There is now a phenomeon where humans will spontaneously combust upon their death (brain-death); How does society react to this?
I think it would be cooler than funerals.
Hospitals would be incredibly dangerous
The tiktok prank videos are about to get hotter
Carrying marshmallows at all times becomes commonplace.
Replace "combust" with "violently explode" and you basically have the universe of Death Stranding.
When saying goodbye to grandma, we all try to ignore the stranger standing nervously in the corner of the room with a fire extinguisher.
Billy, don't get too close to grandma!
Okay, her pulse is slowing, everyone behind the yellow line!
Wind and solar energy is no longer used because it's cheaper to just work poor people to death and then use their burning corpses to run a generator.
The orphan crushing machine is now a power plant.
How does society react to this?
Idk where that's from but this gif looks funny 😁
Tom Hanks movie where he's stranded on an island and barely manages to make a fire for the first time.
He also makes a friend named Wilson.
The movie Castaway. This gif is sped up, which is making it more comedic looking then it was intended.
car airbags are now filled with ludicrous amounts of fire-suppressor foam
Enhance your calm, John Spartan.
Significant additional fireproofing in homes, and especially in beds.
EKG required for anyone overweight or older than 60 before engaging the services of an escort.
A lot more murders occur and go unsolved due to a lack of evidence.
If it happens to everyone, "society" will get used to it after about 3 weeks.
No fundamental changes.
I imagine a lot of hospital rooms, prisons cells, and streets of big cities, being filled with blood and the burnt remnants of corpses. Imagine all that cleaning needed.
Technicalities.
Pressure washers are really effective.
We would need crazy fire codes in palative care. Also feel bad for firefighters, and murders are going to be real hard to solve.
OP You should watch (or read if you like manga) Fire Force. The hook is that people randomly catch fire and society kinda has to deal with it, it's a fun show.
And yeah it's cooler than funerals, the Fire Force brings along nuns to pray for the person when they need to put them out.
An industry develops, especially in poor societies and those without a good justice system where people of imminent death are kept (brain-)"alive" in a coma, and get sold as burning material for industry (factories and various production), engines like for big ships, and booby-traps in conflict zones.
Probably the same way as Death Stranding, but without the same sense of urgency (in the game, dead people become literal bombs shortly after death and are sent to incinerators to stop the explosion).
Possibly end up getting used to make steam that spins a turbine for electricity.
Corpses becoming nukes would end all life, but I'm pretty sure that unexpected combustion of every corpse would also be enough for a collapse.
I think it would be cooler than funerals.
I think it would be hotter funerals.
Lakes and rivers are overrun with the old and paranoid in tiny ornate boats paddling around waiting for Valhalla.
The trebuchet would become relevant to warfare again as combatants repurpose dying comrades into flaming projectiles.
The entire cremation industry collapses overnight.
Well, it certainly makes it a lot harder to kill somebody secretly now.
I'm assuming this is some biological phenomenon and not straight-up magic, in which case we'd eventually find a way to identify and suppress it. Or harness the chemistry in some way.
Also, given that it's biological, there will be some people - how ever small a fraction - who don't combust upon brain death. Those people will cause all sorts of problems because we won't be sure if they're dead or not, at least not until they start to decompose.
I wanna go Dr. Who regeneration style. Supernova bright light that can be seen for miles.
We would have discovered fire a lot sooner
I mean like, this just became a thing right now.
Short crematorium stocks, do it now!!!
War becomes slightly easier as there is a sign of a confermed kill.
Unless you're already using explosives
I'm carrying marshmallows everywhere I go, in hope
Isn't this just the plot of Death Stranding?
Some crimes would be harder to solve and the funeral industry would be facing a crisis until they adapt to the situation as casket sales would drop.
The funeral industry would probably pivot to making fire-proof caskets and putting people in right before they expire.
I think I've seen two different anime series like that
Well, I guess it was more spontaneous combustion resulting in death instead of death resulting in combustion.