Since, surprisingly, no one's pointed it out yet, prehistory/=history.
Joel Send a noteboard - 13/04/2010 09:52:19 AM
I saw this on a YouTube video and wanted to ask you guys.
If you could change 1 thing in history, what would you change, and how do you think that that would affect things?
If you could change 1 thing in history, what would you change, and how do you think that that would affect things?
Although a few have facetiously mentioned religious history shifts and one on the plague.
Well, you could look at tools and wonder what would have happened to homo habilis without tools or homo erectus without fire, I suppose. Or consider what if horses, donkeys, and camels had been butchered for food or had been wiped out due to climate change, as what occurred in the Americas 10,000 years ago? If they and cows and oxen, the so-called beasts of burden, did not exist in the Eastern Hemisphere, what would have happened then? Or conversely, what if such animals had remained extant in the Americas? Would I have then inherited a mutated gene that would allow me to process bovine milk after the age of 4-5?
The game of "what if" I suppose is fun, but it's more fun when such queries are then turned around and applied to what did transpire.
If we play that game this turns into All Good Things, and even if that's still my favorite TNG episode, it's hard enough to extrapolate alternate history when we have reliable records of events. When we get into anthropology rather than pure history we're forced to hope events have been accurately reconstructed without the benefit of first hand witnesses and THEN speculate on the outcome had events played out differently.
That's not to say the more challenging task isn't worthwhile, but it's not really "history" in the accepted sense, is it?
I concede the world would be very different without the emergence of the first eukaryotes, but that happened so long ago and is so poorly documented that the effects would be impossible to predict with any certainty, however interesting they are to consider. "Awww... see what you did?
"
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Last First in wotmania Chat
Slightly better than chocolate.
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LoL. Be well, RAFOlk.
Last First in wotmania Chat
Slightly better than chocolate.
Love still can't be coerced.
Please Don't Eat the Newbies!

LoL. Be well, RAFOlk.
I know I just did a survey, but this was too good to pass up.
- 07/04/2010 12:44:15 AM
937 Views
Myself: World War I.
- 07/04/2010 12:45:57 AM
815 Views
I don't think it's that simple.
- 07/04/2010 12:57:16 AM
769 Views
I see your point.
- 07/04/2010 01:02:33 AM
760 Views
True, one might even say *adding* a war there would've improved things.
- 07/04/2010 01:36:07 AM
712 Views
Re: True, one might even say *adding* a war there would've improved things.
- 07/04/2010 10:48:49 AM
729 Views
I had a teacher with an interesting theory related to that
- 07/04/2010 12:57:49 AM
604 Views
Well, at this time, it was pretty well accepted that Russia wasn't exactly a techinical power.
- 07/04/2010 01:04:35 AM
590 Views
The Plague
- 07/04/2010 12:52:33 AM
693 Views
Re: The Plague
- 07/04/2010 01:05:35 AM
584 Views
He must be talking about a different plague, but I'm not sure which one, either. *NM*
- 07/04/2010 01:37:32 AM
429 Views
Maybe; there were episodic plague epidemics before and after that time.
- 07/04/2010 02:05:18 AM
755 Views
I am talking about one of the plagues not THE plague
- 07/04/2010 02:50:25 AM
694 Views
Re: I am talking about one of the plagues not THE plague
- 07/04/2010 08:45:26 PM
699 Views
I'm so glad you have the time and inclination to type up these replies.
*NM*
- 08/04/2010 07:09:22 AM
427 Views
*NM*
- 08/04/2010 07:09:22 AM
427 Views
...?
- 08/04/2010 07:51:14 PM
595 Views
Sounds like he was thanking you for saving him the effort of writing a similar reply. *NM*
- 08/04/2010 09:28:55 PM
450 Views
OK, think this one's been pretty thoroughly covered in my absence.
- 13/04/2010 11:51:16 AM
753 Views
- 13/04/2010 11:51:16 AM
753 Views
The spread of Christianity
- 07/04/2010 12:55:29 AM
771 Views
Re: The spread of Christianity
- 08/04/2010 09:29:17 AM
604 Views
But wasn't Christianity the inspiration for a whole era of art? *NM*
- 08/04/2010 01:41:34 PM
565 Views
Re: But wasn't Christianity the inspiration for a whole era of art?
- 08/04/2010 01:44:36 PM
751 Views
The product of Christian inspiration was heavily Hellenistic in origin...
- 08/04/2010 07:54:12 PM
583 Views
The destruction of the Great Library.
- 07/04/2010 01:02:59 AM
674 Views
Internet spam sucks indeed.
- 07/04/2010 01:08:23 AM
776 Views
We'll never know; makes for fascinating speculative fiction.
- 07/04/2010 01:13:49 AM
724 Views
This whole topic is wild, it's something I sometimes think about.
- 07/04/2010 01:17:50 AM
712 Views
"Joel captures Alexandria! The Great Library is destroyed!" *NM*
- 07/04/2010 01:08:35 AM
316 Views
It's crazy to think that the human knowledge base doubles every 2 years...
- 07/04/2010 08:49:28 PM
556 Views
Literacy and communication have literally made a world of difference.
- 13/04/2010 09:25:45 AM
645 Views
if the giant meteor hadn't destroyed the dinosaurs...
- 07/04/2010 01:10:42 AM
629 Views
"FOR" global warming? Now there's a phrase I never thought I'd here!
- 07/04/2010 01:16:04 AM
536 Views
The spread of Islam
- 07/04/2010 01:26:11 AM
725 Views
oh aren't you clever. *NM*
- 07/04/2010 01:47:13 AM
406 Views
There's such a thing as being right for the wrong reasons, though I'm not sure he is.
- 07/04/2010 02:12:14 AM
547 Views
Wikipedia is of course not a scholarly source, but all the same...
- 07/04/2010 11:57:01 AM
712 Views
Fair enough.
- 07/04/2010 12:51:16 PM
696 Views
Re: The spread of Islam
- 08/04/2010 09:24:31 AM
766 Views
I...do not know.
- 07/04/2010 07:18:13 AM
595 Views
A lot of times, you change one thing, and everything changes- even the things you don't think about.
- 07/04/2010 12:26:51 PM
558 Views
Amusing that the underlying expectation seems to be more along political history lines
- 07/04/2010 12:56:49 PM
809 Views
Here's one that'll be more to your liking...
- 08/04/2010 10:40:53 AM
526 Views
Re: Here's one that'll be more to your liking...
- 08/04/2010 11:58:27 AM
567 Views
Uh...
- 08/04/2010 12:11:14 PM
729 Views
Re: Uh...
- 08/04/2010 12:15:20 PM
750 Views
The Devil is always in the details
- 08/04/2010 12:29:25 PM
693 Views
- 08/04/2010 12:29:25 PM
693 Views
Re: The Devil is always in the details
- 08/04/2010 12:32:34 PM
489 Views
- 08/04/2010 12:32:34 PM
489 Views
Not really
- 08/04/2010 01:07:57 PM
655 Views
Re: Not really
- 08/04/2010 01:10:16 PM
578 Views
Only to a degree
- 08/04/2010 01:27:22 PM
673 Views
Re: Only to a degree
- 08/04/2010 01:30:12 PM
786 Views
I was into cultural and religious history
- 08/04/2010 01:38:24 PM
669 Views
Re: I was into cultural and religious history
- 08/04/2010 01:41:31 PM
567 Views
Ha!
- 08/04/2010 01:49:23 PM
709 Views
- 08/04/2010 01:49:23 PM
709 Views
Re: Ha!
- 08/04/2010 01:51:28 PM
534 Views
- 08/04/2010 01:51:28 PM
534 Views
Since, surprisingly, no one's pointed it out yet, prehistory/=history.
- 13/04/2010 09:52:19 AM
673 Views
Re: I know I just did a survey, but this was too good to pass up.
- 07/04/2010 09:04:02 PM
570 Views
Science getting on the ball in the 40's and making superhumans *NM*
- 08/04/2010 05:31:34 AM
464 Views
The spread of peanut butter and jelly.
- 08/04/2010 07:12:21 AM
720 Views
I think two spreads that would be better to eliminate would be marmite and vegemite (sp).
- 08/04/2010 05:30:26 PM
686 Views
- 08/04/2010 05:30:26 PM
686 Views
The head of [Roman Catholic] Christianity.
- 08/04/2010 07:15:21 AM
677 Views
You completely missed the "pick 1" part of the question, didn't you? *NM*
- 08/04/2010 09:26:23 AM
418 Views
Well, techinically, I never said that you couldn't make multible posts, each discussing 1 thing. *NM*
- 08/04/2010 05:36:37 PM
397 Views
I'm fairly sure he was just mocking someone's earlier post "just thought it would be interesting..." *NM*
- 08/04/2010 08:06:56 PM
395 Views
I'm pretty sure of that too. *NM*
- 08/04/2010 08:33:46 PM
402 Views

