Ask Lemmy

I can dig a hole in the earth so I'd say my skills apply all the way back to Ur and Sumeria.

Hmm. Before the end of the 19th century you're going to run into non-standardised/completely bespoke parts problems. How are you on a lathe, or doing blacksmith work? Hot riveting was a separate trade which you wouldn't have to do, at least.

I'm kinda obsessed with what I call technological bootstrapping, and so I have useful book knowledge about every step along the way. Doing it in practice is another thing, though; the locals are going to run circles around me unless I can invent stuff. (And even that rule aside, not starving or being "disturbed" while I work on whatever project is a thing)

So, I think I have to echo the "it's not going great in 2025" answer.

I think my knowledge of first aid and basic anatomy would be of some use in any pre-modern time period. I know enough to make a positive difference at least (wash that cut, dont drink water from downstream of your encampment, give the sick plenty of fluids, etc)

Beyond that, i'd be behind everyone else. I can fish, forage, garden, cook, start fires, and build shelter, but so could everyone for most of human history. I could probaby keep up with a hunter-gatherer society, but i'd be the least capable among them.

At least as far back as keyboard instruments have been around I could be a musician. Ending up further in time, I'd be a composer; the guy that revolutionised polyphony.

'Palestrina, that's really nice. Now check this out'

wait, i have skills??

I haven't practised it in a long time but my formation was in a horticulture school, I could go pretty far back.

I don't have any skills so I don't think I could get really far back.

I'll go way back and wow people with mayonnaise.

I'm a chef, so probably back to when fire started to be a thing people used.

Grew up hunting, growing, and preserving a good percent of my food. I might need to brush up on specifics but i think i could do okay if i had social supports for my disability (food providers usually do/did)

I feel like the further back I go, the better I would do. Send me to 65,000,000 B.C. I'll out caveman all the neaderthals.

Windows 98 SE

my skills sadly don't allow me to go back in time at all.

maybe somewhere in the greek era where I could be a cynic messing around

Italian Renaissance maybe? I can paint pretty good

The day before yesterday with great confidence.

How long has Excel been around?

With my work skills I won’t be particularly useful before the first high level programming languages started coming in the 60s. But I also gained some handiwork knowledge over time so I won’t be a lost cause if someone sends me further back.

Some of the original plastic reactors still run where I work so 1950's is the oldest operational unit and wasn't modernised. No computer. The corpses of the older stuff remain abandoned and in place. Not much different, just much less production rate and smaller.

1940's I suppose.

I'd be fine in any time period where I could still understand English spoken however. I don't care what I do for a living. Can't remember how far back that would be, Rob Words surely has a video about this.