If you were transported back to 1200, what are some things that exist today that you could recreate or prove are possible to people back in the day?
I’ve long pondered this question because it really shows us what we take for granted. When you think of it, you probably don’t have a self-satisfactory answer to the question above. As a computer engineering student, I have absolutely no idea how I could even convey to the 1200-dwellers what a phone is. I may know how a computer works to the transistor level, but I don’t have a clue of how to make one single transistor, much less make a whole machine. If you’re a software engineer making a six-figure salary, tough luck. You’d be less useful than the town jester back in 1200.
Maybe computers aren’t fair game due to their sheer complexity. How about this: could I prove to them that the Earth is round? That’s a fact we take for granted every single day–and it’s not intuitive at all. It’s not normal to assume that hanging off the bottom of the Earth would feel the same as standing on the top. You probably would clown any flat-earther that exists today because they are such a small minority. But, could you convince a whole world full of flat-earthers who have never considered a spherical Earth? Good luck.
If you’re a biologist trying to prove the existence of cells, where are you going to find a microscope? If you’re an accountant, there is no financial system for you to work with (plus, no Excel). If you’re a lawyer, there’s barely a solid legal system for you to rely on. If you’re a doctor, you won’t have any of the tools and machinery you use on the daily today. If you’re a Starbucks barista, has coffee ever even been exported to your current location?
You’re probably even more useless than you think. Can you even make a simple pencil to write with? Can you make a backpack? Can you even build a chair from bare lumber? Probably not. We are all beneficiaries of an incredibly brilliant and complex environment–one that allows us to be valuable to society. Without this system, we realize that we are virtually useless. Our skills only matter in the context of this environment. We should all have humility in the face of the blinding complexity that is our world. We should appreciate the systems that exist that allow us to live and thrive. We take a lot of things for granted, and we should. But, we should also acknowledge the past that allowed us to take these things for granted.