The Official Insane What If Thread

Let's just assume the Neanderthals were able to adapt to an environment not too harsh, but similar enough to ours so that we could posibly coexist... or not...
It's not about harshness (although they were indeed better adapted to such environments than we are), it's about basic physiology. A Neanderthal was a powerful short-distance runner, but had relatively low stamina when compared to homo sapiens. This meant that neanderthals were skilled at the sort of short, fast chase that would occur in the closely-packed forests of Ice Age Eurasia, but were weaker in the thinner forests and plains that began appearing as the Ice Age ended. Homo sapiens- a species which had longer remained in the African plains where humanity evolved- was better suited for this sort of environment, so we out-competed the Neanderthals to extinction.
If they had survived, then they would be little more than primitive tribes on the fringes of the fringes of civilisation, beyond even the smelliest and most backwards barbarian (i.e. the Scots ;)). If they had somehow managed to coexist with us, then they probably would have been absorbed into the human population, as some scientists believe is possible (particularly given new evidence that Neanderthals probably looked more human and less ape-like than was previously believed).


That's a very narrow-minded view, IMHO. 1 person counts immensely in the "grand scheme". Do you realize that 1 child walking on the street will totally change who accidentally met who in what day, and that will have huge effects on events from there on? In fact, a person is much more than enough!
*snip*
What's your point? All I said was that the significance of any particular event is relative, and that's true. There is no measurable "grand scheme" and, even if there was, there's no way of determining the effect of any given event on it, especially when one considers that there's no way of calculating all the evens that lead up to that. All we can safely say is that some events may have some effect on some results at some level, and, frankly, that doesn't sound like anything to get all that excited about.
 
I think what Mirc is talking about has to do with the "Butterfly Effect".

But never mind that.


What if... a space alien crashed pretty close to Genghis Khan's tent, and Genghis Khan was able to salvage and eat an herb/medicine that exteneded his life by 50 years?

What if... Karl Marx got run over by a horse carriage at age 13?
 
What if Hitler won or stalmated with the Allies in WW2?

What if the Britished had won in the American Revolution?

What if Columbus's ships and subsequent navigators never returned back to the Old World?

What if the Roman Empire still exists?

What if Jesus never got cruxified and/or became the King of Israel?

What if Homo neanderthals drove out Homo sapiens into extinction?

What if the meteroite that killed the dinosaur missed the Earth?

What if Earth had never formed into a planet?

What if the Big Bang did not take place?
 
What if the Britished had won in the American Revolution?
We're actually discussing that in another thread. Some interesting points made.

What if Columbus's ships and subsequent navigators never returned back to the Old World?
Chances are someone else would have tried it a few years later. It was too tempting an idea to ignore for long. Of course, how this later discovery would change things is debatable, but I wouldn't even know how to start figuring that out...

What if Homo neanderthals drove out Homo sapiens into extinction?
Highly unlikely, given that Neandethals had a far more limited environment than Homo sapiens, and therefore would not have been in a position to out-compete most of the human race at the time. Possibly a more highly evolved form of Neanderthal could manage it, but the results of that would depend on the manner of the Neanderthal's evolution.
 
What if... assuming Atlantis existed in some form or another, survived to the present day?


What if... a harpsichord fell on to of 7-year old JS Bach?


What if... a screw-up in the time vortex transported 100 Greek troops from World War II (including a few tanks and planes, as well as supplies) back to Constantinopole, 1204?


What if... Justinian thuoght Theodora was too "lowly" to be his mate? ;)


What if... Vietnam never existed?
 
What if... a screw-up in the time vortex transported 100 Greek troops from World War II (including a few tanks and planes, as well as supplies) back to Constantinopole, 1204?
Why 1204? To stop the 4th Crusade?


What if... Vietnam never existed?

Abbie Hoffman would have led a much more boring - and quieter - life.
 
Bartholomaï;6102035 said:
Japan would have still conquered it during WW2 and after they retreated at the end of the war, there would some kind of Europe like "Chinese Union"

Probably more than that. For two thousand years after Shi Huang the ultimate goal of the most ambitious men in China had always been (re)unifying China. If that would not have been possible a la Napoleonic Wars, some of them might have to resort to other places for more living space.

That might very well have been Africa and the Americas.
 
What if the greeks had lost the persian wars.
 
What if the greeks had lost the persian wars.
Then they would have won the peace, by feeding the Persian empire the fruits of Greek ingenuity a couple of centuries earlier than was done after Alexander's rampage. It would be Hellenism come early.
 
Then they would have won the peace, by feeding the Persian empire the fruits of Greek ingenuity a couple of centuries earlier than was done after Alexander's rampage. It would be Hellenism come early.
Hellenism was successful because Alexander's successes forced it on the Persians. If Persia had conquered Greece, that effect would be minimised, and far outweighed by Persian influence on Greece.
True, conquers often adopt the culture of the conquered- the Mongols in China, the Germanic tribes in Europe- but the Persians had already done that in Mesopotamia. They saw themselves as the heirs to Babylon and Sumeria, they would have seen no need to adopt the culture of a minor province on the fringe of the empire.
 
What if Al Gore won the '00 election?

What if Britain and France came to the aid of the Confederates?

What if Hitler was run over by a car at age 2?
 
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