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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   996 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for February 21, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Sometimes I wonder whether our world is in the slow lane regarding technological growth, whether we really tapped all the resources we could.

What if eugenics really took off and there were breeding programs for geniuses like how China breeds tall basketball players? What about cloning? Or genetic engineering? Or encouraging high fertility amongst the most productive in society? Or just throwing more of our elite talent and capital into the sciences?

The 'overpopulation' meme hit us really hard.

Also, China was definitely in the slow lane in our timeline, right? How does it go much worse for them than our timeline? By virtue of size and demographics they're always supposed to be one of the strongest powers on earth. Only thing I can think of is Japan going in and wrecking them with gas and/or bioweapons while the Europeans are distracted.

In our world, the US had an anti-colonialism stance in the negotiations after the boxer rebellion. In this one, the USA is not a major power in the pacific, and China just gets carved up between colonial powers after Russia and Japan sack Beijing, even colonial powers for whom it makes no sense. Italy, Belgium, Austria, etc prove incapable of administering chunks of territory on the other side of the world and former concessions to the minor powers are the worst parts of China.

In our world nationalist China was a crap hole in the thirties. But in this one, it’s a patchwork, and the great powers still maintain concessions that keep the country from unifying, as well as controlling most of the urban areas.

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