a time traveller from 1921 arrives in the year 2021: which single innovation does he/she find the most mind-blowing?
Surely the only answer is sliced bread as everything since has been measured against it?
Its got to be the holographic quantum distortion engine, right? I mean, that thing changed EVERYTHING. Wait, what?! *20* 21?? Yeah, ah we forget I said anything I supermarkets are pretty cool, I guess?
Recruitment consultants .... talk about modern day carpet baggers
People able to become experts on anything simply by reading a 280 character message
Eradicating of many diseases through vaccination
My Bluetooth electric toothbrush that tells me which teeth are sufficiently clean, and where I`ve applied too much pressure.
If they`d read EM Forster`s 1909 work "The Machine Stops", then very little. They`d be familiar with videoconferencing, instant messaging, e-commerce & remote work. They might be struck by how little had developed further than they could imagine back then. Automatic washing machine
Human longevity has soared - the equivalent would be us living to well over 160 by 2121.
Probably the time machine
The fact that more or less the whole of the western world is engaged in an argument about whether or not women have penises.
English Imperialism, their thought being that WW1 would have put that lethal monstrosity to bed forever.
Prawn Cocktail crisps
That the world is now in colour and not black and white
while they can travel through time, weve made it difficult again to pop 26 miles to our nearest neighbor,and have nothing better to do than trumpet the ability to order 1lb 4oz of mince online from tesco while bodies are piling high in a pandemic our leaders pretend is over
Where the roasted chestnuts at fam?
The invention of sex is a spectrum theory The crown on a pint glass
Google search engine.
Women in trousers, like as not.
This The fact that Rees-Morgue has managed to retain exactly the same clothing that he wore in his 1921 incarnation.
I would say smartphones but someone posted this the other day from 1923 so some people had an inkling of what was to come Wikipedia / Google in your pocket.
Touch screen tech. It blew my mind when they said it was going to be a thing. Just everything smart phone related.
the incompatibility of every type of new thing ever. Nothing ever fits with anything else. Not that I have just bought an old technology new CD which doesnt play in my car.
Men no longer wear hats
That there are still children starving hungry!
A time traveller from 1971 arrives in the year 2021, but immediately returns in disgust on hearing the answer to his first question: "Can I please have a pair of hoverboots?"
The time machine he/she arrived in
The Wheel. Followed by Fire. But mainly microwave chips.
Possibly that in the first 50 years mankind went to the moon, but no one has bothered to go back since.
That stupidity has been weaponsied & it works! The Internet & Particle Physics & QM Maths & Apollo flights & Polyester fabrics/clothing & ... awh c`mon one is 2 hard!!!!!
They might be more surprised to learn that the climate is breaking down and we`re doing nothing about it.
Actual 1921 was expecting flying, electric everything, travel, and radio, so a real surprise would be from a field of science that simply did not exist, so either molecular biology, computers, rocketry, or antibiotic medicine.
The mobile phone & everything you can do on it! Or potentially space exploration the likes of the Hubble telescope & voyager 1 in interstellar space I mean WOW
That we have robots on Mars.
The internet, and everything that has flowed from it.
Time travel - I mean hes just travelled in time and that beats the hell out of anything weve invented!!
That thing in changing rooms the dries swimming trunks.
The deamericanisation of America...
The jet engine A 1936 annual for boys was forecasting multiengined, multi-propeller airplanes
Drum & Bass music.
The fact that a Scottish football club can win 55 titles in 12 years
That there is more Extreme Nacho Cheese flavour on a single Dorito in 2021 than they would have seen in their entire lifetime
Imperial weights & measures
The human flesh-eating frog-poodle. He decides to take steps on his return to make sure it never gets invented.
The Corby Trouser Press.
Microsoft Access......they will wonder what in gods name drove humanity to this.
The cover up of time travel technology.
The world is just getting through a pandemic again.
Prawn cocktail crisps.
Rita, Sue and Bob Too
Organ transplants / Smartphones
Dont know but I`ll swap her two mobile phones and an Xbox one for her time machine!
Bloke time traveller: pornos of course. Woman time traveller: reproductive care and contraception. Dangerous pregnancy and childbirth plagued womens lives.
The smartphone. It`s mind-blowing even now when you think about it. Contact any human on the planet with audio, images, text or video. Anytime. Wherever they are. Oh, and access the sum total of all human knowledge too.
"The High Tech Hotel of 1921 Had an Alarm Clock In Every Room Paleofuture" You kinda think if they`ve got time travel sorted it`s going to pretty hard to blow their mind with anything since
"The Metropolis of Tomorrow (1929)" The minster for culture media an sport eating camel anus on something called a television
Got to be the combination of internet and smart phone. If I was transported from my 1981 self to 2021 it would be that.
Schools haven`t changed.
A remote-controlled vehicle called Perseverance that is currently exploring the surface of another planet.
Universal healthcare (for those countries that have it)
Gosh so many. International Space Station, mobile phones, Internet, Cern, medicine...
I think a video doorbell app with someone on the other side of the world speaking to someone on video at their door from their smartphone, sums it up!
The contraceptive pill
Were there many time travellers in 1921? Seems like greatest single innovation to me@and they were clearly ahead of us, if thats not self-referential
My Dad wrote in 1951 aged 10, about man landing on the moon, little did he know. Sorry, doesnt really answer your question, but its a snippet of Dad I love, hes 80 now
That my mum still has an electric carving knife.
brain machine interfaces Something we`ve taken for granted for decades but because of which the world population has tripled. Antibiotics
I agree with the pill. It freed women from a life of giving birth to endless children.
The microwave oven would blow many away even though it seems old hat to us. Free video calls to anywhere in the world for the price of an internet connection. The jet engine. Satnav.
We`re reintroducing third class railway travel?
