this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2024
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Asklemmy

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[–] [email protected] 59 points 8 months ago (3 children)

To Biff Tannen

(I'm sorry)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

Great minds think alike!

Didn't forget to bet on the cubbies!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

We all know this was the only right answer

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[–] LopensLeftArm 45 points 8 months ago (3 children)

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, sent to Julius Caesar

[–] [email protected] 21 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

I see 3 outcomes, in order of least to most in likelihood and excitement:

  1. Julius see's the error in his ways and establishes what essentially is an entirely new politcal system that is so good and just that It would stand today.

  2. Same scenario as above except his grandson grows up to one day claim his rule and reverses everything.

  3. He is killed, and for the exact same reasons as current lore. Either because his arrogance causes him to deny what will happen, or because regardless of any attempt to avoid such an outcome those who sought the power he had would still seek out that same power. Both lessons are fairly important but I think the latter one is often missed in the countless retellings. Power both corrupts and it's one sexy hot bitch.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

From what I can tell, the "tyranny" that Caesar was killed for was because he wasn't for the Roman ownership class and was using his power to counteract the huge wealth disparities that existed at the end of the Roman Republic.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Also the aim of the Business Plot against FDR.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

If FDR had reacted to that like he should have, the course of history might be pretty different. For one thing, the Bushes might have never gained the power they did.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

Agreed.

There should have been a massive purge.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Side question, but would ancient Romans be able to decipher a modern day language from one book? I'd imagine a language with Latin based words might be easy enough but not sure how equipped they were.

I miss /r/AskHistorians

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Just translate it into Latin before sending it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Oh yeah, for sure as an answer to the OP question, but I'm still curious about their decyphering ability

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Depends on which modern language we're talking. If it's italian or romenian, they'd likely manage to work that "filthy" latin into "proper" latin. Greek might also work. Portuguese, spanish and french would require a LOT of work with native speakers and I suspect german and english would completely fail, "Why in Jupiter's dangling balls these barbarians keep changing the sound of the fucking vowels????"

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Is romenian Italian with a Rome accent? Or do you mean Romanian? Cause if so, it's just as far from latin as French or Spanish. Greek would actually be the best modern language to send back in time, I think. Modern Greeks have issues understanding ancient Greek, but the reverse wouldn't be true, apparently.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago

He couldn't get himself to read a note an eavesdropper to the conspirators gave him trying to warn him about the attack, I sadly doubt he'd read a whole prophetic book.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I have a book at home on my shelf which is just a collection of all of Nikola Tesla's notes and findings.

I'm sending it to Benjamin Franklin.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I confused Franklin for Edison (!) and almost gave you a downvote for an excellent troll.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Send it to Tesla himself, then he can use it as a starting point not an end point.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The Silmarillion, but carved into stone and sent to the earliest Northern Europeans

See what happens to world mythology

[–] [email protected] 31 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Carved into stone. So you're sending them a literal mountain

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

Have it printed on a series of cave walls that go deep into the ocean and by the time the present comes around again, maybe we'll have fully explored the oceans and there will still be unexplored land.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 8 months ago (3 children)

I'd love to send Einstein's Theory of General Relativity to Newton. Or maybe a whole textbook on modern physics but that would probably not be deep enough for him. But I'd really love to see what he could have done with modern physics.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The complete history of the stock market. I'd send it to me for my 21st birthday. With a certain letter proving it was me from the future. With the last chapter being the history of bitcoin.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I wonder how long it would take to start diverging. There's a maximum volume of trades you can make before you start having an impact on the prices yourself. Knowing the future perfectly means eventually you would be the most dominant force on the market unless you tempered yourself. But having a book is just having a snapshot of a single reality that your reality will start diverging from.

The show The Travelers addresses this a bit, but I think even that one underestimates how much a new player will full knowledge of the future market would affect that future market.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I loved travelers. Great show.

And you have a good point. Would have to be very careful on how much I used that book.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

It would be cool if they did that second series the finale teased, though they'll need to come up with some new twists. Though tbh, I'd watch a new take on the old ideas, too.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 8 months ago

Wage-Labor and Capital to George Washington.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago (1 children)

One of my college text books on Electromagnetism with the heavy calculus and derivations of Maxwell's Equations to either Leonhard Euler or Isaac Newton, one of the extremely few people in the 17th century that would be able to understand the math and use the math to actually generate electricity.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago (2 children)

me and a book of all the best days to buy bitcoin

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago

Not the best days to sell as well?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago
[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (3 children)

I think this one is easy: you send Hitler any book about German history from 1933 to 1990.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

Hitler was egomaniacal I don't think he would have a change of heart, but instead use any information too alter the outcome.

But if you're going to send a book to one of the worst people in history it's gotta be one of the worst books in history. Just gotta find the right age to send him The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists by Neil Strauss. I need AI to get to the next level so I can see how this might play out.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (2 children)

We're in the timeline where he was stopped and had to kill himself, not sure I really want to give him any pointers about how to further his agenda but slightly differently and avoiding some tactical mistakes. I don't think he's going to take from the book that his world view was wrong or that for the good of Germany he should abandon his goals.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago

A kid's picture book explaining the scientific method to Epicurus, who was the closest in antiquity to figuring it out for himself.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

I like to imagine giving a big World Atlas of some sort to any seafaring culture around 500AD would result in interesting consequences, possibly with it becoming a real treasure. Maps are like pictures and valuable even if the places' names can't be understood

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Gray's Sports Almanac to what's his name.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

Already happened and we are living in that shit timeline

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Quite like to send the Complete Works of William Shakespeare back to the guy himself. Seeing he's already written it that would free him up to write a whole bunch more.

Would be cool to do the same thing with certain scientists.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

One of these books that's just hundreds pages of digits of a large prime number.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

That would start a religion.

They loved their numerology back then.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

People still do nowadays, especially when you can cherrypick bible passages with special numbers

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I'd like to prevent many tragedies, but I'm not sure a single book would change history. I can actually imagine it going very wrong...

β€” Mein FΓΌhrer, this book here explains our theories about the origin of the German population and about the natural maliciousness of Jews are wrong.
β€” Let me see... Lies, all lies! This here is evidence of their pervasive propaganda against the aryan people.

β€” Witchfinder General, a book had arrived... from the unknown.
β€” What kind of sorcery is this? "Witches do not exist". "...These trials were the result of ignorance and greed". What in the name of God is this blasphemy? A powerful witch is near and these are her evil tricks!

So I need to think of a better plan, lol.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

A science book and a noteworthy thinker. But probably not terribly far back. It's not like knowledge of electricity would go terribly far before other technologies (manufacturing, for sure) were ready to enable it to flourish.

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