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[Graknorke]

Another cool tidbit comes from the invention of the tank in WWI. Designed by the Royal Navy and its admiralty, the idea was to create a land ship that could sail across no man's land and break the stalemate. Unfortunately, practicality is a thing, so tanks ended up taking more inspiration from tractors than battleships.
But tfw in an alternate universe there are steampunk landships sailing across the land

Why is real life always less cool than it could be

[Zrk2]

Entropy. If we could tame entropy everything would be so much more awesome.

[Loud Whispers]

There's something just so amazing about the gulf in capabilities between the civilizations of these centuries and the ones of the past. To hear Sargon of Akkad boast of how he has conquered an Empire that will never be bested... The size of Sweden. To hear of how the great city of Troy defied the greatest host the world had ever seen... When Troy with its population of 5,000 could be bested by a modern village. To see today, just what millions of soldiers marching looks like! I don't know if the ancients would be proud, horrified or disgusted that humanity nearly destroyed itself, then nearly destroyed the entire planet, and waged wars so devastating that their effects would be felt for millennium.

[Helgoland]

I don't know if the ancients would be proud, horrified or disgusted that humanity nearly destroyed itself, then nearly destroyed the entire planet, and waged wars so devastating that their effects would be felt for millennium.

Hey, Alexander and Ghengis Khan both achieved the latter.

[Loud Whispers]

I don't know if the ancients would be proud, horrified or disgusted that humanity nearly destroyed itself, then nearly destroyed the entire planet, and waged wars so devastating that their effects would be felt for millennium.

Hey, Alexander and Ghengis Khan both achieved the latter.

Genghis Khan was a walking WWII to be sure, but he wasn't quite a nuclear mongol. And Alexander the Great? Forging an Empire that large, he didn't actually kill that many people. And he gave us Aristotle <3

[Helgoland]

Noooo, I meant the 'effects over millenia' bit. Alexander the Great's soldiers' descendants still live in Western India, as confirmed by their genetics, and Ghenghis depopulated Iran so badly that it only recovered in (IIRC) the 20th century.

[Loud Whispers]

It was one of his grandsons that demolished the Abbasid Caliphate (Hulagu Khan) and considering just how powerful Persia used to be, I'd reckon they still haven't fully recovered from the Mongol invasion. And 'effects over millenia' I should probably be more specific to 'oh shit we're still picking up WWI sea mines' rather than any effect, what with just about every ancient civilization leaving its mark throughout time to this very day.

[miauw62]

There's plenty of weird/cool stuff that IS real. To quote Clarke: "But please remember: This is only a work of fiction. The truth,as always, will always be far stranger."

All the proof you need for that is true is a good look around Wikipedia's medical articles, and there is much more.

[TheDarkStar]

There's plenty of weird/cool stuff that IS real. To quote Clarke: "But please remember: This is only a work of fiction. The truth,as always, will always be far stranger."

All the proof you need for that is true is a good look around Wikipedia's medical articles, and there is much more.

Or the mathematics articles. Those are good too.

[SquatchHammer]

Anywhere there is conflict, there is a certainty that there will be areas that have to be off limit due to various reasons. Also, no matter what size of conflict, whether it be a small civil war to the all out world wars, there is going to be lasting effects due to the nature of conflict. For example, sections of the east still have huge swaths of land where you can find many artifacts from the Civil War in America, and the southern economy still has not fully recovered by the fact a huge amount of products or services are way cheaper than most of the country.