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.
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 don’t even got skills for today
I can learn new things, so any time in human history.
my skills sadly don’t allow me to go back in time at all.
My skills travel pretty far. But with my gender id not be allowed to use them.
As a software engineer, I’d struggle with the limitations of ten years ago.
But on the non-work side, I have no problems with maintenance on my house and hand tools haven’t changed much, so at least 80 years
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’
My day job won’t go far, but my fire expertise and leatherworking skills will take me pretty far
I’m a structural engineer. I might not have all the materials needed, but I could probably still design old masonry structures if needed.
I’m a chef, so probably back to when fire started to be a thing people used.
Give me some stone knives and bear skins and I could construct a mnemonic memory circuit. ;-)
I’m a locksmith so any time since the invention of the pin tumbler lock 150ish years ago I will be fine. I don’t prefer it but I can hand file keys without any electric key cutting machines. Before that the bit and barrel locks that were used I know enough to get by though admittedly I don’t know enough history to say roughly how long ago those were invented.
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.
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. 🤷♂️
You’re a Microsoft Excel developer?
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.
I can dig a hole in the earth so I’d say my skills apply all the way back to Ur and Sumeria.
You could go all the way back to dinosaur times when we were burrowing rodents
Can you do it without a shovel? Even if hard packed? What if there’s a rock too big for you to lift?
