Current society is progressing at a rather fast speed, and it’s been like that for many years. We are constantly inventing amazing new things. New devices, new solutions to old problems, and new mathematical theorems and physical laws are discovered so quickly that it is immensely hard to follow and stay in tune.
To be fair, in recent times, we’re mostly developing newer versions of existing things, and not many original inventions are going on, especially in the mathematics and physics category, but still, there is a constant influx of new things in this world. Additionally, there is an even bigger influx of information received by every individual every day. Previously, in ancient times, the average person received an amount of information that is not even comparable to today’s person. Perhaps we could compare today’s person one hour of information with ancient people one month or more. However, how much quality is in this information? What do we really learn from the enormous amount of data and information? Well, looking at the average person – not much. It seems like our brain in modern times is just like an internet router – receiving and processing data but without any logic what to actually do with it.
Related: Will Time Travel Ever Be Possible?
In that sense, I think it would be interesting to hypothesize about placing a modern person into the time around Roman Empire or some 2000 years ago. At that time, 99% of the things we use today were not available. The modern person is using all those things (electricity, lights, heating, warm water, condoms, surgeries, automobiles, planes, and so on), and probably have some info on how those are built, but would he or she be able to invent any of them if placed, say year 20 BC? Remember that this person is coming from a faraway future (2022) where he/she went through many years of education and has all possible knowledge about everything in the palm of his hand via mobile phone. However, what is all this knowledge worth if that person cannot manage to re-invent any of the things he used in his modern world.
So, in that case, let’s imagine what would average Joe (35 years old) do in these historical times? Would he perhaps discover electricity or place a patent for long distant communication?
Imaginary person in ancient Rome?
So imaginary average Joe born in 1986 is 36 years old when he somehow found a way to go to year 20BC. It’s a sudden and unexplainable journey. He doesn’t have any way to prepare or bring numerous books or his smartphone with him. Average Joe is dressed in linen pants and has a standard haircut which could pass completely normal for historic Christ times. Now what? He has this immense “knowledge” in his head, but what to do with it and how to share it with those ancient people. At least he could become a new Jesus with that kind of knowledge if he manages to convince different people that he is actually from the future and has so much valuable info to share with them. That is, of course, if he also manages to save himself from not being hanged or beaten down because of his modern ‘voodoo’ madness.
When he first arrives in, say, ancient Rome, nothing seems very strange, nor to him nor to people around him. He is aware that in Rome of that time they, of course, didn’t have electricity, cars, mobile phones or anything that we’re used to in our modern lives. Also, he doesn’t look weird to people of that time as he looks very similar to them, if not the same. People didn’t change physically in the last 2000 years. Of course, clothes and haircuts changed, but average Joe’s clothes are nothing especially weird. Well, at least not for us in modern times. Since he is wearing pants, he did get several intriguing looks on the street, mostly because Romans considered pants to be barbarous garments.
Only later during Roman Empire (around the 6th century), sleeved tops and trousers had become the official uniform of the Empire. Consequently, Joe is being watched strangely on the streets as he is wearing linen pants. However, he is also watching Romans on the street doing some weird things which he can’t understand just yet. Namely, Romans used urine to wash some clothes. Yes, you read that right. They packed a bunch of clothes, placed them in bowls, and then soaked them with urine. Average Joe had no idea that Romans had this “interesting” way to wash clothes.
Then after a couple of days, he got acquainted with many weird traditions and activities of Romans. For example, urine was not only used for washing clothes but in many cases also as a mouthwash. Then Joe also learned that purple clothing was a status symbol reserved only for emperors and senators. This is mostly because this kind of color was not easy to achieve as it was made from murex seashells. Nowadays, everyone can wear purple, even average Joe. Oh yeah, Joe also learned that Romans like to socialize in communal toilets. Those were places where in one room (without doors), there were dozens of toilet bowls. So, Romans were sitting there, chatted with their fellow “seaters,” and did their thing.
With only several examples, it is clear that Romans had weird day-to-day life (compared to us today), but many other activities were similar, so Joe had a chance to talk to people and drink wine in taverns. Yes, 2000 years ago, Romans had taverns and restaurants as it seems with recent archeological discoveries. Joe was very happy to see that Romans had bars where he could describe to them all cool things from the future and perhaps help them build some of those. And so, the conversation begins with Roman guy and Joe:
***
– “Do you know that in 2000 years you will be able to drive 300 kilometers per hour in something we call cars!?” Joe stated laughingly, showing off his knowledge.
– “Mate, for the second time, I’m telling you, you’ve been drinking too much wine.” Annoyed, Roman squeezed through his teeth while watching a voluptuous lady across the street.
– Joe insisted. “But.. but…Cars are a real thing, and everyone has them in 2000 years.”
– “Ok, you got my curiosity. So, tell me, how are cars built exactly, and how do they work so we can build them here and now?” Roman indulged his curiosity.
– Joe pinched his nose, trying to think. “Well, you know, they have four wheels made of rubber, and then the motor is running those wheels based on valves which are then again running based on gasoline and sparks.”
– Roman smiled, looking distracted. “What you say mate just now? You started inventing words?”
– “No. What words? I mean, this is how the car is working.” Joe replied nervously.
– “First off – what is gasoline, and what are valves.” Roman insisted.
– “You know, the gasoline and the valves.”
– “No, I don’t’.”
– “Gasoline is liquid that comes from the earth.”
– “And how come we never found it?” Roman asked.
– “Because you didn’t dig deep enough into the earth.”
– “Why would we do that?”
– “Well, to find gasoline.”
– “Ok, this conversation is not making any sense. Can you describe in detail what cars are exactly and how they are built? Or can you make one?” Roman asked tensely.
– “No, I can’t do any of those things,” Joe explained.
– “So, you’re making things up?”
– “No, I am not. I just can’t describe in so many technical details.”
– “But you’re using those things every day?”
– “Yes.”
– “Then you must be able to describe it or perhaps even build it?”
– “Unfortunately, no”
– “Ok, what more do you have in your so-called future?”
– “Well, we can fly with airplanes!”
– “Ok, so it seems like you’re completely crazy. I’ll call you Lunatic Joe from now on.” Roman concluded this part of the conversation.
***
Are we really that smart in modern times?
And so, the dialogue between Roman and Joe continued for hours and days, but Joe couldn’t really convince Roman guy about almost anything, and that is because he couldn’t really explain how are things built in the modern world. Albert Einstein’s analogy comes quite nicely here to describe what our Average Joe is doing: “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” Well, Joe didn’t understand any matter really well to explain it so that it is believable to someone from a completely different time.
Therefore, the question comes to mind – if the whole society is set back a couple of thousand years – would we manage to come to the same result of progress as it is today, and would it be at the same pace? Perhaps society would develop completely differently depending on how much wisdom we’d have.
Then perhaps we would develop much more quickly, and we would already have flying cars and Neuralink technologies in 2022. One thing is for sure; most of the society is completely oblivious about almost everything and especially about different technological progress and about how things really work. What current society is not oblivious about is – how to dance on Tik Tok and how to receive the most likes on different social networks. Where will that kind of society lead us? Time will tell, but I am almost sure that it leads to even more oblivion (the state of being unaware or unconscious of what is happening around one) by even more people.
