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

Just being alive is the most f*****g bizarre thing in the world.

Image credits: redditshy

#2

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 credits: Phoenix042

#3

Alzheimer’s/Dementia – anything where you lose your memory or become a burden to your family

Image credits: Motor_Relation_5459

Some people think that being afraid of science is basically weird, because it is thanks to science that we got to where we are, and modernity is not only about climate change, nuclear weapons and TikTok. It is also cutting-edge medicine, an opportunity to get to another continent in just a couple of hours, communication with people on the other side of the globe… But anyway, just seriously think about some scientific facts – and it really sends shivers down our spines.

#4

Quite a common one, but space is SO BIG. Like, bigger than the amount that we can observe. Gives me the chills.

Image credits: Backstage____

#5

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 credits: anon

#6

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 credits: uglyugly1

What else is the problem – for many people, science has replaced religion, and the principles there are just completely different. “My answer was the usual, ‘science is not a belief system’ followed by a deeper explanation. The conversation circled around to faith. I shared that I saw no inherent conflict between my faith and science,” Dr. Marshall Shepherd, a leading international expert in weather and climate, writes in his column on Forbes.

“Many students (and parents) also suffer from ‘science anxiety.’ I am always concerned when I hear a parent say, ‘I am not a science person nor is my kid.’ Such statements train the child to succumb to parental insecurities or biases while setting up a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Dr. Shepherd also notes, and it’s actually hard to disagree with him.

#7

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 credits: DoopFoopHoop

#8

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 credits: Rusty-Wheel

#9

Atoms are 99.99% empty space. The nature of all seemingly solid matter is an illusion.

Image credits: osunightfall

But be that as it may, it used to be somehow easier in the good old days, wasn’t it? To live, firmly knowing that above us is a solid sky with stars evenly nailed to it, through which the sun runs with the punctuality of a mail train. Live confident that if you strictly follow the rules specified in the holy books, you will definitely go to heaven… Live without thinking about how this world really works, and what awaits us when we cross that fine line… Science helps us replace faith with knowledge, but sometimes that knowledge is scary as hell.

#10

Any AI smart enough to pass the Turing test, is smart enough to know to fail it

Image credits: Shadeslaer

#11

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 credits: starfire1905

#12

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 credits: CapnFang

However, another fundamental difference between knowledge and faith is that knowledge is not absolute, and what was previously considered an immutable scientific truth may well be refuted tomorrow. After all, as Omar Khayyam once wrote, “Strange, is it not that of the myriads who before us pass’d the door of darkness through, not one returns to tell us of the road, which to discover we must travel too.” So now just read and scroll this list to its very end – and add your own scary scientific facts in case you have some, as we’re sure you do.

#13

naegleria fowleri (brain eating amoeba) has a 97% fatality rate and it’s immune to most antibiotics

Image credits: Old_Championship3196

#14

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.

#15

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 credits: PatMenotaur

#16

That since 9/11 more soldiers [take their own lives] than die in war.

Image credits: DanMittaul

#17

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 credits: IndianaJonesDoombot

#18

We’re either alone in this universe or we’re not

Image credits: HalfChineseJesus

#19

There have already been five mass extinction level events

Image credits: justandswift

#20

Gamma blasts scare the c**p out of me they could happen at any time and nothing can stop them

Image credits: wetlettuce42

#21

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 credits: Ok-Organization9073

#22

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 credits: Fun_Boysenberry_5219

#23

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 credits: Good-of-Rome

#24

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 credits: 5keletonj4zzw1zard

#25

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 credits: JP1426

#26

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 credits: imflukeskywalker

#27

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 credits: 567stranger

#28

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 credits: SuvenPan

#29

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 credits: BobTheGC

#30

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 credits: DemonFrage

#31

There is a thought that if there were a big enough landslide on the Canary Islands (which is a real possibility), if it were large enough it’d cause a giant tsunami causing significant damage to the Eastern United States. I’ve seen some of the models, they look quite grim.

Image credits: llcucf80

#32

We will be dead, longer than we will be alive.

#33

The Dark Forest Theory. It’s an explanation as to why we haven’t heard back from aliens yet. They are purposely keeping quiet as there is no way to know if another life form may perceive you as a threat and decide to kill you off. Whoever pulls the trigger first is the winner. Everyone is a hunter. So, why risk reaching out?

#34

It is possible that the universe exists at a false vacuum level and at some point, any time or anywhere, vacuum decay could occur, sending a wave of destruction out in every direction. The only solace is that if it did occur, it would probably spread at no greater than the speed of light, so if it occurred in some other galaxy, humanity would be long gone before it reached here. Of course, that also means it could have already occurred in multiple places and at multiple times and the universe is just being destroyed bit by bit.

Image credits: DarthWoo

#35

Parallel Universes and just the idea of them freaks me out for some reason. There could be a version of me with different hair color or dead. Who knows.

Image credits: iwant2die69420

#36

The Earth is at the centre of the *observable* universe

#37

More of a philosophical theory but the idea that everyone apart from me is simply a philosophical zombie. No actual consciousness, sentience, or “soul” but rather just a body that is extremely convincing at being sentient.

#38

I don’t remember the specific name but it basically was a theory that consisted on this cycle in which humans would be able to create an intelligent AI which simulated a “new [virtual] universe” like the Sims, in which then the “humans” in this new universe would basically do the same and this would repeat over and over again.

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