The great German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once sagely remarked that “if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” Damn rightly noticed, especially when you consider that for several millennia of its existence, humanity has been actively gazing into the abyss and highlighting itself first with a candle, and then with a flashlight. We call this process science.
And you know what? There are scientific theories that, from one awareness of them, from one thought, send goosebumps running down the skin and make us feel sick. And in this viral thread you can meet netizens opening up about the creepiest pieces of science they’ve ever known.
#1
The theory of MAD, or mutually assured destruction.
It’s a great theory for helping me sleep at night, but uh… It kinda only works if everyone involved is always rational at all times, and never feels they have nothing to lose.
Thankfully no human ever acts irrationally.
And certainly if they did, we’d never let them keep control of nuclear weapons!
That’d be insane.
Ha ha. Really insane.
Like, “insane” is honestly putin it mildly.
Image source: Phoenix042, Oliver Cole
#2
Just being alive is the most f*****g bizarre thing in the world.
Image source: redditshy, Roberto Nickson
#3
Death. Just death. Blows my mind that one day we just cease to exist and people just go on with their life as if we were never there.
Image source: anon, Veit Hammer
#4
Alzheimer’s/Dementia – anything where you lose your memory or become a burden to your family
Image source: Motor_Relation_5459, Andrew Neel
#5
Quite a common one, but space is SO BIG. Like, bigger than the amount that we can observe. Gives me the chills.
Image source: Backstage____, Pixabay
#6
I suppose that at any moment you can have an aneurysm and bam you’re dead and there’s not much you can really do to prevent it or even predict it
Image source: DoopFoopHoop, Robina Weermeijer
#7
Antimicrobial resistance.
What’s really crazy is, we owe our modern prosperity (especially in the US) to antibiotics. Each particular antibiotic only works for a short period of time, before pathogenic bacteria becomes resistant to it. We’ve been though numerous different antibiotics since the discovery of penicillin, and pathogenic bacteria have become resistant to almost all of them. We’re running out of antibiotics that are still effective.
About 4 or 5 years ago, I learned that there were babies born in India who had infections that were resistant to all known types of antibiotics.
There’s a good chance that in our lifetimes, we’ll see people dying from common infections due to the lack of effective drugs to treat them.
Image source: uglyugly1, Edward Jenner
#8
Any AI smart enough to pass the Turing test, is smart enough to know to fail it
Image source: Shadeslaer, ThisIsEngineering
#9
The Carrington Event. In 1859 the sun spewed a huge amount of highly-charged plasma that brushed against the Earth’s magnetosphere and caused every electronic device on Earth to receive a huge electric shock. At the time, “every electronic device on Earth” consisted of a few telegraph machines. Some simply ran even while disconnected from their power supply for a while, some melted.
If an event like this were to happen today (we’re overdue for one), it would pretty much destroy every single electronic device, including all of the infrastructure used to generate and distribute electricity.
There would be widespread blackouts everywhere, and no way to contact anyone to call for help or find out what state the rest of the world is in. And no way to fix it other than re-creating centuries worth of scientific advancements by hand.
Image source: CapnFang, ISS Expedition 23 crew
#10
People in large groups become really bad at making decisions, planning, and making accurate judgements.
It doesn’t matter if the group is made of genuinely intelligent people, the above is always true.
Image source: Rusty-Wheel, Min An
#11
The brain is so complex that we can’t understand it fully, ergo the brain is so complex that it doesn’t understand itself.
Ponder that for a moment.
Image source: _spookyvision_
#12
That since 9/11 more soldiers [take their own lives] than die in war.
Image source: DanMittaul, Art Guzman
#13
Atoms are 99.99% empty space. The nature of all seemingly solid matter is an illusion.
Image source: osunightfall, Tara Winstead
#14
naegleria fowleri (brain eating amoeba) has a 97% fatality rate and it’s immune to most antibiotics
Image source: Old_Championship3196, iccsafe
#15
There have already been five mass extinction level events
Image source: justandswift, Elviss Railijs Bitāns
#16
the fact that we will never ever be able to know everything. like theres a limit to what we can know and theres so much out there that will we just never discover.
another one that scares me is that we are all alone on this floating rock. i doubt we are the only intelligent life in this universe but its possible that we are in a sense and that it self scares me so much.
Image source: starfire1905, Nina Uhlikova
#17
That humanity has changed so drastically in the last 100 years that it scares me how different life will be in even 50 years from now
Image source: JP1426, Vlad Alexandru Popa
#18
There are between 6-10 nuclear missiles that are missing.
No sovereign nation has a clue where they are, or who has control of them.
Image source: PatMenotaur, Kilian Karger
#19
Your brain recalls memories when you die but your brain also recalles memories wrong so you’re basically lying to yourself right before you die
Image source: IndianaJonesDoombot, Robert Șerban
#20
We’re either alone in this universe or we’re not
Image source: HalfChineseJesus, Greg Rakozy
#21
The fact that we’ve only searched a little bit of the whole ocean.
I wouldn’t even get wet from the sea on the surface, I don’t wanna see whatever the f**k’s down there
Image source: 5keletonj4zzw1zard, NEOM
#22
When you look up at the sky you aren’t really looking up. Gravity keeps ypu grounded, and you’re really staring down into an infinite fall
Image source: Good-of-Rome, Max Andrey
#23
Gamma blasts scare the c**p out of me they could happen at any time and nothing can stop them
Image source: wetlettuce42, European Southern Observatory
#24
When you get rabies and didn’t get treated until the symptoms show up, you’re dead. When you experience single symptom of rabies you’re already dead, there’s nothing you can do about it. Also rabies symptoms can take long to show up, the incubation period for rabies can last up to years. So if you were bitten or scratched by an animal with rabies years ago, the symptoms could show up right now and you will die.
Image source: 567stranger, Andrea Piacquadio
#25
It’s thought our galaxy is full of rogue planets wandering free from their original star. At any time one of these planets could wander through our solar system radically throwing off the fragile balance of our orbits. A big enough planet passing close enough could send us careening into the sun.
Image source: Fun_Boysenberry_5219, David Menidrey
#26
The teleportation theory, that teleporters don’t actually move you from place to place but kills you by breaking you down to molecular level and create a exact replica of you on the other end who thinks it’s you because it has your memory. And as more and more people will use it they will keep getting replaced by a different person each time.
Image source: SuvenPan, Dan Senior
#27
Ionizing radiation. The concept feels like cosmic horror to me. Like an invisible curse, that can kill you just for stepping into a forbidden place.
Image source: Ok-Organization9073, Alper Çuğun
#28
The Andromeda Galaxy is on a collision course with the Milky Way Galaxy and it is moving at us at the rate of 70 miles a second. However, we have 5 billion years to get ready.
Image source: imflukeskywalker, CajunAstro
#29
If you get hit hard enough in that spot on the back of your head where your spine connects to your skull, you die instantly.
Image source: DemonFrage, Tima Miroshnichenko
#30
There are microorganisms and bacteria crawling around your eyes. Academically, I know that we think they are helpful and fight disease. However, I don’t like the notion of stuff crawling around in/on my eyes.
Image source: BobTheGC, Amanda Dalbjörn
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