Alternate History ASB: Humans can breathe under water

D

Deleted member 88

Guest
So there hasn’t been many ASB ideas recently.

An ASB/ROB around oh 100 BC or so causes human beings to be able to breathe under water and on land.

Whenever submerged-gills emerge on people’s sides, throats, backs and other parts of their torsos.

When on land, these gills retract and are no longer visible.

This is worldwide and applies to everyone.

How does this affect the development of civilization from there?

Now that underwater life is naturally possible.

Thoughts, ideas?
 

S'task

Renegade Philosopher
Administrator
Staff Member
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I'm not sure it changes all that much, to be honest.

While breathing underwater will be very useful, it doesn't change a lot of other things that make water a less ideal habitat for humans. For instance, the human body is naturally positively buoyant. This means her inherently float in water. This isn't just a matter of "air in the lungs" thing, this is an entire body thing. Remember: corpses of people who've drowned still naturally float.

This means that actually living underwater would be a constant exercise in frustration for humans. You'd have to weight yourself down, you couldn't just leave a baby in a crib to sleep, but rather would have to construct cages. Plus the human form, while surprisingly good at swimming, isn't naturally oriented towards it, walking is much more efficient, and swimming requires all four limbs, whereas walking leave two hands free to do other things.

This does allow considerably more efficient exploitation of near shore resources and also makes crossing rivers much easier for humans. That said, it has very little impact on deep sea or ocean going, as the issues there are less humans drowning and more straight up logistics and the sheer physical challenges of dealing with waves and the like. See, the thing is, boats were never about preventing drowning. Seriously, they're not, they've about transporting supplies with humans, either resources taken FROM the water or taking resources with humans ACROSS water. That use isn't going to really change even with the gills. After all, you need some place to put the fish or other resources you get from the water to store them before going home, or you need something to keep all your stuff together in as you cross the water.

However, this would change how humans interact with water. Water would be less dangerous to humans, thus we'd treat it, in some way, less seriously. You might, might see some sort of primitive aquatic nomadic tribes in certain regions where the water stays warm and calm most of the year, but this would really alter, say, northern European interactions with water all that much. Sure, they can BREATH the water, but that's not going to change the REAL danger of getting wet in northern Europe: hypothermia.
 
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Deleted member 88

Guest
You do make good points I had not considered.

I imagine it will have some cultural effects-given that gills seem to have been supernaturally given. Do the gods or God wish man to live under the sea?

A few ways this might impact things-is people no longer drown. They can die of hypothermia or be eaten by crocodiles or sharks sure-but that eliminates a cause of death worldwide forever.

Secondly-deep fishing expeditions are more possible, as well say-using gills for military purposes-if you can breathe under water-you can have better scouts, spies and the like. It won’t change warfare too much-but it will allow certain options that otherwise weren’t possible(at least earlier) at the tactical level. Such as I dunno-having your men swim in the river or in the lake and come up behind the enemy. It might make moving armies quicker.

Maybe under water agriculture? And eventually under water settlement? Human natural buoyancy can probably be overcome with effort and practice-if you actually can breathe underwater indefinitely.

Also now-if your trying to assassinate somebody-throwing them in the river in summer time won’t work. Or the cliche of someone escaping death/capture by jumping into water-the persons chasing would know they survived for a fact. Perhaps law enforcement might need to train to hunt fugitives which hide under water?
 

Urabrask Revealed

Let them go.
Founder
Maybe under water agriculture?
Algae are apparently very nutrious, so I can see fisher villages also tending to algae fields.

And eventually under water settlement?
Ehh, aside from the issues @S'task already raised, there's also the problem of actually building said settlements.
You can't swing a hammer or an axe under water as easily.

Also now-if your trying to assassinate somebody-throwing them in the river in summer time won’t work. Or the cliche of someone escaping death/capture by jumping into water-the persons chasing would know they survived for a fact. Perhaps law enforcement might need to train to hunt fugitives which hide under water?
Come to think of it, assuming the history stays roughly the same, how many historic figures would survive their untimely deaths?
On the spot, I can name that one australian prime minister, the guy who went for a swim and just disappeared.
 

gral

Well-known member
Come to think of it, assuming the history stays roughly the same, how many historic figures would survive their untimely deaths?
On the spot, I can name that one australian prime minister, the guy who went for a swim and just disappeared.

Maybe Eddie Aikau? OTOH, he may have not drowned.
 

Navarro

Well-known member
Also now-if your trying to assassinate somebody-throwing them in the river in summer time won’t work. Or the cliche of someone escaping death/capture by jumping into water-the persons chasing would know they survived for a fact. Perhaps law enforcement might need to train to hunt fugitives which hide under water?

I mean, if you were doing it from high enough ...
 

Shipmaster Sane

You have been weighed
A man with some compact, waterproof navigational equipment could cross a rather substantial distance by swimming if he had zero risk of drowning, which would have a rather dramatic effect on human movement.
 

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik
The addition of using various, even "primitive" watercraft combined with safer swimming would be a boon in general to maritime travel and exploration. So yeah more of the ocean and water covered surface will get explored and more rapidly. Considering how far people like the Polynesians in general got around without the ability to breathe in the water, expansion across the seas would be even more readily available. Obviously there's still dangers like water pressure, temperature, exposure and wildlife etc etc etc but water breathing will help mitigate a lot of the water borne travel issues a great deal.
 
D

Deleted member 88

Guest
Hmm, I could see invading armies or expeditions swimming across rivers or open ocean-with the ships only used to transport supplies, horses, and so on. Though in rougher or more dangerous seas, ships would likely still be used.

One other thing-clothing would have to be taken into account, gills appear when it water-but what happens if one is covered head to toe? You might have suffocation instead of drowning, so clothing at least water clothing would have to be separate from people's regular clothes.
 

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