Visit Charleston WV, while its still there
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Appalachian Mountains of 20,000 BCE ISOT'ed to the modern day
- Thread starter Crazymachines
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User Total Crazymachines 1 Threadmarks Reader mode
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Very basically, the point of this ASB what if is to explore the serious effects that may occur when even a supposedly "backwater" region is taken out of the global economic equation.
What if, due to Carl the Alien Space Bat being particularly bored one morning, the Appalachian Mountains of January 1st, 2022, and everything residing within them, are ISOT'ed away and replaced with the Appalachian Mountains of 20,000 BCE? what would be the immediate and long term effects on the American and global economy?*
Map for reference/ inducing existential horror in WV residents**
One of the most immediate effects, I think, would be on the American trade and shipping industry, as the American highway system between Pennsylvania and Georgia has literally dissipated overnight. Tennessee and Kentucky aren't exactly completely screwed, they still have the Mississippi river and can still be accessed via roads from Ohio and the southern US, but I expect shipping between the eastern seaboard and the American interior just got a hell of a lot more expensive.
Culturally, aside from the Evangelicals, I wonder what the reaction and attempted explanations would be. I'm certain level heads (both within government and wider society) would have a VERY uphill battle against the inevitable tsunami of conspiracy theories and scapegoating in the first few days or weeks after the event.
what would the international effects be from something so blatantly supernatural like this occurring? I think it's inevitable that an economic downturn results from the biggest economy in the world instantly losing a big honkin' chunk of its national infrastructure.*** With America in turmoil (possibly for a good couple of years or more) could we see an even more aggressive Chinese foreign policy than what we've been seeing within the past few years?
* I'm absolutely certain the MAGA crowd takes this as irrefutable proof that Joe Biden is the antichrist.
of course this will only serve to make Dark Brandon even cooler
** I Loooove West Virginian pepperoni rolls
*** I'll be honest Carl, exchanging roads and railways for Pleistocene era sabre toothed tigers doesn't seem like a fair trade, but then again, who am I to question the wisdom of an omni-dimensional space rodent
What if, due to Carl the Alien Space Bat being particularly bored one morning, the Appalachian Mountains of January 1st, 2022, and everything residing within them, are ISOT'ed away and replaced with the Appalachian Mountains of 20,000 BCE? what would be the immediate and long term effects on the American and global economy?*
Map for reference/ inducing existential horror in WV residents**
One of the most immediate effects, I think, would be on the American trade and shipping industry, as the American highway system between Pennsylvania and Georgia has literally dissipated overnight. Tennessee and Kentucky aren't exactly completely screwed, they still have the Mississippi river and can still be accessed via roads from Ohio and the southern US, but I expect shipping between the eastern seaboard and the American interior just got a hell of a lot more expensive.
Culturally, aside from the Evangelicals, I wonder what the reaction and attempted explanations would be. I'm certain level heads (both within government and wider society) would have a VERY uphill battle against the inevitable tsunami of conspiracy theories and scapegoating in the first few days or weeks after the event.
what would the international effects be from something so blatantly supernatural like this occurring? I think it's inevitable that an economic downturn results from the biggest economy in the world instantly losing a big honkin' chunk of its national infrastructure.*** With America in turmoil (possibly for a good couple of years or more) could we see an even more aggressive Chinese foreign policy than what we've been seeing within the past few years?
* I'm absolutely certain the MAGA crowd takes this as irrefutable proof that Joe Biden is the antichrist.
of course this will only serve to make Dark Brandon even cooler
** I Loooove West Virginian pepperoni rolls
*** I'll be honest Carl, exchanging roads and railways for Pleistocene era sabre toothed tigers doesn't seem like a fair trade, but then again, who am I to question the wisdom of an omni-dimensional space rodent
Iridium Flare
Cyborg Commando
- Location
- AC-130 Gunship circling overhead
So you're telling me that an entire region is now chock full of completely raw and untouched resources, including ores, coal, oil, wood, and both flora and fauna that are elsewhere utterly extinct?
I see two ways that this goes. One, the entire area is turbofucked and ripped clean of resources faster than you can say 'capitalism'. Two, we get some really fuckin' awesome natural parks.
I see two ways that this goes. One, the entire area is turbofucked and ripped clean of resources faster than you can say 'capitalism'. Two, we get some really fuckin' awesome natural parks.
Or, option three; the American economy gets buggered sideways with a teabag before it can take advantage of all these new resources, and local climate change gets even worse as all the Pleistocene era ice rapidly melts causing rapid localized cooling and rampant flooding
CORRECTION: apparently around 20,000 BCE The Appalachians were practically ice fee, as the glaciers stopped in Pennsylvania, but were covered with Alpine tundra or taiga.
Fun!
BalerionTheDrake
Pacta sunt servanda
uhh, what about me then?
Am i stuck in whatever the fuck 20,000 BC north america looked like?
Am i stuck in whatever the fuck 20,000 BC north america looked like?
good luck!
Rancorious
Continue? Yes or No.
To be fair, I'd say say that a flood of conspiracy theories are justified in the face of an entire mountain range mysteriously disappearing out of nowhere, at least before the sudden, not-at-all suspicious coverup by an agency called Superb Countryside Protection or something.
- Location
- Tejas
We also have to consider the likely native population in the area. Clovis First theory has been comprehensively debunked so there will probably be Stone Age tribes in the region. THAT is a whole can of worms that will get complicated real quick.
Rancorious
Continue? Yes or No.
Watch them get wiped out by disease withing the span of months. 1600s all over again.
I've heard that region called "the Saudi Arabia of coal," so losing that might be rather disruptive. Yes, the coal will still be there (there will be even more of it, in fact), but all the infrastructure to get it out of the ground will be gone and would have to be re-created more-or-less from scratch if you want to start mining there again.
I think there would be serious cultural trauma. Even leaving aside the inexplicable nature of the event, millions of people just disappeared. For all we know, they all died in the process.
I think there would be serious cultural trauma. Even leaving aside the inexplicable nature of the event, millions of people just disappeared. For all we know, they all died in the process.
It depends on their distribution; signs of human habitation that old seem to be pretty thin on the ground, suggesting the population might have been pretty small even by hunter-gatherer standards. They might have been a mostly coastal culture and reached Tierra del Fuego before they crossed the Sierras, or something like that.
- Location
- The Old Dominion
Hmm, as I recall the Appalachians covers a 100- to 200-mile-wide stretch of land over 1,500 miles from central Alabama to Newfoundland which meant if the entire Appalachians were replaced by their 20,000 BC counterparts, means that Canada would have chunks of the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotta replaced.
I can't imagine that would do wonders for Canada's economy either.
Also, the French territories of Saint Pierre and Miquelon would have also disappeared and be replaced but given more or less 6,000 people live there that wouldn't be as disruptive as what would happen in either the US or Canada.
I can't imagine that would do wonders for Canada's economy either.
Also, the French territories of Saint Pierre and Miquelon would have also disappeared and be replaced but given more or less 6,000 people live there that wouldn't be as disruptive as what would happen in either the US or Canada.
The US/Canadian automotive industry just got set back a decade or more.
If I'm looking at that map right, Nashville and Chattanooga in TN and Lexington Kentucky areas are gone. Nissan has a huge assembly plant near Nashville, Toyota has a huge complex in Georgetown above Lexington, and of course Volkswagon has the Chattanooga plant. This is also not counting I don't know how many dozens if not hundreds of parts suppliers making various components. Even companies like Ford and GM or BMW whose assembly plants are elsewhere in the US from the impacted areas or in other countries may suddenly find out that multiple parts suppliers for multiple components literally don't exist.
If I'm looking at that map right, Nashville and Chattanooga in TN and Lexington Kentucky areas are gone. Nissan has a huge assembly plant near Nashville, Toyota has a huge complex in Georgetown above Lexington, and of course Volkswagon has the Chattanooga plant. This is also not counting I don't know how many dozens if not hundreds of parts suppliers making various components. Even companies like Ford and GM or BMW whose assembly plants are elsewhere in the US from the impacted areas or in other countries may suddenly find out that multiple parts suppliers for multiple components literally don't exist.
YuffieK
(Verified Ninja Princess)
Yeah, the east half of TN and KY are gone, so all the industry that's built up in the region over the last 50 years thanks to cheap TVA hydro power is kaput. Atlanta is in trouble as well, as it's primary water source is from Lake Lanier which should be on the edge of the affected area.
Raleigh-Durham and the Piedmont Triad are gone, so that's a major tech region butterflied away.
That might be in areas of West Virginia or some parts of eastern Kentucky. Eastern Tennessee and the western parts of North Carolina, as well as the indicated parts of Georgia and Alabama, most if not all coal mines in those states closed decades ago with a literal handful of exceptions. Those areas have diversified into a ton of other stuff since the 1980s up to now, which is part of the reason the population has grown so much.
- Location
- Russia
Wasn't that area populated only some 7000 years later?
Nope, there's evidence of human footprints in North America 20k+ years ago, plus butchering evidence of mastodons possibly a 100k years ago, but there's a lot of debate on that last one.
View: https://youtu.be/5z3DbmOuaFI There's probably a lot more evidence in the East, except all those pesky trees and soil in the way.
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the atom
Anarcho-Kemalist Thought Leader
- Location
- Comfortably numb
So yeah, definitely some early human settlements by the modern human species would be transported over.
As for the animals, the megafauna might initially remain confined to the transported environment. But many species do disperse, so there's the chance some of those animals are gonna disperse into the other, more modern, environments. The possibilities are endless.
As for the animals, the megafauna might initially remain confined to the transported environment. But many species do disperse, so there's the chance some of those animals are gonna disperse into the other, more modern, environments. The possibilities are endless.
the atom
Anarcho-Kemalist Thought Leader
- Location
- Comfortably numb
I can't read that, do you have an actual source?
Fixed it. The discovery of 30,000-year-old sites in South America means that the earlier ones in North America simply have not been found. And the discovery of 1.7-3.5 million-year-old stone tools near Beringia, in Yakutia (Deering-Yuryakh) and Kazakhstan, means that Homo habilis could have penetrated into America (the climate was warmer). Or it could be a Denisov man (he could make needles).
pbluekan
Somethin's Fucky ...
- Location
- Trumpistan
JuRassIC PaRk
Realistically, exactly this. Personally, I'd like to hope it'd be the natural park option.