Time travel novell: försöker ge de forntida grekerna en början i vetenskapen

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Jag vill identifiera en novell om en man som vill skapa en bättre mänsklig ras genom att driva de gamla grekiska intellektuella lite längre. Han bygger en tidsmaskin går tillbaka och berättar för de grekiska intellektuella att de östliga intellektuella har skapat denna fantastiska vetenskap och matematik. Men när han kommer tillbaka finner han att världen istället för att utvecklas har regresserat sig till en djungel livsstil.

    
uppsättning mukhujje 31.07.2015 09:37

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9

Historien är "Aristoteles och vapnet" av L. Sprague de Camp , först publicerad i Förvånande Science Fiction , Februari 1958 , tillgängligt på Internetarkiv . Den tjocka gamla boken du läste den kan vara Legendboken för science fiction ( Gardner Dozois , red.), utgått US-utgåvan Moderna klassiker av science fiction ; eller kanske de Camps 1963-samling En pistol för dinosaur och andra fantasifulla tales . Du skrev i en kommentar:

Uppfinnaren gick definitivt tillbaka och låtsades vara en forskare från Pataliputra, Indien.

Citera från de Camps historia:

"I am Zandras of Pataliputra," I said, giving the ancient name for Patna on the Ganges. "I seek the philosopher Aristoteles."

Här är en sammandrag från Wikipedia :

Speculating that small changes in history might have profound consequences on the present day world, scientist Sherman Weaver appropriates a prototype time machine to project himself back to the era of Philip II of Macedon. There he hopes to meet Aristotle. Believing that the influential ancient philosopher's lack of interest in experiment had retarded scientific progress through much of subsequent history, Weaver aims to nudge the savant in what he considers the proper direction - with the intention of creating a different Twentieth Century dominated by a super-science hundreds of years in advance of ours.

Weaver pretends to be a conventional traveler from India. Equipped with modern-day marvels, he attempts to demonstrate to his new acquaintance (Aristotle) the value of experimentation in the furtherance of knowledge. Weaver's task is complicated by the malicious mischief of Aristotle's students, the coterie of young Prince Alexander (subsequently Alexander the Great), and by being suspected as a spy for the King of Persia, against whom Philip is about to go to war. He is ultimately forced to defend himself with a handgun he has brought, and is on the point of being executed as a spy and murderer when he is snapped back into the present day when the effects of his time projection wear off.

Weaver finds himself in a world very different from the one he left – but not in the way he hoped. Aristotle, convinced that the tedious accumulation of experimental knowledge is beneath the dignity of civilized philosophy, and that it is a waste of time attempting to catch up to "India" in that regard, turns out to have come down strongly against the notion in his writings. The result is a backward present of petty states considerably behind Weaver's original timeline in technology. His own United States is not even a dream, its physical confines being controlled by various Amerindian nations influenced by but having long since thrown off any subjection to the civilizations of the Old World. Enslaved in one such state, Weaver is only delivered from endless drudgery after many years when his scholarly talents are finally recognized.

The narrative of the story is set forth by Weaver in a lengthy letter to an acquaintance curious as to his remarkable background, in which he concludes that he would have done better to leave well enough alone.

    
svaret ges 01.08.2015 02:39
7

Jag vill identifiera en novell

"Den röda drottningens ras" , en novelette av Isaac Asimov , först publicerad i Förvånande science fiction , januari 1949 , tillgänglig på Internetarkiv . Den har en Wikipedia-sida .

om en man som vill skapa en bättre mänsklig ras genom att driva de gamla grekiska intellektuella lite längre.

"'Imagine, then, if somehow the ancient Greeks had learned just a hint of modern chemistry and physics. Imagine if the growth of the empire had been accompanied by the growth of science, technology and industry. Imagine an empire in which machinery replaced slaves; in which all men had a decent share of the world's goods; in which the legion became the armored column, against which no barbarians could stand. Imagine an empire which would therefore spread all over the world, without religious or national prejudices.

"'An Empire of all men--all brothers--eventually all free. . . .

"'If history could be changed. If that first great failure could have been prevented--'"

And I stopped at that point.

"Well?" said the Boss.

"Well," I said, "I think it isn't difficult to connect all that with the fact that Tywood blew an entire power plant in his anxiety to send something back to the past, while in his office safe we found sections of a chemistry textbook translated into Greek."

Han bygger en tidsmaskin går tillbaka och berättar för de grekiska intellektuella att de östliga intellektuella har skapat denna fantastiska vetenskap och matematik.

Han går inte tillbaka personligen; han har bara tillräckligt med makt för att skicka en lön på nytt i det förflutna. Han hyr en konsult för att översätta en modern kemihandbok till Attic Greek, och det är det han skickar tillbaka till Grekland.

Men när han kommer tillbaka finner han att världen istället för att utvecklas har återhämtat sig till en djungellivsstil.

Resultatet är mindre tragiskt än det. Översättaren spelade ett knep:

"In other words, gentlemen, while you are right that any change in the course of past events, however trifling, would have incalculable consequences, and while I also believe that you are right in supposing that any random change is much more likely to be for the worse than for the better, I must point out that you are nevertheless wrong in your final conclusion.

"Because this is the world in which the Greek chemistry text was sent back.

"This has been a Red Queen's race, if you remember your Through the Looking Glass. In the Red Queen's country, one had to run as fast as one could merely to stay in the same place. And so it was in this case! Tywood may have thought he was creating a new world, but it was I who prepared the translations, and I took care that only such passages as would account for the queer scraps of knowledge the ancients apparently got from nowhere would be included.

"And my only intention, for all my racing, was to stay in the same place."

    
svaret ges 31.07.2015 11:50

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