r/AskReddit • u/hwoaraxng • 22d ago
You're sudenly in year 1208 and only have your smartphone with you. What will you do?
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u/thaw800 22d ago
with no internet and about 8 hour worth of use, it'd be a rather useless device
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u/The_Weirdest_Cunt 22d ago
Your phone can last for 8 hours? Mine went from 100% to 4% in a little over an hour earlier
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u/Niarkecolopolo 22d ago
Primitive technology guy episode #245669 where he build his time travel machine.
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u/getrightwit-it 22d ago
Take photos like crazy of everything I can, food, people, fights, structures. Everything. Power that shit down
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u/TheGentlemanist 22d ago
A timebox is an amazing idea. I would next go to a blacksmith or something. Ask him to make a somewhat usable box to store the device in for loooong times. Exchange for work till the dept is paid off. Ask a cleroc to lend u writing utensils and write a note stating what this is, and lay it into the box....
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u/getrightwit-it 22d ago
Yeah that would be good. Get that thing locked up and just live like 1208 ppl. By the time 1250 comes and that phone is kept in good condition and not hidden by some turn at the world may just progress 200 years in 40 years. Who knows
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u/Appropriate_Check125 22d ago
running away from people so they will not think i am a monster or a wizard
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u/WildcardTSM 22d ago
First I'd try to find some clothing. I'd be a giant compared to pretty much anyone at that time (6'5"), and would not be able to communicate with them. Showing the smartphone turned on (even just the flashlight functionality) would most likely freak them out, so I'd probably have to play mute and find a way to make myself useful enough to someone to get some sustenance and stuff. I'm not trained in weaponry, nor all that agile or strong, nor that young, so training to be a soldier is probably not that useful. While I know formulas and some chemistry I know the modern names of stuff and not what they'd use in that time, so even that would be hard to show prowess in.
Oh, and I'd be a danger to them when it comes to possible virusses and germs, and vice versa.
Another issue, where in the world do I appear? Where I live now, or another place? If it's where I live now at least I'll be right next to a city. Which would make me a lot more likely to survive than anyone appearing in the middle of nowhere in NA for example.
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u/hungrydruid 22d ago
I'd be a giant compared to pretty much anyone at that time (6'5")
At this point you could probably be declared a god in some backwoods settlement. Or just take over a nearby castle or something. No one is going to question WildcardTSM the Giant.
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u/IsAlwaysTired 22d ago
Ask google what issues 1208 had to face and which countries to avoid, and what diseases were dominating and how to prevent them.
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u/FreelancerNova 22d ago
How would you do it it zero connection
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u/IsAlwaysTired 22d ago
I expected there was somehow. Otherwise, the phone would be useless and the question is odd.
Its highly fashionable watch tho, and you can still use it for notes. But, why if its battery is going to die anyway.
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u/TheGentlemanist 22d ago
Go to the clergy and show them that i can read and write, might buy me enough time to not be burned at the stake for being a witcher.
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u/WildcardTSM 22d ago
You won't be able to read or write in the languages used in 1208 most likely, so good luck with that. Unless you are fluent in latin you are not going to be able to communicate with the clergy or anyone else, and if you are you still most likely can only communicate in writing.
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u/TheGentlemanist 22d ago
As chance loves it, i have a digital copy of the "Stowasser" on my phone. This was from 7th grade latin class, and not made up right now. This would enable me to comunicate long enough to copy it if im lucky, now i have a dictionary, and am capable to communicate with a group of people present in most areas of 1208 europe.
It has about 80.000words, 160.00 words to write with a average silable count of 1.5 per word, and an average writer taking a minute to write 40 sillables it would takte about 4.2d to complete a copy. As i am used to writing large amounts of text with a quill, i might be able to learn enough latin and copy the rest. In emergency mode my phone could last roughly 2d active, and 2weeks shut down. If i limit myself to the words i do not have memorised, i might be able to communicate, and figure out the rest wirth a good teacher.
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u/WildcardTSM 22d ago
Remove the SIM card and shutdown all other ways of communication such as bluetooth, that severely limits how much power the phone uses already.
I used to have a bunch of 'useful stuff' on my phone, with basic survival information and other stuff I planned on at some point studying, but now the only of those documents that is left (and not because I studied the rest, but because I figured I'd never bother to do so) is a sign language book. Which I may at some point have a look at still.
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u/SleepyConscience 22d ago
Smartphone is going to be almost useless with a partial charge, no recharge and no internet. I think the most practical thing you could do is shut it off and then use the scientific calculator app as needed. That has to be a valuable tool in those days. Maye you could scam some rube king into thinking it could do that forever and paying you bank and the you're long gone when it runs out of batteries? I assume you're saying I'm going to land in Medieval Europe when you say 1208.
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u/Titanic_122 22d ago
you ever read the Magic 2.0 series of books? this is exactly the premise, kinda
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u/Efficient-Exchange13 22d ago
Basically nothing on the phone would work as everything is cellular or through WiFi also. You can’t charge your phone so it’s done after it runs out of power
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u/CheeseburgerBrown 22d ago
Sit down and cry.
Because my soon-to-die smartphone with no network connectivity doesn't substantively change the fact that I'm in fucking 1208.
No matter where I am, I don't speak the language. I have no family, no wealth, no name. Their food is probably gross, too.