Gary’s Q&A

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

Findaer on Discord asks, If you were teleported back in time to the year 1CE in Rome and magically had the ability to speak the language, and also not be killed immediately as an outsider, what is something you could ‘invent’ for the people of that age from the modern era?

After giving this some thought, the simplest thing you could do is to bring back the germ theory of disease.

This doesn’t require building or inventing anything. If you can transmit the idea that germs exist, then you can dramatically improve life expectancies. Get people to wash their hands, sterilize medical instruments, cook food properly, wash food-preparation areas and utensils, and boil water. Disease and infection were one of the biggest health issues in the ancient world, and this knowledge would make an enormous difference.