One extra death a day wouldn’t even move the needle, it sounds terrifying but there’s lots more likely ways to die.
Anon fears The Hand
Submitted 3 weeks ago by Early_To_Risa@sh.itjust.works to greentext@sh.itjust.works
https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/d36369d3-ab66-4d07-bcec-b1c9c54b782d.jpeg
Comments
Technus@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
MurrayL@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
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 3 weeks ago
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 2 weeks ago
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 3 weeks ago
But knowing humanity it would be a spectacle
rtxn@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
It would be the single most active gambling economy.
whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
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 2 weeks ago
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 2 weeks ago
Only 1 per day? I think that would make the hand one of the safer things on Earth
CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
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 2 weeks ago
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.
Eq0@literature.cafe 2 weeks ago
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 weeks ago
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 2 weeks ago
we would imprison the hand somehow, the gods must be destroyed
Donkter@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I think the main thing about it would be the destruction it caused on its journey. Ploughing through cities and into buildings. Still an extraordinarily rare occurrence but with a lot more evidence for its presence.
And God forbid it chooses someone who spends time underground.
f314@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It would be added to the list of things not covered by your insurance, that’s for sure!
Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
We would have killed it thousands of years ago along with all the other megafauna
idiomaddict@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Damn, we’re the scary ones, aren’t we?
Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
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.
chunes@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
One per day? Lawn mowers are about 5 times more lethal than that.
homik@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
The hand works in mysterious ways.
fibojoly@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Right, but how many billionaires die by lawnmower? It’s about the message.
empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Someone played Black and White a little too much
Ingiald@feddit.nl 3 weeks ago
~deeeeeaaaath…~
ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Soundbyte fused into memory. What a great game
tetris11@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
SMACK MY BITCH UP!
Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club 2 weeks ago
solidsmoke@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
“We’ve got this notion, that we’d quite like to sail the ocean…”
hOrni@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Some people would deny its existence.
tetris11@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
“It’s probably just a freak weather accident caused by microclimates”
SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
That smush didn’t even come from the hand. Susan just had enough of the bullshit
samus12345@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
JordanZ@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
[deleted]_stranger_@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
There was a duck tails episode like this.
Donkter@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’m sure there would be many books and religions trying to put reason to The Hand and why it killed the people it did.
zoltanshields@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Creating nonexistent patterns in an attempt to understand it. There was a cluster of hand killings near a small town in Kyrgyzstan and there’s no way that could just be random chance.
GiraffeNeckInKnot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Start doing it from most wealthiest and work it’s way down. So we get to see those rich douchebags frantically trying to spend their wealth away, competing with each other. And probably for good of humanity.
Agent641@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
What if instead of a hand it was a giant dick and it jizzed gallons of cum onto the victim until they suffocated?
dubs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
flippinfreebird@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Don’t threaten me with a good time.
MutantTailThing@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
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.
cosmicrookie@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
There would be a TV show about it, featuring the chase every day
tetris11@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
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 weeks ago
So it’d be kinda like NOPE?
DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
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.
SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
historically accurate Master Hand
witty_username@feddit.nl 2 weeks ago
[deleted]3daybanwithdrawl@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Everyone is saying it is the least probable cause of death out of all probable causes…Knowing people though, it would easily the most feared and talked about cause of death. There would be an entire lucrative industry of products to “protect” yourself even though they would all be useless scams. People would ignore learning actually valuable information and learn as much about the hand as possible.
P1k1e@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Black & White flashbacks
fibojoly@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
B&W old schmucks represent!
rmuk@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
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 2 weeks ago
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?
tetris11@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
“I linked it to my palm top computer”
There’s even a scene where they show how he pulled out two leads and presumably connected over I2C or UART. A lot of detail for a kids cartoon
rmuk@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
found it maybe
No, that’s definitely it. Amazing result, thanks!
Salamanderwizard@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
“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.
FluidBeef@quokk.au 3 weeks ago
This is basically way less lethal than cancer.
nop@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Bigby’s Smushing Hand?
BoosBeau@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Question: Can we bribe the hand for sexual favors?
lessthanluigi@lemmy.sdf.org 2 weeks ago
It does have that Macro/Micro vibe
Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Does the hand reach people that are underground?
tetris11@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
if it sees them… with its eyes…
jaybone@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Hand eye coordination
TootSweet@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Wallmaster fanfic.
Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Who’s going outside in 2026?
Politicians would brag homeless rates are going down.
4am@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
This is how you get Super Smash bros
sirico@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
Hand insurance
frankenswine@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
reality tv were significantly more relevant
JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
We would evolve to be very good at dodging. Also, underground cities would be a thing.
zaphod@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
People would start religions around The Hand. Obviously only sinners would get crushed by The Hand.
SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
look, if I could see an actual giant hand crushing people, I’d sign up to that religion really fast
SuperNovaStar@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Right? That’s way more real than any religion i’ve ever heard of
voidsignal@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
well, the fact we all see that giant hand crushing people, does not mean the cults about it are right.
Barley_Man@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
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 3 weeks ago
Blasphemy! Only the wicked are punished by the Hand! Crush the heretic!