Recent content by aware of emptiness

Perhaps could there have developed sign language as a sort of spoken analogue of Chinese "pictograms", where people of different backgrounds can communicate. That could prove to be interesting, a sign language as a trade language or lingua franca.

I mean, could it be possible for a sign language to be developed as to be used as universally as a spoken language, say with millions of speakers among many backgrounds and not just by a certain group (eg. the deaf and their family/friends, prisoners etc.)? One that is an official language, a...

With a POD at any point in the span of human civilization, what if one or more sign languages (language using body and hand gestures) developed to the same importance as a spoken language? I mean, one or more sign language used by a large population of people (not just the deaf) and having...

What if India was able to repel the Islamic invasions? Some say that it could have if it was unified at the time (although it hadn't since the Mauryan dynasty fell), and like China, which had less of a problem dealing with the Muslim central Asian invaders.

(Inspired by the non-European colonial powers thread) The Tamil Chola dynasty of South India in OTL was able to expand into Sri Lanka and South-East Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia) , and is largely responsible for Hindu influences in that region. The Cholas were seafaring, as far as I recall, and...

China seems to have a lot of arable land, (I mean, from a satellite map, it looks like it has much forest and plains) compared to say, the Middle East or Central Asia. But then again China has much higher population density than any of those regions... Don't know how fertile India is though...

Aren't pigs omnivorous too? Pigs are pretty much scavengers, that can subside on leftovers, meat or vegetable. Actually dogs could fill that niche, although dogs are probably still leaning more on the carnivorous side. Also, it makes sense that if you already have pigs, goats, cattle and sheep...

The AH food thread inspired me to ask. In most current North American and European culture, there is a strong stigma associated with eating the meat of what would be thought of as a pet animal. Yet, dogs were (and still are in some places) used as food in Polynesia, Mexico and China (And...

In fact, you could argue that something like Hindu culture, they were into philosophy, maths and logic like the Greeks. Also, why would the Judeo-Christian be the most rational one? Hindu (and some other Eastern) worldviews actually equally, if not more compatible with scientific views since...

Is it necessary to assume that Europe/European culture is the only one that can (and would) produce this development though? I mean, are non-Western cultures intrinsically incapable of this inventivenss or scientific mindset?

What would happen if the Darwinian theory of natural selection was discovered before OTL's industrial, or even scientific revolution (1500's)? How early could the evolutionary theory be developped? And what would be its implications of this (and its worldview) if it was discovered early? It...

The massacre on thousands of Tamil citizens after a government attack in 1983 is generally seen as the starting point of the civil war on the island, escalating from early decades of hostility. Could this, and the subsequent rise of civil war be averted? If peace or a compromise could have been...

What if he was able to live through that stingray attack?

Ah, this one. I kind of stopped this one a while back after I realized I didn't have enough knowledge to ponder how such a "different" world would develop. As this POD is too far back for accurate predictions of what " this society" would be relative to ours, but now that it's been brought up, I...

One of the strong defining features which Americans are proud of is their "rugged, frank, individualistic, independence-valuing, be-your-own-man, don't care what others think" culture. Compare that with those of the "Eastern cultures" like the Mediterranean or Southern European (think Greek...