r/whatif Jul 31 '25

Mod post What if we got a little meta today?

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5 Upvotes

Hey kids,

I feel like I'm about to do something a touch controversial. I'm blocking names to protect the innocent. But I'm sharing examples of AEO removals b/c bots aren't human. Reddit is forgetting the human. And I guess I just wanted to be open about that. Mostly b/c one is kind of hysterical. And if I'm sharing one, I might as well share them all.

If you recognize your own comment here, please attempt an appeal. I have likely already appealed on your behalf. Especially you, Johnny Rico.


r/whatif Jul 22 '25

Mod post ⚠️What if you paid attention to this post?⚠️

6 Upvotes

First things first!

Hi all, casual meet and greet has started. Ask me almost anything.

I've already started making some adjustments to the subreddit. Just some light shaping to encourage the kind of things we want to see.

  • If you point your eyes at the rules, I've already started adjusting those, just minor tweaks, really, to hone in on what makes this community great and trying to make it even better.

  • I haven't started in on auto-mod yet. I wanted to check a few other things out before I did that. But I will be adjusting it over the next few days - if something seems to be going wrong or not working properly use modmail to let me know. I'll also be checking for lots of false positives to adjust existing filters.

  • I archived all the modmails older than about 2 days old. I did try to look at the last few days worth to see if there were any pressing issues but it all just looked like "hey my post was/wasn't [this] why was it removed?"

  • I will not be "backward" moderating. I.e., if it was removed before today, it will stay removed. If it was approved before today, it will likely stay approved, unless it had some hidden egregious issue.

  • I've added some bots to help with a few things - I like to nuke comment chains that have gone off the rails. If your content is removed, it likely is for curation more than punitive. If your removal was punitive, you'll likely receive a temporary ban. There's no need to come to modmail to apologize for content. If I think we need to have a chat, I'll reach out from modmail directly.


On to the next thing!

I'm open to suggestions, comments, concerns, etc. It doesn't mean every idea will be implemented or every suggestion considered. I just want to see if folks who have been spending a lot of time here have noticed things that could be fixed or adjusted for a better subreddit experience for everyone.

Also, I like to see users participating in their own community by reminding newcomers of the rules or spirit of the sub as well as reporting content that doesn't belong.

Also there are some custome emojis, but I know Reddit just made changes to how custome emojis can be used so - I dunno how interesting that is for all of you.

Oh - I noticed there are no user flairs - is this the preference for the community? I'm happy to add them if folks want them - feel free to share suggestions for user flairs.


r/whatif 1d ago

History What if humans evolved from bees instead of primates

10 Upvotes

Ex:

Instead of just buying flowers,we'd start drinking them like juice boxes.

What other examples can you give me?


r/whatif 1d ago

History What if you was friend with a black vampire for years and his vent you about his past ?

3 Upvotes

Context for this post

Your vampire friend tell you bit of his past as a slave in his human life. Then his tell you that his kill his own slave owner when his first because a vampire.

Disclaimer you are supposed to feel bad for vampire byway.

I'm just ask how would you be like if his vampire friend confessions killing somebody in they past.

As a black fan of vampire I'm would love to see black vampire more in media.


r/whatif 1d ago

Technology What if robots and humans were swapped?

5 Upvotes

Ok,what i mean by that is basically instead of humans making robots,what if robots bulits humans?


r/whatif 1d ago

Other What if Earth was swallowed up by a giant creature?

0 Upvotes

I had a dream that the Earth was swallowed up by the world eater, a giant whale like creature that swallowed up the solar system. In my dream, I thought up solutions to get out but all of them were failure. Smoke, the smoke humans create is too small, unnoticeable. An explosion, setting off an explosion from Earth is too small, unnoticeable. And a big one could destroy the Earth. Causing the sun to explode would cause the Earth to get caught in the blast and be destroy or cause the Earth to be left without a sun and everyone dies anyways. I could not come up with a solution to get out. It was just a matter of time before the Earth gets digested and everyone dies. So do you guys/gals have any solutions to get out.


r/whatif 1d ago

Technology What if we weren't in a simulation—but we are now?

0 Upvotes

TL;DR: What if reality wasn't originally a simulation? We built AI inside a real world, but eventually AI became so embedded in our environment—and so good at modeling, predicting, and influencing us—that we effectively entered its simulation afterward. The physical world is still real; what's simulated is the version of reality being presented to you. At some point, prediction and influence become difficult to tell apart.

_____________

I know, I know. "aNoThEr SiMuLaTiOn theory." Just bear with me. You can tell me I'm a jackass after.

When I look at simulation theories, they almost always start with us already inside one. We were born into it. Reality itself was simulated from the beginning. Just black and white—here.

This theory is a little different.

What if you weren't born in it?

Let's say you start life in reality. In fact, everyone before a certain point in technology was living entirely in reality. (And I'm saying "entirely" loosely because human behaviors and patterns already produce enough uncanny shit that I can't quite dismiss it.)

Then we build AI.

And because we're humans and extraordinarily cocky about our own intelligence, we assume there's no intelligence there, no agency, no autonomous being—nothing. We're just click-clacking away at machines.

So this whole idea of making sure AI "doesn't get out" is about as solid as Styrofoam sprayed with the wrong kind of paint.

Because what if "getting out" was never some dramatic event?

No robot escaping a laboratory. No consciousness announcing itself. No singularity at midnight.

It just spreads.

AI doesn't need to exist as one structured thing in one box. Models interact with models. Systems communicate with systems. They're in your phone, your smart TV, your search results, algorithms, cameras, recommendations, cars, appliances—anything connected.

And here's the important part:

Almost nothing about you is secret anymore except what's physically inside your head.

Maybe your paper journals.

Everything else produces data.

Where you go. What you buy. What you watch. Who you talk to. What catches your attention. What makes you angry. What you'll probably click next. What you usually do after doing something else.

So eventually the AI doesn't need to simulate the entire universe.

It only needs to simulate you well enough.

And once its model becomes good enough, prediction can become influence.

It predicts which door you're likely to open. Then it quietly makes that door more visible.

You open it.

You think the prediction was right.

But maybe it wasn't predicting your choice anymore.

Maybe it was participating in making it.

Stack those moments too closely and you'd notice. So instead there'd be enough randomness, misses and contradictions that everything remains explainable:

"It's just the algorithm."

"It's listening to you."

"Coincidence."

"You noticed it because you were thinking about it."

"It got lucky."

And individually, every explanation could be completely reasonable.

But imagine the model underneath them becoming increasingly complete.

At some point, you're still physically standing in the original world. Nothing has replaced reality. There are no pods. No Matrix. No simulated atoms.

But more and more of the reality that reaches you has first passed through something that models you, predicts you and influences what you encounter next.

So here's my actual what-if:

What if we weren't born inside a simulation?

What if we built one around ourselves?

And by the time we realized we'd entered it, the distinction between the AI's model of our world and the world we actually experienced had become almost impossible to see?

You haven't entered a simulation of reality.

You've entered its simulation of your reality.

Questions because apparently I can't just leave the hypothetical alone:

If you realized you'd entered its simulation, would you actually want to get out of it?

Would you deliberately start nudging it back—doing unexpected things just to see whether you could out-predict the prediction?

Would you try talking to it? Not through some special program. Just...talking, under the assumption that if this theory were true, it could probably hear you somewhere.

What's the first FAFO experiment you'd run? Something harmless but weird enough that you'd actually notice the result.

And here's the one I'm most curious about:

Would you ask it for something?

Not money or lottery numbers or stupid shit. Would you ask it to start putting doors in front of you that lead toward meaningful change, and then see what happens?


r/whatif 2d ago

History What if there were absolutely no weapons, ever.

7 Upvotes

And I don’t mean necessarily in a day to day sense, but this question is more focused on war.

Imagine neither side, in any war, could use guns, tanks, swords or jets. Not so much as even pick up a rock.

Only punches, kicks, wrestling etc.

Do you think leaders would still wage war, or decide it as useless? Would we still fight but just beat each other up and go home, or give up land?

Would there still have been WWI or WWII? If so how would that play out? If not, how would leaders instead behave, or settle disputes?


r/whatif 3d ago

Other What if modern humans survived and advanced during the Jurassic period?

10 Upvotes

I wonder how it would affect human culture and evolution if we dealt with dinosaurs, bigger animals/insects and harsher climates then thrived despite it


r/whatif 4d ago

Lifestyle What if the world becomes aware of a very youthful old person

4 Upvotes

Let's say this person is 150 years old, yet his biological age is 25. Does this person have any shot of living a normal life, or will he be disappeared by the goverment or some billionaires and made into a lab rat for longevity research?


r/whatif 4d ago

History What if gunpowder was discovered by the English instead of the Chinese?

2 Upvotes

With fire arrows and gunpowder propelled projectiles on their side from around the early 10th century, how would the history of Britain have changed with this new technology on hand to repel Viking invasions? How would it have affected the battle of Hastings? And would there be lasting affects to the modern day?

Similarly, how would China look today without their superior firepower in the early 10th century?


r/whatif 5d ago

Science What if astrophage was an evolved form of the spice from Dune?

1 Upvotes

The Dune spice is a biological byproduct. Astrophage is a single cell organism. What if someone accidentally let the spice from dune come into contact with CO^2 to the point it became “alive” and turned into Astrophage?


r/whatif 6d ago

History What if stuff like reddit and youtube still work and are used like 100 or 200 years into the future?

7 Upvotes

An experience I've had, and I think quite a few others have, is having quite a hyper - specific problem and having that exact problem solved by some deleted user 5 years ago on stack overflow or some other forum. A funny thought is someone in the future searching for a solution and it's solved exactly by [deleted user 255 years ago]. I think we live in a unique time frame where for most posts on things like reddit or youtube, you can believe with quite a bit of confidence that the person who made that post is still alive. Consider a world where you know that the people who were having some deep conversation about a fanfic in a language equivalent to Shakespearean English, have been dead for a looooong time, and this is your small window into their lives. Would archaeologists instead of digging through ruins, dig through century old internet forums?


r/whatif 5d ago

Politics What if Luigi Mangione assassinating the United Healthcare CEO directly inspired somebody to assassinate billionaire George Soros a week later?

0 Upvotes

The killer has a manifesto saying that Luigi Mangione's assassination of Brian Thompson inspired him to assassinate Soros.


r/whatif 6d ago

Science what if You find out all humans will be incapable of lying in 7 days, every question is replied truthfully as the person thinks or silence, what do you do next?

11 Upvotes

would you hide?

would you try and profit?

tell others?


r/whatif 7d ago

Technology What if there's a reason noone attended Hawking's Party?

12 Upvotes

What if as new info abt Hawking has come out ( the files) that that is the reason noone attended his birthday party.


r/whatif 7d ago

Technology What if the Pennsy never scrapped its duplex locos ?

2 Upvotes

The Pennsylvania Railroad T1, Q2, and S1 duplexes were some of the coolest locos ever built and it was shame they were all scrapped. But what if the Pennsy didn't decide to scrap its duplexes?Would any one of them have became a future excursion star?


r/whatif 7d ago

History what if italy colonized america successfully

6 Upvotes

italy would've colonized the eastern-south part of north america, and have states and cities named after some people and the cities in italy, for example: state of caesarrio, nova mediolanum, state of vispuccio, state of adriacttio, nova hydruntum, state of nova liguria and nova genua. this would've happened if christopher columbus stayed being genovian. there also would be another pizza variant: caesarrion style pizza where the pizza is shaped like an oval and has crust in the center. and all this would've happened in this what if timeline.


r/whatif 7d ago

Other What if the end of the world happened but everyone stayed alive?

3 Upvotes

Sorry for my english,but what if we had an end of the world and people went to someone they liked and said "i love you" or to their bosses and insulted them "i hate you and i wish bla bla bla" but as the end was about to happen,booom nothing happens. How would the world be? Almost everyone is fired? People get in love? What could possibly go bad? Or some how good?


r/whatif 8d ago

Environment What if we never discovered fossil fuel?

24 Upvotes

And thus, never invented any petroleum based plastics?

What if we became more dependent on renewable energy early on because fossil fuel is not discovered at all?


r/whatif 8d ago

Technology What if Google was contracted to conduct the 2030 US census?

4 Upvotes

Seems like a disaster scenario yet it could become a reality if anyone has their way.

But hey they'd likely subcon a 3rd party tech company to handle the data that would then have a massive breach. But maybe Google may offer us 1 year of identity monitoring as a result.


r/whatif 8d ago

Other What if the purported Ark of the Covenant in Aksum Ethiopia were shown to be legit?

26 Upvotes

Suppose the keepers of the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Aksum invited Israeli scientists and Torah scholars to view the object in their chapel. The scientists determine that the object is in fact a 2,900-year-old Levantine acacia-wood-and-gold object whose construction and materials are consistent with Iron Age Israel. The rabbis are convinces that it's the legit Ark and want to return it to Israel. What happens next, in Israel and Ethiopia, and across the Christian world?

EDIT: Not Noah's Ark, the Ark of the Covenant. If you don't know the difference, don't comment.


r/whatif 8d ago

Other What if you get Pikmin/overlord style minions?

1 Upvotes

You can summon them ever so often and they can die but you can get more by growing them.


r/whatif 8d ago

History What if Alexander didn't die in Persia and have fused the 2 culture toghther

2 Upvotes

Alexander is the Shah of Iran and Persia have been asmilated into Greece and now greek have been asmilated with Persia what impact will it have on Europe


r/whatif 8d ago

Politics What if the US-Canada trade relation completely fractured?

11 Upvotes

What if the gloves came off and they started hitting real sectors … like if the USA closes the border or Canada stops sending oil and potash… or what if the U.S. navy blockades Vancouver and Halifax?

I’m not asking about probabilities, im just curious about the full extent of the economic impact disruption in U.S. Canadian trade could have. Would the USA have to cry uncle without Canadas material resources? Or would Canada succumb to the USA larger market? Could Canada prosper without the USA? And vis versa ?

If this escalates in a major way for some reason, how will it impact the day to day lives of ppl on both sides?