People Share Hard-To-Believe Things That Might Actually End Up Happening
Maybe it's the advent of TV and internet, but lately really unlikely scenarios seem to be much more possible. Are we truly on the brink of nuclear winter? Is a meteor going to strike? Is global warming going to release ancient diseases, or worse, cavemen played by Brendan Fraser? One reddit user had been pondering things alone long enough and finally asked:
What is unlikely to happen, yet frighteningly plausible?
You probably shouldn't read through these answers if you have anxiety, are having a bad day, or are sitting under a ceiling fan. You've been warned.
Two Weeks
In the 19th century, the world experienced a solar event of unprecedented scale. Called the "Carrington Event", after the astronomer who first identified and studied it, it took the form of a massive solar flare, called a coronal mass ejection (CME). The CME bombarded the earth with basically a galactic electromagnetic pulse, completely flattening the magnetosphere and immobilizing earth's inherent electromagnetic shielding until it was over. Fortunately, at the time, earth's electronic infrastructure was still in its infancy, although the event did cause telegraph wires to melt, and telegraph machines themselves to catch fire.
Then, in 2012, a CME of equal or greater magnitude than the Carrington event was recorded. It passed directly through the earth's orbit... while we were on the other side of the sun. Imagine if we had been in the splash zone of something like that, with how vital our electronic infrastructure has become in our daily lives. Reddit and the Internet would immediately cease to exist as servers become fried and destroyed. Anyone connected to a life support machine would be dead unless the life support techniques can be done manually or with analog technology. Satellites for communication, weather prediction, scientific study, GPS systems, and anything else man-made in orbit around earth would be damaged to the point of useless space junk. It would be an apocalyptic-level event... and it almost happened. The sun completes a rotation on its axis about once every three weeks, so if that CME happened either two weeks before or two weeks after it took place... well, the world would be a suddenly and dramatically different place.
Airbags Are Meant To Save Lives
The airbag in my car suddenly malfunctioning and deploying into my face whilst I'm driving on the freeway. Sometimes I glance nervously down at my steering wheel while I'm driving almost expecting it to happen.
AAA, But Not The Car Kind
For me, something called a triple A. Basically you get flu like symptoms then, when it ruptures, you bleed out in about 30 seconds. Nothing you can do about it, super rare but happens and if you have the symptoms you're already dead unless you're literally on the operating table. Worst part is you are awake and thinking throughout the process and basically know this is the end.
So... Keep The Windows Closed?
I'm terrified that one day, whilst driving with the windows open, a bee or wasp will fly into the car. It would get agitated, buzz around and probably sting me in desperation to escape from the car, I could easily lose control while driving! I think about it every time I open car windows.
Anesthesia Awareness
Anesthesia Awareness. It doesn't happen a lot but being awake during a surgery and feeling every single blade cut into you and feeling the doctors moving your guts constantly would but terrifying. That's why I don't wanna have surgery ever in my life.
No, There's No Dragon In The Kitchen.
Mental deterioration. I'm not talking like getting old and forgetting things, I mean schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, even Huntington's. Anything where I can't trust my own mind, scares the literal f*ck out of me. Imagine seeing your worst fears come to life, and when begging for help from your loved ones, they either dismiss you, or try to convince you that you aren't seeing anything....
So Long, Seattle
I live in the Seattle, WA, and though it is actually likely, I am still frighteningly scared that this could happen.
If you haven't heard, there is a massive earthquake that is long overdue in the Pacific North West (Washington, Oregon, N. California), with a predicted magnitude of up to 9.2.
It is supposed to wipe out the city of Seattle itself, along with the Capital of both WA and OR and other major cities in the area. And the odds are very real. The odds of the big one happening any time in the next 15 years are 1/15.
That may seem like a small chance, but consider the risks. Seattle has become a major economic hub, housing HQs of both Microsoft & Amazon. It houses some of the best medical institutions in the country, and we aren't even prepared for this disaster in the slightest.
More info is here: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one
It really scares me that this is a real event that could happen. Hopefully there is a way we can avoid it.
Sinkholes
Sinkhole swallowing me up while I slept. It happened in Florida. The guy died, crushed and smothered to death, just 10 feet away from from his family. It opened up under his bedroom. It happened so fast that he couldn't get away and no one could help him, even though his brother swore he could hear him screaming and tried to dig him out.
Recalculating...
My GPS has taken me off road several times, and has tried to get me to drive into a river at least once.
Now every time I drive up a hill or around a corner, or just anywhere where I can't see the road, I'm always worried that I missed a "dead end" or "bridge out" sign and the road is just going to disappear and my GPS is going to finally kill me.
Bathroom Demons
When you go to take a piss in the middle of the night and swing open the shower curtain to check if a spoopy demon or serial killer is there and THERE ACTUALLY IS ONE. Has anyone ever actually thought about that? What would anxiously ripping open the shower curtain do? Would you beat the said demon or killer with a plunger? Would they slip in the shower because you're too cheap to own a bath mat?
Man am I afraid of the bathroom at night..
Well That's A Killjoy
After I'm done hanging out with this person I will not ever see them again. This thought almost always ruins the good times I'm having with friends because I know eventually it will happen so it's inevitable but it's unlikely that this is that time.
"One Moment You're On Reddit, The Next..."
A moving black hole (they exist) passing through our solar system and instantaneously ripping it apart. One moment you're on reddit, the next, everything you know ceases to exist
Ceiling Fan Of Doom
I'm not sure how plausible it is, but I've always been afraid of the ceiling fan falling and killing me in my sleep.
"My Hand Is Possessed"
Have you heard about alien hand syndrome (I think that's what it's called)?
I remember watching a doco about people who had really bad seizures, who opted into having their corpus callosum (the bit of the brain that joins the two sides) severed... several of them had weird "my hand is possessed" type symptoms, and there was one guy who hand his non-dominant hand try to steer him off the road while he was driving...
I'm sure you'll be fine though
Death Would Be Preferrable
Go ahead and kill me. It's over. No worries.
But wake up a quadriplegic fully aware, but unable to make a single move. Staring at the same space for hours on end until you're moved hoping someone doesn't forget to give you eye drops because you can't blink. But let's add some fluff. All the nerves in your body are activated, and you're in chronic pain throughout the remainder of your extremely long immobile life.
Financial Ruin
Getting really sick, bankrupting my family, then dying anyways knowing I've ruined the lives (financially) of the people I care for the most.
Why Is That Button Even There?
Accidentally click the Facebook like/share button on pornographic content.
Nothing Is Real
That I'm insane and that everything I say and do doesn't really happen. I'm just some blabbering idiot who has imagined up his entire life with no way of knowing it.
God Bless America
I'd say the USA becoming a belligerent nation and/or suffering a civil war. We're an enormous nation with lots of power. Lately, some of the foundational institutions of our democracy have been under attack, such as elections and the press. Facts have become less important in debates, and much of our population believes it has a duty to lash out violently against legislation they don't like.
Beware.
What Will All The Trolls Do?
That my anonymity online will disappear. I'm relatively open about my views, but not to potential employers because I've seen people (liberals and conservatives alike) be discriminated against based on their political ideals, and I don't want that to happen.
Also, in "real life" there are things you think but you don't say whereas with the anonymity of the internet you're allowed to be more open. I don't want all my "think it don't say it" things being public.
H/T: Reddit