How It Works

Today a coworker and I were discussing what it would be like to put someone from several centuries ago into a time machine and transport him to today. How would you begin to explain what things are and how they work? Here are a few explanations I would have to offer to a time-transported individual:

1. Electricity: You flip a switch and the lights come on, or plug up a machine, and it runs.
2. Light bulb: A sealed, glass container with a bunch of wires inside that becomes bright when a switch is flipped.
3. Telephone: A communication machine that doesn't have to be plugged into anything to work because it gets signals from satellites.
4. Satellites: Something like the moon except that human beings put them into the sky.
5. Car: A horseless carriage that runs on gasoline. (Hey, it worked in Henry Ford's day.)
6. Gasoline: A fuel made out of dead, liquefied dinosaurs and other carbon sources.
7. Carbon: One of 117 chemical elements found in all lifeforms including plants, animals, and possibly Jimmy Hoffa.
8. Airplane: A horseless carriage that is sort of like a bird because it can fly, but sort of unlike a bird because it has no feathers and it doesn't have to flap its wings to fly.
9. Camera: A device used to capture a still portrait so that it can later be used to embarrass a teenager or to end the career of a politician.
10. Computer: A machine that can save or waste a lot of time, make life easier or harder, fix things or mess things up, solve or create problems, keep a person connected or make him isolated. It has bits, bytes, bugs, disks, RAM, ROM, gigs, cookies, icons, and peripherals. I'm not even going to attempt explaining all of that. My internal memory would surely implode.