What If the Sahara Became a Giant Solar Farm?
• 7 min read • technology
Enough energy to power the entire world 100 times over. The engineering is feasible. The geopolitics is the part that kills it.
Daily thought experiments, philosophical puzzles, and impossible scenarios explored in depth. One question at a time.
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What If Your Shoes Had Opinions?
• 6 min read • fun
Your trainers critique your outfit. Your dress shoes refuse puddles. Your slippers stage a sit-in every Monday morning.
What If You Could Photocopy Yourself?
• 7 min read • science
Send the copy to work. But which one is the real you? And does the copy get a vote? Existential dread meets HR policy.
What If the Spanish Armada Succeeded?
• 7 min read • history
Catholic England, no British Empire, no Anglophone world. Shakespeare writes in exile — if he writes at all.
What If Sharks Could Walk on Land?
• 6 min read • nature
Beach holidays end forever. Coastal cities install fences. And the phrase 'jump the shark' takes on terrifyingly literal meaning.
What If a Solar Storm Destroyed All Electronics?
• 7 min read • technology
No phones, no internet, no power grid. The Carrington Event of 1859 happened before electronics existed. Next time, we won't be so lucky.
What If Stairs Were Never Invented?
• 6 min read • fun
Every building is one storey. Ladders run civilisation. The penthouse is just a rooftop tent. And the escalator is someone's eureka moment.
What If Your Exact Doppelganger Showed Up?
• 6 min read • philosophy
Same face, same voice, same fingerprints. Banks can't tell you apart. Your family has doubts. Identity becomes a philosophical crisis, not a legal one.
What If Everyone Could Read Minds?
• 7 min read • society
Poker dies. Diplomacy dies. Small talk dies hardest of all. The only growth industry is learning to think absolutely nothing.
What If Antibiotics Were Never Discovered?
• 7 min read • science
Without penicillin, every wound is potentially fatal. Surgery is a gamble. Life expectancy stays pinned at 50. Modern medicine simply doesn't exist.