While watching an episode of Sliders the other day, I thought about some alternate universes I’d like to visit. Assuming you could do this and NOT be pursued like the cast of the show, what universes where ONE event did/did not happen? Here’s a few of mine:
The results of the United States’ major wars turned out differently. (Revolutionary, 1812, Civil, etc.)
Columbus didn’t discover the western hemisphere.
The Beatles never: formed; broke up; met Yoko.
Jimi Hendrix lived OR was never born.
I was never born.
Dinosaurs weren’t wiped out.
Hitler was never born.
The Baldwins’ parents never met. (Hell, I’d PAY to live there!)
Pauly Shore or Adam Sandler never got their lucky break.
The Pilgrims died out completely and weren’t replaced.
I’d actually go with number 5 on your list Sky. Plus I’d like to see a deserted Earth. When I say deserted, I mean sorta half-deserted, no other human beings except for Jessica Alba.
Here’s my short, but hopefully interesting, list:
(these are not neccessarily ones I’d want to live in, just curious about)
sexual reproduction never evolved
the idea of “god” never developed
the girl I adored in HS actually went out with me
Feminism never arose as a formal movement; instead, a masculist movement arose to fight oppressions such as forced conscription, being expected to work for a wage (as opposed to being a house-spouse), and the code of “chivalry”.
Do you remember the band Black 47? The lead singer of that band wrote a play in which he postulated what would have happened if the Beatles had broken up before they became famous. Without John Lennon’s intellectual grounding, Paul McCartney becomes a very successful lounge singer in Las Vegas named Paul Montana. Without Paul’s sweetness, John doesn’t get any kind of music career off the ground and ends up an angry drunk.
I tell you, “Sliders” was never as good as it was during the first season. My favorite episode was the one where academic-types were treated the way we treat athletes. It was such a well-thought-out, intriguing alternate dimension. I also enjoyed the one where the atomic bomb was never invented and the one where penicillin was never discovered. But, very quickly, “Sliders” turned into a generic action-adventure show. And when John Rhys-Davies, left, well, that was a major blow, too. I’ll always think of that show as an underachiever.
A world where everyone decided that loving thy neighbor, turning the other cheek, etc. actually was a good way to live.
A world where the U.S. decided after WWII that freedom and democracy for all colonized and oppressed people was the top priority.
A world where the Roman Empire never fell.
A world of intelligent dolphins, but no humans.
A world where A Connetticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court actually took place, except for the end when all the advances he introduced into Arthurian England are eliminated.
the middle ages never happened: the intellectuals were not suppressed and the romans phased nicely into an enlightenment type era. life right now would be much nicer. But the europeans would have had different reasons for sailing west and our life on this continent would be very different…
I always wondered about this one. Say the Roman Empire never fell by somehow managing to not let the corruption of its senators or wannabe emperors get in the way of the civilzation’s existence. Maybe the space age would’ve started 1000 years sooner and we could be eating moon pies… oh wait, we already have those.
