Imagine you suddenly slipped through a wormhole in the space-time continuum and found yourself back in the year 1869. If you could convince someone that you came from 2022, would we also be able to convince them of what 2022 is like, especially in terms of technology?
I don't think so, since a lot of it would be unbelievable to their ideas about what is possible. Yes, motorcars would be believable to them since they had trains, although I assume they wouldn't envisage the complete ubiquity of cars on our roads.
What about the believability of the existence of small hand held devices that can enable you to instantaneously communicate with anyone on the planet who has a similar device? And that you can use to find the answer to any question that human beings know the answer to? That can play chess, take photos, even use as a torch? I would think they would think I'm barmy!
What if I approached a physicist and tried to explain quantum mechanics to them? Not that I know much about QM. I would have to say reality isn't continuous, but rather discontinuous. And that reality exhibits differently, apparently changing its very nature, depending on our experimental apparatus. That electrons exist both as particles and waves.. oh wait.. he'll ask what is an electron! OK, photons then (and would he know what "OK" means??).
Would I in fact change history? Well yes, due to the butterfly effect. But they wouldn't be able to use my knowledge of developments in physics even if, miraculously, I was taken seriously for one second!
Mind you... if I had my smartphone on me...
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