History Main / GivingRadioToTheRomans

* In {{Vernor Vinge}}'s ''A Fire Upon the Deep'', two groups on a medieval planet get technological advice, but not physical help, from stranded human children with, respectively, a small computer and an FTL phone, allowing them both to advance significantly. It helps enormously that the child's computer has a full history of technology stored, while the people on the other end of the phone can look up theoretical academic research on bringing technology to lost colonies, which is apparently a minor academic discipline in that galaxy.

** It does not help that the author 'cheats' by having the time traveling cousin provide Conrad with all sorts of help that makes Conrad way more effective than he should have been.

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-->--'''Eric Flint''', ''1632''

* BelisariusSeries: Two factions from the far future, one attempting to make a future hostile to transhumans, the other trying to save a tolerant future. Neither the future that was, nor the feature if the BadGuysWin happen, as a new GoldenEnding happens significantly different than ours.

* {{Conversed}} in Kir Bulychev's short story "Паровоз для царя" (lit. Steam locomotive for the tzar), where the characters discuss how hard would it be to pull this off in RealLife: if you were to give the tzar the technology of automobiles, you'd first have to explain to him the workings of petrochemistry (assuming he'll listen to your ramblings at all). Oh, and you'd better be an expert in petrochemistry and engineering in general.

Either way, this is a long term plan. Even optimistic heroes will expect to take a few years to get the desired results. Realistic ones will consider it a lifetime's work. The hero can't leap straight to modern technology; they have to get the past society to go through all the intermediate steps first, or they won't have the necessary tools to make the tools to do the job. As such, this is typically the plot of entire book, or even series.

If the stranded party has a phone to an high-tech society, whether in the future or on another world, this trope can still apply. The phone can provide them with all the information they need, but they still have to deal with the immense practical problems involved in getting from medieval to modern technology. It would still take decades to get 14th century England from church bells to digital clocks, even with an internet connection to the present day, and the full resources of the kingdom at your disposal. However, if the stranded party can get actual physical objects from their high-tech friends, the difficulties melt away, and this trope does not apply.

* StarTrekTOS, "A Private Little War". The Klingons are arming an Iron Age culture with increasingly sophisticated black powder muskets (rifled barrels were about to be introduced when Kirk and company intervene). The Federation responds in kind in a very {{Anvilicious}} parable about the ColdWar.

** It was implied Rasmussen couldn't control where the time machine went, it was basically on autopilot.

* StarTrekTOS, "A Private Little War". The Klingons are arming an Iron Age culture with black powder muskets; the Federation responds in kind in a very {{Anvilicious}} parable about the ColdWar.

!!! One person

* ''A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court'', however most other examples allow it to stick.

Compare and contrast ETGaveUsWiFi, which is essentially this trope from the {{POV}} of the less developed culture.

** In the spin-off novel ''Just War'', an incautious time traveller accidentally gives the Nazis a technological leg-up, resulting in them developing stealth bombers in time for World War II.

* The ''{{Axis of Time}}'' trilogy by JohnBirmingham. ''World War 2.1: Weapons of Choice'', ''World War 2.2: Designated Targets'', and ''World War 2.3: Final Impact''. A multinational naval task force from 2021 is sent back to WorldWarII, where it (literally) impacts with the American fleet steaming for Midway. The consequences are ''extremely'' far-reaching.
** A somewhat similar story can be seen in the manga and anime {{Zipang}}. A good chunk of the plot is about whether or not to give the metaphorical radio to the metaphorical Romans.

** And he later tries to modernize the Lamuellans. The only invention he succeeds in introducing is the sandwich.

* ''The Islander Trilogy'' by S.M. Stirling. The island of Nantucket is whisked into 1250 BC, and must contend with Bronze Age cultures and their own crop of power-hungry renegades. This one ''does'' contend with language difficulties, uptime diseases, and so forth; the Nantucketers manage to wipe out huge numbers of Native Americans before they even realize what's going on, because the first party sent to the mainland contains someone with a sniffle. Their language difficulties are moderately eased by the fact that the languages of Europe are, at that point, much closer to still being "Proto-Indo-European"...

* StarTrekTNG did this when one "inventor" from the past travelled to the future to steal technology which he could then backwards engineer and then sell for profit. Clearing having a time machine and going a week forward to get the lottery results was too much of a zany scheme.