Say you jumped into a time machine which malfunctioned and dumped you in a random European city in around 1000 AD. What advice or information would be useful for survival? These are a few tips readers left that I thought would be applicable and helpful. Technically for this thought experiment I think one shouldn't be allowed to bring anything beyond what they are wearing and excluding items like lighters which as one commenter wrote would make you "friggin Merlin." As you read through, the comments and arguments start getting more and more complex and lengthier. Either way, if I was a teacher this would make for an excellent and interesting homework assignment for my classroom.
I'd start a shop that did nothing but boil water and then sell it. I'd market it as "de-spirited" water and sell it to midwives, priests, doctors - anyone who would be charged with the health of another. The boiled, micro-organism free water would dramatically improve the health outcomes for anyone with cholera or plague or infection. Even marginally better outcomes using clean water would bolster my reputation and business. Of course, barriers to entry would be pretty low in my business, but if I were widely copied, I'd start a health revolution. For that quantum timeline anyway.Wouldn't the easiest way to use future knowledge to your advantage in 1000 AD be to know well the history of the time period and use that to become a successful fortune teller? The comparative advantage that you were actually right would be huge. Presumably your timeline would diverge rapidly from ours, but you could cement your reputation early and coast for a long time on it. Then, just write what would have happened in future centuries and you will be hailed as the greatest psychic in history when at least some of it comes to pass. But remember to be vague to account for the divergence, except for things that are unlikely to be affected by human history (e.g. Little Ice Age, volcanic eruptions, Tunguska asteroid strike, etc.).
Your primary goal is to hook up with the clergy or the nobility. Everything else gets you killed or turned into a near-slave.
Don't step on any butterflies.
A lot of the comments presuppose a white person traveling back, but I wonder how they'd react if *I* suddenly landed at their muddy township.
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