(Wow! Another time traveling thread. Lucky day!)
So, I'm researching a story right now, about time travel. And I'm wondering what might happen if you send someone from our time back in time - at a viral/molecular level. Like, we're vaccinated, but we might be carriers of seriously messed up stuff, right? (Viral and perhaps bacterial.) Could we totally bring on a pandemic to a population that has little to no defenses against what we carry?
And part 2: What might WE catch as well? The viruses of, let's say, 1000 years ago, are going to be different than what we're vaccinated against? And have built up resistances to?
My idea is that going back in time is like sending small-pox blankets to the native Americans, but can also really jack up the time traveler as well. One would think that in sci-fi terms, you'd have to try to counter that somehow. With modern medicine or whatnot. Not even sure you can. You're kind of jumping into a population that's on a different resistance level (in terms of viruses and such).
Just thought this would make interesting sci-fi conversation fodder. I'm not a scientist, so I could be talking out of my bum here.
So, I'm researching a story right now, about time travel. And I'm wondering what might happen if you send someone from our time back in time - at a viral/molecular level. Like, we're vaccinated, but we might be carriers of seriously messed up stuff, right? (Viral and perhaps bacterial.) Could we totally bring on a pandemic to a population that has little to no defenses against what we carry?
And part 2: What might WE catch as well? The viruses of, let's say, 1000 years ago, are going to be different than what we're vaccinated against? And have built up resistances to?
My idea is that going back in time is like sending small-pox blankets to the native Americans, but can also really jack up the time traveler as well. One would think that in sci-fi terms, you'd have to try to counter that somehow. With modern medicine or whatnot. Not even sure you can. You're kind of jumping into a population that's on a different resistance level (in terms of viruses and such).
Just thought this would make interesting sci-fi conversation fodder. I'm not a scientist, so I could be talking out of my bum here.
Last edited: