Catalog of the Weird Parallels

[warellis]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

They were fit compared to locals. They couldn't possibly compete with the best of the best out of modern populations orders of magnitude larger that mostly had incredible prenatal care, childhood vaccinations, nutrition, and aren't all dealing with parasites like most of humanity throughout history did and sadly still do in non-first world nations.

What little things would they notice about a super fit First World modern soldier? Appearance wise I mean.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by warellis

What little things would they notice about a super fit First World modern soldier? Appearance wise I mean.

Teeth. George Washington was 6'3 but his teeth still went bad.

Height is a so-so indicator. Historical people were to at least some degree shorter on _average_. Military records show that at the time of the American Revolution American soldiers averaged 5'7 but British 5'5. Other records indicate graduates of the Sandringham military academy (almost entirely aristocrats in background)averaged 5'7 while enlisted men averaged 5'2. Columbus was something like 5'4 or 5'5.

On the other hand, verifiably tall people show up frequently in history Washington wasn't unique. Jefferson was only an inch or so shorter. Then you get reports that Charlemagne was 6'4. He had big feet anyway. Or foot is supposed to be based on his foot.

Harald Hardraada was said to be 7' tall and "Rollo" who was the first Duke of Normandy (by right of conquest) was called Hrolf the Ganger in his native Scandinavian dialect with "ganger" meaning "walker" because he was said to be too big for a horse to carry. They have a thigh bone that might belong to his grandson, William the Conqueror and that bone belonged to a man who was an estimated 5'11 and 210 lbs. It was somebody from that time period anyway. Yet Wiliam doesn't loom over everyone else in the Bayeaux Tapestry.

As I tried to indicate, there's stuff all over the map.

[PTTG]

Flores

Homo Floresiensis became the dominant species in this parallel. It seems that Homo Sapiens died out during an ice age, and Floresiensis was more adapted to small resource pools. The developed long-range sailing very early, and found it easier than Sapiens (since they could use ropes and tools almost as effectively as their larger cousins, but had a fraction of the food and fresh water demands).

Their fairly low-density way of life spread the population fairly rapidly through southeast Asia and northwards, then crossed the ocean. Thin populations of Floresiensis soon inhabited anywhere not snowed in. The center of civilization for this species was the Pacific coast of South America. There, coastal trading flourished. The settlements of Indonesia had little need for trade as they were largely self-sufficient; the harsh but rewarding mainland provided incentive.

Specialization, currency, literacy, and social organizations soon followed, and these mainland trading cultures spread around the pacific coast, and spawned inland and river empires. Perhaps even more than in homeline history, access to water travel defined each society.

In what we call Bolivia, metalworking expanded thanks to massive deposits of native copper in the area.

At the present day, it is currently a very mature TL 4, but with no hint of the early-TL 5 advancements yet to come. the astrometric date is 1903, although local calendar says it's year -119, counting down to a solar eclipse visible in Bolivia. Central America is a patchwork of fairly urban and largely independent but cooperative trading nations that were once united. The inland empires are TL 3 at best. The Amazon is likewise a center of trade and cooperation. North America is sparsely populated in part due to the dangerous animals and partly due to the harsh winters, but mechanical weapons like scorpions and new, better infrastructure may allow the empires to expand northward.

Indonesia is currently united by a military empire of a lower-end TL 4. A wide band of civilization expands westward through India, the middle east, and north Africa, and while diverse and colorful, they aren't on the cutting edge either. An exception is Madagascar, home to a civilization especially noted for philosophy and industry.

Finally, a secretive and insular community lives in the freezing North-Asian steppes, migrating with the snow line

Anthropologists want to know if these are identical to Homo Floresiensis of Homeline, or if the species here has some non-obvious differences. There is a controversy over brain size, one side calling the other "phrenologists" and the other "microcephalists" and that's when both sides are being nice. Crosstime scientists from the assortitive school want to know why this worldline (which is fairly alien in both biology and history) is so close to Homeline.

[Dr. Beckenstein]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

But then it's not weird, valuable, or much of anything other than possibly a way for non-interstellar astronomers to study another planet and system.
I don't think that's at all what the initial positer meant.

I have played with an idea like this, but it never came something useful out of it - the sun is not warm enough, so Earth is frozen wasteland outside the Goldilocks zone (Hadean world?)

Infinity maintains a small outpost here, where astronomers and Inifinity personnel on punishment duty count frozen rocks and watch the stars. Then, the astronauts from Venus land ...

Any ideas where this could lead to?

[Dr. Beckenstein]

Originally Posted by warellis

What little things would they notice about a super fit First World modern soldier? Appearance wise I mean.

Aside from teeth?

- And even if he has no good teeth, fillings would confuse the natives. In the bad old times, sick teeth were ripped out.

- Maybe some strange scars. Scars from gunshot wounds would look rather strange, and maybe of an appendectomy.

- If the soldier has tattoos, they would be absolutely amazing.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by PTTG

Flores
...
Anthropologists want to know if these are identical to Homo Floresiensis of Homeline, or if the species here has some non-obvious differences. There is a controversy over brain size, one side calling the other "phrenologists" and the other "microcephalists" and that's when both sides are being nice. Crosstime scientists from the assortitive school want to know why this worldline (which is fairly alien in both biology and history) is so close to Homeline.

In the real world there's no controversy. They were a different species with very small brains. Only one bizarre nut with too much political power who destroyed numerous fossils, because they contradicted his "theory" that every single one found was a modern human suffering a unique group of unrelated genetic deformities.
Whether the parallel peoples are the same, similar, or unrelated to "our" "hobbits" would be cause for discussion.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Dr. Beckenstein

I have played with an idea like this, but it never came something useful out of it - the sun is not warm enough, so Earth is frozen wasteland outside the Goldilocks zone (Hadean world?)

Infinity maintains a small outpost here, where astronomers and Inifinity personnel on punishment duty count frozen rocks and watch the stars. Then, the astronauts from Venus land ...

Any ideas where this could lead to?

It would have to be very far out of the zone, because without life to remove the massive quantities of CO2, earth would be MUCH hotter than our present Earth would be if it were moved there.
Iceball earth would be far more hostile than present Mars or even open space but for different reasons of course.
It would make me wonder why Venusians wanted to visit. I suppose as they lack a moon, they'd want to go somewhere and Mercury would be very difficult to return from due to escape velocity.
But I'd imagine it would still make more sense to skip Earth and try for less hostile Mars. Other than fly bys and probes.
Though if they could detect the Homeline research station emissions...

At least with Venus naturally having so similar of general structure to Earth, hypothetical indigenous life could be similar to ours without needing to invoke alternate physics, just weird improbabilities.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Dr. Beckenstein

Aside from teeth?

- And even if he has no good teeth, fillings would confuse the natives. In the bad old times, sick teeth were ripped out.

- Maybe some strange scars. Scars from gunshot wounds would look rather strange, and maybe of an appendectomy.

- If the soldier has tattoos, they would be absolutely amazing.

The extreme ethnic diversity, and I don't mean modern broad swathes of taxonomic "race" either. In most past societies everyone was closely related to those nearby so two modern "white men" would get labeled as being of two different peoples. Of course some, like ancient Romans, wouldn't even notice.
Tattoos would be impossibly colorful to them. I forgot about that striking modern luxury.
Depending on the exact era, sturdy glasses would look very weird. Scholars' devices sitting on one's face and strong enough to take a punch? Weird.

Other than my glasses, I don't think I'd visually stand out. I'm 5'11" and getting fit, so maybe lazy average and a little tall for the past. Ironic seeing as how I was born lactose intolerant, so wouldn't have survived infancy back then.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

...
On the other hand, verifiably tall people show up frequently in history Washington wasn't unique. Jefferson was only an inch or so shorter. Then you get reports that Charlemagne was 6'4. He had big feet anyway. Or foot is supposed to be based on his foot.
...

My mom's husband who's 5'10" or so wears size 16 shoes. I'm 5'11" and wear size 8-9. Feet vary a bit more than I think most realize.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

It would have to be very far out of the zone, because without life to remove the massive quantities of CO2, earth would be MUCH hotter than our present Earth would be if it were moved there.
Iceball earth would be far more hostile than present Mars or even open space but for different reasons of course.
It would make me wonder why Venusians wanted to visit. I suppose as they lack a moon, they'd want to go somewhere and Mercury would be very difficult to return from due to escape velocity.
But I'd imagine it would still make more sense to skip Earth and try for less hostile Mars. Other than fly bys and probes.
Though if they could detect the Homeline research station emissions...

At least with Venus naturally having so similar of general structure to Earth, hypothetical indigenous life could be similar to ours without needing to invoke alternate physics, just weird improbabilities.

Some quick calculations from Gurps: Space indicate that in order to give Venus earth's black body temperature you've got to reduce the sun's luminosity to .55 of what it is. That gives earth a black body temperature of 240. According to the book, that's right on the line where you switch from an garden world to an ice world. The CO2 argument for heating applies, but if its warm enough for life the life can then pull all of the carbon out of the atmosphere, and plunge earth into the snowball again.

The trick with vensuvians is that infinity figures out that they're here, they'll quickly leave.