How Would You Explain Today's Technology to a Historical Figure?

A very disappointing
movie.

Last night my wife and I were relaxing in the office / media room / play room / bonus room (we haven't figured out a good name for it yet) after our son had gone to bed, and decided to watch a movie neither of us had seen before, but both wanted to, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, due primarily to the absurdity of the premise.  If you have never heard of the movie, the title explains it all.  It loosely follows the life of Abraham Lincoln, but attributes many events in his life to the work of vampires, such as the death of his mother, the death of his son, and his desire to free the slaves, which were sustaining the vampire population in the south) The concept is so ridiculous I just had to see it as soon as it came out, but family responsibilities got in the way and we missed it in theaters.  Instead, we finally came across the movie available to stream yesterday and decided to fulfill our wish of seeing this instant classic.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was actually a book first, written by Seth Grahame-Smith, the same author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, another thought-provoking novel.  I have never read either book, so I can't speak to their quality, but the movie was, well disappointing.  I expected it to be silly, so that wasn't a problem, but there are points, especially at the beginning that were way too slow, primarily because the movie took itself too seriously and forgot it was about the sixteenth President of the United States hunting down vampires with an ax and battling the undead on top of a moving train on a burning bridge hundreds of feet above the ground.  I had hoped for something much, much better.

Explaining Today's Technology to a Time Traveler

As the credits rolled, we came to the realization that we had wasted two hours of our life and decided to get some sleep.  While going through my normal night time routine, my mind inevitably started to wander onto a topic I always think about whenever I see a historical movie or show, or read about a historical figure: How would I explain all the technological advancements that have occurred between when the person was alive and today?  Is there a way I could bridge that huge gap of technological and societal differences that would actually help the person in question function in today's society?  If so, how would I do it?  Is it better to explain the technology itself, or explain the societal changes that have occurred, and ignore much of the actual technology?

I don't know why, but I grapple with these questions all the time.  It is an interesting thought experiment, and forces you to think about science and technology in a new light.  At least a couple different movies and television shows have touched on this subject; Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Star Trek: The Next Generation come to mind.  In these instances, however, as it always seems to go, the person travelling to the future is in awe, but otherwise accepting of future society and technology.  They look around and gawk at the cars and airplanes and cell phones (or in the case of Star Trek the spaceships and transporters and holodecks), but once the novelty has worn off, they start to assimilate into the new culture.  Its a complete cultural shift, and it happens in a matter of hours or days.

The Real Problem is Societal Changes

Abraham Lincoln would likely have trouble trying to
understand and adapt to the society of today.

I don't think this would work in the real world as well as television makes it seem.  The technological advances over the last couple centuries have been great, but I don't think this would be a problem.  Most people today don't know how the vast majority of technology works, yet they get by just fine.  What would be a huge shock, and a shock that would be very difficult for most people to overcome, is the cultural changes that came about due to those technological advances.  Using Abraham Lincoln as an example, only around one-hundred fifty years have passed since his presidency and death, but the world has changed drastically.  In 1865, the year Lincoln was assassinated, the average lifespan in the United States was in the low 40s, the average salary was around $300 per year ($4,225 in 2013 dollars),  people communicated long distances via the written letter and instant communication was relegated to face-to-face conversations with the people around you, travelling long distances was very uncommon for the majority of people, learning about a subject beyond grade school required it to be taught to you by your parents, relatives, neighbors, or if you were exceedingly lucky, a university, the structure of atoms was completely unknown, genetics was not even a word, and no one knew what the Sun was made of, though speculated to be made of coal.

I think the technology is easy to explain, as long as you bridge the gap from what the person knows to what exists today.  Societal behavior today, however, would be considered disgusting by the standards of the 1860s.  The way we dress, talk, think, and act are all behaviors that get ingrained into our psyche as we grow up, learning how to properly behave so that society accepts us.  To experience such a cultural shift in an instant would probably shock most people to the point where they would be very uncomfortable interacting with anyone.  I don't know if societal behavior is something that is teachable and adaptable on such an immediate time frame.

If you are like me and have ever imagined what it would be like to travel to the future, or to meet technologically advanced aliens, you probably think you could adapt.  Sure, the technology would be far advanced and perhaps beyond your comprehension, but otherwise you would get by.  I don't think this is the case.  Whenever I think of future humans, I think of people who think and act like me, but with fancier, cooler gadgets.  A far more likely scenario, however, is that people of the future will behave in ways that we would consider crazy, bizarre, and possibly downright gross.  It is impossible to say, but this has been the case throughout history, so I see no reason why it would change now.