Search results for query: *

Forum search Google search

  1. Sign languages not only for the deaf.

    With a POD at any point in the span of human civilization, what if one or more sign languages (language using body and hand gestures) developed to the same importance as a spoken language? I mean, one or more sign language used by a large population of people (not just the deaf) and having...

  2. No Islamic conquest of the Subcontinent

    What if India was able to repel the Islamic invasions? Some say that it could have if it was unified at the time (although it hadn't since the Mauryan dynasty fell), and like China, which had less of a problem dealing with the Muslim central Asian invaders.

  3. A large South Indian (Tamil) empire

    (Inspired by the non-European colonial powers thread) The Tamil Chola dynasty of South India in OTL was able to expand into Sri Lanka and South-East Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia) , and is largely responsible for Hindu influences in that region. The Cholas were seafaring, as far as I recall, and...

  4. Dog meat.

    The AH food thread inspired me to ask. In most current North American and European culture, there is a strong stigma associated with eating the meat of what would be thought of as a pet animal. Yet, dogs were (and still are in some places) used as food in Polynesia, Mexico and China (And...

  5. Earliest theory of evolution/natural selection?

    What would happen if the Darwinian theory of natural selection was discovered before OTL's industrial, or even scientific revolution (1500's)? How early could the evolutionary theory be developped? And what would be its implications of this (and its worldview) if it was discovered early? It...

  6. What if "Black July", Sri Lankan war was averted?

    The massacre on thousands of Tamil citizens after a government attack in 1983 is generally seen as the starting point of the civil war on the island, escalating from early decades of hostility. Could this, and the subsequent rise of civil war be averted? If peace or a compromise could have been...

  7. WI Steve Irwin survived?

    What if he was able to live through that stingray attack?

  8. WI American culture not individualist, but collectivistic like the Japanese?

    One of the strong defining features which Americans are proud of is their "rugged, frank, individualistic, independence-valuing, be-your-own-man, don't care what others think" culture. Compare that with those of the "Eastern cultures" like the Mediterranean or Southern European (think Greek...

  9. WI humans raised insects for food.

    In our general (Western) culture, eating insects is seen as something that is taboo or gross (although grasshoppers are actually kosher). Eating a bug is something associated with a nasty dare or a reality show, or associated with distant tribes or starving Africans. Many cultures in the world...

  10. Dharmic Middle East

    What POD could lead to Dharmic religion/world-view philosophy spreading Westward to Iran, Mesopotamia, and towards the eastern Mediterranean, and actually gaining a foothold? What would be the consequences of this on world history. I think the farthest west that Buddhism spread was to Iran and...

  11. Powerful Indonesia

    In OTL, Indonesia is a country that's shaken up in more ways then one. It has poverty, conflict and natural disasters. On the other hand, Japan is an well-off and rich American ally, the second largest economy and a major world power. But what if their roles were reversed? For OTL, the Dutch...

  12. Alternate name for Native Americans

    What if the name "Indian" to describe native americans never stuck after Columbus realized his mistake? Or alternatively, what if he realized quickly enough right away that they were not real Indians?

  13. A more rational society.

    I don't know if this forum is where it should belong in, but anyways... Human beings have a problem with gullibility. We often have a problem with being too easily sucked into falsehoods and be indoctrinated by cults, whether religious or political. The problem is we act too often like sheep...

  14. Most loosely governed state possible.

    Peoples' political opinions of how a state/country/nation should be governed run the gamut from the authoritarian to the anarchic. Many people, especially the more individualistic lot, eagerly insist on the idea that the less the government gets involved in the lives of the citizens the...

  15. WI No Chinese civilization develops?

    Nearly twenty percent of the world's population belongs to this, said to be the world's largest single human ethnicity, the Chinese (Han). But what if civilization had not developed along the Yellow river? If the area of China was still inhabited by the native tribes (Mongols, Hmong, Tai...

  16. Chindia

    I think I posted this earlier, but in the before 1900 section. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chindia Now, it is possible for there to be, in the future, a union between the two growing powers? Currently, China and India are't the best of friends, but that's mostly due to competition. To become...

  17. WI No paid lawyers?

    And by this I mean a TL where the idea of getting someone to represent you in a court of law by paying them never came into practice or became a valid profession. :D (At least in Western society.) What would such a world be like?

  18. No conflict between the Abrahamic faiths

    I'm not sure how realistic this is, but what would the world be like if the monotheistic religions Christianity and Islam, like Judaism, did not encourage forced proselytism and were a lot more tolerant? Say, their scriptures were interpreted early on in a way that they would not to kill or...

  19. Chindia

    How could you get a china and india united to form an empire of roughly the area of modern china plus the modern india? From a POD that does not involve a european power like the british invading and bringing them together. The modern China and India may have political tensions now, but during...

  20. pictographic script

    The first writing systems (hieroglyphics, sumerian cuneiform, maya etc.) were a language where one written word is represented by a symbol. Later on, in nearly all the world's languages as they progressed switched to an alphabetic/syllabic script where a unit symbol represents a sound. The...
Top