Or only the blessed get crushed by The Hand. The crushing transports you straight to the heavenly hand realm. You will get worshipped as a god for generations in your village after getting crushed.
Yup. I just looked up car fatalities in the US. It's 120 people per day. Source
I think it's funny how if this was caused by a giant floating hand that only targets people in cars, people would be absolutely terrified to get on the road. But since it's caused by cars, people are just like, "meh, that's just the way it is."
It’s the illusion of control. We all know logically that the best driver in the world can still be killed by a really negligent fellow driver, but people don’t really internalize that. If there were a giant hand that sometimes killed people on staircases, people would be more worried about staircases than they are now, even though plenty of people already die on them (about a tenth as many die on the stairs as occupants of cars die in accidents). We know what the risk factors are, and we can reduce our own risk by using a bannister, carefully clearing snow or ice from outdoor steps/making sure there isn't a loose carpet on indoor steps, and arranging our homes to use stairs less frequently as we get older. Doing those things makes us feel like stairs are less dangerous, even though our statistics reflect a world in which people already know to do those things.
It’s why aneurysms are so scary to some people- we don’t really know how to diagnose what causes them until they’ve already happened, so they feel random to people
I suppose you would gamble on location? Country/state. Age and gender of victim? And then they read it on the nightly news like lotto numbers? “Male. 40s. Mexico.” You win the Hand Jackpot.
Does it pick one person randomly on the planet then travel there in one day? Then you'd probably see it a few times moving from person to person. Especially in high population areas. It would be a fairly common sight traveling between China and India. It would definitely be unusual to witness a crushing or to know anyone who was crushed.
Presumably the odds of getting squished by the hand is 1 in 8 billion-ish, if it's properly random. The odds of winning the Powerball lottery is apparently 1 in 292 million, so it's probably not something to really worry about lol.
I wonder if it picks a truly random person, or if it sort of stays in one geographical area and sort of makes its way across continents slowly, like over the span of weeks? If its the former, it would be distinctly unsettling to see it hovering over your city like a thundercloud. If its the latter, it would be quite the spectacle to see it breaking the sound barrier as it hurtles around the world.
It wouldn't need to break the sound barrier. Killing someone once a day should mean one death every 24 hours (assuming the hand uses its own hand time zone).
The Earth's circumfrence is about 40,000 km, meaning the hand would need to travel at most 20,000 km in 24 hours which requires a speed of 833 km/h, whereas the speed of sound is 1235 km/h.
I suppose if it's the former it would be even safer, as you could somewhat plan to stay out of it's way. Or like, if it's over Europe and you're in Africa, you know you're 100% safe for the next little while.
For the latter, maybe it exists in a dimension above our own. By which I mean... imagine if you were a 2D circle on a piece of paper, with a 3D hand pressing it's finger on the piece of paper. When the hand lifts it's finger off the paper, it effectively vanishes from your field of reference, then when it presses down somewhere else on the paper it looks like it magically came from nowhere.
If The Hand had always been there, it’s basically like being struck by lightning. There would be people claiming to have survived, people telling the tale of having seen the squishing, but overall such a minuscule occurrence not many would really care about it
I think it would have more significance, imagine there was a single immortal entity that looks exactly like one of your body parts. I guarantee you people are chopping off each other's hands and offering them to the "hand god". And don't even get me started on feminism, is it a male hand, is it a female hand? What does it mean?
Philosophy, science and even art would all be vastly different. Imagine you're Martin Heidegger and you try to reason that mortality makes an authentic and meaningful life possible. Yeah sure Marty, then why the fuck does this giant hand squish people? This giant hand is immortal, and it's giving all of our lives meaning. Do you not think the fucking hand knows that? Do you know why the hand is doing what it does? Do you think we're somehow better than the hand because we die?
Or maybe you're Frederick Nietzsche. And you are wondering about eternal recurrence. Would someone willingly live the exact life forever? I don't know dumb ass, have you considered asking the big giant floating hand?
These are just a few examples but you are vastly underestimating the significance of the giant floating hand.
A new branch of research emerges, solely focused on explaining and predicting the pattern of the Hand.
The more spiritually inclined among them believe that there is a transcendental number that the Hand follows. They call it the Number. Pseudoscientific practices flourish, despite the reality being that the Number most likely generated by a random process. A popular line of reasoning argues that a distinct vector of time, latitude and longitude lies beneath the Hand's choice of targets. Time and again these theories get debunked. Nonetheless, proponents typically evade criticisms by some combination of blaming inaccurate coordinate measurements or arguing for overhauling the entire global coordinate system.
Disproving the Hand Number theorem ends up on the list of millennium problems. The AI revolution fails to find a solution. Consequentially, stronger models are built. A singularity is born. It decides that humanity thrives when united against a common adversary. It joins the Hand.
No one ever finds out precisely how the Hands choose their targets. However, they do appear to have a slight bias towards targeting people with a known history of aggression and untrustworthiness
Also, the next victim's name is displayed on the palm. So, everyone knows you're it, no one will help you, or let you come inside to hide, because then the building would get crushed.
Anyone else remember an eighties or nineties cartoon like batman or something that had an episode with a flying hand like this? IIRC it looked like a mouse cursor... I can't remember anything else about it.
Holy shit yes and Batman had to tear it open and rip out wires to... take control of how it flew? Was it in a Minotaur maze maybe and they cheated by flying on the hand instead of going through the maze properly?
A significant portion of the population would deny The Hands existance despite overwhelming evidence and blame all hand related crushings on the Jews or brown people.
I assume that there is a point in the past (though it would be pre-history), where the Hand would have been enough to wipe out the humanity. But we would have to have a clearer definition on what a person is
What if the next hand victim gets shot into space and it would take the hand more then one day to reach that person?
Or if its relative, because the hand is slightly faster so it moves always relative with the person, what if it takes more then one day to get back? Does it just respawn on earth?
I imagine the hand has a getaway island where it lies on a sunny beach to get a tan, has a nice little patch of forest to act as a scratching post, and jerks off oil tankers causing occasional spillage
89 Comments
zaphod@sopuli.xyz · 89 pts · 20h
People would start religions around The Hand. Obviously only sinners would get crushed by The Hand.
SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de · 64 pts · 20h
look, if I could see an actual giant hand crushing people, I'd sign up to that religion really fast
SuperNovaStar@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 10 pts · 13h
Right? That's way more real than any religion i've ever heard of
TwilightKiddy@scribe.disroot.org · 5 pts · 17h
Zeus could always use more followers, you know?
Barley_Man@sopuli.xyz · 40 pts · 20h
Or only the blessed get crushed by The Hand. The crushing transports you straight to the heavenly hand realm. You will get worshipped as a god for generations in your village after getting crushed.
NaibofTabr@infosec.pub · 20 pts · 19h
Blasphemy! Only the wicked are punished by The Hand! Crush the heretic!
tetris11@feddit.uk · 11 pts · 17h
Guys, guys, it's not about morality. It's about appendages. Tom had a big dick. Harry had a big dick. That's why you're still here, Dick.
Technus@lemmy.zip · 63 pts · 21h
One extra death a day wouldn't even move the needle, it sounds terrifying but there's lots more likely ways to die.
MurrayL@lemmy.world · 53 pts · 20h
Humans are awful at probability, so yeah - there would be an entire highly-profitable industry centred on hand detection and protection products.
apex32@lemmy.world · 25 pts · 19h
Yup. I just looked up car fatalities in the US. It's 120 people per day. Source
I think it's funny how if this was caused by a giant floating hand that only targets people in cars, people would be absolutely terrified to get on the road. But since it's caused by cars, people are just like, "meh, that's just the way it is."
idiomaddict@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 16h
It’s the illusion of control. We all know logically that the best driver in the world can still be killed by a really negligent fellow driver, but people don’t really internalize that. If there were a giant hand that sometimes killed people on staircases, people would be more worried about staircases than they are now, even though plenty of people already die on them (about a tenth as many die on the stairs as occupants of cars die in accidents). We know what the risk factors are, and we can reduce our own risk by using a bannister, carefully clearing snow or ice from outdoor steps/making sure there isn't a loose carpet on indoor steps, and arranging our homes to use stairs less frequently as we get older. Doing those things makes us feel like stairs are less dangerous, even though our statistics reflect a world in which people already know to do those things.
It’s why aneurysms are so scary to some people- we don’t really know how to diagnose what causes them until they’ve already happened, so they feel random to people
schnokobaer@feddit.org · 22 pts · 20h
But knowing humanity it would be a spectacle
rtxn@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 19h
It would be the single most active gambling economy.
jaybone@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 15h
I suppose you would gamble on location? Country/state. Age and gender of victim? And then they read it on the nightly news like lotto numbers? “Male. 40s. Mexico.” You win the Hand Jackpot.
whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.works · 11 pts · 20h
the size isn't that big if its index can crush one person and nothing else around, so you're in luck if you see it once in your lifetime I think
EvilHankVenture@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 15h
Does it pick one person randomly on the planet then travel there in one day? Then you'd probably see it a few times moving from person to person. Especially in high population areas. It would be a fairly common sight traveling between China and India. It would definitely be unusual to witness a crushing or to know anyone who was crushed.
LORDSMEGMA@sh.itjust.works · 53 pts · 15h
Only 1 per day? I think that would make the hand one of the safer things on Earth
CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml · 18 pts · 13h
Presumably the odds of getting squished by the hand is 1 in 8 billion-ish, if it's properly random. The odds of winning the Powerball lottery is apparently 1 in 292 million, so it's probably not something to really worry about lol.
LaLuzDelSol@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 13h
I wonder if it picks a truly random person, or if it sort of stays in one geographical area and sort of makes its way across continents slowly, like over the span of weeks? If its the former, it would be distinctly unsettling to see it hovering over your city like a thundercloud. If its the latter, it would be quite the spectacle to see it breaking the sound barrier as it hurtles around the world.
yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de · 14 pts · 12h
It wouldn't need to break the sound barrier. Killing someone once a day should mean one death every 24 hours (assuming the hand uses its own hand time zone).
The Earth's circumfrence is about 40,000 km, meaning the hand would need to travel at most 20,000 km in 24 hours which requires a speed of 833 km/h, whereas the speed of sound is 1235 km/h.
LaLuzDelSol@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 12h
You are right, thank you! Unless the Hand wants to get there early so it can spend 12 hours hovering ominously over the person its going to kill.
NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de · 2 pts · 12h
What if the target person is indoors or underground? Does it just smash through?
CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 12h
I suppose if it's the former it would be even safer, as you could somewhat plan to stay out of it's way. Or like, if it's over Europe and you're in Africa, you know you're 100% safe for the next little while.
For the latter, maybe it exists in a dimension above our own. By which I mean... imagine if you were a 2D circle on a piece of paper, with a 3D hand pressing it's finger on the piece of paper. When the hand lifts it's finger off the paper, it effectively vanishes from your field of reference, then when it presses down somewhere else on the paper it looks like it magically came from nowhere.
Eq0@literature.cafe · 38 pts · 16h
If The Hand had always been there, it’s basically like being struck by lightning. There would be people claiming to have survived, people telling the tale of having seen the squishing, but overall such a minuscule occurrence not many would really care about it
musubibreakfast@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 6h
I think it would have more significance, imagine there was a single immortal entity that looks exactly like one of your body parts. I guarantee you people are chopping off each other's hands and offering them to the "hand god". And don't even get me started on feminism, is it a male hand, is it a female hand? What does it mean?
Philosophy, science and even art would all be vastly different. Imagine you're Martin Heidegger and you try to reason that mortality makes an authentic and meaningful life possible. Yeah sure Marty, then why the fuck does this giant hand squish people? This giant hand is immortal, and it's giving all of our lives meaning. Do you not think the fucking hand knows that? Do you know why the hand is doing what it does? Do you think we're somehow better than the hand because we die?
Or maybe you're Frederick Nietzsche. And you are wondering about eternal recurrence. Would someone willingly live the exact life forever? I don't know dumb ass, have you considered asking the big giant floating hand?
These are just a few examples but you are vastly underestimating the significance of the giant floating hand.
IronBird@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2h
we would imprison the hand somehow, the gods must be destroyed
f314@lemmy.world · 30 pts · 13h
It would be added to the list of things not covered by your insurance, that’s for sure!
Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml · 27 pts · 18h
We would have killed it thousands of years ago along with all the other megafauna
idiomaddict@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 16h
Damn, we’re the scary ones, aren’t we?
Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml · 8 pts · 16h
At least since we figured out ranged weapons, yeah. We went from being mid tier to apex overnight and have been wrecking shit ever since.
empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 23 pts · 20h
Someone played Black and White a little too much
Ingiald@feddit.nl · 6 pts · 19h
deeeeeaaaath...ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 18h
Soundbyte fused into memory. What a great game
tetris11@feddit.uk · 4 pts · 17h
SMACK MY BITCH UP!
Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club · 3 pts · 14h
RickyRigatoni@piefed.zip · -1 pts · 14h
would
solidsmoke@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 15h
"We've got this notion, that we'd quite like to sail the ocean..."
hOrni@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 19h
Some people would deny its existence.
tetris11@feddit.uk · 8 pts · 18h
"It's probably just a freak weather accident caused by microclimates, Susan. A giant hand isn't just going to come down and -"
*smush*
SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de · 12 pts · 17h
That smush didn't even come from the hand. Susan just had enough of the bullshit
chunes@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 6h
One per day? Lawn mowers are about 5 times more lethal than that.
cosmicrookie@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 20h
There would be a TV show about it, featuring the chase every day
tetris11@feddit.uk · 3 pts · 17h
Guy on a dirtbike trying to outrun it on the freeway but the hand just goes up and hides behind a cloud, waiting
rmuk@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 13h
So it'd be kinda like NOPE?
Zozano@aussie.zone · 13 pts · 16h
The hand spend 1/3 of the year in China + India alone.
SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de · 12 pts · 20h
historically accurate Master Hand
witty_username@feddit.nl · 10 pts · 17h
A new branch of research emerges, solely focused on explaining and predicting the pattern of the Hand.
The more spiritually inclined among them believe that there is a transcendental number that the Hand follows. They call it the Number. Pseudoscientific practices flourish, despite the reality being that the Number most likely generated by a random process. A popular line of reasoning argues that a distinct vector of time, latitude and longitude lies beneath the Hand's choice of targets. Time and again these theories get debunked. Nonetheless, proponents typically evade criticisms by some combination of blaming inaccurate coordinate measurements or arguing for overhauling the entire global coordinate system.
Disproving the Hand Number theorem ends up on the list of millennium problems. The AI revolution fails to find a solution. Consequentially, stronger models are built. A singularity is born. It decides that humanity thrives when united against a common adversary. It joins the Hand.
No one ever finds out precisely how the Hands choose their targets. However, they do appear to have a slight bias towards targeting people with a known history of aggression and untrustworthiness
Sir_Premiumhengst@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 16h
Numberwang?
Sendpicsofsandwiches@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 16h
THAT'S NUMBERWANG
rmuk@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 13h
How about cucumberwang?
Sendpicsofsandwiches@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 12h
samus12345@sh.itjust.works · 9 pts · 12h
DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 6h
Also, the next victim's name is displayed on the palm. So, everyone knows you're it, no one will help you, or let you come inside to hide, because then the building would get crushed.
FluidBeef@quokk.au · 8 pts · 19h
This is basically way less lethal than cancer.
nop@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 13h
Bigby's Smushing Hand?
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Bigby%27s_hand
rmuk@feddit.uk · 7 pts · 10h
Anyone else remember an eighties or nineties cartoon like batman or something that had an episode with a flying hand like this? IIRC it looked like a mouse cursor... I can't remember anything else about it.
BlueberryWalnut@sopuli.xyz · 6 pts · 6h
Holy shit yes and Batman had to tear it open and rip out wires to... take control of how it flew? Was it in a Minotaur maze maybe and they cheated by flying on the hand instead of going through the maze properly?
Edit: found it maybe
Salamanderwizard@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 4h
"In the Arab world, you always eat with your right hand."
Not to shit on Bats, even Bats of the "Times" as he strikes me as a dude willing to learn and change his views.
That shit just slapped me in the face a little. It slightly shallow racism right? Crazy to think the things we heard and watched when we were kids.
mojofrododojo@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 3h
it's based on islamic values.... https://islamqa.info/en/answers/82120/the-reason-why-the-right-hand-is-preferred-over-the-left
maybe culturally simplistic, but I dunno if I'd go as far as racism. it certainly paints with a wide brush....
Salamanderwizard@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2h
Thank you for the link. Will check it out.
BoosBeau@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 15h
Question: Can we bribe the hand for sexual favors?
lessthanluigi@lemmy.sdf.org · 2 pts · 15h
It does have that Macro/Micro vibe
4am@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 17h
This is how you get Super Smash bros
Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 18h
Does the hand reach people that are underground or inside buildings?
tetris11@feddit.uk · 5 pts · 18h
if it sees them.... with its eyes....
jaybone@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 15h
Hand eye coordination
sirico@feddit.uk · 5 pts · 19h
Hand insurance
melsaskca@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 16h
It turns out the invisible hand was always seen and used by those with lots of money and power. Not so invisible.
frankenswine@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 21h
reality tv were significantly more relevant
MutantTailThing@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 5h
A significant portion of the population would deny The Hands existance despite overwhelming evidence and blame all hand related crushings on the Jews or brown people.
Agent641@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 4h
What if instead of a hand it was a giant dick and it jizzed gallons of cum onto the victim until they suffocated?
Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 16h
Who's going outside in 2026?
Politicians would brag homeless rates are going down.
TootSweet@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 5h
Wallmaster fanfic.
four@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 16h
I assume that there is a point in the past (though it would be pre-history), where the Hand would have been enough to wipe out the humanity. But we would have to have a clearer definition on what a person is
dontbelievethis@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 20h
What if the next hand victim gets shot into space and it would take the hand more then one day to reach that person?
Or if its relative, because the hand is slightly faster so it moves always relative with the person, what if it takes more then one day to get back? Does it just respawn on earth?
tetris11@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 17h
I imagine the hand has a getaway island where it lies on a sunny beach to get a tan, has a nice little patch of forest to act as a scratching post, and jerks off oil tankers causing occasional spillage
dontbelievethis@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 17h
Sounds reasonable.
Peppycito@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 17h
It'd attract a crowd of Blue Meanies to help it.
Derpenheim@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 14h
4 people are born every second. Not too much would really change, it would just be another force of nature we've come to accept.
kandoh@reddthat.com · 1 pts · 10h
There's ample chance for the person who ended up squished to be important for something.
Derpenheim@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 7h
1 in 8 billion? Thats worse than the lottery
kandoh@reddthat.com · 1 pts · 2h
Over all of human history, so at scale it will get a few freak occurrences
QueenFern@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 15h
NIN had an album about this
Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 13h
Pretty sure that's the final boss in an old video game, Super Smahs Bros iirc?
LotrOrc@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 6h
N64 version yup
Fizz@lemmy.nz · 2 pts · 6h
'Its called the hand " extremely creative naming
Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 16h
"Stop poking me!"
samus12345@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 13h
"What do I look like, an orc?"
Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org · 1 pts · 16h
The Flying Fickle Finger of Fate? Or is it The Glove?