What is the most plausible ASB scenario you guys have seen?

I am not sure if this forum is the best place to put this thread but if it is not i apologize.

The title is pretty self explanatory, what is the most plausible ASB scenario you have seen on this website and why
 
If it is plausable enough, it is no longer ASB.

Well, I can think think of a few. Movable type is one. The Romans could be pretty inventive when they wanted to be and were fairly literate by ancient standards. It does not seem at all out of the question for the Romans to have invented the printing press. Except they didn't. Another one is an Imperial canal system. The Romans were master engineers. They concieved of and built an Empire-wide system of roads for moving Legions around and to facilitate trade. They also built a network of aquaducts to transport water. Canals are a logical extension of that and a perfect fit for the Romans' engineering skills, capabilties and inclinations. Plus they keep slaves, so they have a huge pool of free labour, so they could have dug a series of Imperial canals reasonably cheaply. The third one is the bicycle. We've discussed the possibility of Roman bicycles on the board more than once and the consensus is that the Romans should have been able to build them, and they were sufficiently skilled at road-building that they would have have places to ride them. Bicycles would have improved communication between cities and given more mobility to the lower classes. These are all ASB in that Romans just didn't think of them, but are all well within the Romans' capabilities.
 
Last edited:
Well, I can think think of a few. Movable type is one. The Romans could be pretty inventive when they wanted to be and were fairly literate by ancient standards. It does not seem at all out of the question for the Romans to have invented the printing press. Except they didn't. Another one is an Imperial canal system. The Romans were master engineers. They concieved of and built an Empire-wide system of roads for moving Legions around and to facilitate trade. They also built a network of aquaducts to transport water. Canals are a logical extension of that and a perfect fit for the Romans' engineering skills, capabilties and inclinations. Plus they keep slaves, so they have a huge pool of free labour, so they could have dug a series of Imperial canals reasonably cheaply. The third one is the bicycle. We've discussed the possibility of Roman bicycles on the board more than once and the consensus is that the Romans should have been able to build them, and they were sufficiently skilled at road-building that they would have have places to ride them. Bicycles would have improved communication between cities and given more mobility to the lower classes. These are all ASB in that Romans just didn't think of them, but are all well within the Romans' capabilities.

So basically, anything beyond a whimsical eureka may as well be fantasy?
An arbitrary line in the sand if there ever was one.
 
So basically, anything beyond a whimsical eureka may as well be fantasy?
An arbitrary line in the sand if there ever was one.

Most of the ASB scenarios that get thrown around here are physics breakers, like ASBs giving NASA a working hyperdrive, genre mash-ups like Superman getting ISOTed to Westeros or role playing, like AH.commers get Force powers. The OP is asking for plausible ASB scenarios. This is what I came up with. Movable type or Roman bicycles might be ASB in that yes, they require a eureka moment which didn't happen in OTL, but they are plausible in that yes, that are things that Roman could have plausibly thought of without outside intervention and would have actually the skills and the tools to build. Hence they are both ASB and plausible. That was my attempt. What's your?
 
Top