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Today's americas get ISOTed to 1492

We Just Write

We Just Write

Blatantly Plural
Location
New England
Pronouns
Plural
In this scenario, the eastern hemisphere (Americas and associated nearby islands) of 2016 are swapped with the eastern hemisphere of a mostly identical alternate Earth that just happens to be lagging 524 years behind. Satellites and other stuff in orbit get moved randomly, with a 50-50 chance of winding up over either earth. Columbus is currently on his fateful voyage with him due to arrive in 2016's Caribbean in about a month.

In addition, the two Earths are now inextricably linked, with somewhere around 123 traversable wormholes with diameters of 15 meters connecting the corresponding location on each Earth. Of these, 86 are in open ocean and the rest are on dry land, with the exact locations being pretty much random. So, with that in mind, what happens?
 
The future colonizes the past. Even if rules are put into place to limit it, the pop difference makes it inevitable. It's basically going to be effectively third world countries falling under the control of modern nations- the major powers plus anyone else fortunate enough to have a good array of portals.

The future is also going to colonize the US-less North America. Hopefully less bloodily than the first time and more done to prevent plagues- no smallpox this time!

The future is going to have major conflicts caused by the US being taken out of play, power vacuum mixed with rich territory to grab.

The past is really going to be the US's stomping ground. Raw cultural power and technology means the world will revolve around it in very, very short order.
 
Q99 said:
The future colonizes the past. Even if rules are put into place to limit it, the pop difference makes it inevitable. It's basically going to be effectively third world countries falling under the control of modern nations- the major powers plus anyone else fortunate enough to have a good array of portals.

The future is also going to colonize the US-less North America. Hopefully less bloodily than the first time and more done to prevent plagues- no smallpox this time!

The future is going to have major conflicts caused by the US being taken out of play, power vacuum mixed with rich territory to grab.

The past is really going to be the US's stomping ground. Raw cultural power and technology means the world will revolve around it in very, very short order.
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Part of me's just wondering what that poor sod Columbus is going to think if he happens to stumble upon puerto rico?
 
Are the wormholes constant enough to run cables through? What about radio waves? Are they at sea/ground level or at varying altitudes?

Likely, among the first things that the 'future' nations would try to do upon locating one of the portals would be to make contact with the other side, and if possible attempt to streamline the process of going through, and set up a base of operations on the other side, to function as an effective 'Embassy(For lack of a better word)' to the alternate. There would be territory disputes over them, which at least some of the 'past' nations would likely try to get in on(and inevitably be curbstomped over).

Second thing they'd try to do would be study the things. Results would, naturally, vary.

Simulium Novitius said:
More likely he gets praised as a hero by misguided Americans.
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Some would. Others would do their research and try to find something they could put him on trial for. If they don't find anything... well.

Like Q99 said, it'd only be a matter of time.

Also, with how it's worded(and yes, I know this probably isn't how you meant it, but I'm feeling like a wiseass:smile:), there's about a fifty percent chance that the planets will switch moons(which are natural satellites), and a non-zero chance that one will have none and the other will have two.
 
CaesriusPolybius said:
Are the wormholes constant enough to run cables through? What about radio waves? Are they at sea/ground level or at varying altitudes?

Likely, among the first things that the 'future' nations would try to do upon locating one of the portals would be to make contact with the other side, and if possible attempt to streamline the process of going through, and set up a base of operations on the other side, to function as an effective 'Embassy(For lack of a better word)' to the alternate. There would be territory disputes over them, which at least some of the 'past' nations would likely try to get in on(and inevitably be curbstomped over).

Second thing they'd try to do would be study the things. Results would, naturally, vary.


Some would. Others would do their research and try to find something they could put him on trial for. If they don't find anything... well.

Like Q99 said, it'd only be a matter of time.

Also, with how it's worded(and yes, I know this probably isn't how you meant it, but I'm feeling like a wiseass:smile:), there's about a fifty percent chance that the planets will switch moons(which are natural satellites), and a non-zero chance that one will have none and the other will have two.
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He hasn't done most that yet, and outside of historical documents that may have less than exact dated...

And he is not an American.

It would be like taking Hitler right after World War One and putting him in trial for war crimes that haven't happened yet.

Any lawyer is going to have fun with whoever tried this.
 
Simulium Novitius said:
He hasn't done most that yet, and outside of historical documents that may have less than exact dated...

And he is not an American.

It would be like taking Hitler right after World War One and putting him in trial for war crimes that haven't happened yet.

Any lawyer is going to have fun with whoever tried this.
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More likely than not, if they can't find anything that qualify(which admittedly they probably wouldn't), they won't try to bring him in on it.

And it's still only a matter of time until he either does something illegal and vaguely significant; there is pretty much no basis for any form of political protection with him until the nation he tries to colonize contacts Spain(though this would probably either be shortly after he makes landfall, or before he makes landfall entirely), and even then it's dubious at best(though admittedly I don't know the procedures for when an explorer from a significantly less-advanced(technologically and culturally*) civilization commits crimes in a more advanced* civilization that the less advanced* one didn't know about before the explorer reached it).

Alternately, he realizes, at least vaguely, what's going on, and becomes all-but-irrelevant, treated with reverence by an ever-shrinking group of people and with derision by an increasingly large group of people- laws against hating people for no good reason existing only in certain especially detestable regimes.

Also, he learns in great detail just how embarrassingly wrong his mapping was. Double points if they do so (at the beginning, at least) using data he had access to, like Eratosthenes' measurements of the Earth's circumference(measurements that he misused when plotting his course).

*by less culturally advanced, I am speaking literally- Civilization and culture at the time in question for 'past' civilizations has had less time to advance than it did for 'future/present' civilizations.
 
CaesriusPolybius said:
Are the wormholes constant enough to run cables through? What about radio waves? Are they at sea/ground level or at varying altitudes?

Likely, among the first things that the 'future' nations would try to do upon locating one of the portals would be to make contact with the other side, and if possible attempt to streamline the process of going through, and set up a base of operations on the other side, to function as an effective 'Embassy(For lack of a better word)' to the alternate. There would be territory disputes over them, which at least some of the 'past' nations would likely try to get in on(and inevitably be curbstomped over).

Second thing they'd try to do would be study the things. Results would, naturally, vary.


Some would. Others would do their research and try to find something they could put him on trial for. If they don't find anything... well.

Like Q99 said, it'd only be a matter of time.

Also, with how it's worded(and yes, I know this probably isn't how you meant it, but I'm feeling like a wiseass:smile:), there's about a fifty percent chance that the planets will switch moons(which are natural satellites), and a non-zero chance that one will have none and the other will have two.
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The wormholes stay put, and they're stable enough to run cables and railways through.
 
So uh, wouldn't this reintroduce diseases that we've wiped out in our time, like Smallpox at least to the swapped current time Americas? That'll be.. Fun.
 
Eopia said:
So uh, wouldn't this reintroduce diseases that we've wiped out in our time, like Smallpox at least to the swapped current time Americas? That'll be.. Fun.
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We'd better build a wall across the Atlantic. We're gonna have no choice. They're coming over, they're bringing diseases, they're rapists, murderers...
 
I'm kind of wondering how future China will interact with past China, assuming that the region gets a portal.
 
I just write said:
I'm kind of wondering how future China will interact with past China, assuming that the region gets a portal.
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Possibly mass colonization to alleviate their over population and secure local resources, modern China might also want to dismantle the previous government a second time to reestablish Red Party influence. As for downtimer China imagine the butthurt modern China has about the Opium Wars, only directed at their future selves, also lots of smug condemnation on both sides.
 
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