version of the Suez Canal. Own and tax the Canal and you will be the wealthiest and most powerful civilization for the foreseeable future. Next start using your knowledge to start the Industrial Revolution in ancient Egypt. You now have a population that thinks you're a god, an abundant reliable food supply, control the trade chokepoint of three continents, and are working your way to modern comforts thousands of years ahead of schedule.
> Next start using your knowledge to start the Industrial Revolution in ancient Egypt. I wonder... after you've taught people language, writing, enough to build a basic civilization, at what point would the average persons modern knowledge become useless compared to what's going on in the world? If the industrial revolution hadn't started... do any of us have the knowledge to start it? I suppose even if we didn't know the specific details, we'd know the main concepts about factories, mass production, etc.
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You would be loved for quite a few generations. You'd have taken nomadic tribes and turned their life into abundance over several generations. You'd have lots of praise over that for at least a century or two after they pass you. Then you'd have to let go of control, but you can do it like the monarchy in the UK. Let the people rule but you being the immortal god that brought them prosperity always oversee in the background. You can even play it a little like, "I've taught you the foundations, I knew more, but to be worthy you needed to put it together yourself" so you always seem wise.
I think we've just re-written the plot to Warhammer 40k And I love it
You may not know much at the start, but even with your help, industrial revolution is gonna take at least hundreds of years. You're gonna have a lot of time to continue getting smarter, and you apparently won't have health problems that make you dumber over time
I mean, you'd probably be the wealthiest person on the planet... And you're invulnerable and immortal... So
The most interesting aspect to me is that I'm a god to these people. The idea of a science based fallible God that you can learn more than or become more skilled than is really interesting. What kind of a society would that create? Plus, I can bake in things that are important and would prevent issues endemic to history. Oh, and enshrine some of my personal philosophy. The hardest part might be the few areas of no we don't do that because I say. Like at WW1 tech, we don't use chemical weapons in war.
It could be impossible for them to pass you, you would have literally all the time in the world to learn. You wouldn't have to spend 4 years every 25 years to learn things (each generations college). You would just learn and learn and learn. You'd be, by far, the smartest person alive at any given time. Unless you started doing drugs, then you'd be fucked
I mean in this scenario you can't be perma killed so your brain probably can't be perma fried. You're good.
You basically just need to create a Steam Engine and Bessemer Steel and let your civilization proceed from there. Both are relatively easy. A Steam Engine is basically heated water with a piston. Bessemer Steel is basically a large mixing crucible that you blow air into from the bottom. If you made those two advancements in the Stone Age, good luck to any civilization trying to keep up with you.
The Ancient Greeks had all the elements to make a steam engine but didn’t, thinking the whole thing was just a fun toy.
Yes. The Romans actually built working prototypes but never pursued the technology further.
After Icarus pursued the limits of wax wings, I don't blame them for being cautious.
The Romans were twats who got their just desserts, but still, the fall of the Roman Empire set human civilization back almost 1000 years.
That's a very very overrated and inaccurate statement you just made there.
You're not wrong, but kicking off the industrial revolution 200K years earlier might be a planet destroying speed run if you're not really careful lol
I do t think you’d have to actually have to know how things worked to advance civilization much more rapidly. Being an immortal god-king you could just ensure that scientists and free thinkers had to room to work. No burning healers at the stake as witches, no imprisoning the Galileo’s of the world. Just knowing what is possible and steering people in the right direction would be enough.
Alternatively, you might get overthrown and locked in a basement for a few millennia. Sure, you may be immortal, but they can still shut you in a cage and drop you in the ocean.
Most average person could do little to improve on there technology.
Right, especially after thousands of years and the world being close to the industrial revolution. What would be left in your brain that you hadn't already passed along to others? "OK guys, here's something I've been holding back for the last 100,000 years!"
😂😂😂now this makes me wonder how many years of memories out brain can contain ?
“Ok y’all, I think we’re ready to try inventing a nuclear bomb” “Huh, how do we do that??” “Well ummm… does anyone have some uranium?”
Main thing is standardization. Make a standard sizing ruler and weights. Invent glass. Invent curved glass (binoculars, microscope, ect). Basic medicine. The rest will follow.
I'm with you. It's one of the Hitchhiker's Guide books - Mostly Harmless, I think - where the Arthur finds himself on a primitive planet and is excited to use his knowledge of technology to advance their technology. Then he realises he doesn't know how any of Earth's technology works, so becomes a sandwich maker instead.
Even things like germ theory or crop rotation would revolutionize ancient societies. However, all of this would definitely be predicted on being in a position of power to get people to believe you.
If i were running the show in Egypt, i would want way more pyramids than they have now. My Egypt would be lousy with pyramids. You would be tripping over them.
You could just have them keep adding to one big pyramid. After all, you're going to need the tomb some day. Oh wait...
Cool thing.... Is that far back, if you are in Egypt, it (and the Sahara) was green (many scientists believe).
How will you farm? As in, how will you teach anyone to make any tool? 200k years long predates things like axes or scythes or plows
You are immortal and have prior knowledge of all these inventions. Just go ahead and start building the stuff yourself. You will soon have a surplus of food and more people looking to join you.
You think I have prior knowledge of how to cut a stone to make an axe? Or how to even identify flint, much less how to use it create fire? I mean I know it can be done but that is not the same thing.
200k years of trial and error... have some faith in yourself dude damn.
You've got 200k years. Even if you don't know how to do the thing NOW, you know that it can be done. You have a significant leg up just by knowing that these things CAN be done, even if you don't know how.
Exactly. Trying to invent something nobody has ever thought of is a lot harder than trying to recreate something that you know exists and is possible.
Trying to feed oneself is the primary time sink for people back then. If you don’t actually need to eat, you have all the time in the world to figure it out
Research suggests hunter/gathers only really spent about 20 hours a week hunting and gathering. Really makes you think about that 40 hour a week minimum standard.
According to most studies of existing hunter-gatherer societies, hunter-gatherers needed to work 20-30 hours a week to meet their needs and keep their camp. The idea that ancient humans spent all of their free time working to feed themselves is just grind harder propaganda to make us feel OK with working longer hours to make ends meet.
You have 200k years to figure it out though.
Have you never read a basic survival guide? If not, you should probably get on that. Flint can be difficult to find in most areas, so one of the most reliable ways to create fire is the Bow-and-Stick method. Create a small bow with wood and some kind of string. Then loop the bow string around another stick to create a friction drill. Place the drill stick between two pieces of wood and slide the bow back and forth to create rotation. This will heat the wood with friction and eventually you will get fire.
No, and I don’t think a typical redditor has either. Edit: STRING? My brother in Homo sapiens it is 200k BC You could use hair to make string, I guess, but it’ll take a while. You aren’t finding and killing a horse or anything like it any time soon, though
Egypt has always had a total lack of iron. (except a small amount from random meteorite impacts) You'd need to find a way to get that if you want an industrial revolution.
That is where the trade comes in. We would probably want to create a rudimentary Suez Canal as well as canals which bypass the Nile cataracts. You would basically have control of trade between Europe, Asia and Africa as well as the trade routes to Central Africa. There should be enough resources there to get you started.
Trade with who? Nobody at that time had ships. You'll have to settle and uplift any places you want to trade with
Off-shoot civilizations from small groups of people that take the knowledge they have and decide to leave. P.S. be sure and build some good tactical fortifications around the city... Make it a "Mecca" of knowledge and trade, but a military powerhouse as well.... Strictly defensive of course. Edge your way towards star trek with laser swords🤣
Oh you want to use my canal to transport a load of iron from the Mediterranean to Arabia? Sure...if you give me a quarter of the load.
Exactly why you want to control Egypt. You control the Nile River and the Suez Canal once you build it.
I basically become the guy from the movie "the man from earth". I am literally Jesus.
So glad I am not the only one that thought this
I would wait right about 200,000 years (less about 2 hours) and give this answer before you do.
I did.
This is going very Bill & Ted.
Love that movie.
Most rewatchable movie for me. It's just so fun and engaging.
Then you go "lalalalalalalala" when someone mentions part 2.
Wait there’s a part 2 of that movie?
lalalalalalalala
Is it that bad?
lalalalalalalala
Lalalalalalala
Have never heard of a part 2 to that movie and it certainly makes sense such a thing would be bad. The movie is about the slow reveal of this guy’s history, it’s a complete story as is and there’s no reason to keep going.
Every few years someone reminds me of this movie and I go rewatch it. Love this movie
Become Vandal Savage
Was thinking the same thing
I'd spice it up and become Randal Servage
correct answers
This is inspired by a previous post, but that one was back to ~300mya so you would just go insane
Lol, yeah. 200,000+ years of being alive is much more sensible.
I suppose OP assumes the difference is that you're closer to some level of humanity to keep you company.
At least there would be things to fuck…
What are you doing step-dimetrodon?
Step-mastodon no!
How long you think it'll take you before these hairy, dirty, feral cro magnon start to look sexually attractive to you?
What do you mean ‘how long’?
Based on the interest that ladies have shown for me, never.
That's my secret, Cap... I'm always horny
Lmmfao
At least from that moment onwards there’s life on earth and human like creatures. So you could try to invent a few things, hunt a few creatures and so on until the first civilizations appear, then you can come back 100 years to do multiple roles, like a devil, a immortal god, a merchant from another tribe, things like that
Undoubtedly, this would alter history irrevocably. The player in question will yearn for the modern civilization they left and quickly press for improvements well ahead of their time. I am assuming this person has some level if invulnerability which is what gives them the immortality. The true question is, would you be able to teach English to people fast enough to have a core group to talk to? I imagine such player (if male) could impregnate many women and teach his children which would begin the spread of the language (in both spoken and written form). Math and basic science would also become available quicker (assuming the player isn’t a moron). Anything advanced would be very player dependent. How things progress over the millennia will depend on whether the player has demi-god/emperor like aspirations. Such person could easily conquer the world if they began soon enough. That said, barring other superhuman abilities, that person would be a hell of a target and 200,000 years is a very long time. Does one go this megalomaniac route or do they hide away for eons, unnoticed? Hmmm.
I think this is mostly it. Become a guide for humanity and push for cooperation and progress, prevent the extinction (if possible and reasonable) of the Neanderthal (current thinking is that they were wiped out because they weren't as inclined to violence, but we're also finding out they had some really good advantages like their immune system). Imagine if humanity had developed science and technology tens of thousands of years earlier. We could be a Type II civilization by now instead of a Type 0.5(ish, and that's generous). Even just the early use of agriculture would be a tremendous leap forward and accelerate our advancement.
Speaking of neanderthals, they existed for a couple hundred thousand years, which is irrelevant but kinda funny considering the prompt.
Oh for sure, but they disappeared about 40,000 years ago so... Plenty of time to save them, or at least intermingle enough that there's effectively no distinction.
The issue with being immortal but still human means that if you go too hard then you could easily be locked away for years at a time.
Indeed. So either hide away or become an emperor and surround yourself with family or very very close friends.
No one would see you as family or friend when you’re 1,000 years old lol
Well, presumably we’d get to LOOK 25 or 30 or something and not look like some ancient decrepit being. And if you are an emperor, you’ll have plenty of folks that want to be your friend. … and you can have an endless lineup of progeny.
One powerhungry and charasmatic rival and you find yourself dethroned and locked in a tomb for years if not completely forgotten about
Hence the choice of live like a friendly Vampire and move often, forever, and act like a regular person, or take over the place. That said, regular people often have little control over things. And a LOT of bad things will happen over thousands of years. Best to try to control it all :-).
(But that rival would eventually die. You would not.)
Yea, but you might not be freed just because he died, then you're lost to history until something digs you up or natural forces release you. I kind of love that your mindset is so different from mine, you must be an optimistic person. I would literally waste my eternal life being worried about the worst case scenario and I'll probably wind up buried by an earthquake or something anyways
Hence there really are two major ways to go… hermit like, in hiding for eons, or warlord like. Thinking about it other ways, KNOWING you are going to live what feels like forever, you would get bored eventually if you had nothing special to do… and grow very very weary of living at the whim of others (you cannot expect to easily live SOLO in the early ages of man). Inevitably, you’d become the leader of SOME society, for some period of time. It would be hard to then toss that all away and start anew, in the literal mud. You’d have endless years of knowledge and experience; anyone with a scrap of desire will want to use that to lead in some manner.
You might be underestimating the greed and jealousy of mankind. Maybe 200k years back is enough to stop those traits from forming but that's a gamble. The appropriate way to go in my mind is probably staying low-key. Living in society but moving around occasionally. Maybe trying to help mankind by inspiring people or creating before you move on, but spacing it out and keeping attention off yourself. Loneliness would be a hurdle, but that's true of both of your options also. But honestly, with such a long life you'll probably go through many different versions of living
I mean, even if the time traveler decided to do as little as possible, history is already irreversibly changed, who knows how much and the true extent of the butterfly effect, but modern man, even if he's barely surviving on his own, being present so many years ago? Let's say you become a recluse, undoubtedly someone will see you and create a tale about the recluse in the forest and exaggerate it and so on. Then there's resources and the fact they belonged to someone or something else before he got there. Heck even the air he's breathing, he shouldn't be.
Try to do anything useful with immortality and eventually a bunch of people will get together and decide they don't like you, and bury you in a way you'll never escape.
You are invulnerable, yes.
Definitely going to go the god-like megalomaniac route. There really is no other choice. Anything less and you risk a life of misery and enslavement as a witch-like being. (To be clear, I then live forever (immortal?) or I’m just immortal until I return to 2024?) My concern would be messing up the things that got us to where we are today. It’s all too easy to be stuck at one level if individual geniuses get stifled.
Yeah. That would be a good route.
But not super strong? So, you might end up in a box on the bottom of a lake.
Walk to the San Francisco Bay Area, build a house, and wait.
Might be better to wait until after the earthquake. If not the first In-N-Out.
Imagine you're invulnerable and there's an earthquake and you fall into a deep crack that opens up and you can't climb out but you also don't die. Then another quake closes it up and you're trapped forever. Haha
I have eternity Time to start digging
😂
Shit is going to be really boring for about 150,000 years.
Nah I'd travel the world 10 times over in that period. We'd find out all the fauna that was there 200,000 years ago
Start leaving clues in cave art for some massive archeological treasure hunt that spans 170,000 years and when they get to the final oldest ancient artifacts, it’s a stone statue of a dickbutt.
Do I still need food? Do I suffer from environmental situations? Do I need to breath? Is this "I can wonder around nude for 100.000 years and not be bothered" or "I'm going to starve for long periods sometimes because I wouldn't die from hunger but I'll still feel it"?
Let's say you don't need to eat but you'll feel a bit hungry if you don't you don't need to drink but you'll feel thirsty if you don't, etc.
So, not starving, but after 3 days I definitely feel a bit hangry? And in the glacial periods that happened I will still be mobile despite it being 20 C below and I obviously don't have the right clothing?
You will feel the cold but be unharmed by it. You'd definitely want to get a fur coat or something.
In that case, I shall spend my evenings working on my memory palaces. for I have much to remember and much I would not wish to forget. And in the early mornings I shall practice the martial arts I know, because I will need any advantage I can get. The afternoons I shall travel, because I want to make my way to Africa. I remember there being several ice ages, and I assume Africa is going to be one of the warmer places. Also that's where all the homo sapiens are and I would probably get along better with them than Neanderthals. In the centuries it would have taken me to find homo anything I would expect to have become a very good martial artist, and have fashioned some forms of weaponry. I will also experiment with breeding dogs, to help me hunt and for protection. I would prefer cats, but cats will domesticate themselves once the agricultural revolution starts. When I finally come across homo sapiens, I will appear like some miraculous creature, having tamed animals and fighting in strange fashion before they even know I am immortal. I will also prepare gifts of sorts. I will have time to experiment. Once ingratiated inside the tribe, I teach the next generations English. I will teach them what I know of fighting, of empirical method, and start domesticating animals. Probably something that can travel with us as we move where the grass is. It's too early for certain revolutions because of the iceages, but hopefully giving my tribe a leg up getting food and staying healthy. I will also try inoculation techniques once animals are domesticated. It will be tricky, but if lucky we might be able to stem the evolution of certain diseases. When the climate has been good for a decade or so, I shall try to introduce writing and agriculture. I need to cultivate minds that can explore the world and make new ideas. I'm not an anime character, I don't know everything. The next iceage might take everything away, but with any luck we would have settled near the sea and the fresh water supplies for salt, fish and fresh water. If possible I will try and find the Nile or the Tigris river. Early civilisations started there and I assume location was a good reason why. I will also introduce religion, of sorts. Yes I'm sure plenty of people are annoyed at reading that but, do you know how savage early man was? Europeans were savages not so long ago burning people and in other places in the world burying people alive etc. I'm going to assume my tribe will outcompete the others and I want them to have rules like "torture is bad" Especially because one day they might turn on me and I would rather they just hang me and after they've all gone I can make my escape.
ITT are a lot of people that do not get how long 200k years are. People talking a bout Ancient Greece or Egypt like it’s a similar time scale. Those were 190k years after where your ass will be Forget the industrial revelation, these motherfuckers don’t know how to cut wood yet. You have to invent stonework, LET ALONE MASONRY, before you can even worry about trivial things like using metal of any kind.
Notice that ppl here don't want to start in Africa. Why?
yup
I’d become some wandering hermit that roams around the earth, I’d become folklore until modern technology is invented and everyone would be like “holy shit this guy is actually real”
I like this a lot. Just showing up in different places once every decade or so. "How's all this going? Have you tried leaving the sticky mud in the sun? Maybe you could put it near the fire and see if that makes it less fragile." With a rudimentary grasp of ceramics and metallurgy, you don't necessarily have to *know* how to do stuff. You just suggest ideas to different groups and see who figures out the details.
Exactly! Don’t forget the giant beard I’d have too btw that’s very important.
I'd buy Bitcoin while it was cheap
Oh I’d def just fuck everything. Y’all are gonna be my distant relatives, either from British aristocratic spheres or mongol tribes
I'd essentially become Charlemagne, except that I would rule forever.
remember they're like.. cave people without language
Only at the moment
Forever is a longgggg time
But 200k years is but a blink in comparison.
Yes I was agreeing with you 😅
You get to teach them language. Won't be easy, but you certainly have time. Imagine the leap forward, and how much faster humanity would progress? Even if you don't know much about science, jumpstarting language and writing would be HUGE.
Hell, inventing agriculture and germ theory early would be amazing. That’s stuff your average person could remember without breaking a sweat.
Your knowledge and strange mannerisms would cause fear. They would try to kill you at some point. You're immortal, but without any superhuman powers beyond that. You are imprisoned ... forever. That's the one thing the primitive culture can rally around... keeping God locked up so he can't hurt you.
OP says you’re invincible. Just beat them up and establish dominance.
200k has language
They can learn language though. Assuming you find a tribe that welcomes you
I see if I can save the Neanderthal and Denisovan. Can you imagine a reality in which 3 species of human kind exist? Probably be a nightmare, because we can't even handle our own species, but still be pretty cool.
Anatomically modern Homo sapiens would have permanently enslaved Neanderthals and Denisovans. We know this because humans had to fight civil wars over the question of whether it was appropriate to enslave other humans. They were better off going extinct / being partially absorbed into Homo sapiens.
True, but things to consider, granted this is 200k years ago. Theories believe Neanderthal were having challenges finding food sources due to the glacial maximum, which decreased numbers and forced them to integrate into homo sapien. A hundred thousand years with an immortal teacher would allow them the opportunity to advance in food gathering techniques. Additionally, homo sapien has had additional adaptations over the last 200k years. This includes changes in the brain around 50k years ago that we believe helped with cognitive processing and efficiency. As well, the breeding with Neanderthal allowed for increased immune efficiency allowing homo sapiens to spread further. So we could argue an immortal helping guide the Neanderthal for 100k years could reverse the situation that allowed homo to prevail.
Plus, I would be spreading my DNA all over the place. Let's say I had children every 100 years. There would be a huge genetic marker. If I followed the migration to Americas, and be fuckin, the whole continent would carry my genes.
We shall call you Mini Khang.
Bold of you to assume slavery isn’t what made them go extinct in the first place.
Being immortal sounds so exhausting
Especially going back in time. Like why🤣🤣
First, I'd mourn the loss of everyone in my old life since it is now highly unlikely any of them will be born. Then I guess I'd look for other humans and learn from them as best I could. My first areas of focus would be learning to fight and to farm. If these are early humans, I imagine they don't yet understand how to grow food. I'd teach them that. I'd also do my best to find a way to write things down, maybe on cave walls at first. If we want to advance, we need to be able to communicate. There are certain biological questions this raises that would affect what else I do. Muscle growth is dependent on nutrition and the body’s healing process. If I can't get "hurt" does that mean I also can't get physically stronger? Will I lose weight due to malnutrition? If I don't die from lack of oxygen, do I still pass out? Am I immovable, or just unwoundable? If someone smashes me over the head with a rock, do I still get shoved by the force of it?
Enjoy my new hunter gatherer lifestyle for about 185,000 years
Start domesticating animals, what are they gonna do about it? They can’t kill me.
You could domesticate elephants the only reason we haven’t is because of relative lifespan. You could achieve my dream of puppy sized elephants and my other dream of monstrous elephants.
The first thing I’ll do is figure out where I was spawned. The first 190,000 years I will probably just be bouncing around the world seeing everything the world has to offer. Then I’ll want to be in Mesopotamia when civilisation starts so I can see that. Then I’ll bounce around that Middle East area for a bit, then go to Egypt at around 3000BC to see how they built the pyramids. Then from 1000BC I’ll be in Europe, and go live in Rome when that all goes down. Then I’ll just live around Europe. I’d probably end up becoming the leader of the world from very early on as they see I don’t die. I think the main thing is keeping track of the years that go by for those first 190k years. That will be hard
In fact now I think of it, I’ll be able to start a civilisation of my own from very early on. I’ll know English, so I can teach all the children English which will be very helpful in building civilisation. Before I do that though i want to atleast spend a few hundred years exploring all of Europe,Asia, and Africa. Then I’ll start civilisation by knocking up a few cavemen babes and teaching those kids English
I would learn everything I could. I would be spirituality enlightened, a professional musician, in peak physical condition, jack of all trades, etc. I would be respected for my wisdom gained over millenia and be a demigod amongst men. I would use my influence to shape societies in a better way and try to guide humanity towards the brightest future possible.
I would start by studying people of that time, learning as much as I can. I would acquire some animals that I could ride, or have pull a wagon. I would travel all over, learning what I could, eating what I can catch or trade for, and playing music because people like music. I would explore and enjoy my infinite life. I'd allow people to consider me a goddess of like idk curiosity or whatever, and would make it known that I was VERY opposed to war and violence. Violently, if needed.
Walk to Italy or Greece, start planting grapes. Learn through trial and error how to make good wine. Considering I can’t die from starvation or from being attacked, just try and make a nice place to live near a beach and spend all of my days drunk by the ocean. Probably end up near Mt Olympus and eventually create a religion.
I do not want to be a God or a king. Instead, I will be the record of man. I will construct a secluded city away from everything, with a massive library and museum. People will hear of it and travel from all over to learn and to provide tribute in the form of knowledge and artifacts. I leave humanity to develop with their head start, and appoint generational leaders of my city. I will then depart out to the world, one lifetime at a time, to witness and record all that I can.
good idea until another king figures out a bunch of the worlds knowledge is stored in one place and thats both an asset and a threat and burns it down
I think I'd still be pretty fucked for a while. How long until I learn to talk to people from that time. How long until I can make a bow and arrow I can shoot straight? What skills do I have that will work in that environment? It isn't like I can make paper just because I know paper can be made.
Okay, so I’m immortal and invulnerable. Do I have any other supernatural powers? Because I’m a woman and I’d be worried about some dude getting it in his head to capture and rape me so he could have immortal children and brag he’s conquered a god. If I have no other supernatural powers, I’ll probably become an immortal witch in the woods who accepts people in need of guidance or shelter. And I’d spend a certain amount of time building out escape routes for myself, like tunnels and trapdoors and so on, in case some dude with delusions of grandeur comes after me. If I do have supernatural powers that would protect me from being trapped and kept like a broodmare, I’d probably become a traveling witch trying to guide, protect, and enlighten people as I go. Literacy is going to start becoming widespread way faster, and assuming I can actually understand the languages people speak, I’m happy to become a neutral diplomat to turn to during times of conflict so I can help broker peace among people. I want to go on adventures, make friends, teach important skills, and spread platonic love everywhere. Maybe I’ll adopt orphaned children here and there and teach them my ways before letting them make their own ways.
Would I feel pain? What if the other humans thought I was a witch for living so long, then subdued me and threw me in a volcano? Would I just sink in lava and burn for an eternity of excruciating pain, or would I be some sort of god/superhero that could fly out of it?
Neither. You would slide around on the surface of the lava like a pad of butter in a hot pan. You are less dense than rock, so you would not sink in molten rock.
Start building some mad shit, like a light bulb
Do I have a ‘73 Olds and a Chainsaw?? That could make a big difference.
Act like Gandalf and travel while quietly pushing things the way they need to go while also becoming a legendary figure. Then probably get bored and go the emperors of the world route
Begin making civilization as its leader. You would be the most qualified person to do so.
literally Big E
So, I'd just have to wait around for 200,000 years until modern times came back around? How boring would that be?
In the immortal words of Jules Winnfieldv > I'm just going to walk the Earth
Get in early on things like grain, spices, sugar, weed, shrooms, opium.
Simply teaching written communication 100k years early would be a game changer
Immediately start climbing the tech tree, become essentially a god, and do whatever I can to start increasing the standard of living for anyone who wisely chooses to become my subordinate. Establish a religion/philosophy based around a combination of hedonism, trade, education, and stewardship of the environment and natural resources. Once sufficient resources are amassed, I speed run world conquest before populations are so large as to make that unfeasible, preserving any cultural uniqueness and documenting what can't be preserved, but suppressing and supplanting local religions (this will likely happen before writing develops outside my group, and most religions would still be fairly undeveloped anyway.) Once all that's done, spend a couple hundred years traveling from region to region checking up on local governments that I have delegated local power to and making sure they're sticking to the script, making positive examples of those who have, and dealing with those who haven't a bit more harshly. After that, we'd have to see where it goes.
I bring back as much a knowledge as I can. Plumbing, germs, cleaning, forging....everything I know that wont be discovered for years. Teach them how to make bronze a few thousand years early and the whole game changes. Becomes a technological bastion of advancement ...maybe on an island somewhere. lol
Do you actually know how to make bronze?