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If you are to pop up into a primative society with all
sorts of neat technological tricks, you will probably get
burned as a witch. If you pull something really neat to
get away (a cloud of tear gas for example) you will only
strengthen their resolve to do you in.
People (if we are talking about the human variety) do not
react well to the unexplained. Throw in a little religious
neurosis, a dash of demonoic mythology, a bushel of
superstition and a pinch of xenophobia and you've got a real
problem.
The history of earth science shows us how powerful a
deeply entrenched religion (or two) can be. Recall the
persecution of Galileo, the inquisition in general, and the
problems that Jenner faced while doing the first work
with innoculation to prevent smallpox. More recently Bell
was told by investment bankers that they would dissaude
people from investing in telephones because they feared
adverse public reaction to the technology.
Good general rule: people will behave as idiots ruled by
ignorance and fear even when it is not in their best
interest. Our history is filled with far to many examples
of this fear and loathing of new technology. My grandmother
told me as recently as 1984 that I was ruining my life by
majoring in computer science. "It is obviously just a fad
and will pass. They are too expensive to do any good anyway."
I am positive everyone has seen this trend at work. There
is always a person in every office who dreads it every time
a new computer is installed, new software arrives or some-
thing changes. This dread stems from a) this person will
be forced to learn something new b) this person may be
forced to change something about how he does business
c) this person fears that computer will do its job so well
that he will no longer be needed. I have seen cases where
where this fear runs so deep that computers have been
*sabotaged*.
These are things about human nature that you might well
keep in mind before you whup out some TL 7-15 "magic"
around people who live at TL's 1-6. Trust me on this one.
I'm a computer professional working in *Mississippi*. I know
this problem and have only narrowly avoided being burned at
the stake myself.
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"A scientist eh!? Get a rope!"
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James R. Ware, SysAdmin
MS Dept. of Archives
[address removed] Phone:[phone removed]
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