Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
h a l f b a k e r y
non-lame halfbakery tagline

idea: add, search, annotate, link, view, overview, recent, by name, random

meta: news, help, about, links, report a problem

account: browse anonymously, or get an account and write.

user:
pass:
register,


                                                                               

What Would You Have Been In The Past?

Put in your current profession, income and housing situation, see what your equivalent was in other periods in history.
  (+7)
(+7)
  [vote for,
against]

If you're a medical doctor, 100 years ago you'd have been about the same socially and financially, but 1,000 years before that you'd be adjusting bodily humors, exorcising demons or whatever.

Soldiers haven't changed much so if you put in a year, say 1200, England, it'd just pop up "Soldier". Engineer or architect? Might have been a freemason.

Successful touring musician? That would have been a lot lower status job 800 years ago. Probably touring with a gypsy caravan. Newer professions like pilot would just be the closest equivalent, like horse drawn carriage driver.

Put in your profile, pick a date, and see a representation and resume of your equivalent back when.

Oh, and you'd upload your picture and have the garb of whatever profession and time period overlaid to show you in character for that time.

doctorremulac3, Dec 13 2021

Find your twin online Find_20Your_20Twin_20On_20Line
[doctorremulac3, Dec 14 2021]

Chez Rhoen https://www.yelp.co...2KwhA6dVfamQL6YiQBw
My go to restaurant for years. [doctorremulac3, Dec 14 2021]

Ancient Olympics https://en.wikipedi...cient_Olympic_Games
Some details; not much about the athletes (other than mostly had to be Greek men). [neutrinos_shadow, Dec 15 2021]

Hu? https://www.hopperh...post%20last%20year.
[doctorremulac3, Dec 03 2022]

[link]






       I like it!
<enters profession, 500AD>
...
"Village idiot"
neutrinos_shadow, Dec 13 2021
  

       Resident pedant in a monastic library; job security, but no family life. I prefer the present.
pertinax, Dec 13 2021
  

       <Pondering...> Although, given my health issues, the most common answer (for anything more than 100 years ago) would be "dead" </p>
neutrinos_shadow, Dec 13 2021
  

       Master Journeyman.   

       "Yeah, sure, me and my boys can build your castle and keep your passages secret... but it'll cost ya... oh yeah, and we're forming a guild to keep you from tying up loose ends by killing us when we're almost finished. Stamp the wax here, here... and here."   

       //the most common answer (for anything more than 100 years ago) would be "dead"//   

       That could actually be funny. Type in all your info, then click "What would my 1,000 year ago self be?" ANSWER: Dead.   

       Sort of like my "What Do You Look Like" app idea. See if I can find that.
doctorremulac3, Dec 14 2021
  

       I know that in reality the profession 'farmer' will be grossly underrepresented, so I'll say I'd be a farmer. (I'd aspire to be the Merchant Class or a Lawyer or such, but in reality I'd probably be a farmer).
AusCan531, Dec 14 2021
  

       //Master Journeyman//   

       I think the phrase you're looking for is "Master Wright". A journeyman is what you are before you become a master, in any trade. "Wright" is the closest late-medieval equivalent to "Engineer". Many wrights specialised as, say, shipwrights or wainwrights but, in general, anything complicated was wrought by wrights.   

       Now, about the guild; well-established guilds had their guild halls but, in smaller towns, or where a particular guild was short of members, craftsmen not belonging anywhere else could be found at the Oddfellows' Hall.   

       We'll see you at the bar (at least, the others will - I have to be home in time for vespers).
pertinax, Dec 14 2021
  

       //I think the phrase you're looking for is "Master Wright". A journeyman is what you are before you become a master, in any trade.//   

       I'm not so sure,
I am self taught, never stopped travelling and left behind me a string of apprentices who also became journeymen and then masters of more than one trade.
  

       I doubt I would have attained the title of Write as I have no ticket in real life for anything I can do other than driving and open water diving.   

       I'm just a Journeyman... Master of a few trades (without credentials), and Jack of most of the others while also having experience in heavy equipment operation, truck driving, flying planes, masonry, framing, roofing, flooring, cooking, furniture moving, electrical and plumbing repair.   

       I'm also an uneducated sketcher, painter, sculptor, inventor.   

       ...   

       Master-Journeyman is about the best I could hope to have attained back then.   

       Cheers!   

       Mind you, I have worn glasses since my teens so, probably...   

       ...dead.   

       But I like my version better.   

       Whilst fun to ponder, this is a like a silly facebook app. I think I was a pirate.
xandram, Dec 14 2021
  

       Herbalist now, probably herbalist back into palaeolithic times if they had that kind of division of labour then.
nineteenthly, Dec 14 2021
  

       Swordsmith perhaps.
RayfordSteele, Dec 14 2021
  

       How far back does it go? 10,000,000 years ago I would have been a blob
pocmloc, Dec 14 2021
  

       LOL. Yea, at some point it would everybody's profession would be "Hunter gatherer" then de-evolve from there.
doctorremulac3, Dec 14 2021
  

       This makes one think, but I couldn't come up with an answer. I've had many different careers. I've been wealthy and poor, income-wise.
blissmiss, Dec 14 2021
  

       You and me both sister. Eaten dinner at everything from Michelin rated five star restaurants to Top Ramen on the futon, to the less than exclusive Chez Rhoen. (Also known as the Chevron gas station snack shelf next door to one of my old recording studios.)
doctorremulac3, Dec 14 2021
  

       There's a pretty good chance that you would be just another infant mortality. I thnk that would be a nicely sobering option to put in. "Sorry, you died young!/ Died in childbirth" etc. Happy Christmas everyone!
DrBob, Dec 14 2021
  

       Just occurred to me, football player would be a gladiator back in Romany times. That's pretty cool.   

       One of the furthest back jobs with no change would be Olympic athlete.
doctorremulac3, Dec 15 2021
  

       [doctorremulac3]; AFAIK, back in the day, "Olympic athlete" wasn't a "job", like you just "going for a jog" isn't a job either.
Gladiator = job is a bit more realistic.
neutrinos_shadow, Dec 15 2021
  

       Come to think of it, depending on the culture I'd been born into, that whole puberty at twenty thing would have probably slotted me into a shaman position or burnt alive as a freak...   

       ...but I digress, the future is now.   

       Given the level of intelligence of halfbakers, we would probably ALL be "shaman" or "witch" or similar "person who knows weird stuff"...
neutrinos_shadow, Dec 15 2021
  

       //AFAIK, back in the day, "Olympic athlete" wasn't a "job", like you just "going for a jog" isn't a job either.//   

       Well, a successful jogger can’t make millions of dollars on endorsement deals like a top Olympic athlete can.   

       But a similar position doesn’t necessarily have to be good. A modern lawyer’s equivalent might be a highwayman or a pirate. Which I’m sure many lawyers would think is totally cool.
doctorremulac3, Dec 15 2021
  

       //What Would You Have Been In The Past?// - I would have been a time-traveller, visiting from the distant future
hippo, Dec 15 2021
  

       what [neutrinos] said!   

       We might all been burned at the stake for ancient and wacky knowledge. If you must know…I was a mermaid.
xandram, Dec 15 2021
  

       As usual, its the extreme limits that are the most fun.   

       How recent can we make this? How about 5 minutes ago? And I don't mean what were you 5 minutes ago, I mean what would you have been if you were born 5 minutes earlier than you actually were?
pocmloc, Dec 15 2021
  

       Hmm. The olympics thing is interesting. I assume they got acclaim for competing and winning. Did that translate to a paycheck or prestige and increased social status? Dunno. Looks like it wasn't just athletes, although they were the center of the celebration, but artisans, performers etc all got into it like a big celebration.   

       If you put in "I streak through stadiums" (Streaking was a thing where people would run naked through public places back in the 70s I think.) this would say "You'd be an olympian." because that's what they did.
doctorremulac3, Dec 15 2021
  

       //prestige and increased social status//   

       Absolutely, but I'm pretty sure there was no direct monetary reward.
pertinax, Dec 15 2021
  

       Still, being in the olympics would have to make you an olympian, no matter what the period in history.
doctorremulac3, Dec 15 2021
  

       Wait for the corollary: 'What would you be 100 years in the future?'   

       Oddly, swordsmith makes quite a bit of sense...
RayfordSteele, Dec 15 2021
  

       What would I have been in the past? Someone's wonderful memory, that moved them to tears, I would hope.
blissmiss, Dec 17 2021
  

       Every so often there's a rash of articles claiming x number of new positions will be created within y years and most people will have jobs that haven't been invented yet. There are a few, like computer programmer, aircraft engine repairman, or astronaut but the great majority of new jobs are simply specializations of older ones. A data scientist is simply a highly specialized mathematician. A web designer is a specialized print layout type person. Some of those worked on the pyramids. Even most sophisticated job titles like "metallurgical chemist" or "turbine design specialist" are just subcategories of things that were done long, long ago
Voice, Dec 02 2022
  

       I think you can pretty much lump all professions under 'youtuber' nowadays.
mylodon, Dec 02 2022
  

       You could even say an astronaut is a modern mariner. They even call them "spaceships" not space buggies, or space wagons.   

       Look at the bridge of a famous fictional spaceship. piloted by a captain, first officer, helmsman etc. I believe Kirk eventually became an admiral. That model will no doubt continue into reality. First man to walk on the Moon was a Naval aviator.   

       As far as the Youtubers, "influencers", kids making millions a month by goofing around on camera, guess you could say they're the modern priests eh?
doctorremulac3, Dec 02 2022
  

       Modern jokers
Voice, Dec 03 2022
  

       Yea, that too. Don't know much about these influencers except some of them make more money in a minute than I do in a month.   

       Actually scratch that, evidently top earners get a million bucks plus PER POST. (link) Not sure who's paying them, don't care really. If I were to research it I'd probably have to look at one of their posts. Not gonna happen.
doctorremulac3, Dec 03 2022
  
      
[annotate]
  


 

back: main index

business  computer  culture  fashion  food  halfbakery  home  other  product  public  science  sport  vehicle