Incredible `Time Machine` - link to the 1600s!

Next time you drink a glass of water, realize that water was once dinosaur piss. Time machine by proxy.

My great Aunt (God rest her), she had a good old run though, died at 97. Anyway I found it amazing when she told us that she remembered the Titanic being built when she was a little girl (Belfast 1909 or there abouts) I mean actually watched it being built

reply to post by mlifeoutthere


I really liked this post and found it interesting. Time will always fascinate me.

reply to post by mlifeoutthere


Thanks for Posting this, I really enjoy reading it.
I'm 59, if My Father's Father was still alive today he would be 143, Yes! My Grandfather was born in 1870, five years after President Lincoln was assassinated. Just take a step back in time from me to my Grandfather 20 times we're in the time of Christ, that's really cool:-) That's really not that long ago!

reply to post by UndercoverJoe


Whoa! Wait a sec there! I was with you on computing the generations. My rule of thumb has been to compute generations at 25, so 4 generations per 100 years. You could probably make a case for 20 years. When you do the exponential math there you see that going back 1000 years, or 40 generations, computes to being related to a trillion people. Impossible, of course, and the conclusion is that we are all related.

You threw me with the claim that people "used to live longer." They didn't. The average lifespan in ancient times was about 28 years, where it still is in the poorest areas of Africa. If you believe Methuselah lives 1000 years, that's a religious belief that I call delusional. Believe what you want, of course.

But moreover, it is not "wrong" to think of overlapping lifetimes instead of generations. In fact, it is a fresh perspective. My grandmother lived to be 100, and her parents lived through the Civil War. The point is, it wasn't that long ago. How many kids she had at how old is really irrelevant; it's a side the issue.

Love this thread. My grandfather was born in 1866, my grandmother in 1873. She was 45 when she had my father and he, in turn, was 50 when I was born 45 years ago. I never knew my grandparents but oh how I loved to hear the stories my dad would tell. My grandmother was hit with the flu of 1918 and gave birth to my father when she was ill. The family story goes that he was born premature, I remember my uncles telling me that he looked like a skinned rabbit and that grandpa wrapped him in blankets and kept him warm next to or on the cook stove. When the flu hit their household, my uncle said that people would ride by the homestead with scarves around their faces to avoid catching it.

My uncle's wife came out west in a covered wagon. It always seemed like such a far fetched story but she really did. In their home were many pieces of furniture that survived the trip. Such a harsh life that my father and his parents lived through.

Now that I am older and would really love to know more about the family history, there isn't anyone left to tell it.
Even if you have no interest, for your children's sake write down the stories so that they have the history.

reply to post by old_god

 

[ old_god
reply to post by mlifeoutthere


You hit the nail on the head, history is a time machine for our imagination if we study it...unfortunately its hard to trust the history we have readily accessible but its still fascinating to read up about those people of the past.

One thing I have noted, people of that time retained a fair amount of morality and good character, humanity if you will, in comparison to our time and I am sure were they to see the way we are now they would wonder what went wrong and why.

Definitely hard to trust history but it is always worth studying. Seems to me we don't do that very well. We are happy enough with a few brief summaries that fit our narrowed perspective of everyday experience. We don't do enough thinking about the influences on us from birth and how they shape our thinking and understanding of who we are and the nature of the world we live in.

Human life is brief. As we see, what is 70 years? What is 100 years? It would be cool if we all were able to retain crystal clear minds and memories up until the moment we shuffle off the mortal coil. It seems to me we are encouraged to have a very limited understanding of our world and history. We even forget the lies of the politicians the last time they or their party were elected into office. Very convenient for them, and too for the massive multinational corporations that want us to be just consumers without minds of our own.

There are places in the world where people live much longer than the average life span in the west. Okinawa in Japan is one, Sardinia is another, both examples of 'blue zone' areas where people live far longer than average. We ought to be looking at our diet and lifestyle a lot harder. Just about all of us could live a lot longer than we do, far healthier, and with far sharper minds and memories so not to repeat the same old mistakes. Got away from the time machine subject a bit. Good thread OP.

reply to post by schuyler


Schuyler, you said:

You threw me with the claim that people "used to live longer." They didn't. The average lifespan in ancient times was about 28 years, where it still is in the poorest areas of Africa. If you believe Methuselah lives 1000 years, that's a religious belief that I call delusional. Believe what you want, of course.

It is your opinion if you want to think that people only lived to be 28 years old in ancient times, but others go by what the Bible says. No one can actually say how long people lived in ancient times, because there is no one who has lived from the beginning of time til now to give us an accurate account of how long people lived back then. Also, carbon dating has been proven to be inaccurate. So, all we actually have are ancient text that people wrote that give an account of how long people lived back then. If you don't want to believe what the text say, that is your opinion.

You also said:

But moreover, it is not "wrong" to think of overlapping lifetimes instead of generations. In fact, it is a fresh perspective. My grandmother lived to be 100, and her parents lived through the Civil War. The point is, it wasn't that long ago. How many kids she had at how old is really irrelevant; it's a side the issue

If you look up the word generation, you will find that it says: "the average length of time between the birth of parents and the birth of their children". A lifetime is how long a person lives. I was just trying to make the distinction between the both. You are right though, it does not seem to be a long time ago, if you look at it from one persons lifetime to their grand parents lifetime and so on. If you calculate from the beginning of time, from Adam and Eve in the Bible until now, we are only in the year 5774. That actually isn't a long period of time, unless you make the argument that the bible is not an accurate way to estimate the length of time that humans have been on this earth. You could say that we have been here for billions of years, if you go by scientific theories, but the only actual proof we have are from ancient text that people have written over the years, which only date back to thousands of years ago and not billions.

1000 years from now....however many generations that ends up being....Those people will be able to look back at us and see us exactly how we are. We are the first generation to record everything we do digitally. And all that video and sound will still be around 1000 years from now. Our great, great, great, great, grandchildren will know us...because they will have digital video of us.

We are really the first time travelers...the video images we leave behind now should last as long as humans exist.

We know the great composers works, but we never heard they themselves perform them. 1000 years from now if someone wants to know what Iron Maiden or AC/DC were all about, they will be able to watch a concert that was recorded digitally and see it for themselves.

Ericthedoubter
reply to post by RedShirt73

 

Me,f'rinstance?

Edit/

I read somewhere that YOUR smartphone....yes-yours,has more computing power than everything that existed 40 years ago...all of it...added together.

edit on 23-11-2013 by Ericthedoubter because: to add:I read...

What Our Smartphone can do is what only a fraction a Computer can do in the 40s 50s 60s can DO !!

40s Size of a House well in sections LOL 50s Size of a Garage early 60s Size half a Living Room
Now it can fit in your hand but speaking of processing power from year 2000 a Gig hertz a Desktop PC to the same Gig hertz Processing Power in your Hand the Smart Phone..

to Now

Tho The Tablet pc was an Idea OF Arthur C Clark Known for his Book 2001 Space Odyssey in the mid 60s
The Device Was Called a News PAD!! When Ironically Computers We the Size of a Room...


Imagination Fiction Turns Reality
Newspad
A notebook-sized computer and display screen for reading news stories or other text matter.
www.technovelgy.com...

Newspad Electronic Newspaper
An electronic version of a newspaper.
www.technovelgy.com...

Kirk Here!! LOL< Star Trek ...

List of computer size categories
en.wikipedia.org...

Timeline of Computer History
www.computerhistory.org...

I grew up in the age on the first personal computers from the Apple II Macintosh Commodore vic 20 64 128
and seen the Age of advancement of Personal Computers ... I cant imagine when im in my 90s what ill see in that time.. and Ill tell the Tales of of the Floppy Disk and using 2 drives to play games..and most using your imagination to play it.. and the 3 1/2 hard floppys that were 1.44 megs to 40mg hard drives to Terabyte drives to CD ROM DVD to BLURAYs and how slow it was to load them and the block graphics and the tales of the 8 bit to 64 bit to possible 128 256 512k etc.. through out the rest of my time ...

reply to post by mlifeoutthere


There is a truth and sadness to the post that has me thinking about my own life, me born 1936 at the tail end of the "Great Depression" and prior to the "Great War", I always wondered why they called them Great.. We now use the word as something extremely Good. Oh well the English Language is a trip anyway.
As a baby thru 3 we lived in Atlanta 2 blocks from Georgia Tech University... My dad would take me over to sit way up high on a hill at the side of the small stadium and watch the game... He watch, heck I did not know what I was suppose to be looking at.
The only real memory of those years was I got a Duck one Easter, I played with that duck everyday for maybe 2 weeks and it grew up We eat him for Thanksgiving.. Mom told me that he was glad to be with us? Did not exactly understand.
My Dad go a job welding and we traveled a lot in a 1936 Buick.. I was car sick a lots.
I started to school at 5 years old because my birth day way in October. We were in Tennessee... Cried for a week, did not know anyone, was small for my age and talked fun or so they said. Dad worked for TVA.
We were in Plymouth, N.C. when Pearl Harbor was bombed..6 mo later We were in Mobile, Alabama, Dad worked 2 jobs, 8hrs in Alabama Dry Docks & 8hrs in Chipley Shipyard... He rode a little shuttle between the two, He said that allowed you 15 minutes to get from one to the other. Lots of men did this because there was a shortage of men.
I remember being in "Grammer" School, because I went to 7 different schools till we came back to Atlanta in 1944.
It was Grammer School as it was called then (Elementary School Now) that I got a real education involving different cultures, different levels and qualities of teaching and religions..
Every morning we assembled in the Auditorium for devotional, pledge allegiance to the flag & announcements... they actually total us some current event pertaining to the war & sold War Stamps. 10 cents ea. (had a book we keep them in) (Bet 90% o f them were lost before getting home) Everybody was proud to be able to buy one...some even used their lunch money (school lunches were 15 cents) it would leave you a nickel to buy either a muffin or milk. you talking about being a "country together", we were. We all felt we belonged and wanted to contribute.. ALL!
It was the Safest, Securest, most Unified feeling.
Heck, when we moved back to Atlanta I use to go to the picture show every Saturday by myself (8yrs old)on a streetcar ... took 45 cents, 10 cents for the streetcar (return trip was w/ transfer ticket) , 15 cent admission, 5 cent Coca Cola, 5 cents Baby Ruth Candy, 5 cents Bag Popcorn and 10 cents to save.
I remember when dad had to work on Sundays and drive the car, Mom and I attended the Church where the Colored People went because it was closer to walk. I always enjoyed it because they were more excited and jubilant than the regular church we attended where my Uncle preached. Told him that fact 40 years later when he retired.

Lived till I was 46 years old with out a locked door on my house

i was brought up by my grandparents and i am 47 now born in 66 but when i was a kid old pop a family friend had served in the boer war and ww1 .

i remember him telling me the things that he had seen in his long life even my grandmother would go on about being on horseback and my grandfather would tell me how they went to school barefoot .

and how they would laugh at men being on the moon in films when they went to the pictures i even remember colour tv appearing when i was a kid and the fuss it made computers appearing digital watches shhh i feel old now and yet i am still a kid at heart yip its all a dream

reply to post by UndercoverJoe


Take it to the religious forums. A perfect example of why ATS does not "deny ignorance." Yes, you can believe what you want, but using the Bible as your definitive guide to history is like using Superman comics as the definitive guide to Gotham City. I don't deny there are glimmers of truth in the Bible. Noah's Flood, for example, recounts the ending of the last ice age when a coastal flood made the sea level rise 60 feet in about 12,000 BC. There are flood stories in many cultures, all different, but reflecting the same event. But did Noah live 900 years? Did Noah even live at all?

Of course not, and that's why ATS can be written off as a "cranky conspiracy site." But the overall thread is interesting, and except for these aberrations of nonsense, interesting. Thanks, OP.

reply to post by Wolfenz


With you there....I was born in '71 and i've been playing computer games for 33 years.

It's amazing how much can change even within one lifetime.

Back in the late 1970's, my first wife had a living relative in her 90's who remembered coming to Texas as a young girl in a covered wagon. That probably would have been in about the 1880's or so.

I never met her, but I really would have liked to talk with her about it. Imagine how much change she saw in her life, from moving to the "wild west" in a covered wagon as a child to watching man walk on the moon.

With the amount of societal change that has happened in the last 150 years, it is not unusual for a person to have contact with generations during his lifetime that, aside from him being a common link, only know of each other through the history books. For example, my late grandfather (1917-2006) told me once that when he was a little boy he talked to elderly men who had served in the war between the states. When you consider that there is 150 years between their birth and mine, events during their lifetime are known only to those in my generation through the history books.

When I was young, my mom took my older brother and me to visit for an afternoon with an elderly lady in our church. At the time she was 99, having been born in 1888. She still kept house by herself, and lived for four more years. She talked about the introduction of electricity, indoor plumbing, and the telephone. Somewhere I believe we have an audio recording of that time.

Then when I was in high school, one project I did was to interview people who had lived during the great depression and document their experiences. One of those interviews I clearly remember, talking with a man who had been born in the very early 1900's, and he made the statement that, because of his employment with the railroad, he did not feel the effects of the depression as much as some who were employed in other industries.

It is important that the memories of previous generations be documented and kept for those who follow. Every one of us has a story to tell of our life, and unless it is remembered and passed on, it will die with us.

Stars for this, cool post OP!

RidgeWalker
Then when I was in high school, one project I did was to interview people who had lived during the great depression and document their experiences. One of those interviews I clearly remember, talking with a man who had been born in the very early 1900's, and he made the statement that, because of his employment with the railroad, he did not feel the effects of the depression as much as some who were employed in other industries.

I never thought much of the class at the time, and in hindsight I really wish I did because it fascinates me now. In high school I had a class called current events, but the teacher tried to relate the events of today to the events of the past, basically to show us how to learn from history and how things repeat. To this end he would bring in a lot of guest speakers. One that sticks out in my mind was a WW1 vet, he talked to us all about the war and how they treated the Germans. I have no idea if he was embellishing his stories or not but they were downright brutal, the things he talked about them doing routinely to German prisoners (either soldiers they captured or just civilian sympathizers) really made me think about the things we consider bad now. It really brought home the phrase "War is Hell" to me.

My grandparents all lived through the depression as well, I'm sure many of us can remember things like our grandparents hoarding ketchup packets from fast food restaurants. I was born in the early 80's so I'm pretty far removed from the depression, but seeing my grandparents do that and actually teach it to me as a potential survival mechanism incase things were to go bad in the future always stuck with me.

reply to post by mlifeoutthere


Correct me if I'm mistaken.... But wasn't the life expectancy of a person in that era close to say 35 years? In which case, anyone this man may have met from the 1600's would have happened only on very rare occasion, if at all. Also considering the fact that this his life took place during the immigration era.

Thoughts?

forall2see
reply to post by mlifeoutthere

 

Correct me if I'm mistaken.... But wasn't the life expectancy of a person in that era close to say 35 years? In which case, anyone this man may have met from the 1600's would have happened only on very rare occasion, if at all. Also considering the fact that this his life took place during the immigration era.

Thoughts?

I think, but am not sure, that life expectancy was much lower due to infant or pre-20 year old deaths. Lots of illnesses knocked down lots of people early. The ones who made it, I think and please someone correct me if I'm wrong, lived out average length lives as compared to present day, with maybe a little runoff from a few odd illnesses and by not having Vitamin C supplements.

(C supplments didn't arrive until the later-1930s, and even then they were virtually ignored for forty or so years).