>>2 what is the parallel universe when the Sega Master System/Sega Mark III far more popular than the Nintendo NES/Famicom?
$ cat >>293.c
#include <quantum/universes.h>
#include <self/thought.h>
#include <comms.h>int main (void) {
universe_t *this = get_universe (null);
say (think (DESCRIBE, universe_inspect (this), null);
return 0;
}$ cat >>295.c
#include <quantum/universes.h>
#include <bbs/kareha.h>
#include <self/thought.h>
#include <comms/question.h>int main (void) {
entity_t *next_san = post_ref (null, 295);
ask (next_san, think (QUESTION,
universe_inspect (get_universe (next_san)),
pose_thought (WHALES_ARE_LAND_CREATURES)));
return 0;
}>>303 A lot less eastern involvement in WW2, CKS was able to focus 100% of his efforts on exterminating Mao, Taiwan and China are a unified country, and the Korean war never happened so South Korea and Best Korea are still a unified country.
>>305 What's it like in a universe where there are two Japans?
>>304 The USA lost WWII in that universe because of the combined industrial and military strength, so everybody in the USA does what Japan tells them to do. The movie business is completely different, featuring lots and anime, super sentai, and kaiju. Also, softcore porn doesn't exist, only extremely perverted or animated porn exists.
However, due to the low birth rate, most people of Japan and the USA face extinction in the year 2060.
(NB: humans with three eyes would struggle to process visual data and wouldn't probably have intellectual capacity required to invent computers or the Internet)
>>308
It's quite boring actually. Almost all entertainment is two- and three-dimensional anyway.
>>310
Did you know that your eyes see the world upside down, but your brain learned to adjust for this when you were flailing your arms around and missing toys all the time in a humiliating and hilarious way as a baby? Doesn't it make you want to wear a pair of reversing glasses? (Which is rather futile, because your brain would adapt in a course of a week)
>>316
A few generations after Hitler and all his right-hand-men died off, the anti-semetic aspects of nazism were abandoned and only the desire to rebuild Germany into a great and prosperous land of peace remained. However, Germany had, by this time, abandoned the bases, so they declared independence. The Arctic base actually eventually was annexed by Canada due to some difficulties in surviving on its own and is now just a research facility. The Antarctic base, however, became the capitol city of the National Socialist Republic of New Germany, which was a major player in the Cold War but collapsed in the early 80's. It has since become the Democratic Republic of Antarctica, a tentative ally of the United States and a major importer of its popular culture.
>>318
What's it like in the universe where Rl'yeh rose from the sea and it turned out that the Elder Gods were actually pretty chill dudes?
>>317
Mahiro can get with Nyaruko without fear, bitter nerds riot and Xebec is firebombed. In response the studio puts the characters of all their anime through traumatic experiences and makes subtle jabs at otaku.
>>319
Whats it like in a world where people throw susbstandard babies into pits a la 300
?
>>318
Every pit looks and smells terrible. But everyone is strong, beautiful and happy. The planet is not overpopulated, and there is not a single social, environmental nor humanitarian problem in the world. As long as vile baby-eating creatures from those pits are well fed...
>>320
What's it like in a world populated by boffins?
>>324
Nobody really has any clue how to make sure they get there. So far, the only confirmed residents of the afterlife we found we Genghis Khan, John F. Kennedy, Adolf Hitler, Rosa Parks, and three guys who died back in prehistory when they were eaten by a swarm of very hungry birds.
>>326
What's it like in the universe where the speed of the human body matches the speed of the human mind?
>>325
People crash at the speeds exceeding 300 km/h and die. The worst are head-on collisions with delta-v of over 600 km/h. However, surviving humans evolutionary adapted to it, so their bodies are much sturdier, and vestibular system is much better developed.
>>327
What's it like in the parallel universe where everyone is sugoooi and suki dayo, and all animals are kawaiiiii?
>>330 Japan is full of tourists all year round, and most people who go there speak a little bit of the language to get by. Westerners go to the Tokyo tower with as much enthusiasm as Japanese people who go to Disneyworld Orlando.
Unfortunately, the whole world is also infested with annoying fangirls and fanboys. Fanboys drive itasha cars like Initial D wannabes and Fangirls go to gay bars where Russians and Germans have gay sex.
>>332 What is it like where Confucius never existed?
>>338
According to Landau, the second law of thermodynamics is not applicable to the universe itself. But here on Earth, I'm about to marry a beautiful steam-powered lady automaton.
>>340
What's it like in a parallel universe where 340 is considered EVIIIL because of some ridiculous religious text that everyone takes seriously?
>>351
Instead of "Hammer Time" jokes when players of fantasy games break out the war hammer, Half-Life players make "Crowbar Time" jokes.
derp. I forgot the question.
>>354
What's it like in the parallel universe where YouTube Poop runs on cable TV?
>>353
Popular schoolkids run around shouting PINGAS, the average workplace water cooler conversation consists of "Hey did you see the PINGAS last night?", awards are given for PINGAS, and laugh-track sitcoms have only a small cult following on the internet.
>>355
What's it like in the parallel universe where sex is not pleasurable and people reproduce artificially?
>>354
The lack of obsession with sex means that people devote their energies to other pursuits and are overall more productive, and the lack of surprise unwanted children means that they're on the whole wealthier and more well-adjusted.
>>356
What's it like in the parallel universe where men die after ejaculating?
>>355
Well, according to Wikipedia, one sperm sample on average gives rise to 0.1–0.6 children, so at that rate the human race would just die out before it even began. But for the sake of this thought experiment, let's assume humanity has found another way to procreate.
The most wealthy countries simply give all males surgery to prevent ejaculating at birth. In other countries men are taught to practice orgasm denial at a young age. And in some places, fundamentalists build a religion that completely prohibits horniness and porn. Real male sperm is a very rare commodity found only on the black market. Men are often considered the "weaker" sex.
>>357
What's it like in the parallel universe where humans must drink sperm every day to survive?
Oh, man, I just had the weirdest dream. Some guy named "Mister 358" was asking me questions, but they, like, didn't make sense. The questions were in English, but they were just... unparseable somehow, y'know?
>>360
Publicly describing all-encompassingly linguistic nounlessly communicating?
>>360 A percentage of the stuff bought with cryptocurrency is taken as tax, rather than the taxation system in your universe. In both our universes there are dirty tricks that help certain people pay less in tax than they should.
>>362 What is it like in the parallel universe where Ron Paul won one presidential election?
>>366 Beehives are a resource only the rich can afford, giving powers equal to those of superheros. They throw expensive hive-beating parties as a sign of status. Hornets are the common man power-up, the kind of thing you get after a long day of work. At most you'll be an Aquaman. Wasps are the poor people power up, they give bullshit powers like the power to turn wine into water.
>>368 What's it like in the universe where presidential candidates are required to be philosophy majors?
>>367
They're just as full of bullshit, just now it's bullshit about things like do we actually exist, and what does all this "really MEAN". Maybe we shoulda taught them something useful instead of head games.
>>369
What's it like in the universe where presidential candidates are required to be economics majors?
>>368 You have some who majored in Keynesian economics and some who majored in Austrian economics. It doesn't help because some switch sides whenever they feel like it.
>>370 What is it like in the parallel universe where the only people who borrow money for college are there for STEM or medical fields?
>>369
Thousands of brilliant thinkers and artists never go to the college because they can't afford it. The lack of diversity and creativity in society leads to stagnation and there is virtually no progress, especially as scientists in debt viciously backstab each other for research grants. The gap between the rich and poor grows even wider. All the artists decide to make their own society somewhere else, but that fails too because they have no scientists to support them.
>>371
What's it like in the universe where the logical statement "If A is C and B is C, then A is B" is true? (e.g. "All cats die. Socrates died. Therefore Socrates is a cat.")
>>370
Law and philosophy students graduate after six months; in general, more things are true for some reason and it's harder to have arguments with people. I'm also posting from a box full of paperclips and elastic bands held together by cheese, since computation as you know it is pure fantasy here.
>>372
What's it like in the parallel universe where the Allied countries didn't occupy Japan for the six years immediately following WWII?
>>371
Well, that particular timeline diverged when the American atomic bomb project failed. So without a superweapon to end the war, the Japanese never officially surrendereed, though eventually their government and society collapsed. The Americans, and eventually the British and Russians, just kept mass-firebombing Japanese cities for years after 1945. They were running out of targets and bombing rural small villages by 1948 or so. Over 80% of Japan's civilian population died.
In 1952 the USSR pulled its occupying armies from what would have become North Korea for an invasion of Japan which experienced only modest resistance. They annexed the islands, and over the next generation tried to recreate Japanese society in their own image.
The Japanese Soviet Socialist Republic declared independence after the USSR collapsed in 1991, and is now this world's version of North Korea--isolated, backwards, run by a paranoid and ruthless personality-cult dictatorship whose official ideology is "Autarukiimarukusu shugi," or "Self-Sufficient Marxism." Japanese refugees give horrifying accounts of famine and brutality when they reach Korea or Taiwan.
There was never a North Korea in this timeline; the Korean peninsula is a unified, highly industrialized nation with its capital at Inchon, and every decade or so there is a fad for Korean cuisine in the English-speaking world.
>>373
What's it like in the parallel universe where time travelers from the 22nd Century accidentally ended up in 1969 and became advisors to the Nixon Administration?
>>372
Their first action was to attempt to speed humanity's exodus from the cradle of Earth. Given three weeks, they were able to deliver NASA a refresher course in historic rocketry that advanced the Apollo program by decades, and which resulted in a greatly advanced lunar landing that year, fulfilling a certain promise which had been laughably unkept in their home timeline. They could do no more, the necessary futher steps being known only as footnotes in high school physics textbooks of the future.
Unfortunately, the travelers' attempts at rectifying social problems were less well-received. A few wars were averted, but arguably worse actions were taken, and the unified world government remains (at least, so it appears) in the dim recesses of the mid 22nd Century. Even worse(?), Nixon severely underestimated how quickly the future would change and took took too many political risks for his legacy's sake - risks that his advisors were helpless to protect him from.
Furthermore, by giving space travel an unexpected kickstart, the travelers unintentionally removed parts of the vital learning process, stunting future growth. Combined with an altered political climate, technological focus quickly shifted into silicon and information systems. Instead of a 21st century with silver-finned rockets and a deadly Martian frontier, the travelers lived to see a world of interwoven fiberoptic cables and ubiquitous computer systems.
>>374
What's it like in a parallel universe where, in the mid 1970s, humanity decided that the peak of fashion had been reached, and that there was no point in ever changing it significantly?
>>378
sorry guise. the first time I clicked on "reply" I got an error message saying the verification captcha was incorrect. ;_;
>>377, >>378, in museums you can see propaganda posters with Mussolini's pop-eyed, unshaven face, with the caption "THIS MAN IS YOUR FRIEND, HE FIGHTS FOR FREEDOM," produced by the UK's Ministry of Propaganda. George Orwell is an unknown there, having committed suicide in 1945 after being forced to write that poster.
>>381, what's it like in the universe where 4chan's code works properly and problems such as that experienced by >>377/>>378/>>379 are avoided?
>>380
The main difference is that M♥♥t didn't pull the plug on the 4chan text boards.
>>382, what is it like in the parallel universe where, about half a million years ago, humans, because they use K-type reproductive strategies, strategies were displaced by lower primates and fast-breeding small shrew-like carnivores that used r-type reproductive strategies?