My friend and I were waiting to cross the road, when this particular thought crossed my mind – “What would we do differently, if human body would not be damaged by physical impact?”. The way I imagined it was, if a car were to hit you, you might be thrown off a few metres (following laws of elastic collision, let’s say) but it would do you no damage. You would get back on your feet, dust your pants, and start walking in the direction that you were originally headed. In a world like that, there would be no injury or death due to road accidents, and so people are likely to drive less carefully than they’re supposed to today, but what else would be different?

Boxing, if at all exists as a sport in that world, will not have knock out as a victory condition because it would be absolutely impossible to attain. People in that world are likely to prefer jumping out of their window to using the elevator to go down a few levels. A plausible mode of transport within the city could be using cannons that shoot commuters to their destination a few kilometres away. Parachutes may never be invented, and there would be few with acrophobia. Trains will not have to stop at a station for people to get in or out – passengers could simply jump in or out of the moving train.

I am sure that there are subtler implications for the assumption we have made for this alternate world. For example, the way human society evolves early on in a world where dominion by brute force is not possible would be significantly different (better or worse, I don’t know). It would be interesting to see what that world would come to, not so much for the difference in the way they construct buildings or make tools and automobiles, but for the differnt outlook they may have towards life itself. If you have any thoughts, feel fee to leave a comment.