I think this is most fit for this board.
Ok, so in our timeline most of our religions and cultural beliefs and lore derrive from 1000s of years of stargazing, and the legends surrounding the different constellations and the cycles of the sun.
Ok, so what of the Earth had rings like pic related.
How would this affect humans CULTURALLY?
We're going to assume humans still evolve, and that most cultures still exist like in our timeline.
>>761592
I don't know but we'd probably have figured out earlier that the earth is round.
We would probably have a lot of rings in our culture desu
>>762148
We probably wouldn't have found out the rings are actually rings until very late in our history.
>>762136
We've known the Earth was round since the Ancient Greeks.
>>761592
navigation and travel in general would have been piss easy
Humans would never evolve as a species thanks to the completely different gravity.
>>762165
>We've known the Earth was round since the Ancient Greeks.
I wouldn't go as far. And if anything, they didn't know, they just believed so. In any case their evidence wasn't strong enough so the rest of the world would believe it.
Earthrings would have made it 10x more obvious.
>>762202
Wouldn't they all be calculating how far away the rings were and how wide they were etc?
We should take into account how transparent would the rings be.
If they were very opaque, the shade of the rings would cause extreme temperatures during winters.
>>762209
>I wouldn't go as far. And if anything, they didn't know, they just believed so. In any case their evidence wasn't strong enough so the rest of the world would believe it
Eratosthenes estimated the circumference of the Earth mathematically, using physical evidence, to a pretty accurate degree, and that was in 240 BC, I would say that goes beyond belief.
>>762209
Fuck you they did know. They knew it as well as you know it now.
>>761592
That would be fucking annoying when you try to sleep though. A 24/7 light relflector
>>762148
Like Piercings and shit, yeah. At least some cultures for sure.
>>762168
Yeah, you think we might have known the Earth was Heliocentric a lot sooner too?
>>762209
As stated before, the Greeks calculated the circumference of the Earth to astonishing accuracy by measuring the shadows of obelisks in Alexandria and somewhere else like by 200 BC.
Even by Columbus's time, people were well aware of the fact the Earth was round. They also knew he was severely underestimating how big the Ocean was.
>>762242
Well, even if Opaque, wouldn't light from the Sun still diffuse and shine down on the planets as red light?
Also, I don't think all areas of the planet would be affected, no?
>>762287
This is a good question. It'd be like a full moon year round.
In terms of culture how would some cultures interpret the rings do you think?
For example, for the Egyptians, Ra was the God of the Sun, and their primary deity. In fact, most religions today are solar worshipping:
Jesus
Ra
Amaterasu
Etc... all feature a solar deity.
How would the Sun interact with the Rings year round? And how do you think they could be interpreted culturally?
Also, with a massive reflector in the sky, would the constellations still be visible. I like to think they would be, because even with out current light pollution, they're still visible in large cities.
>that image
>from Ecuador
>implying negligible thickness
>>762448
Calculations say it'd be 9 meters wide.
https://youtu.be/CItDiuBWP5I
>>762411
>Well, even if Opaque, wouldn't light from the Sun still diffuse and shine down on the planets as red light?
I guess that would affect evolution a bit as well.
Plants are green, because they reflect the green light and absorb other light.
Plants may evolve to absorb and reflect different wavelengths in different ways then.
what if andromeda was super bright desu
>>761592
Impossible to say. For example, many Mesoamerican cultures worshiped the sun. They believed that the sun demanded blood sacrifices, and kill hundreds of thousands of people
to appease the sun. The Aztecs even maintained several states within their borders in order to have a source of prisoners for sacrifice. Something like rings around the Earth would
certainly have as much significance as the sun, moon and stars. It would be such a massive difference I don't think we can definitely say how much of a difference it would make,
other than it would be significant.
>>761592
There would be a lot of legends of it being either a bridge to the heavens, or the heavens themselves where gods and spirits and dead ancestors live.
>>762726
what if your mom was
>>762781
Widespread enough to have been common knowledge among the educated of Europe and the Islamic Empire.
Read, the History of Alchemy to get a better understanding of how scientific knowledge spread after the Greeks.
>>762750
Hmm...
Any ideas?
One of the reasons I'm making this thread is cause I'm considering using such a setting for a science fantasy story, and I'm trying to brainstorm ideas for how this significant change would affect certain cultures, assuming they all developed the same way. I'm just looking at history and what actually happened, and throwing a wrench in the works, and looking at what might have changed.
Greece, China, Egypt, Rome, and Mesopotamia are all the cultures I'm mostly focusing on, but any takes work really, perhaps pick and pull from various cultures.
>>762774
This is exactly what I was thinking.
For one, any cultures across the equator would see a very evident division between north and south, especially at noon where the shadow of the rings splits the ground clear in two, East to West, and I could see this affecting their culture somehow.
For other cultures, I can see them envisioning the Rinds as some sort of Astral Bridge, or a higher plane like the Greeks saw Olympus or the Nords Valhalla. Moreover, seeing the segments in the rings, and treating the Sun as some supreme God, it would lend further evidence to the concept of Earth being some sort of lower plane, with more advanced beings living on higher planes in tiers where you can visibly see the rings.
Finally, winters being more Red in certain parts of the world would certainly make them more frightening for people. This would be more true far North I think, where the Sun really dips in the horizon.
Perhaps the Sun can be seen as some great observer?
The last bit is really interesting. With the rings reflecting white at night, by contrast would look a darker grey. So it would play a much stronger contrast to the white rings, and the bright sun.
>>761592
WELL FUCK YOU BUDDY NOW I HAVE TO LIVE WITH THE FACT THAT EARTH DOSENT HAVE RINGS EVEN THO IT WOULD HAVE BEEN FUCKING AMAZING
also im no scientist but wouldent it mess with tides and shit? or mabey since its a ring sitting around the entire planet it wouldent
>>762555
well shut my mouth
fair enough
>>762884
It wouldn't mess with the tides, but it would fuck with the climates as the rings would cast a shadow making the temperature difference between summer and winter vary to a much larger degree.
>>762849
I'm not asking for fiction, I'm asking people look at the religious beliefs of cultures as they happened, and throw ideas as to how they might have been different.
/m/ and /g/ are not the place for this. /v/ is too stupid, and this would be off topic. As it would be in /co/ and /tv/. /x/ maybe, but I want hard facts, but perhaps it's worth a shot there./sci/ I've got the science side covered. Plenty of videos covering that. And /r9k/ is for people crying about being lonely and being misogynistic.
If anything, this is more of an Alternate History thread, looking at what might change culturally assuming they all developed the same for facility's sake.
>>762884
It would make space travel impossible unless we built stargates.
>>761592
More cultural references to bridges of the gods and Holy Mountains.
About how far would you need to travel to see the rings differently? I imagine that mythology based on a single view of the rings would be limited exclusively to small states and tribal societies, but bigger empires would realize fairly soon that they are rings extending all the way around their world.
I'm thinking about Eratosthenes here. If he was in enough contact with different parts of Africa to calculate the Earth's circumference, there would definitely also be widespread contact about the rings.
We don't have any close-up magnifications of Saturn's rings in real life, right? That Earth, of course, would get access to that view since they simply have to look into their orbit. I'm no scientist though, I don't know what they'd immediately learn from the particles and what they'd use that information for.
>>761592
>Ok, so in our timeline most of our religions and cultural beliefs and lore derrive from 1000s of years of stargazing, and the legends surrounding the different constellations and the cycles of the sun.
Something, something spirits of ancestors, something something wound of the sky.
And maybe a lot more serpents that surround the world in mythology.
Maybe some shittier navigation, since South's location would be blindingly obvious.
>>762411
>Jesus
>Ra
>Amaterasu
*facepalm*
That's 1 out of the 3.
>>762882
>One of the reasons I'm making this thread is cause I'm considering using such a setting for a science fantasy story, and I'm trying to brainstorm ideas for how this significant change would affect certain cultures, assuming they all developed the same way. I'm just looking at history and what actually happened, and throwing a wrench in the works, and looking at what might have changed.
I'm not joking now, you are better off taking this thread to >>>/tg/.
They are really good at worldbuilding scenarios like thiw.
>>762940
>About how far would you need to travel to see the rings differently?
Not far, probably no more than 100 miles north or south to see an appreciable difference.
> I don't know what they'd immediately learn from the particles and what they'd use that information for.
Well for one the circumference of the Earth would've been known a lot sooner and with much greater accuracy, Eratosthenes would've been late to the party. It's also possible that they would've figured out heliocentrism a lot soon from observing the play of the Earth and Moons shadow on the rings. Might have also would've have given the ancients better knowledge on cosmic distances, at least for the Sun and Moon, since people could compare the difference in light as two pass between the Earth and the Rings.
>>762975
>They are really good at worldbuilding scenarios like thiw.
meh
Way too often interesting threads like this go nowhere on /tg/.
I'd make threads on /sci/, /tg/, /v/ and /his/ though.
>>762996
>Way too often interesting threads like this go nowhere on /tg/.
Yeah, but at least the content is there. Sometimes it might be only like 2 anons offering ideas and a couple shitposters, but it's nice.
>>761592
He'd have a shitload of people travelling trying to reach em by foot.
>>765120
>He'd
This is how divine misconceptions start, Anon.
Who SpaceEngine here?
cult of saturn theory is bullshit
>>762411
>As stated before, the Greeks calculated the circumference of the Earth to astonishing accuracy by measuring the shadows of obelisks in Alexandria and somewhere else like by 200 BC
source
