AH stupidity?

In thinking about my remark about stupidity here, I realized something. Most TLs are about fixing the mistakes made historically. Has anyone ever seen, or done, a TL where a mistake is corrected, but one that wasn't made OTL is? (That is, ATL they get it wrong when OTL they didn't.)
 

Archibald

Banned
Well, Apollo had a big powerful rocket engine (the SPS) that allowed it to leap above North Atlantic and land in Africa or Europe in case the Saturn IB failed. Apollo was a very bad boat and the North Atlantic weather is, well, horrible.

Same thing for the space shuttle: it was build to glide to Dakar or Europe in case of ascent emergency.

Big Gemini is supposedly better (see my TL signature Explorers) but it lacks that Apollo big engine and can't glide like a Shuttle. Hence, what was to happen, finally happens: its Titan III fails during ascent, and Big Gemini crew module ends in the middle of North Atlantic - to the crew delights, you guess.

Same goes for a Challenger like accident: a capsule like Big Gemini can eject the crew out of the fireball and supposedly save them.
Well...
Alas, flaming debris from the exploded solid rocket motor catch with the capsule parachute and burn it to ashes, and the capsule slams into the Atlantic just like Challenger did, and the crew dies. So much for "capsules are better than spaceplanes to save crews."

Those were a pair of clichés that are all over the Internet, and I wanted to give them a giant middle finger.
 
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In thinking about my remark about stupidity here, I realized something. Most TLs are about fixing the mistakes made historically. Has anyone ever seen, or done, a TL where a mistake is corrected, but one that wasn't made OTL is? (That is, ATL they get it wrong when OTL they didn't.)
Clicking on your link gets me an error. 2:58pm, EDT.
 
Hmmm. Not sure that is what you are actually after, as even though that second link works, it takes me to a thread, where you participated, but the link doesn't take me to your post itself.

Go figger... Try this one.

Ok, I may have this figured out now.

Is THIS the post you wanted folks to be directed to?
 
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In thinking about my remark about stupidity here, I realized something. Most TLs are about fixing the mistakes made historically. Has anyone ever seen, or done, a TL where a mistake is corrected, but one that wasn't made OTL is? (That is, ATL they get it wrong when OTL they didn't.)

I.e. one step forward, one step back?

Not as such, not where it was a focus.

It would be interesting to look for possible blunder-as-PoD WIs. There is a problem, in that since the action was not performed, one can't say for sure that it was an error.

Unless it was a really obvious error, in which case one must explain how the actors did it anyway. Maybe if there is evidence that they or he seriously considered it.
 
The German scientist that got the math wrong, and saved the world from a Nazi atomic bomb is a good example of OTL being spared from something far worse. As for the opposite, how about the Germans realise that their unbreakable Enigma codes have been broken, or that the allies just don't get their code breaking efforts to work?
 
I.e. one step forward, one step back?
More a matter of "balancing the karma": getting something right instead of wrong, there's always the chance of bungling something else.
It would be interesting to look for possible blunder-as-PoD WIs. There is a problem, in that since the action was not performed, one can't say for sure that it was an error.

Unless it was a really obvious error, in which case one must explain how the actors did it anyway. Maybe if there is evidence that they or he seriously considered it.
I was thinking more of something like Rochefort guessing AF right; ATL, he doesn't, but that TL, the break in the maru code isn't blown before the war starts. (Okay, that screws Japan more than the reverse...:biggrin:)
The German scientist that got the math wrong, and saved the world from a Nazi atomic bomb is a good example of OTL being spared from something far worse. As for the opposite, how about the Germans realise that their unbreakable Enigma codes have been broken, or that the allies just don't get their code breaking efforts to work?
Those are good, but I'm thinking of an ATL where they'd both be true: Germans get the math right, Allies don't; Germans realize Enigma can be/is compromised, Bletchley is manned by idiots. (Yeah, that's hard.:openedeyewink:) Or at the very least, in the Enigma case, the realization/failure is smaller: BP doesn't get the cribs or bombes right, or doesn't build Colossus, & the Germans go with 4- or 5-rotor but not a whole new system.
 
...Those are good, but I'm thinking of an ATL where they'd both be true: Germans get the math right, Allies don't; Germans realize Enigma can be/is compromised, Bletchley is manned by idiots. (Yeah, that's hard.:openedeyewink:) Or at the very least, in the Enigma case, the realization/failure is smaller: BP doesn't get the cribs or bombes right, or doesn't build Colossus, & the Germans go with 4- or 5-rotor but not a whole new system.

This is not hard: Simply have Alan Turing outed as gay before the war.
Also, if polish enigma machine is never captured or delivered to UK during September `39.
And this one is evil: Heydrich doesn`t go jumping out of the car and running after the british agents and survives assasination attempt in 1942.
 

Insider

Banned
I am trying to get something like this in my story, fix some mistakes, cause some, see where others pop out. :winkytongue:
 
This is not hard: Simply have Alan Turing outed as gay before the war.
That hurts, but IMO it won't completely cripple the effort.
Also, if polish enigma machine is never captured or delivered to UK during September `39.
That would hurt...
And this one is evil: Heydrich doesn`t go jumping out of the car and running after the british agents and survives assasination attempt in 1942.
IMO, you'd need to balance his good call with a bad one by the Brits or somebody... Like Spruance continuing to chase Nagumo, despite the contact report from Murphy. (Or maybe Murphy never sends it? Or English doesn't forward in a timely fashion?)
 
I look at it like baseball trades - when I do a baseball TL I'm careful to make sure it's more realistic. You could have, say, the Reds not make a mistake and choose to sign Babe Ruth, but is it realistic for them to then mess up on another trade that they didn't OTL? In some way, it's easy to say, "Oh, but humans are naturally fallible," on the other hand if a mistake wasn't made OTL, well, it can seem a bit convenient unless it's a mistake that is *almost* made anyway, which may cut down on some of those, but they are still certainly good PODs whcih have been used before. The typical "King X falls off his horse/dies in a jousting tournament at the wrong time" POD is very common, as long as the king loved riding/jousting it certainly fits. I'm just trying to think of one which has something like that *and* a mistake that is corrected.
 
I look at it like baseball trades - when I do a baseball TL I'm careful to make sure it's more realistic. You could have, say, the Reds not make a mistake and choose to sign Babe Ruth, but is it realistic for them to then mess up on another trade that they didn't OTL? In some way, it's easy to say, "Oh, but humans are naturally fallible," on the other hand if a mistake wasn't made OTL, well, it can seem a bit convenient unless it's a mistake that is *almost* made anyway, which may cut down on some of those, but they are still certainly good PODs whcih have been used before. The typical "King X falls off his horse/dies in a jousting tournament at the wrong time" POD is very common, as long as the king loved riding/jousting it certainly fits. I'm just trying to think of one which has something like that *and* a mistake that is corrected.
I agree. It's easy to fix a mistake that's clear in hindsight. It's far less easy to imagine how that change might produce an outcome where a decision (correctly or well-made OTL) doesn't get made the same way, given the same facts. Except to say, TTL, the facts wouldn't all be the same. Because it's hard to imagine someone being stupid about something they weren't to begin with, this kind of thing is unlikely to be common... Maybe more TLs should try it.
 
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