What If Money Didn't Exist?
• 7 min read • society
Barter economies sound romantic until you need a dentist and all you have to trade is a sourdough starter and some poetry.
Daily thought experiments, philosophical puzzles, and impossible scenarios explored in depth. One question at a time.
Latest Questions
What If Every Volcano Erupted at Once?
• 7 min read • nature
1,500 active volcanoes firing together. Ash blocks the sun for years. Agriculture collapses. This is how civilisation actually ends.
What If the Internet Had a Speed Limit?
• 6 min read • technology
Bandwidth rationed like petrol. Streaming becomes a luxury. And email makes a triumphant, grudging comeback.
What If Dogs Were as Smart as Humans?
• 6 min read • fun
They'd unionise immediately. Demand wages for emotional support. And file a class-action lawsuit over millennia of selective breeding.
What If America Lost the Revolutionary War?
• 7 min read • history
The Fourth of July becomes just another Thursday. North America stays British. And the world's most powerful country might still drink proper tea.
What If You Had to Survive Alone in Antarctica?
• 7 min read • survival
Minus 60, six months of darkness, and the nearest human is 1,000 miles away. Your biggest enemy isn't the cold — it's your own mind.
What If All Bacteria Became Antibiotic-Resistant?
• 7 min read • science
Routine surgery becomes a death sentence. A paper cut could kill you. Medicine rewinds to the 1920s overnight.
What If You Could Only Tell the Truth at Work?
• 6 min read • society
Performance reviews become bloodbaths. 'Per my last email' is replaced by what you actually meant. HR implodes by lunchtime.
What If the British Empire Never Existed?
• 7 min read • history
No English as a global lingua franca, no partition of India, no modern United States — and a completely unrecognisable world map.
What If Earth Had Rings Like Saturn?
• 7 min read • science
Visible from every continent, casting shadows across entire countries, and making satellite launches exponentially harder.