The rule could be anything, as funny or as serious as you want. The universe will progress in a similar way that it has up until this point, unless your changed rule prevented it from doing so.

Some examples might be:

  • The invention of currency is not allowed.
  • Iron is slightly less stable.
  • The Ancient Greeks are able to cultivate Silphium, which does not go extinct now.
  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 🏆
    link
    fedilink
    English
    7
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    “Let’s see what scientists say about time if I remove entropy from the equation.”

    Also: Big Elden Ring vibes. This is basically what Marika does; alters reality and takes death out of it because she got access to the source code of the universe.

  • Icalasari
    link
    fedilink
    291 year ago

    A necessary requirement for higher intelligence is proper, functioning empathy. If you lack this, you’re just… Incapable of intelligent thought beyond that of a particularly stupid dog

    • LainTrain
      link
      fedilink
      51 year ago

      Have to say this wouldn’t affect me, not because I don’t have any empathy but only cold, logical political solidarity, but also because I wouldn’t really class myself as particularly intelligent. I’m just walking here

    • Avicenna
      link
      fedilink
      3
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      I feel like we would still have many of the same billionaires if not all

    • Kairos
      link
      fedilink
      161 year ago

      Humans do generally have proper functioning empathy

      • @Septimaeus@infosec.pub
        link
        fedilink
        51 year ago

        a moral impetus, informed directly by empathy, that is so overwhelming that the feelings of others are tantamount to one’s own

        I’m guessing this is their meaning. Sounds interesting. Maybe that version of humanity would have far fewer nukes and a lot more good sex.

        • Kairos
          link
          fedilink
          11 year ago

          The problem is that basic empathy only goes so far. But we [almost] all have it.

      • @leftzero@lemmynsfw.com
        link
        fedilink
        31 year ago

        CEOs and similar psychopaths don’t, though.

        (Though those already tend to have the intelligence of a particularly stupid dog anyway, so I don’t really see how this would change anything.)

        • bizarroland
          link
          fedilink
          11 year ago

          I thought the thing about psychopaths is not that they don’t have empathy or that it’s something that’s completely bizarre and alien to them, but rather that they have a switch where they can turn it off.

          Like most of us would recoil in horror at watching a video of somebody being beheaded on the internet and many of us have had that unfortunate experience, but a psychopath has the ability to not feel anything at all about it if they don’t want to.

          • @WanderingVentra@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            1
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            I believe both. Fusion bomb was made after the fission one. So ya, that’s a tough one.

            But I suppose as long as we’re just making wishes, there’s got to be one like things can’t explode but you can still get harmless energy from them or something like that, so stars still work. Idk,this one might require a physicist to phrase it right lol.

            • @LordGimp@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              31 year ago

              Nah we definitely have fusion, just not for anything other than bombs.

              Fun fact: to set off a fusion reaction, hydrogen bombs actually have a smaller fission bomb inside it. Sometimes multiples of fission-fusion reactions all stacked inside of eachother like nesting dolls.

          • @LordGimp@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            2
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            Fusion makes a bomb like the sun.

            Fission makes a bomb like chernobyl.

            Seems similar, actually different. We’re actually pretty good at fission, but fusion is way harder. The problem with fusion is that you need a huge amount of power to generate a slightly huger amount of power in return, and we are pretty crap at generating a big enough spike of energy to start the reaction and marginally worse at capturing said power after. All in all, pretty far away from practical fusion power.

            Fission, by comparison, can happen when you have too many special minerals in a wrong shaped pile. We abuse this effect to boil water, and use that boiling water to make power.

  • @CaptPretentious@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    2
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Is hard to pick one.

    Altruism is the default instead of selfishness

    Cancer doesn’t exist

    No harm could come to children. No one would have wicked thoughts towards them. They’d fully recover from any non-lethal injury. They could get sick.

  • Grayox
    link
    fedilink
    451 year ago

    Native Americans are immune to European diseases.

    • Yeather
      link
      fedilink
      31 year ago

      Granted, the vast majority of people are illiterate, as there are no longer competent teachers, we never make it out of the stone age, as there are no competent organizers.

      • @Don_alForno@feddit.org
        link
        fedilink
        Deutsch
        11 year ago

        I wouldn’t classify “teacher” as a “position of power” in the sense that people who are mostly interested in holding power over others want the position for that reason.

        There’s a huge difference between “being interested in power” and “being interested in improving things for yourself and other people”. The one is selfish in nature, the other isn’t.

        There is also a huge difference between wanting a position and being good at it.

        • Yeather
          link
          fedilink
          11 year ago

          And yet, instructors and teachers are in a position of power over there students. A bad teacher can ruin a subject for you, destroy your grades, and get you in trouble. I believe it fits within the definition.

  • @HelixDab2@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    91 year ago

    Oxygen now stably bonds with three hydrogen atoms, not two. The new formula for water is H3O.

    Good luck with any kind of life form that we would recognize as being alive evolving.