## When people are given awesome power, they don't read the instructions!

* Author: u/xamueljones  *My arch-enemy is entropy**
* URL: http://www.tor.com/stories/2011/08/wikihistory
* Score: 28

* Created: 2015-01-03T17:05:57

### Post:

[Link to content](http://www.tor.com/stories/2011/08/wikihistory)

### Comments:

> **u/xamueljones** [+5]  *My arch-enemy is entropy* (37 seconds later)
> 
> This post isn't about rational behavior, but I thought people here would like it.

>> **u/Empiricist_or_not** [+2]  *Aspiring polite Hegemonizing swarm* (an hour later)
>> 
>> Very entertaining

>> **u/libertarian_reddit** [+1]  (8 hours later)
>> 
>> Very funny, thank you.

> **u/shupack** [+3]  (6 hours later)
> 
> This is why IKEA furniture instructions are all symbols

> **u/Magodo** [+2]  *Ankh-Morpork City Watch* (12 hours later)
> 
> While the story is awesome, what do you guys think about Hitler's death causing the non existence of computers and electronics?
> 
> Wouldn't we have discovered those things anyway?

>> **u/alexanderwales** [+4]  *Time flies like an arrow* (12 hours later)
>> 
>> We definitely would have those things - it's just a question of how delayed the technologies would be without the concerted war effort pulling people from various specialties in and giving them a lot of funding. In a parallel timeline without WWII (and it's a big leap to go from "no Hitler" to "no WWII") you would probably have the funding done by private companies, educational institutions, or a government that didn't really care that a war wasn't on and just wanted to spend some money.
>> 
>> The first conception of the electrical digital computer predates WWII by two years, for what it's worth.

>> **u/None** [+2]  (a day later)
>> 
>> I have to imagine that killing and displacing a bunch of scientists was bad for their research.

>> **u/Igigigif** [+1]  *IT Foxgirl* (a day later)
>> 
>> regardless of the validity of that conjecture, shouldn't it be possible just to bring some data about computer back, or even found a company dedicated to developing them early? The message board obviously exists outside the timestream (somehow) so information, at the very least, can still be preserved

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