What Tech Would You Take Back In Time?

On the hypothetical list of "Tech I Want To See In My Lifetime," a time machine is right up there at number one. Not because I want to go back in time and stop Kennedy's assassination or scare the living daylights out of my younger parents, but because I'd love to take some of our everyday technology back with me...

We have so many brilliant little gadgets already in our lives. But with newer, cooler technology emerging everyday, we can start to take for granted things like the tiny computer in our hands connected to a worldwide network of endless information, communication and entertainment.

I'd love to pop in on Alexander Graham Bell and show him the iPhone. Not only can I talk to people on the other side of the world, but I can send them pictures and words instantly from a portable wireless device in the palm of my hand.

I'd want to power back to 1991 and show Tim Berners-Lee what the internet looks like today. I think even the man behind the Web would be astounded (in a good way) to know that one day pages will exist in cyberspace for nothing more than tweeting. I would also probably have to explain what tweeting is. The people in 1991 probably will understand it even less than people in 2009 do.

So, Unplggd... if you had a time machine and you could take tech back in time, what gadget would you take with you and who would you show it to? Leave your answers in the comments.

[ Illustration with images via Wikimedia Commons and Apple ]

Not to be a party pooper but both or those examples would probably end up with you being laughed at or thrown in an institution, as they wouldn't work. Taking a mobile phone (with wifi) back in time is only going to make you look silly as there isn't any cell coverage, and same with the internet, how could you show TBL what it looks like today, unless you made a screencast of it, and then you'd have to take a PMP back to show him the movie on.

It would therefore stand to reason that the most effective thing you could take back would be a laptop, probably a netbook hackintosh running osx* and probably the best person to go and really impress would be Logie Baird with your LCD or IBM with your word processor. (but only until the battery ran down!)

Actually you could take that to Apple today and show them what's capable - LOL

posted by barrowman on April 15th 2009 at 4:52am
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