This question is common throughout the internet, but I’d like to see Lemmy’s response.

The country you end up in would be random, you don’t get to pick.

      • untakenusername@sh.itjust.works
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        55 minutes ago

        It would probably take centuries for the vast industry around chip manufacture to arise, but even without that there’s tons of stuff that would be really useful. Like the Haber process, that turns nitrogen and hydrogen into ammonia, which can be used to make more food, or to blow up people.

  • edric@lemm.ee
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    17 hours ago

    Having a bad/infected tooth and no modern dentistry tech is already a dealbreaker for me. Then there’s all the wars, disease, and lack of sanitation. So no thanks, I’d rather live as a normal person in the modern era.

  • PostnataleAbtreibung@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    I‘d actally choose the monarch 500yrs ago.

    Not because it is a better life. Probably I‘d de better off as the average person I am now. But it is absolutely exiting to get to explore and get to know the world. Everything is in a flow, the world is both changing and stable at the same time.

    And i wouldn‘t see our world and climate die, i would see it blossom, awaken.

    • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
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      12 hours ago

      I was just listening to Behind the Bastards on King Louie XIV and his building of Versailles and how he forced all the aristrocrats to live there 24/7. You might not be able to reach your goal of exploring and knowing the world depending on where you end up.

  • lennybird@lemmy.world
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    15 hours ago

    Can I take my chances and live like a peasant 500 years in the future?

    I figure either the world won’t exist and I dodge all the existential crap that is fretting death, or I get to fly in spaceships like one flies coach today and maybe conditions will have improved for the bottom 10%.

  • If there’s one thing I’ve learned from history, it’s that the monarchs who didn’t constantly plot and scheme were at risk to being overthrown by their noble subjects. I hate politics; I hate incessant meetings, and being a monarch always sounds like just constant meetings, all day, every day. Everyone wants to talk to you, get something from you, scheme with you; and it they aren’t scheming with you, you really have to worry, because they’re off scheming against you.

    It sounds tedious and horrible.

  • greedytacothief@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    17 hours ago

    Live average today for sure. If I was a monarch I’d probably be responsible for the deaths of lots of people both intentionally and unintentionally. There’s a big chance I’d have to go to war too and that’s like not really my vibe.

  • Dizzy Devil Ducky@lemm.ee
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    21 hours ago

    Definitely now considering I wouldn’t have even made it to 10 years old before dying if it wasn’t for modern surgery. Would have probably died for unknown reasons to them and I probably would have been marked as having been possessed by some sort of evil spirit or demon if for whatever reason they cut me open and found the weird growth attached to my heart.

  • Libra00@lemmy.world
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    15 hours ago

    Now for sure. I want as much life as I can get so modern medicine is a must. I’m taking 2 different medications without which I would die sooner rather than later, so that’s just a non-starter. I at least have a chance of being born in a country with good healthcare today, but that’s just not an option 500 years ago.

  • dragnucs@lemmy.ml
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    19 hours ago

    I see everyone worried about hygiene in European countries. So I would ho with a monarch in an Islamic region because of higher standard in hygiene. Muslims clean themselves Fromm 1 to 5 times a day. Take full baths after having sex. They also avoid eating dirty foods or animals that could cause disease like pigs. They also had a somewhat better medicine and medical practice.

    At the time some of the monarch had a good time, and some of them lived in a constant state of unrest.

    So if I had to respawn my same territory it would be great. I would have some occasional attempted assaniation or coup but its just a but more than what we see today. But having my own guard and stuff would make me feel less worried. Even if I endup getting assassinated I would have lived a better life than today maybe.

    For sure we have many technologically induced freedoms like travel and telecommunications but I don’t have the means to travel. But as a monarch, while it would take me longer than today, I would still manage to travel as I want. In fact Arabs are known to be biggest travelers.

  • bitofarambler@crazypeople.online
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    20 hours ago

    100% now, I’m an average person and so many average people I know live a far better life than most kings 500 years ago.

    they can travel around the globe at whim, enjoy different cultures, learn just about any subject without restriction and don’t have any responsibilities they don’t choose to carry.

    • vvilld@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      18 hours ago

      Monarchs 500 years ago could also travel at whim, enjoy different cultures, and learn about any subject available to them without restriction. And the great thing about a divine mandate is that monarchs didn’t have to do a single damn thing they didn’t want to and could still keep their power.

      • bitofarambler@crazypeople.online
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        16 hours ago

        monarchs were limited by duties, responsibilities and mandates to such an extent they could not travel at whim.

        those that did travel had to trade months of their life prone in a gilded cage of a carriage or ship to travel a distance i, an averageman, can reach in hours at an insignificant fraction of the cost and risk.

        monarchs similarly could not learn about most subjects and cultures because the knowledge and expertise was simply unavailable. information traveled at the pace of “we can learn about that when we can gather resources to launch a 5-year expedition and perhaps return with the answer eventually but maybe not”.

        now, all available human knowledge is floating in the aether, constantly updating and instantly available at our fingertips.

        divine mandates come with an unrelenting burden of responsibilities.

        historically, those who shirked their responsibilities were likely to be dethroned or decapitated.

        also, new reason: bidets.

        life now is miraculous compared to the dreams of an aged king.

  • Denjin@lemmings.world
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    18 hours ago

    For context in 1525:

    King of England: Henry VIII (with all the wives)

    King of France: Francis I (with all the fighting the Holy Roman Empire and Pope)

    King of Spain: Charles V (with all the being Holy Roman Emperor and inbreeding)

    Emperor of China: Jiajing (with all the torturing and murdering dissenters)

    Edit: I chose these 4 because between them they were monarchs of the 4 most powerful countries in the world at the time, especially Charles of Spain and Jiajing of China but France and England were soon poised to eclipse the others.

      • Denjin@lemmings.world
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        18 hours ago

        Kongo - Afonso I Mvemba a Nzinga - first Catholic monarch of Kongo

        Songhai - Askia the Great - zenith of Songhai’s power

        Adal - Abū Bakr ibn Muhammad - founded city of Harar

  • kelpie_returns@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    I’d like to believe that I have it in me to be a benevolent monarch, but I know myself well enough to tell that I am entirely too human for that.

    I’d rather not see how rotten I could get with power unbound, and my current conscience wouldn’t let me impose that on whoever I’d be ruling over, so modern-day-meh life it is.

    • Sonor@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      Yeah, bang 16 years olds until someone stabs you in the throat because you forgot to do the same to them last week. Nah :/