A little game I play with myself sometimes that’s somewhat along the lines of Desert Island is this (I don’t have a name for it): If you suddenly found yourself way back in time, what would you bring (intellectually, academically) back from modern times?

Try it for different time periods. For example, if it were 5000 B.C., would you, say, know how to smelt? I guess I try to put things in the context of the big ideas / advances of the time.

If it were the 1400’s, could you demonstrate that the earth was round? If it were the 1700’s or so, could you explain Maxwell’s equations? Late 1800’s - relativity? Quantum mechanics? Wave-particle duality?

This sometimes makes me wish I knew how to smelt.