We would have been more in touch with our feelings, so to speak;

Our ancestors are unlikely to have survived attacks by hungry sabre-tooth tigers;

Opticians would have struggled to make a living;

Nobody would struggle with putting contact lenses after late-night parties;

Playboy would have been published in braille and sculpture would have been appreciated more.


What if... people had never learnt to sail on ships?

There woudn't have been much happening in terms of civilization. Fishing would never have been an important food source. Columbus would never have sailed to the New World, so the indigenous people here wouldn't have been decimated syn- and post- contact.

The Mayans and the Inca would have eventually become the dominant civilizations on Earth, and they would have discovered flight early on, and then eventually would have flown across the Atlantic, discovered Europe and Africa, invaded these continents, killed any locals who objected, forced the English and the French to stay on the same reservation in Scandinavia and we'd all be speaking a different language.

What if .... it was decided that all temperatures should be measured in Kelvins (and the use of Celsius or Farenheit would be illegal)?

"It's at 0 degrees Celsius and holding," Dr. Fischer said.

All eyes turned upon him.

"Would you mind repeating yourself, Dr. Fischer?" said the scientist beside him.

"What?" Asked Dr. Fischer, looking up from his work and blinking. He was confused at first by the stares until he realised what he had said.

"Why don't you say what you just said again, but a little louder?" his colleague said again, the malice in his voice barely contained.

Dr. Fischer cleared his throat. "I said it's at 273K."

His colleague shook his head. "No," he said. "That's not what you said at all."

"Have you been measuring in Celsius?" another of Fischers peers asked, pointing a finger accusingly at him.

"I... No, of course not."

"Let us see your thermometer."

"I don't really see why that's necessary."

"Give us your damn thermometer now Dr. Fischer!"

"Never!" The middle aged, pot-bellied scientist said as he clutched the thermometer in his hands and made a fast break for the door.

"Somebody stop him!" went the cry.

The doors were closed before he could reach them. Two of them got hold of Dr. Fischer and held him down. Dr. Jonas was beside him in moments, a syrnge in her hand.

"This will only hurt a bit," she said as the needle entered Fischers viens.






What if you suddenly found out that you had the ability to breathe under water?

Well, I'd use that ability to the fullest.

First, I'd start off by betting a friend a whole bunch of people I could stay underwater for five minutes. Nothing much, just a few dollars a person. Then I'd collect the money.

After that, I'd probably end up working as some kind of dive instructor or Navy SEAL operative. Fun stuff.


What if alcohol had never existed?

Alot of the plimates would never have been born. Especially donteatpoop because we all know that was the product of a booze binging.





What if birds had teeth and were aggressive?

Uh... forgetting for the moment that the Mayan civilization collapsed 100's of years before the Inca's rose and close to a 1000 years before Columbus, the Inca would have become the dominant civilizations by decimating the other indigenous people. Same result, just different winners.

Sure there wouldn't have been the decimation by diseases but there would be decimation and conquests all the same.

on another note, the premise is quite interesting from another angle. How would Europe and Asia be changed if they didn't receive the benefits of the bounty of the Americas. Potato and Corn (maize) are two of thewo.rlds biggest food crops, both came from the Americas. Tomatoes also came from the Americas and has had a major impact on the world.

And of course there was a multitude of other items that were taken from the America's.

I even wonder how things would have been different without all the gold that was taken from the Americas. Gold that was used to pay for so much evil.

.... right.... My SA history is rather weak. I had thought there was less of a gap between the Mayans and the Incas reigns in power.

Either way, you raise some very interesting points. I feel comfortable saying that it's almost impossible to predict how the history of Earth would have occured had Homo sapiens never mastered the art of sailing.

Polynesia would have been largely unpopulated, there'd be no stone faces on Easter Island, and all of the historic stories about fishermen (in ancient greece as well as in the bible) wouldn't exist. The Romans and the Greeks would probably not have been able to exert as much of an influence had no one learned to sail. It's incredible, really.

SA (particularly the west) is still viewed as a treasure trove full of gold, some of which is still used to pay for evil.

ahem...

FINE!

Birds with teeth: this means a weird balance, messed up flight patterns, dental health issues, nut eating birds, and scary squirrels. Squirrels are adapted to birds, so they would be very scary creatures. Lots of muscle, larger body, they would look like monkey-rats. They would give a much more good eating. Probably better than rats. Some birds denture would provide material for some very nice jewelry. Birds would be hunted for their teeth. Chickens head would be much more valuable. Cats would be the size of mountain lions to beat them. There should be a large breed cat food.


Next question: What if the speed of light was 100 mph?

If the speed of light was just 100mph, we would become much less reliant on our sense of sight. Sound would be the prevailant sense, thunder would appear long before the lightning, and you would hear someone coming long before they arrived.

It's possible that we would evolve a radar ability in order to navigate our terrain more easily. Television would be non-existant.


What if the Roman Empire never existed?

Our system of law would be very different maybe we would rely much more on the Greek culture. They wouldn't have destroy Carthage, so now in Europe's past there would be a great African nation. Chances are our religion in Europe would be much more of a mixture of Christianity and other religions. Chances are there would have been far less killings in the name of religion, just like in other places where no religion can become dominant. The centers of Money would have been a bit more on the south than they are now, the silk road would have gone somewhere on the south, with a strong empire in North Africa the waters between India and Africa would have been much more safe.
Sea and ships would have been much more important in commerce. China would have been the first to get to America. They would have found the gold in California, and by the time Europe hits the East coast, the west coast would have been Chinese colony with strongholds on the Rocky Mountains. Imagine that.... Strong industrial China Clashing with Europe on the great plains... Actually there wouldn't have been any clash, because Rome did not build the road system, so Europe stayed in a barbarian state.

Next question:

Some theologists say that there are Christ-like figures in the history before Christ because they were set there by Satan to confuse the believers. What if Jesus was too set by Satan to confuse us, and make us adore false gods, and not to believe to Him when the real Messiah arrives?
===Edit
I don't want to kill this thread, so alternatively you can choose this question:

What if Hitler's army occupied Moscow, and the next year Stalingrad?

I had first stumbled upon this thought back when I was 11 or 12. Being the sort of devout little Catholic at the time, I thought it was wise to ask a teacher about this. Instead of a lively and insightful discussion, I all I got was 'we know Jesus is the Messiah because he's our Savior'. That kind of kick-started my disbelief in that religion, but I digress. I actually did play out the 'what if' in my mind, so I'll repeat it now.

Followers of Judaism are still waiting for the Messiah to arrive. As we speak, there are Christians across the planet (but mostly in the US) preparing for the rapture and the arrival of the anti-christ. So, when the Messiah the jews are waiting so patiently for arrives, they will be celebrating his arrival while the Christians will be wondering why they weren't vapourized into heaven now that the anti-christ is here.

Now, the real Messiah will probably head over this way and try to convince the masses that s/he is indeed the Messiah and that the Christians are wrong. As a result, some redneck with a gun will attempt to assassinate the Messiah. Of course, it won't work, and the Messiah goes on a mission to 'save' those who have been worshipping the demon also known as Jesus. Since so may people don't have room for anyone but Jesus, the Messiah gets frustrated and performs miracles on homeless people. Mass hysteria breaks out, pastors of the wealthy churches preach to their flocks to stay away from the 'anti-christ', many new people flock to the Messiah, and people in BC sit and smoke it's finest while laughing at the planet.

The Christians try to start a war, but are overcome by the lovin' people who believe in the real Messiah.

One day, the Messiah walks into an opera that has his/her name, and says "WTF? This isn't me at all!"




I like spamtrap's whatif alternative, so I'm leaving it here for the next guy:

What if Hitler's army occupied Moscow, and the next year Stalingrad?

What if Hitler's army occupied Moscow, and the next year Stalingrad?

Well the question really is what if Germany won WWII. Winning one battle may or may not have changed anything, only if by winning that battle they won the war do things change.

If Hitler had won there would have been massive changes.

Israel would never have been created. Heck the Jewish people may very well have been extinguished. How the mid east would differ without the threat of Israel and without Israel acting as a source of a common enemy is another question to ponder.

There would have been no rise of communism, no cold war, no vietnam, no korean conflic, korea would be one country, China, cuba, etc would not have become communist.

There would be a sort of peace for a while. A brutal peace. A peace out of fear.

How long would it last? I dont know. I also imagine that Hiler would not be satisfied for long with sharing power with Japan.

Even Japan would be far different without the efforts that the US put into that country.

Japan may not have become the technical, electronic, computer magnate that it is today.


It is possible that nuclear power would have been more embraced.

It is also probable that there would have been a war between Japan and Germany using atomic and hydrogen bombs in massive numbers.

Without the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to horrify the public, hydrogen bombs may not have become demonized. There may not be the ultimate basic desire to use such weapons only as a last resort.

Their first use may have have been on a massive scale. The after effect of such a war is too terrible to imagine.

What if there were 3 genders to procreate? A feminine egg producer, a masculine sperm producer, and a neutral gestator (if that is a word, an entity which gestates or incubate the fetus until time to birth)

That would be me!

So a gestator would have to have sex with a female, lets say sucking out the egg from the egg glands and then with a male to get pregnant.
It would be much more simple to prevent pregnancy. The gestator would just have to be careful not to have sex with both males and females.
There would be homosexuals, and those who like the opposite gender instead of the gestators.
Women would not have boobs, only the gestators, probably women would love to have sex with a gestator who has big boobs.
The triangles called marriages would work maybe even worse, because two of the participants would always team up against the third one. They would wish there was 4 genders.

Next question:
What if Iraq had and still has WMD, the US forces just could not find it?

Or

What if flowers smelled like shit?

We would all be writing poetry about the various s**tty smells and the sizes and hues and beautiful buzzing sounds made by flies.

Butterflies would be hated and sprayed with Doom.

What if...

We had more than one sun, with night ocurring only every 1,000 years?