The Biggest Butterfly You Can Think of

EVENT: A butterfly flaps its wings slightly different then it did in OTL the milisecond the first Butterfly is able to flap its wings.

RESULT: earths weather is forever changed, destoying any sembelence to OTL as we know it.
 
Turning Point
A microscopic peice of dust collects milimeters to the right of where it was IOTL.

Leading to; Earth fails to form in it's OTL shape, becames just another rogue planet, screwing with her planetary neighbors. *Mars/Venus/Theia becomes the dominant life supporting planet in the solar system. (and then Al Gore wins the 2000 elections :rolleyes:)

Plagiarist! Though your POD screws things up even more then mine :p
 

Glen

Moderator
I was under the belief the Siberian traps had something to do with it...

But on this Gamma Ray/Extinction topic, The Cambrian explosion fails to subsist producing competing *vertabrates which eliminate our very fish ancestors.

Or, best idea yet!:

Turning Point
A microscopic peice of dust collects milimeters to the right of where it was IOTL.

Leading to; Earth fails to form in it's OTL shape, becames just another rogue planet, screwing with her planetary neighbors. *Mars/Venus/Theia becomes the dominant life supporting planet in the solar system. (and then Al Gore wins the 2000 elections :rolleyes:)

Now THIS (absent the Al Gore bit) is so far the best example of the Butterfly Effect given thus far in the thread (as in a MINOR change in starting conditions leading to a LARGE change in outcomes).
 

Dorozhand

Banned
POD: The planet that existed between earth and mars is obliquely impacted by a a small comet, nudging it away from earth enough so that its orbit stabilizes. The comet delivers the chemicals of life to the young, half molten world...

Result: life on earth continues unimpeded except for the fact that there is no moon. Whatever intelligent life may have evolved find something very interesting when they take their first steps into space...
 
POD: California 1968. A overtired history professor mixes up a young Harry Turtledove's history paper with another students. Young Harry fails what he thought was a good essay, becomes disillusioned in academic history and pursues a career in engineering.


Result: 2012 The Race finally arrive and easily conquer an unwarned world
 
PoD: The Minoan eruption of Thera never happened.
Result: No Fall of the Minoan civilization. No Atlantis myth. No conquest of Crete by the Mycenaeans. No rise of the Greek civilization...
 
Sorry, but according to modern archaeologists and historians Platon's Atlantis was the city of Thera on the slopes of the volcano of the same name, which was completely destroyed in the Minoan Eruption.
No Minoan Eruption means that the myth and legend of Atlantis would never have been written, because the fall of Atlantis did not happen.
 
Sorry, but according to modern archaeologists and historians Platon's Atlantis was the city of Thera on the slopes of the volcano of the same name, which was completely destroyed in the Minoan Eruption.
No Minoan Eruption means that the myth and legend of Atlantis would never have been written, because the fall of Atlantis did not happen.

Sure. But the Atlantis everyone wants to believe he was writing about isn't effected, right? Its not as if it existed anyway. So technically, only the myth/legend is prevented.
 
Sure. But the Atlantis everyone wants to believe he was writing about isn't effected, right? Its not as if it existed anyway. So technically, only the myth/legend is prevented.
And without the myth no Atlantis. As far as it can be reconstructed the Greek Atlantis myth is based on an egyptian report about the Minoan eruption.
With a strong minoan civilisation no mycenaean conquest of crete.
No mycenaean civilisation means no greek civilisation.
No greek civilisation means no grekk philosophy and democracy.
=> One of the major elements of the western civilisation is missing.
 
Mycenaean civilization wouldn't go away because they didn't conquer Crete. At least I don't think the conquest of the Minoans is necessary for their survival.
 
Mycenaean civilization wouldn't go away because they didn't conquer Crete. At least I don't think the conquest of the Minoans is necessary for their survival.
They could conquer Crete (and the rest of the minoan 'empire') because the minoan eruption had severly weakened the minoans. If the minoans stay the dominant power in that region, the mycenaeans (and thus the other greek people) will never become dominant in the region.
 
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