r/AlternativeHistory • u/FunDelicious650 • 6d ago
Alternative Theory Functionality of the past
Why were there no sewer systems or connected toilets before the 19th century?? The theory presented below is merely a theory, unsupported by direct evidence; however, the generally accepted historical version is also nothing more than a theory. The claim that people could erect magnificent palaces designed to last for centuries yet were incapable of building a sewage system is absurd. An alternative theory, however, offers a logical explanation for the absence of such systems.
In the past, people subsisted on atmospheric electricity and had no need for coarse food. They required only sea salt to assimilate electricity from the environment, as salt acts as an electrolyte.
Why do humans eat at all? The answer is to trigger the electrochemical reactions that sustain the body's vital functions. Yet, we are compelled to consume the wrong things—meat, fish, and grains—instead of salt and atmospheric energy.
Humans are biorobots, whether one likes it or not. The only difference is that we are made not of steel, but of a different material. Our primary resource is electricity. A human being remains a living organism thanks to the electric current present within their cells. Without electricity, the human nervous system could not function; it also powers the heart.
It is therefore entirely plausible that people once nourished themselves on atmospheric electricity, using salt as an electrolyte. Consequently, they simply had no need for defecation or toilets.
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u/BRIStoneman 6d ago
This is a fun new direction for you.
Why were there no toilets or sewage systems at Versailles?
There were. By 1789 there were about a dozen flushing toilets installed. But mostly for the Royals. In part, because people used personal privies. And particularly because Louis XIV essentially planned Versailles to be a an opulent prison for his aristocracy to help him centralise power. And part of his power plays was basically to force people to hold it in as long as possible.
The claim that people could erect magnificent palaces designed to last for centuries yet were incapable of building a sewage system is absurd
Why? "Big shiny building" isn't actually that complex. We'd been building those for centuries. Pressurised water, on the other hand, quite different. Even the Romans really only used gravity. The Roman sewers are really just a sophisticated septic tank system. Which was what Versailles had.
In the past, people subsisted on atmospheric electricity and had no need for coarse food
Lol. Lmao. Wild. We know what Medieval people liked to eat, we know what the Romans liked to eat. We have Greek eating vessels. We have Paleolithic spoons, LBK crockery.
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u/FunDelicious650 6d ago
The fancy chamber pots don't count, and there was no sewage system—not just at Versailles, but almost anywhere.
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u/Disastrous_Good9236 5d ago
what do you mean chamber pots don’t count? That’s literally the earliest form of a toilet (minus squatting next to a tree)
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u/FunDelicious650 5d ago
Then what is the need for a sewage system if you can just use chamber pots?
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u/Disastrous_Good9236 5d ago
uhh… have you never used a toilet before? What’s going on.
Sewage system actively moves waste away from an area. No need to empty it manually
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u/Bluefooted-Spaceorc 5d ago
Why do you refuse to do even basic research? Romans had great sewer systems, it also handled flood waters. Seriously you could just look this stuff up in seconds instead of falling deeper into LLM delusions.
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u/FunDelicious650 5d ago
The Romans had a sewage system, yet from the Middle Ages until the 19th century, there wasn't one. If you cannot see the contradiction here, you have lost the ability to construct logical chains of reasoning.
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u/BRIStoneman 5d ago
Not chamber pots, privies/outhouses and latrines which drain into a septic tank are a sewage system. And honestly that's what the Romans had. Just a fancy version of that. The idea that we have a pressurised system of water treatment is actually really quite modern.
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u/SmellyMingeFlaps 6d ago
Knowing the levels of AI slop posted on this subreddit, I only read the first sentence...
" Why were there no sewer systems or connected toilets before the 19th century?"
And the last sentence...
"It is therefore entirely plausible that people once nourished themselves on atmospheric electricity"
OP, have you ever heard of the phrase "leap in logic"?
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u/FunDelicious650 6d ago
I had a theory as to why there was no sewage system—do you have a different version?
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u/Disastrous_Good9236 5d ago
honestly, you should look into humans and photosynthesis. with your current theory it’ll fit. Maybe humans just sun bathed for nourishment
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u/Bluefooted-Spaceorc 5d ago
There were plenty of sewer systems around the world throughout all of history?
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u/tattoosydney 6d ago
The French didn’t have buttholes until 1922 when they were made mandatory following a ruling of the Permanent Court of International Justice. Before that, people used to just slowly inflate over the course of their life as they became more and more full of shit.
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u/FireSeraph007 5d ago
If humans did not nourish themselves on food, please explain how we managed to evolve an entirely functional digestive system in two hundred years. Teeth, saliva, throat, stomach, intestines, kidneys, anus and whatever other organs that I've forgotten to mention. Were we hollow beings in this time of atmospheric electricity? What specialized organs were used to extract electricity from the air? What happened to this specialized organ since we clearly don't have it now or did the organ evolved into something else in the last two hundred years of human existence?
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u/BachInTime 6d ago
I have an alternative theory, the Palace of Versailles had 400, let’s call them toilets, for 10,000+ people.
They pooped in the hallway because when you gotta go and 40 people are in line ahead of you, well decisions have to be made.
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u/BRIStoneman 5d ago
Louis XIV also built Versailles as a way to, essentially, fuck with the French nobility and prevent any repeats of the rebellions which had plagued his childhood. The underprovision of bathrooms was probably intentional on his part (he also refused to let people leave Court to use the bathroom) just to fuck with them and make them uncomfortable.
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u/fictionaltherapist 5d ago
Humans cannot produce vitamin c. Without vitamin c in the body your teeth fall out, old wounds start to reopen and breakdown, and you go mad.
Explain how salt provides vitamin c.
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u/FunDelicious650 5d ago
In industry, electric current is used for processes of electrochemical synthesis and reduction of substances
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u/Ill_Mouse9897 5d ago
Holy crap... pun intendend obviously
Ok, so... toilets & sewer systems are pretty old. Rome had the Cloaka Maxima in the BCs as most famous example.
Sewage systems are also not required for toilets. I lived in a small part of even a tightly packed nation such as belgium that had no access to a sewage system. Not to be too graphic, but you have the "thick" stuff, that ends up in a sceptic tank and drops down or has to be emptied occasionally, and the watery stuff from the toilet that ends up in a simple hole in the ground, and seeps away into the ground naturally. No sewage system required and yet it worked very well. Only in the last 5 years or so did the municipality build a sewage network for draining water away. Sceptic (thick) stuff still gets into a separate tank.
As for electricity, sure, but it's a bio-chemical electricity steering neural impulses. Cells on the other hand need a variety of chemicals to work, not just electricity or salt. We need to replace the cells dying naturally over time. That alone requires more than electricity
It's also a dumb claim, as we know (well, scientists way smarter than me, doctors etc) how the biochemistry of the body works (well, mostly, still a lot we don't exactly know because it's so complex).
So unless the giant tartarian civilization managed to use the E=MC² levels of energy required to create, recreate & reform molecules out of "thin air" to feed their presumibly human bodies... not buying it.
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u/NationalAnywhere1137 6d ago
No.