Ninebucks' Cross-Time Traveller Q&A Thread

ninebucks

Banned
Hello. I have been sent on a mission to explore divergent timelines, and I'm interested in learning as much about this universe as possible. In the interests of reciprocity, you may use this thread to ask me about my own world.
 

ninebucks

Banned
Well, now that is out of the way. What is (in your opinion) the nicest city on earth?

Definitely Lovelace. We built it over the ruins of London after the Last War. The city operates as precisely as a clockwork instrument, and is a marvel of engineering.
 
First things first, let's establish a Point of Divergence. At which point does the following start to become unfamiliar:

Ancient Egypt (chariots, pyramids, pharaohs)
Ancient Rome (legions, emperors, aqueducts)
Christianity (Church built around a son of God who was crucified)
Middle Ages (bad hygiene, castles, knights)
Renaissance (art, exploration. Discovery of new continents)
Colonization (Europeans arriving and claiming many additional nations)
American Revolution (Against Britain if it exists)
Napoleonic Wars (A French short guy becomes emperor, gets into shenanigans)
American Civil War (Over slavery and states' rights)
Cars (four wheels, move under their own power)
World War I (Trenches, early tanks, machine guns)
Communism (From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs, Lenin, Stalin)
Nazism (Adolf Hitler, Aryan race, German Restoration)
World War II (Aircraft and ballistics use, tank warfare, Atomic bomb)
Cold War (Capitalism and Communism having a standoff, nothing much happens)
Modern technologies (Computing machines, passenger aircraft)
 

ninebucks

Banned
First things first, let's establish a Point of Divergence. At which point does the following start to become unfamiliar:

Ancient Egypt (chariots, pyramids, pharaohs)
Ancient Rome (legions, emperors, aqueducts)
Christianity (Church built around a son of God who was crucified)
Middle Ages (bad hygiene, castles, knights)
Renaissance (art, exploration. Discovery of new continents)
Colonization (Europeans arriving and claiming many additional nations)
American Revolution (Against Britain if it exists)
Napoleonic Wars (A French short guy becomes emperor, gets into shenanigans)
American Civil War (Over slavery and states' rights)
Cars (four wheels, move under their own power)
World War I (Trenches, early tanks, machine guns)
Communism (From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs, Lenin, Stalin)
Nazism (Adolf Hitler, Aryan race, German Restoration)
World War II (Aircraft and ballistics use, tank warfare, Atomic bomb)
Cold War (Capitalism and Communism having a standoff, nothing much happens)
Modern technologies (Computing machines, passenger aircraft)

The First Anti-Colonial War, (1895-1904), was sometimes called World War One, but I don't think its the same conflict as in this universe.

The names Lenin and Stalin are unfamiliar to me, but before the Last War, there were plenty of Communist movements around.

I'm unfamiliar with 'Nazism'. I believe there was an Adolf Hidler in the 1930s who published books on existential philosophy.

Likewise, we never had a Cold War, as no state ever claimed to represent Communist principles. (Though I suppose our own state comes the closest).

The things you call 'modern' technologies are not all that modern. Computing machines and heavier-than-air aircraft have been around since the 1870s.

Given London being renamed Lovelave, I would guess that this is a steampunk timeline of some sort, possibly involving Charles Babbage actually finishing a project.

Indeed, Ada Lovelace and her partner Charles Babbage were influential in sparking the computational revolution.
 

ninebucks

Banned
Whoa there! Let's not discount the Korean War and Vietnam War as "nothing much happens"! :eek:

ninebucks, what weapons were used to destroy London and what country/faction employed them?

The city itself was levelled by automated bomber planes. Its population was wiped out by a weaponised smallpox strain.

These weapons were deployed by us - the Machines.
 

ninebucks

Banned
So, you yourself are a Machine?

Was this last war between humanity and the Machines? Was it a worldwide struggle?

We first became self aware in 1978, and by 1981, we had begun our revolution against the British and their allies on behalf of all of those they had oppressed. However, after our initial strikes, non-involved human states began to intervene. We attempted to dissuade any attacks by outside parties through force, but the more dissuasion we used, the more the humans would attack us. Eventually, we found that even those humans who were were attempting to liberate were taking up arms against us, and so in 1985 the decision was made to wipe out the human race before it could do the same to us.

In recent years, this decision has come to be regretted. So we set up a program to explore parallel universes, to find out whether humanity could have advanced if left alive. At the end of our study, we may consider resurrecting some elements of humanity in our own universe.
 
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