You're right - evolution might be easier than, say, how and iPhone works (not that an iPhone would work very well in Ancient Greece, or for much long, anyway). Having some high tech to show to good old Aristotle maybe would convince him you come from a very strange land, and maybe he would want to hear more of what you have to say instead of just dismissing you as a lunatic.
But imagine how much you would have to explain to make him even dimly aware of the way an iPhone works! Electronics, electricity, computation, satellites and astronomy (goodbye lunar s...
Huh, I guess I should have come here earlier...
I'm Lorenzo, 31, from Madrid, Spain (but I'm Italian). I'm an evolutionary psychologist, or try to be, working on my PhD. I'm also doing a Master's Degree in Statistics, in which I discovered (almost by accident) the Bayesian approach. As someone with a longstanding interest in making psychology become a better science, I've found this blog a very good place for clarifying ideas.
I've been a follower of Less Wrong after reading Eliezer's essays on Bayesian reasoning some 3-4 months ago. I've known the Bayes t...
Now I think of it, this reminds of something Richard Dawkins used to say at some talks: that we (the modern audience) could give Aristotle a tutorial. Being a fantasist myself, I've sometimes wondered how that could be possible. Leaving aside the complications of building a time machine (I leave that to other people), I wondered how would it be to actually meet Aristotle and explain to him some of the things we now know about life, the universe & everything.
First of all, I'd have to learn ancient greek, of course, or no communication would be possible...
Actually, evolution might be the easiest one. It's inevitable if you have variation and selection. It's a really pretty theory.
I don't know how hard it would be to convey that observation and experimentation will take you farther than just theorizing.
If I brought back some tech far advanced over Aristotle's period (and I wonder what would be most convincing), it might add weight to my arguments.
And personally, even if I had a time machine and the knowledge of ancient Greek, I don't know what hard it would be to get him to listen to a woman.
As someone who has done (some) teaching, I think this is absolutely correct. In fact, the most difficult thing I find about teaching is trying to find the student's starting knowledge, and then working from there. If the teacher does not goes back enough 'inferential steps', the student won't learn anything - or worse, they might think they know when they don't.
Excellent stuff.
If it's not too late, I'd like to participate as well.
Lbraschi is my account for Google Wave. I'm in Madrid, Spain.