What would you have done without computers? Options

[Mata]

I occasionally ponder what I would have done if I had been born in the middle ages. If I had turned out with a similar set of skills and interests, I think I probably would have gone into making locks. There's something about the constant challenge of making locks more and more secure that appeals to me.

So, if you had been around a few hundred years ago, what would you have liked to have been doing?

[CrazyFooIAintGet...]

Hmm... I don't even know what I'd like to be doing now!

Sure there's plenty of things with a decent history that would appeal though. Cryptography sounds like fun.

Although the further back we go the more limited my options are going to be. Don't think I'd do very well in the middle ages. A monk?

[Tarantio]

If we're going on our merits, I'd probably have chosen to be an artisan of some sort too; I find great peace in the art of taking my time over crafting something.

That said, I'd probably not have been born into a position of any authority, so I'd more likely have been scooping mud into sacks and complaining about the violence inherent in the system to anyone who would listen...

[Mata]

Yes, all probability would suggest that we'd all end up putting mud in sacks, but I think the mental exercise of trying to work out what fit we would have found in older societies. My literary side would suggest something like a monk, but my interest in combat would suggest a soldier. In the far east I could have found a match for both of those in either monkhood or among warriors, but in the west I don't think those different sides were ever really united.

I suspect I wouldn't have made a good playwright - my interests seem to be too far off from the mainstream to ever have had much appeal to a wide audience that an old playwright would have needed, so in the end I'm wittled down to working with my hands. I think I could have been happy as a locksmith.

[I_am_the_best]

I'd love to say I'd have been a musician but I'm a woman (and no Clara Wieck...) so I think I'd have just been a housewife. Gladly, though - I really enjoy this sort of thing.

Actually, I think I belong a few hundred years in the past. But would we necessarily be living where we live now? No chance of my parents meeting back then... I may have been living in Iraq! In which case I would still be a house wife

[Phyllis]

My immediate, knee-jerk reaction was that I'd answer this question much differently if I was a man, of course.

But assuming gender, social status, and access to education weren't an issue and I wouldn't be forced to spend my life alternating between cooking, cleaning, farm work, and giving birth...hmm. I think I would have liked to be an apothecary. Ooh, or a cartographer. I like making maps — have since I was a kid. The maps I draw are always places that only exist in my head, but hey. Details.

[Daria]

If we're going on our merits, I'd probably have chosen to be an artisan of some sort too; I find great peace in the art of taking my time over crafting something.

That said, I'd probably not have been born into a position of any authority, so I'd more likely have been scooping mud into sacks and complaining about the violence inherent in the system to anyone who would listen...

Hahahaha. I just realised that this is what I do anyway. (See: comment to Mata on my fb wall about violent protest)

Continuing with the Monty Python theme, I'd have probably been a witch. Creepily perceptive, working knowledge of herbs (not that kind, stop the sniggering at the back), headstrong, curious, and I like to think I could pull off the Tattered Rags look. Also, I like leaping about on hills and howling at the moon as modern past-times, so I think it could work well.

[Tarantio]

And, of course, you weigh the same as a duck.

[elphaba2]

Hermit! Dibs on hermit!

I would be flipping amazing as a hermit. Brewin' things, fermentin' things, growin' things, scribblin', meditatin', wandering into town tryin' to marry my cat and causin' general unrest. I have this job currently, but I have things such as a bike, a paycheck and a laptop which as of now have constituted the "thin line" between Civilized Human and Should We Call Someone.

Can I be a traveling hermit? Am I pinned to my continent of origin, or can I pick anywhere? The Middle East had a medieval era about a zillion times cooler than Europe, for example, and I don't know much about what Canada was up to around that time. Probably dudes were brewing cool things as well, but in a snowier milieu. Also, bark canoes?

[LoLo]

If it were anything like my (up until recently) life, I would end up being an old spinster living with family members who were willing to put up with me. lol

I think though that I would have just ended up being an artist or a teacher or one of the women in the women's movement trying to get women the right to vote.

[Mata]

If I can skip across the oceans to suggest far eastern warriorship then I see no reason to not go to the middle east for their medieval period.

I would have loved to have been an alchemist, but I suspect I would have blown myself up. Chemistry never was my strong point... However, I can talk a load of tosh for extended periods, and I think that was a job requirement there too.

[LoLo]

/me may have read this as "a hundred years ago" instead of a "few hundred years ago." Teehee