NationStates Jolt Archive

So sang Joseph Shwartz to himself as he slowly walked home in Mid-20'th Century Chicago. He's got enough money to see him and his wife through their retirement, his kids are all grown up, and he's even got grandchildren to make his older years a joy. He's finally managed to push pass the crush of work and the pressures of employment, he's finally able to spend time enjoying life with those he loves. Good times.

Damn nuclear physicists.

They're the ones who messed it all up for ol' Joe. Transported hundreds of thousands of years into the future, stuck on a world where the 20'th Century is ancient history and his family along with it, unable to speak the language and ignorant of all the facets of society, Joseph is up a certain creek and is badly in need of a propulsion device. It's a bit much for a retired tailor to take in, and I bet you wouldn't do much better. Thankfully, however, none of us will ever be forced to cope with a situation like that. But if we pretend.....

Okay, imagine you're Joseph Shwartz. You're walking down a street when suddenly you collapse to the ground and stand up in an unfamiliar place at an unfamiliar time. Nobody speaks English (Or whatever your native tounge is), nobody acts the way normal people act, and even the houses are different. Hell, people don't even have beards in this day and age (Which isn't that odd if you're a woman). You have no idea where you are or what has happened, and for all you know you're a raving lunatic whose 'memories' of life are mere delusions of a diseased mind.

How would you handle it?

There damned well better be lots of advanced gadgetry for me to fuck up and stare at to take my mind off the pain. I'd slowly learn the language, become a professor of ancient history, and sow the quiet seeds of doubt and rebellion through my lectures. Don't ask how, I'm an old man, and haven't thought that far ahead.

Badly.

So sang Joseph Shwartz to himself as he slowly walked home in Mid-20'th Century Chicago. He's got enough money to see him and his wife through their retirement, his kids are all grown up, and he's even got grandchildren to make his older years a joy. He's finally managed to push pass the crush of work and the pressures of employment, he's finally able to spend time enjoying life with those he loves. Good times.

Damn nuclear physicists.

They're the ones who messed it all up for ol' Joe. Transported hundreds of thousands of years into the future, stuck on a world where the 20'th Century is ancient history and his family along with it, unable to speak the language and ignorant of all the facets of society, Joseph is up a certain creek and is badly in need of a propulsion device. It's a bit much for a retired tailor to take in, and I bet you wouldn't do much better. Thankfully, however, none of us will ever be forced to cope with a situation like that. But if we pretend.....

Okay, imagine you're Joseph Shwartz. You're walking down a street when suddenly you collapse to the ground and stand up in an unfamiliar place at an unfamiliar time. Nobody speaks English (Or whatever your native tounge is), nobody acts the way normal people act, and even the houses are different. Hell, people don't even have beards in this day and age (Which isn't that odd if you're a woman). You have no idea where you are or what has happened, and for all you know you're a raving lunatic whose 'memories' of life are mere delusions of a diseased mind.

How would you handle it?
I would chaulk it up to quantum physics, take a few Jagers and double-check my math in the morning.

There damned well better be lots of advanced gadgetry for me to fuck up and stare at to take my mind off the pain. I'd slowly learn the language, become a professor of ancient history, and sow the quiet seeds of doubt and rebellion through my lectures. Don't ask how, I'm an old man, and haven't thought that far ahead.
And, well, maybe that too.

Be a guinea pig in an illegal experiment and develop telepathic powers ;) ?

Seriously, make sure I get transported to a medical facility first. They would be able to determine what I am.

Ah, but how would you convey that you wanted to be transported to a medical facility? How would you even know that such facilities exist?

try runing around like a crazy man, because thats what i would become! or would i?

I'd either
1) declare myself a god, and hoped everything worked out

and when that failed I'd

2) go insane, and make a weak attempt to refind my past. When I got desperate enough I'd go into the wilderness and become a hermit.

or after a long tedious process

3) adjust to my surrounds, as nature made us fully capable of doing so.

In a way, we go through this stuff a lot. Take for instance your first years at college, or your first job after. Different people, a different language, it is a decent analogy. With that in mind, I'd

4) join an online gaming forum and discuss events that will never occur to me, during my Friday nights, as to help alieviate the pain of being completely alienated and isolated from my fellow man.

Math, children! Have you learned nothing? Math is the universal language.
Go ahead, ignore it. Call upon every episode of Futurama, The X-Files and Star Trek that you've even glanced upon. Then continue to pretend that math is not everything.

Klonor, you're neglecting to mention that in that future world they round up those over age sixty for culling... and ol' Joe was a few years over the line, wasn't he?

Ah, but how would you convey that you wanted to be transported to a medical facility? How would you even know that such facilities exist?

First is easy: display signs of distress and hurt. Talk to people - which they would interpret as gibberish.
If there are no such facilities the next course of action would be problematic -the society would not be equipped to deal with people who are not normal.

Following small children would be the next attempt, using the assumption they must receive education of the basic ways of living somewhere. Maybe the methods can be applied to me.