First work where a traveler from afar arrives to a backward society and he tries to help its scientific progress

Question

There is a traditional trope in science fiction: an alien arrives in a backward world and tries to advance its scientific and technical progress.
I would like to know the first novel or story in which this kind of relationship exists. I'd like to make some clarifications:

The alien may be an alien but he may also be a time traveler. He does not have to be from a different race or species than the people he is trying to help evolve.

Development aid must be conscious and an important task for him, not just a side effect of his contacts with the natives.

The identity of the world to be developed is not important. It can be the Earth or it can be another planet.

It doesn't have to be interplanetary travel. A fantastic story about a major journey made by some kind of advanced "Atlantean" refugees would be admissible.

I would like to exclude stories inspired by some historical precedents of Western colonialism, in which a traveller or shipwrecked person has a strong impact on the tribe that receive him thanks to his more advanced medicine or weaponry.

Bryce · Answer

This may be a bit of a stretch, but 1843's 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens involves a ghost from the future transporting the main character forward in time to observe the outcome of his decisions, then returns him to present for the explicit purpose of improving his social and emotional progress (and as a result, the betterment of the society around him via his newfound generosity). It is a stretch because it doesn't involve (hard) science, however it definitely exhibits a very sci-fi notion of using lessons of the future to improve the past within a context of an industrializing society. The core concept that technological and economic progress may ignore or worsen social problems if human compassion is excluded, has been a running theme in the sci-fi genre.

Answered by Bryce on November 25, 2021

Rob Mueller · Answer

You may want to consider Philip Nowlan's books Armageddon 2419 A.D. and The Air Lords of Han. It is the Buck Rogers story where he travels forward in time to help after an apocalypse.

Ethan · Answer

How about Prometheus, a Celestial being who came to Earth and transformed humanity by introducing fire? Stories of Prometheus in written form are known from 2800 years ago, and there must be older undocumented versions. The best known is the trilogy by Aeschylus, of which only "Prometheus Bound" survives (date uncertain bur prior to 430 BCE).

Answered by Ethan on November 25, 2021

DavidW · Answer

I think a good first upper bound would be 1889:  Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.
It doesn't work in the end, but as noted in the Wikipedia entry

Hank, who had an image of that time that had been colored over the years by romantic myths, takes on the task of analyzing the problems and sharing his knowledge from 1300 years in the future to try to modernize, Americanize, and improve the lives of the people.

(You didn't require the attempt to succeed.)

First work where a traveler from afar arrives to a backward society and he tries to help its scientific progress

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