If you could change a single event in the world history, no matter how big or small, what would it be?
>>1019780
With a thread like this, you're just asking for /pol/-tier replies.
>>1019780
I'd make it so that this thread was never posted.
>>1019780
4chan is never created.
Or the Bronze Age Collapse never takes place. That would have some of the biggest effect I think. All the languages would be different, Western and Eastern culture as we know it wouldn't exist. Technology would probably be radically different too.
>>1019782
/thread
Rome doesn't adopt christianity
>>1019780
Mohammed died of syphilis at an early age and never founded Islam.
>>1019786
This.
>>1019780
>what would it be?
Abort OP
>>1019782
>>1019780
Slap that bitch Eva before she can give Adam the apple.
>>1019782
Nice.
>>1019780
My birth
>>1019786
Came to post this. Sage because this thread doesn't belong here.
Have the 2000 Florida ballot be readable for old people, eliminating the Bush administration.
>>1019780
kill the guy who invented the trilby hat.
>>1019785
This sounds pretty rad. Wonder what would happen instead of crusades and all the fuckery they called missionary work
>>1019780
> If you could change a single event in the world history, no matter how big or small, what would it be?
Sailing/swimming and flight are never discovered.
The communities stay enclosed due to the ground being separated by bodies of water.
Progress stagnates until the man-made equivalent of bridge-Pangaea isn't created or people dig long enough tunnels in hopes of connecting with someone.
Even then, the space travel isn't possible and we are stuck on the planet, digging deep into it, in hopes of finding something inside.
>>1019798
For what fucking purpose?
>>1019797
Who knows. It would be interesting atleast and as nice little side effect there would be no Islam.
>>1019797
Christianity actually delayed the collapse of Rome.
>>1019786
The problems in the middle east aren't caused by Islam, but the radical interpretation of its teachings is a symptom of its environment
Can I add events? Because if so I'd have added the invention of the FTL drive to the Age of Sail.
I'd make it so the internet was never invented. I think there's a good chance my life would have worked out better.
>>1019802
taqiya?
>>1019780
Cyanobacteria never evolve
>>1019799
Because it's interesting.
Imagine the world without sailing or flight, where everything is connected by tunnels and the bodies of water that can't be swimmed through by a person are basically impassable.
Basically, imagine the Earth as a giant anthill.
Or have I misunderstood the purpose of the thread, and it's not for worldbuilding, which is /tg/-relevant, but in fact for espousing wish fulfillment and historical revisionism?
>>1019806
Interesting. I'd personally prevent the Permian-Triassic extinction event. Why set evolution back when we could set things millions of years ahead instead?
>>1019808
I personally think preventing whatever caused genetic bottleneck would be more interesting for us.
>>1019808
My plan is to crash the atmosphere...with no survivors
>>1019798
Not gonna lie, that sounds INCREDIBLY dumb. Like holy shit that's dumb. It's not Stupid, but it is Dumb.
>>1019802
Islam is by default more radical warrior religion than Christianity. You know Mohammed was a warlord and conqueror.
Not that problems in Middle East are only related to religion.
>>1019812
At the same time, while the Mid-East was wealthy is was a relatively moderate and secular region.
The problem is that rich/educated Muslims are pretty much the same as rich/educated Christains, but the Muslim poor are a lot more violent overall.
>>1019807
I'd guess most people fucking drowned.
Swimming is programmed into babies on the genetic level for a reason.
>>1019811
sounds cool to me
or are you one those lame-os who doesn't like caves?
>>1019814
Hell, I'd allow unconscious swimming for the sake of it.
Like, swimming across the river is okay, but building a boat just never occurs to anyone.
>>1019798
That's not how that works. In a lot of ways.
>>1019816
How would you explain that, though? Rafts evolve really easily from 'I can sit on this log in the river and float'.
>>1019816
Then they'd figure out boats eventually.
Even apes understand how to build simple rafts. It's not something you can not invent
>>1019818
Not him, but water has less surface tension and is less dense overall. Humans still invent subs eventually.
>>1019810
What happened after Land Plants Diversify to make it drop? The Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event should be a bit later, right?
>>1019818
A blind spot in people's reasoning.
Where an average human thinks "hey, this floats, wonder what happens if I tie up a bunch of these", the anthill-human would come up with a blank.
The whole "humans aren't meant to fly" schtick appeals to my curiousity in regards to worldbuilding. Might as well take it up a notch, and remove sailing too.
>>1019813
Yeah, Saudis never do suicide bombs, or Medics... Wait.
>>1019820
Do you have any idea what fucking with the density of water will do?
>>1019822
But apes can figure out rafts.
This requires an enormous gape in the logical capability of human beings, to the point of not being able to figure out fire and such as well.
>>1019780
Change? As in, not necessarily just stop or pick between two possible results?
Alright.
Alexander the Great conquer the whole Europe+Asia+North Africa. Survives to the age of 90, has 2 heirs, the first born is a very powerful charismatic figure and competente administrator and focus his also long reign to solidify control of the empire, develop a extense network of high quality roads, planned citis to work as provincial capitals, and athenian style democratic govern for larger settlements.
Dunno where it would lead but always wondered what would be of the modern world if we had a very early on massive empire bigger than the romans and mongols combined.
No one has said Kill Hitler yet?
I guess we've all learned from far too many episodes of every sci-fi show ever that inevitably ends in disaster.
>>1019825
the psychic emanations of a great old one sleeping under the sea instictively fills humans with terrible fear when they imagine trying to cross large bodies of water
>>1019809
Hmm, possibly. But given that we technically wouldn't know either way, because we'd never have been born with that large a change to history, I think it'd be more interesting to see (metaphorically) what kind of life had evolved if the dinosaurs hadn't taken over.
FRANZ FERDINAND IS NEVER ASSASSINATED
>>1019828
But tunneling under the water is fine?
>>1019824
Sounds like a fun way to establish a setting.
>>1019818
Really nasty beach and coast predators?
>>1019825
Even if we agree that rafts are okay, that doesn't mean sailing is possible, as you have, well, no sails. The oceans, lakes other bodies of water that don't have a stream with a uniform direction are still impassable until you invent motors or use oars.
That said, a very specific blindspot in reasoning (as in, just for sailing) is not out of the question, for example, >>1019828 - as in humans are wired to not understand sailing.
>>1019831
yes, millions of tons of rock is a good insulator against psychic panic
NAPOLEON DOESN'T GET THE SHITS AT WATERLOO AND WINS THE BATTLE
dinosaurs never die out
>>1019802
You're not totally wrong, but the Quran is a much more violent book than even the Bible or Torah.
>>1019827
To be honest if you wanted to prevent Hitler then having WW1 never happen would be far more effective, but this is kind of hard since WW1 was inevitable due to imperialistic geopolitics.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN NEVER GOES TO THE THEATRE.
MAHATMA GHANDI GROWS UP TO BE LESS OF A SHIT.
SOMETHING SOMETHING LENIN/STALIN NO SOVIET UNION
AMERICA NEVER DEVELOPS THE TWO PARTY SYSTEM
CANADIANS NEVER LEARN TO APOLOGIZE
AFRICA IS LESS FUCKED
>>1019786
Yea, this.
/thread.
>>1019837
They never did. Pic related.
>>1019824
Not him, but I don't.
I guess it fucks with water states, which in turn impacts heavily the climate, every kind of biology, oceans...
Pretty overwhelming idea I guess, I can't really imagine the consequences.
>>1019832
You know not what you do. The changes to basic chemistry implied by water having a lower density would cause massive changes, to the point where it's highly unlikely anyone without a relevant PhD would be able to fully understand them.
For example, the easiest way to decrease the density of water would be to weaken or remove hydrogen bonding, which is the only reason water is a liquid (compare with H2S, a gas). Unfortunately, DNA is held together by hydrogen bonding, so that means you can't use DNA as genetic code. Therefore, it's all RNA, which is nowhere near as table. Congratulations, to probability of intelligent life evolving in this universe has just been massively slashed.
>>1019839
The Central Powers win WW1, hastening the demise of the British and French Empires.
>>1019780
I would have gotten the job on monday.
>>1019780
I don't know man, there's the temptation to try and fuck with history for the good of humanity, or I could go back to August 2015 and make myself about a hundred grand by making a single bet, which should still work, given that I've done nothing to effect the circumstances that would win me the money
>>1019840
>ABRAHAM LINCOLN NEVER GOES TO THE THEATRE.
Said like that it sounds like he never goes to theaters EVER. I now imagining a theatre-hating Lincolm.
> "There is nice play this evening right arou..."
> "Good lord NO!"
>>1019844
Kaiserreich, more like Kaiserright, eh? Eh?
>>1019805
idk what that is
>>1019812
>>1019838
I agree, especially given the tribal background of its founder and early followers. I believe understanding the middle east benefits from a holistic approach
>>1019823
The history of the house of Saud is fascinating, especially its relationship with Hussein and Britain inter/ante bellum. To be honest I don't yet fully understand what motivates their position, but i look forward to learning more about it.
>>1019844
And creating central empires? You don't really expect them to let those juicy colonies like that, right?
However, they probably won't be able take them all, probably resulting in more but smaller colonial empires.
>>1019849
>I don't yet fully understand what motivates their position
oil
>>1019780
None?
I'm living in a first world country. THis means I'm in the top 10% of human population in temrs of life quality.
Why would I risk it?
Britain joins Germany instead of France in WW1
>>1019843
But of you are changing how chemistry works anyway why not pick something easier? Seawater is no longer water with dissolved salt, but some other less dense than water material.
>>1019827
I was surprised preventing the suicide of Hitler hasn't been mentioned yet. This is 4chan after all.
>>1019853
And lose/not gain the middle East? Not happening, they would rather talk French!
I would make maori never reach new zealand.
THis way Moa would be still alive and probably domesticated.
>>1019854
That doesn't stop you boating about freshwater lakes.
>>1019851
Interestingly they've seemingly identified that its not going to last them forever: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/apr/01/saudi-arabia-plans-to-sell-state-oil-assets-to-create-2tn-wealth-fund
On the subject of the thread, Saudi Arabia sans oil makes for an interesting counterfactual
>>1019859
>Saudi Arabia sans oil
So a fucking worthless desert where no one lives because it is 100% worthless.
>>1019855
Wouldn't change much. He'd still have been captured and executed.
>>1019858
And the original idea of preventing cross continental travel barring land bridges remains intact.
Now what the new ethanol containing seawater does to aquatic life is another question, as is where all that ethanol comes from. As it is the first thin that comes to mind you can dissolve in water that makes it less dense.
>>1019839
What about, Frederick III?
He only reigned for 99 days before Wilhelm II, but was Liberal in the classical sense, disliked war, didn't like Bismark but was nowhere near as vigorously against him (or at least was less likely to be so blunt), and was a huge Teaboo, married to Victoria's eldest daughter
If he hadn't died, the history of Germany would look very different, probably
>>1019821
Evolution of bacteria that can digest cellulose.
Prior to that you had primitive plants like Calamites that grew to 30m tall then fell over since they had no real structure. Noting around to break them down so there was an immense accumulation of swamp plants and a resultant decrease in CO2. This is where most coal comes from. Oxygen went up to about 30% of atmosphere as a consequence so forest fires were easy to spark (lightning) and would have burned fiercely. Once bacteria evolved to breakdown dead plants oxygen started to come down.
Permian-Triasic had very low sea levels so lots of oxidation of continental shelf sediments which lowered oxygen - that's the dip post Carboniferous.
>>1019853
Nigga how you gonna do that?
>>1019862
"Go away, stupid fish, you are drunk."
Also, seawater suddenly becomes drinkable.
>>1019863
Germany was already moving away from the Russian-friendly politics Bismarck established to Austro-Hungarian Grand-German relations, independant of Willy. And really, how couldn't they, when Russia goes all buddy buddy with France, on the hatred of which the second Reich is built on all it's levels.
Constantine never adopts Christianity as the state religion.
Chances are I would fail to exist, but if I could prevent the faith from coopting several pagan traditions into itself and becoming distanced from it's Judaic roots, then it may be worthwhile. Granted, the religion's scope of influence would be much smaller than it is today, but it wouldn't outright prevent gentile conversion, so it might still have gained some steam.
>>1019864
Know any good reading on the subject?
>>1019867
Grand Germany, AH and the British Empire vs France and Russia seems like it could be an interesting match up - the Entente cordiale was by no means a sure thing before the turn of the century
Make it so Ishmael was never born.
>>1019780
Gavrilo Princip doesn't kill Franz Ferdinand. Basically almost all of the problems we have today wouldn't exist.
>>1019869
Another byproduct of that 30% O2 I forgot to mention is that animals like amphibians and arthropods that breathe through diffusion could get a hell of a lot bigger.
Check out Peter Ward's books. IIRC "On Methuselah's Trail" talks about this some. It's a good read. He's a paleontologist that writes pop-sci books. Rumor is he does some hard drugs.
Maybe look into Stephen Jay Gould as well. I can't recall anything he ever wrote about atmospheric chemistry specifically but he has essays on all sorts of paleo topics so odds are decent that he did at one point.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Matthew_Dickinson4/publication/237520518_Burning_forest_materials_under_late_Paleozoic_high_atmospheric_oxygen_levels/links/55b60de908ae9289a08a96c5.pdf
Kill the first bipedal apes.
>>1019780
When Jesus was giving his sermon on the mount, I'd make him fart so loudly that everyone heard it.
>>1019906
>stealing the plot for genre fiction
>>1019906
The problems existed way before that.
The war erupted not because some guy was shot, but because whole Europe has been boiling for some time then, in a large part because of growing inequality.
That was also why the Great War didn't defuse the situation - afterwar deal didn't issue the problem at all and we needed another bloodshed.
I think to prevent all that shit from happening you would need to address the problems in napoleonic era.
>>1019780
Every human still in Africa after 50,000 B.C mysteriously dies.
>>1021334
War would happen either way, but it's extremely important WHO was killed. It wasn't just "some guy" you cuck.
>>1021383
He would be dethroned after the war either way, so he would be literally just some guy
>>1019780
Siberians never migrate over the Bering Strait.
>>1021391
>heir to the throne
>some guy
>>1021041
What happens in the book anon
Tell me a story :3
>>1019830
Now, this wouldn't prevent WWI, but would itbe enough to at least partially defuse it, leading to a less destructive war?
>>1021392
Why? This sounds interesting.
>>1019793
Waited for this
>>1021397
>heir to the throne
>in what would invariably become a republic
>>1021361
*tips fedora*
Make sure the Neanderthals wipe out the homo-sapiens so we can have a Neanderthal master-race in Europe.
>>1019804
You mean all of us would be normies or dead?
>>1019826
The middle east would me much more pacified?
>>1019785
>more internal conflicts would've help the Empire!
>>1019836
Doesn't matter. The russians and austrians were en route. They would defeat him with the remaining survivors of Waterloo.
If you want Napoleon to live. Just tell him not to invade Russia.
