What would happen if a new tech is sent to the past?

[Branaghan]

Let's all assume a time machine was invented, but it only did a single travel and then returned the traveler back to his own time/universe.

While he is visiting such past an important object is forgotten there. So let's pretend I bring back to 1993 a recent iPAD Pro... what are the odds this device changes completely the upcoming future?

Even if someone like Bill Gates gets that device, isn't it possible this would be completely useless considering the current technologies available back then and how everything gradually evolved?

It could be any object at any location or period in history...

Also, consider (for argument sake) that changing this past does not interfere in any way with your current timeline, so the modified past is just another mirror universe in which it was written you would pop into existence. So this would mean you could interact with your "copy" or cease to exist by killing your grandfather.

What I was wondering is how an artifact (this sounds like the jet engine from Donnie Darko...) that does not belong in said scenario in any way would make a difference.

 

[casperes1996]

Nice cover up, trying to disguise it as just a curiosity question. I’m on to you, you know. I know you’ve invented a time machine. Be responsible and stop hiding from the government agents who want it…

Honestly though, I think they’d be a tad disappointed at how little has fundamentally changed, while of course still also being impressed with some aspects of it, like how parts of the microprocessor are as small as like 15 sillicium molecules.

As for what could be learned from it, a lot, under the right conditions. But having only one device could also make analysis risky due to potential for breaking it. I think the majority of what would be to learn from it would be in the software, since the hardware would likely be difficult to replicate, though perhaps some parts of that could be produced faster with a known goal to work towards. But in terms of software one could analyse the behaviour of the system even if not the source code directly, as well as the UX design sensibilities. If you have for example Swift Playgrounds and some Swift code on the device as well that could lead to interesting developments in the field of programming languages as well. While a lot of the ideas would not be novel for 1990s, the ways the ideas are implemented would save some time in worse attempts through the years - especially if it were to include the new structured concurrency concepts from Swift 5.5

All in all it’s hard to say how big an impact it could have due to the butterfly effect. Undoubtably things would unfold differently to how they have in our timeline I would say, but we might still go through a similar series of developments just with slightly different details along the way

And I mean in the 50s, AGI was supposed to only be 50 years away! Future tech and it’s not even HAL2000.

 

[Mousse]

Sounds like the plot for Terminator 2.😏

It would depend upon how way more advance the technology is compared to current tech. If someone left an iPad in King Arthur’s Court, I see no changes. Even Merlin wouldn’t have made heads or tails out of it. Now if a modern day fighter craft were sent back to the 1940’s, it would have had a radical effect on history.

 

[casperes1996]

Sounds like the plot for Terminator 2.😏

It would depend upon how way more advance the technology is compared to current tech. If someone left an iPad in King Arthur’s Court, I see no changes. Even Merlin wouldn’t have made heads or tails out of it. Now if a modern day fighter craft were sent back to the 1940’s, it would have had a radical effect on history.

Hmmm. The iPad being sent back to King Arthur might've started a new religion. Perhaps we would not just talk of the Cult of Macintosh; We might actually have the Holy Apple

 

[Khalanad75]

I have answered this one before. I would take a macbook fully loaded with modern schematics for as much as I could, back to the garage with the Steves and Bill, explain to them what it was, and let them have at it.

Could you imagine what those 3 could come up with if they had our modern tech back then. And not just computers, the advance in medical treatment and so on in the 30 years would be huge.

(I'd only ask for them to put 1000 founders shares in my name )

 

[pshufd]

 

[Branaghan]

As for what could be learned from it, a lot, under the right conditions. But having only one device could also make analysis risky due to potential for breaking it.

The risk of breaking it's due to Apple devices having scored zero in terms of repairability (iFixIt)?

I would imagine if a recent iPhone (and in this scenario only one unit) landed in the 1980's or 1990's even with the most advanced technology back then they couldn't open without messing things up? I know that for example the Airpods are somehow glued and once you do anything remotely close to checking the internals or changing any piece of it they can't be repaired.

 

[44267547]

The risk of breaking it's due to Apple devices having scored zero in terms of repairability (iFixIt)?

Minor rant:

To answer your question, no. iFixit technicians are incompetent and they barely can service an iPhone past the iPhone 8, with the exception of the battery and display. Most of what they repair, is android devices (Far more serviceable with the hardware and they use less adhesive), because like you said, the iPhone is becoming so dynamic in terms of making repairs, Apple has made it virtually impossible to service iPhones with third-party manufacturers. Which in my opinion, is a good thing, because most of them use junk parts and they don’t have access to Apple’s OEM parts either.

 

[R.T.J.]

They will look at the apps and will conclude "we must be idiots" in the future. So much technology and we ended up doing just this crap?

I was thinking that by now computers would be something of the past and humans were so advanced that could resolve their issues by natural telepathy. Not by being imbeciles depending on hardware, that would have rendered humans useless and stupid. Oh, wait!

 

[decafjava]

They will look at the apps and will conclude "we must be idiots" in the future. So much technology and we ended up doing just this crap?

I was thinking that by now computers would be something of the past and humans were so advanced that could resolve their issues by natural telepathy. Not by being imbeciles depending on hardware, that would have rendered humans useless and stupid. Oh, wait!

Butlerian Jihad* maybe?




*Nerd reference to the Dune sci-fi novels