What Do You Know ?

Here's a humbling question: If you were magically transported back in time -- say 1,000 years -- what could you teach the people of that time?

This makes me realize how little I really know.

If you could manage to keep from being burned as a sorcerer, wise men of the time would make pilgrimages to see you and ask thousands of questions.

You would be 400 years before Gutenberg and his movable type printing press; 600 years ahead of Galileo; 500 years ahead of Columbus. But of all of your knowledge of our modern world and its thousands of wonders, what could you show them how to do?

The aspirin tablet, the first real wonder drug and painkiller, would have been an unbelievable boon to them in their suffering. Could you show them how to make it?

How about the steam engine? Could you show them how to make one? Or a simple electrical generator? Or how to make wire? Could you make a clock?

We know so much about so many thousands of things, but with the exception of our specialty, we'd be really hard pressed to show them how to make much of anything.

Thinking on this also helps me realize how interdependent we are. We could do very little without the help of thousands (or millions) of other people. Everything we have comes from other people.

So what do we know enough about to teach to others if we should suddenly find ourselves without the help of our modern society? Without modern medicine and dentistry, communication and transportation, educational facilities or modern utilities?