Stone Knife to the Moon

[Russell of Los Angeles]

Someone pointed out that it's a bit odd to have cars and radios in Cantr without the mass population and industry that we have IRL, and it got me wondering how long it would take just a few people with the right knowledge to build up to the technology represented in Cantr.

Extending the experiment, imagine that you're just one person. You do not age, and have all the collected information of the modern age in your cyborg brain. While out for a ride in your time machine, you accidentally push the eject button and land naked in Africa in around 20 million BCE. A glitch has left you with all the knowledge of civilization at the beginning of the 21st century. Your time machine is waiting for you... on the moon.

How long would it take you to accomplish the Apollo 11 project?

[Dudel]

As quickly as I freaking needed to!

Problem is, doing ALL THAT yourself would be BEYOND brutal and there would be other things that need done first. Like making a shelter and something to defend myself from the freaking giant monster things that I KNOW to be about.

It would be quicker then before because I'd know what to not do and what to do so actual experimentation wouldn't be needed.

I'd stat backwards...

I need rockets that'll reach, a hull that wont breath... etc. Then break those things down, then break down the things for that etc, until I got to what I DID HAVE and THEN work back up. This would ALSO, limit the time.

Quick Edti: HELL, the "big inventions" back thern where "fire, clothes, and the wheel." All of which, you should know how to make.

[BlueNine]

I often have a similar thought to this, but more of a "what if everyone in the world was put back" rather than 1 person...would we use solar power instead of fossil fuels etc?

As for the orig question: I would educate any local population gradually, so that I'd have help with progressing technology up to a point where I could make the rocket...possibly even progress it far enough that I wouldn't have to (After all...if I taught the world everything it knows, i'm pretty sure I'd be seen as a God)

[Russell of Los Angeles]

I tried to set the scenario to after the age of dinosaurs, but well before there are any hominids to educate. I referred to this: http://www.uky.edu/KGS/education/geologictimescale.pdf.

[Dudel]

You said I was in africa...

Lions, elephants, crocs...

Those things are giants, in a manner of speaking.... BUT YES... I did sorta misunderstand.

HOWEVER, my point still stands provided you remove the word "giant". I'm sure there we SOME nasty big things around still, I just don't fully recall off the top of my head.

[Cdls]

In all honesty, with one person starting from scratch, beginning in an environment that is (was) not very hospitable, it would be near impossible to pull off.


Not only do you have to worry about securing everything you need, you will have to worry about repairs, maintenance, fighting the elements (Ice age anyone?) as well as the constant issue of making sure that you yourself is capable of operating at or near 100%.


Having to start completely over, from scratch and being the only one around, I bet you would still be working on it to this day, and much, much longer into the future.

[Diego]

Done crudely but effectively, twenty five years, with no help, assuming no rare resources from far away continents are required (almost positive they wouldn't be). 5% chance per day I'll decide to face the music and find primitive pot and hallucinogens.

[Cdls]

Done crudely but effectively, twenty five years, with no help, assuming no rare resources from far away continents are required (almost positive they wouldn't be). 5% chance per day I'll decide to face the music and find primitive pot and hallucinogens.

I am curious as to how you would accomplish this in a 25 year timeframe, how would it be done?

[Russell of Los Angeles]

Done crudely but effectively, twenty five years, with no help, assuming no rare resources from far away continents are required (almost positive they wouldn't be). 5% chance per day I'll decide to face the music and find primitive pot and hallucinogens.

Huh? This isn't Cantr. I thought 1 or 2 thousand years would be optimistic.

[joo]

You'd have to find deposits of and extract huge amounts of metal ore and oil for machine frames and rocket fuel, as well as assemble large structures using only your hands and whatever machinery you could make.

You'd need a source of electricity, which you might be able to achieve using something like wind turbines, but you might also have to burn fuel which would have to be constantly collected.

[Russell of Los Angeles]

Yes. But mining for ore and collecting fuel wouldn't be done with the hands. You'd work your way up from bigger and more efficient tools. Even then, I figure you might have to spend some time down a few mines.

Here's a rough sketch of tech progression:

carpentry
blacksmithing
glass blowing
electricity
machine shop
...
Basically, the game is bigger, more powerful, and more precise tools.

The database of human knowledge would allow for short cuts, but it would also take a lot of innovation and R&D. One trick I thought of near the end of the "project" would be to build a space shuttle instead of a Saturn V. A space shuttle would be a bit smaller, so it would need (i think) less fuel, and wouldn't require the huge hanger needed to construct the Saturn V. However, the lunar module used to actually land on the moon could be built and carried in the cargo bay of the shuttle. There. You see how much time that saved? (heh)

[BlueNine]

Without the help of others I don't think it could be done...unless you could develop a cloning technology of some sort before you built the rocket. Some processes just require more than 1 person to complete (I might actually think of an example later)

[Russell of Los Angeles]

Two points:

1st - There's nobody else in the world, so there are no masses of people to be supported. Setting up a single oil well could produce hundreds of barrels of oil for fuel, which could allow you to operate all kinds of heavy machinery.

2nd - Computers, for automation.

[Russell of Los Angeles]

Without the help of others I don't think it could be done...unless you could develop a cloning technology of some sort before you built the rocket. Some processes just require more than 1 person to complete (I might actually think of an example later)

Whatever we think of as a two person job would require an innovative way to work around it.

[Diego]

You folks aren't being open-minded enough. All you really need is to move something to the Moon. Less NASA, more Jules Verne.