The Unlikely If
Real science · impossible questions

What if the impossible actually happened?

We take one absurd question at a time and follow it all the way through: the first second, the first day, the first year, and what changes forever.

Start: What if Earth stopped spinning? → ✦ Random question
The questions

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Macro photograph of a powerful AI graphics processor chip on a circuit board with dramatic green and blue lighting
Tech

What if a spy got close to the world's most powerful chip CEO?

NVIDIA's CEO admitted an affair with a woman US intelligence reportedly links to China. What's confirmed, what's alleged, and why AI chips are worth spying for.

6 min read▶ VideoQuiz
High-voltage power lines and pylons silhouetted against a dramatic orange sunset sky
Tech

What if AI used all the world's electricity?

Data centres already use about 1.5% of the world's electricity, and that could double by 2030. Here's what the numbers really mean.

6 min read▶ VideoQuiz
Macro photograph of computer RAM memory modules with gold contacts lined up on a dark surface
Tech

What if AI ate all the world's RAM?

It's already starting: memory prices have exploded because AI data centres are swallowing chip factories' output. Here's where it leads.

6 min read▶ VideoQuiz
Long-exposure night photograph of a highway with streaks of white and red car light trails curving through the dark
Space

What if the speed of light was 100 km/h?

Sunlight would take 171 years to arrive, traffic lights would change colour as you drive, and speeding would be time travel.

6 min read▶ VideoQuiz
Towering cliffs of an Antarctic ice shelf meeting a dark calm ocean
Planet Earth

What if all the ice on Earth melted in one day?

Seas rise about 70 metres, enough to swallow a 23-storey building. And melting it that fast would need 600 days of sunlight.

6 min read▶ VideoQuiz
Aerial top-down photograph of a busy city pedestrian crossing with many people seen from directly above
You

What if you could hear everyone's thoughts for 24 hours?

About 170 minds within 100 metres of you, half of them daydreaming, each switching thoughts thousands of times a day.

6 min read▶ VideoQuiz
Silhouette of a passenger jet crossing in front of a huge full moon
Space

What if the Moon were as close as a plane?

It literally can't fit. So we bring it closer step by step: giant tides, a 21-hour month, and a Moon that shatters into rings.

6 min read▶ VideoQuiz
A big city skyline at blue hour with thousands of lit office and apartment windows
You

What if you never needed to sleep again?

You'd get 2,920 hours a year back, about 26 years over a lifetime. Here's what you'd gain, and what sleep secretly does for you.

6 min read▶ VideoQuiz
A huge full moon rising behind a lone tree on a grassy hill at dusk
Space

What if gravity got 10% weaker every second?

In 7 seconds the Moon flies away. In 44 the oceans boil. In under 3 minutes, a jump sends you to space forever.

6 min read▶ VideoQuiz
Earth at night seen from orbit, with glowing city lights
Planet Earth

What if Earth stopped spinning for one second?

You're already moving at up to 1,670 km/h. Here's what happens when the ground stops and you don't.

7 min read▶ VideoQuiz
1 questionFollowed second by second, from the first moment to the end of the world (sometimes literally).
Real sourcesEvery article cites the physics, biology or geography behind it.
60-second versionEvery question has a short video on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.