>for the vast majority of human history something as simple

>>3369835
maybe if you lived on the sentinel islands and chucked spears at people

>>3369835
No it wouldn't as history is the study of written sources, do you mean prehistory i.e. before writing was invented? Even then they used to scribble pictures on cave walls so a thing to make marks with wouldn't be seen as some crazy "alien" invention.

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>>3369871
>the only way to write something down is with a pencil

>>3369879
Don't be stupid I didn't say anything remotely along those lines.

>>3369835
Hello, person who has read Henry Petroski's book.

>>3369908
who dat?

>travel back in time
>show some rubes a pencil
>HOLY SHIT THAT'S COOL WHAT IS IT
>It's a wooden shaft housing a column of graphite that I can use to write with
>OH SO KIND OF LIKE A QUILL THEN
>yeah but you can erase what you've written
>NEAT

How is a pencil "alien" you dumb fuck

I think they would be far more impressed by a lighter or matches if we're talking about pocket items.


Having a smartphone would make you a god in their eyes and after the battery died you can just make them perform child sacrifices to restore the "spirit of god" back into your phone.

>>3369939

Honestly I think they would be just as likely to bash your brains in to take this magical item from you. I think they would be able to infer that the magic or holy power was in the item, not the person holding the smartphone.

>>3369974
I doubt you'd lunge at an alien that has something that appears god-like holding in his hand.

>>3369994

Not an alien, just another regular human being that has something very interesting and possibly valuable in his hand.

>for most of history today was future
Think about it

>>3369999
Hardly "regular" when they're irregular and hold objects that are unfathomable to you. Plenty of first contacts in the Amazons, most are of timid natives that will sooner run away than bash anyone. They tend to be pretty amazed by lighters and mirrors.

>>3369835
Not really.

For vast majority, they would know what pen/pencils were.

Except maybe today.

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>>3370014
I know what a pen is. It's like a stylus for those things books are made out of.

What are pencils, though?

>>3370032
A thing you use to do the same stuff as a pen.

>>3369924
>humanity has only been around since cuneiform
Civilization is kind of a recent thing in and of itself.

>>3369835

They may not have been able to make them, but the principle would be understood easily.

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>what could be considered humans have been around some 200,000 years
>civilization has existed for about 5,000

>>3369835
They wouldn't think it would be abnormal, but they'd certainly admire the extremely precise Engineering qualities required to making a pencil/pen.

Biro pens would never clog, and constantly deliver even amount of ink without fail. It can like on both rough and smooth surfaces, which fountain pens and quils could not.

I'd imagine the certain precision in making a biro ball fit into a portable reservoir would impress most of ancient artisans.

Thank god for capitalism.

>>3369871
This. Maybe a pencil would be something a bit strange, but they did have charcoal, so it wouldn't be that big of a deal. It's like if now, some future guy brings a computer that can also suck your dick. It would be pretty sick, but not "alien"

>>3369879
well you could just use a piece of charcoal or whatever
i wonder what they would think about boxes though
or bicycles
or a sandwich

>>3370337
ikr
we probably havent changed too much either
we're just used to todays world