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Basically the title, you need to use the skills you have now and be a productive member of society.

I don't mean go back and show the wheel or try invent germ theory etc.

For example I'm a mechanic i think I could go back to the late 1800s and still fix and repair engines and steam engines.

Maybe even take that knowledge further back and work on the first industrial machines in the late 1700s but that's about it.

(page 2) 33 comments
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[-] buzz86us@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

1921.. Did people mess up their Model Ts?

[-] cheers_queers@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 week ago

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)

[-] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 1 points 1 week ago

I'm a structural engineer. I might not have all the materials needed, but I could probably still design old masonry structures if needed.

[-] Alcyonaria@piefed.world 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Given a fresh restart, carpenter or blacksmith 1300s probably. Id loathe the lack of food though

[-] lemmie689@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 week ago

No sugar tonight in my coffee
No sugar tonight in my tea
No sugar to stand beside me
No sugar to run with me

Da-un-do-dow dow da-un-do-dow
Da-un-do-dow dow un-dow-dow
Da-un-do-dow dow da-un-do-dow
Da-un-do-dow dow

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

I'd have to re-remember a lot of stuff I've forgotten, but late 70s, early 80s.

Unless you count "typing" as a marketable skill, then I could probably go back to 1872?

[-] j4k3@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

I'm pretty good at hunting and gathering. Back before my broken neck and back, I was super into wanting to buy some remote place in the Appalachians and pseudo homestead. I have messed with many of the required skills. I wanted a place in the mountains with a year round creek for a water wheel. Building a foundry and forge, along with a manual machine shop. I was into what I could do using junk from pick-a-part type junk yards. People often only think of parts for whatever low end car, but if you actually have a fundamental understanding of cars and the various technologies in different applications, a junk yard gives tremendous access to industrial technology for many types of machines and equipment. Junk yards are not setup for that kind of thing either. A little bit of flattery and flirting with a cashier goes a very long way when none of the collection of parts on your cart have legitimate prices on the menu.

Even with my disability now, I could probably survive in the wild by trapping game and some minor gardening if the population was low enough and I was in a decent location compared to where/when I live now I'm the era of the 50 year mortgage fuckwit dystopia.

[-] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 0 points 1 week ago

I could potentially survive on fishing. Not for fish, I tried that once and sucked. But crabs are stupid. A few times gone for fun and can easily get a few in not very long. If I was having to survive I would probably make bigger/more nets or traps too.

I wonder about spear fishing, have seen a few pretty large fish in shallow water before around here depending on the tide, some were certainly possible to hit, even if you don't hit every time that is a lot of food.

[-] j4k3@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago

It is easier to spear fish underwater. You do not have the refractive index of light to deal with.

[-] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 0 points 1 week ago

That is with modern equipment though

[-] j4k3@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago

You did not understand the abstraction. I covered all of human history from hunter gatherer to modern.

[-] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 week ago

Are there hunter gatherer methods of launching a spear effectively while underwater? Plus wouldn't it be much harder to see the fish.

[-] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 1 points 1 week ago

I'm a musician, so my skills have always been in demand, although the wages have always been in dispute for as long as there has been music. People love music, they just don't like to pay for it.

[-] leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 week ago

and be a productive member of society

I just write useless software for a useless company. I'm not a productive member of society today, I wouldn't be one at any point in the past. 🤷‍♂️

[-] Denjin@feddit.uk 1 points 1 week ago

You're a Microsoft Excel developer?

[-] leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Obviously not.

There are no microsoft developers these days.

Only copilot spewing slop.

That's why every single update breaks some fundamental feature that had been working for ages.

And no one can fix it, because they fired everyone who knew anything about how their software works.

[-] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 week ago

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

[-] WALLACE@feddit.uk 1 points 1 week ago

You could go all the way back to dinosaur times when we were burrowing rodents

[-] Tracaine@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago

I'm a physician - am MD. As long as I don't get burnt at the stake for witchcraft, I could go back as far as I wanted. People's biology hasn't changed much since Neolithic times.

[-] Aussiemandeus@aussie.zone 1 points 1 week ago

Be a shame you can't make medicines though

[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

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 the scenario rules 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.

[-] Aussiemandeus@aussie.zone 0 points 1 week ago

Lathe work I'm pretty good at, all be it a modern lathe.

Blacksmithing i have some experience given my involvement in HEMA but it certainly wouldn't get me far

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