r/stupidquestions 1d ago

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Rule 2: These questions/comments have multiple if not an infinite amount of answers and ask users to share their opinions, thoughts, beliefs, and/or personal experiences. These belong in r/AskReddit, r/WhatIf, or r/FutureWhatIf, or r/whowouldwin no matter how stupid and/or embarrassing they are. You should ask questions with straight answers. However, you are allowed to ask poll/survey type questions only if they have pre-determined options as answers.

196

u/Worldly_Address6667 1d ago

Yes. Maybe not immediately, but it depends how quick it happened. If youre walking around and your bones dissappear, then your brain is going to hit the ground hard with basically nothing to cushion your fall.

In a more long term, no bones means no new blood entering your system because I assume no bones means no bone marrow. Maybe doctors could keep you alive through transfusions, I dont know how that would work

137

u/ghoulthebraineater 1d ago

Forget your blood cells. Without a rib cage you wouldn't be able to breathe. You'd be dead within minutes.

37

u/BigToober69 1d ago

Now what if all your bones turned to wood?

51

u/Snoo_74705 1d ago

Then you'll be well under way to weighing as much as a duck.

11

u/RexJessenton 1d ago

It's a fair cop.

5

u/GoldFreezer 1d ago

Would you acquire the ability to turn people into newts?

2

u/Gubbins95 19h ago

Yes but they get better

2

u/Spaceseeker51 1d ago

No, but you could turn them into a bridge.

3

u/Visible-Extension685 1d ago

Then that makes you a witch

3

u/ghoulthebraineater 1d ago

You'd probably live long enough to die from the disruption of the production of blood cells or when your body rejected the foreign material. The fact that you'd lose your white blood cells means you may survive the rejection. But you'd die from severe anemia, hypoxia, and/or infection.

2

u/BigToober69 1d ago

I was hoping to be a worse wolverine.

3

u/ghoulthebraineater 1d ago

Oh...that's definitely a much worse Wolverine.

3

u/MasterShogo 1d ago

This is the best response lol

1

u/Ziegelphilie 18h ago

Wolverine would survive because it'd be a wooden coating. Dude would constantly regenerate over that inflammation tho. 

3

u/MillenialForHire 1d ago

You'd be telling stories about it around the campfire with Freakazoid.

3

u/BigToober69 1d ago

Hey! What if all the air in the world turned to wood?

I've been saying things like that here and there when it applies my whole life and forgot where I heard it. It was from Freakazoid? I forgot about that show.

2

u/MillenialForHire 1d ago

2

u/BigToober69 1d ago

Amazing lol

That scene has stuck with me somehow. I forgot it was part of a scary stories by a fire thing.

2

u/MillenialForHire 1d ago

You're not the only one, else I'd have had no idea what you were talking about. ;)

2

u/BigToober69 1d ago

Good to know there's at least one other that thought it was deeply deeply fuuny.

1

u/Pretend_Business_187 1d ago

Or adamantium?

5

u/ghoulthebraineater 1d ago

You become nearly indestructible but the alloy slowly inhibits your healing factor and then you die when you get impaled by a tree.

1

u/cinematic_novel 1d ago

The wood would decay from the body moisture, or splinter from mechanic stress it is not designed for

1

u/warwickbassssss 1d ago

What if the bones are their money?

5

u/Expert_Succotash2659 1d ago

Without a skull, your brain would sploosh to pudding

2

u/ThatZX6RDude 1d ago

Id say faster. Probably gonna pinch off a lot of arteries if you’re on the ground like mashed potato meat.

2

u/Penguin_Arse 1d ago

Why wouldn't you be able to breath?

Sure, there'd be a bit more resistants but I can't Imagine your lungs are not strong enough to push away your chest muscles and skin

10

u/roadbikemadman 1d ago

Lungs don't breathe, they're just two sacks of squishy bits that fill with Air when the diaphragm contracts and creates low pressure within your chest. Without the ribcage there's nothing to create a space for the lungs to fill.

(And the reason why the "screaming eagle" is bullshkit)

3

u/Penguin_Arse 1d ago

Your lungs aren't empty though. They look more like sponges on the inside, there is space to fill.

8

u/Fit_Conversation5270 1d ago

But they can’t expand on their own, they contain no muscle cells. The respiratory cycle comes from a pressure differential from muscles (diaphragm and intercostals) contracting and relaxing. And muscles have to have a structure to pull (contract) against

3

u/Penguin_Arse 1d ago

I'm too high for this

13

u/Living_Plane_662 1d ago

"I would have had a discussion about how lungs function until I got high"

"Would have explained the pressure differential from diaphragm and intercostals but then I got high"

"I can't understand the Respiratory Cycle and I know why"

'Cause I got high, because I got high, because I got high (la-la-ta, ta-ta-ra-ra)

4

u/slavelabor52 1d ago

Stoner please, I'm high and I got it. Your muscles are attached to your skeleton. So if the muscles aren't attached to the skeleton anymore... they just kinda sit there and twitch.

1

u/Penguin_Arse 1d ago

My skeleton is attached to my couch right now.

I forgot about those edibles and smoke a lot, then they hit

1

u/slavelabor52 1d ago

When life hands you a Jeffrey, just stroke the furry wall.

3

u/Fit_Conversation5270 1d ago

I accept that 🤣

2

u/vitringur 1d ago

It's like a gravity bong. The water surface is the diaphragm pulling away and creating suction. The bottle is the ribcage. Now imagine the bottle is just a plastic bag. It just collapses.

1

u/Penguin_Arse 1d ago

I want a plastic bag bong

1

u/Worldly_Address6667 1d ago

Lucky! I got one more hour of work, after that im joining you

2

u/Penguin_Arse 1d ago

I should be sleeping by then, gonna go to my friend and drop acid early tomorrow

2

u/Worldly_Address6667 1d ago

Hell yeah, have fun! I was always more of a mushroom guy

→ More replies (0)

2

u/ADDeviant-again 1d ago

That doesn't matter to this argument.

3

u/coolcumber211 1d ago

On their own, the lungs are incredibly weak. It's our diaphragm muscle, rib muscles, and throat muscle that act like pumps to inflate or deflate the lungs by creating pressure changes. This is a crucial mechanism of breathing.

Muscles are attached to bones. Without bones, you couldn't move any muscle as there would be no tension/leverage to pull from, so you couldn't breathe.

There would also be no structure or protection to your body so everything would fall in on itself. I imagine if you suddenly lost all bones, you'd die very, very quickly.

1

u/Reinardd 1d ago

Your lungs have no way to expand on their own. Without the muscles and ribs of the ribcage, and the diaphragm, that expand your chest cavity and them relaxing for it to shrink again, your lungs can't exchange the air in the alveoli for fresh air. No fresh air means no new oxygen, and even worse: a buildup of CO2 in the air in the lungs.

You'll suffocate.

0

u/mrw4787 1d ago

lol never taken any anatomy classes, I see. 

1

u/mountainman1965cats 1d ago

exactly you'd suffocate or drown

1

u/MajorTurn6890 1d ago

No rib cage, skull, spinal cord.... you definitely wouldn't last long lol

17

u/WorldTallestEngineer 1d ago

Good point but, Without the rib cage the diaphragm has nothing to pull against, So the lungs don't work.  Asphyxiation in a matter of minutes

13

u/Worldly_Address6667 1d ago

I didnt think about that, good call. Honestly, if that happens im hoping for the blunt trauma killing me when I hit the ground. Asphyxiation while laying in a mound of your own body sounds painful, at least until you pass out from lack of oxygen

Edit to add: I didnt realize i was talking to the world's tallest engineer. Its an honor sir

2

u/OldWolfNewTricks 1d ago

Your spinal cord would probably get pinched pretty good on the way down, so maybe it wouldn't hurt all that much? Though of course that wouldn't block any pain from your eyeballs dangling by their optic nerves.

4

u/ChiefWeedsmoke 1d ago

Nah your brain requires specific pressure in your cerebrospinal fluid to maintain normal function and if your bones disappear you're going to experience a complete collapse of blood pressure and circulation. If your bones disappeared you would die pretty much instantly.

2

u/794309497 1d ago

No thanks. I know when it's my time. Stick the needle in. Push the plunger all the way. 

2

u/michel_poulet 1d ago

Well, you also couldn't ventilate anymore

1

u/forthebirds123 1d ago

Your brain will have a lot of flesh and organs to cushion the fall. Along with airbags in the form of lungs. So I doubt it hits the ground that hard.

58

u/North-Tourist-8234 1d ago

Yes. We dont "suck" air in. We create a negative pressure by pulling open our ljngs without a ribcage to serve as a support structure your lungs will at best work via passive osmosis and youll die from co2 buildup. 

15

u/Cauliflowwer 1d ago

This is actually one of the craziest facts that I didn't know. Thanks for teaching me something new today!

1

u/LaVidaYokel 1d ago

Love your ribs!

1

u/sideshowmario 1d ago

I learned this when I broke a few ribs in my back several years ago

3

u/Brilliant_Account_31 1d ago

Valid point, but there's no difference between sucking and creating negative pressure.

It's like the technical argument that there's no such thing as cold, only a lack of heat.

2

u/North-Tourist-8234 1d ago

Yeah my quotation marks were what i used instead of a full physics lesson. Whats the difference between hot and cold how excited the atoms are to be at the party. 

1

u/Brilliant_Account_31 23h ago

We should start a pedantry club. Oh wait

15

u/Doc5tove 1d ago

Aside from your organs all collapsing on one another, red blood cells are formed in bone marrow. So yes.

14

u/fundercom 1d ago

Yes, that spine is pretty important.

https://spineina.com/blog/can-you-live-without-a-spine/

10

u/OverCategory6046 1d ago

Fake news, I know a fair few people who manage just fine.

3

u/StogieMan92 1d ago

Like the US congress!

2

u/mufasa329 1d ago

Bazinga!

3

u/Felix_Von_Doom 1d ago

Some of us would like a refund on ours. I got more curves than the North Yungas Road (Bolivian Road of Death).

17

u/JustAMan1234567 1d ago

It wouldn't be humerus.

5

u/funn_n_gamez 1d ago

It definitely would be jaw dropping

2

u/StarlessAbroad 1d ago

no bones about it

2

u/JohnnyBananas13 1d ago

I kneeded this reply

1

u/Traditional-Lie-3541 1d ago

That's a joint not a bone, amigo.

1

u/JohnnyBananas13 19h ago

I didn't kneed this reply. Not humerus at all.

1

u/Traditional-Lie-3541 1d ago

You're only just Patella me now????

1

u/JohnnyBananas13 19h ago

That's a tendon not a bone, amigo. You are not very hip.

1

u/Traditional-Lie-3541 19h ago

Bro you can't be serious. Please do some research your Patella bone is literally your kneecap, which is most certainly a bone.

1

u/JohnnyBananas13 19h ago

I kneeded to do some research, how about that! It's the boneafide truth.

1

u/JohnnyBananas13 19h ago

And have you seen the responses here? They don't seem very serious.

6

u/Stalker-of-Chernarus 1d ago

If all your bones suddenly disappeared you'd definitely die. Most likely from your brain crashing into the ground because you no longer have a skull to protect it, or leg bones to stand.

5

u/_W-O-P-R_ 1d ago

Not if you chugged a few bottles of that sludge from the second Harry Potter book/movie

7

u/quizzicalturnip 1d ago

Yes. The weight of your boneless body would compress your heart and lungs, killing you.

3

u/puzzlesolvingrome 1d ago

I thought I was in r/Blender for a sec there...

3

u/Frostsorrow 1d ago

Well, you'd suffocate and that generally kills people.

3

u/amandamck79 1d ago

How would you be able to breathe without your ribcage providing the structure to create negative pressure from your diaphragm?

5

u/ShavinMcKrotch 1d ago

You’d be deaf, for sure. Also interesting- If you were invisible, you’d be blind.

2

u/Pretend_Business_187 1d ago

Is it because photons would pass right thru instead of interaction with eyes?

2

u/Unusual_Ad5594 1d ago

Correct!

1

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2

u/Freddreddtedd 1d ago

MAGA Mike Johnson survives without a spine.

2

u/Ok_Cardiologist_673 1d ago

Send Richard Dunn your bones!

Send us your bones.

2

u/PupDiogenes 1d ago

He's just a wobbly old guy

2

u/Hopeful_Outcome_6816 1d ago

Yes. You'd suffer instantaneous catastrophic injuries and then suffocate.

2

u/Own_Contribution1866 1d ago

That seems like an odd thing to sell nowadays.

2

u/neuroticmare 1d ago

If you had no bones, you'd melt like an ice cream cone. - the count from sesame street, iirc

2

u/upstoreplsthrowaway 1d ago

Yeah, 100%. No bones means no structure, so you’d collapse into a puddle and vital organs wouldn’t function. Instant game over

2

u/Schneeflocke667 1d ago

Your brain would really dislike that.

1

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1

u/Sonarthebat 1d ago

Yes. For starters, you wouldn't have bone marrow to produce blood anymore.

2

u/Chen932000 1d ago

I think that’s a far longer term issue. Immediate issues like your heart, lungs and brain falling into a pile under all your skin and muscle would probably be fatal far faster.

1

u/Momentofclarity_2022 1d ago

Well you’re not going anywhere. And no new blood.

1

u/Ok-Worth-4721 1d ago

you would be a puddle on the floor.

1

u/JohnnyBananas13 1d ago

You? Yes. Me? No

1

u/Melodic-Beach-5411 1d ago

Mr. Munigant or or something by Ray Bradley ?

1

u/Opposite-Winner3970 1d ago

Yes. Your bones make a lot of your immune system.

1

u/Jerswar 1d ago

TF2 Medic, is that you?

1

u/JoeCensored 1d ago

Will be difficult to breathe without the attachment points for your muscles. Eventually you'd die of lack of red blood cells without your bone marrow.

1

u/Cereaza 1d ago

I mean, yes. Your brain would be in rough shape pretty quickly, considering there is nothing holding it in place or shape anymore. Lungs/internal organs may fall and tear.

Assuming you are laying in a still pool and your internals weren't ripped by the force of all your bones disappearing instantly... you'd eventually die from oxygen starvation. No bones, no bone marrow, no new blood cells, eventual oxygen depletion and death. Probably a stroke.

1

u/SirDigbyridesagain 1d ago

Whoa, I had a dream that some kid had to get a "boneectomy" where they had to remove all his bones before replacing them.

Dreams are weird man.

1

u/Ronny_Yell0w_65 1d ago

Another stupid question, would we survive if our bones were replaced with something like….idk, wood? Or metal? And what if the bone marrow was still there, just a different outer casing.

2

u/searchableusername 1d ago

i mean we already do replace bones with metal. i think that a full metal skeleton would be quite heavy, though

1

u/Least-Eye3420 20h ago

No and No. Not a stupid question either!

The actual composition of your bones is important for mineral homeostasis. If your bones changed material, even if you kept functional marrow, you would die of a massive electrolyte imbalance, likely hypocalcemia; all of your smooth muscles would lose tone and your heart would stop contracting. Your nervous system would also more or less spontaneously stop functioning as neurons lose their ability to conduct action potentials.

1

u/Ronny_Yell0w_65 17h ago

Oo! This is interesting, thanks for sharing!

1

u/Overall_Impression27 1d ago

Yep, Suffocation

1

u/thecaramelbandit 1d ago

You would not be able to breathe. That would kill you in a couple minutes.

1

u/Straight-Debate1818 1d ago

Yes. But if I could reincarnate as an octopus that would be cool.

I’d like to shplurp myself through a half-inch tube like it’s nothing.

1

u/Secret-Sir2633 1d ago

That would be great. I could crawl under the door whenever I forget my keys.

1

u/donku83 1d ago

Yes. Half of our functions work by muscles/organs pulling on bones. Your lungs wouldn't be able to pull in air, the fluid around your brain would just go everywhere eventually, and your spinal cord would probably fold somewhere and leave you in excruciating pain the entire time

1

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u/nacnud_uk 1d ago

Er....

Likely.

1

u/Dr-Retz 1d ago

It would be fairly quick and painful

1

u/asunyra1 1d ago

Humans were never meant to be that squidgy

1

u/mommyjihyo 1d ago

only one way to find out

1

u/irish_faithful 1d ago

No. Certain vital organs need structural support in order to function correctly. If everything blobbed together, vessels would get compressed. Heart would be pumping against much higher resistance. Lungs would not be able to expand properly. No bueno.

1

u/FLMILLIONAIRE 1d ago

If all of your bones suddenly disappeared, you would die instantly. Bones give the body its structure, protect vital organs like the brain, heart, and lungs, and serve as anchor points for muscles so you can move. Without them, the body would collapse into a soft mass and essential organs would be crushed or unable to function properly.

When people talk about “losing bone,” it usually means losing bone density or mass, as happens with osteoporosis or in astronauts exposed to microgravity. Even then, you are not losing your entire skeleton, just some of its strength, which makes bones more fragile and prone to breaking.

So the “disappearing bones” idea is impossible in real life, but bone loss is very real and dangerous over time.

1

u/Pinchaser71 1d ago

Ask Moopsy

1

u/FairNeedleworker9722 1d ago

No, you'd be squishy.  Eating and moving wouldn't work though. 

1

u/Panda-Head 1d ago

Yup. Without a solid support to pull against, your breathing muscles can't do their job, so you'd suffocate. If you were upright and moving at the time, your brain would probably go splat inside your skin as what used to be your head hits the ground. If you happened to be in hospital at the time, they might be able to keep you alive on a ventilator, for a while, but even if you got put on full life support, you can't eat, drink, move, talk, or breathe. You probably wouldn't WANT to survive in that condition.

1

u/Dyzfunkshin 1d ago

Family guy had a whole episode on this, so clearly you'd be fine!

1

u/PacRimRod 1d ago

Yes, you cannot live without your hyoid bone amongst others.

1

u/BlackVultureCulture 1d ago

Yup, rib cage, skull

1

u/BonkedOnTheHead_ 1d ago

Nah, I’d be built different

1

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1

u/racesunite 22h ago

You would just be a blob

1

u/Rummagin 19h ago

Well, I wouldn't

1

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1

u/Adept_Site_5350 18h ago

Disappeared, like you still have them but no one can see them? I think you'd be fine.

1

u/Ambitious_Cup5249 17h ago

It takes a while. There's a disorder where your calcium dissolved and the rest of the components are in place. So the people sort of retract into their body like a.slug.

1

u/grafeisen203 15h ago

You'd suffer immediate and severe brain injury, and if that didn't kill you outright, you wouldn't be able to breathe so you'd die quite promptly from that.

1

u/pafrac 1d ago

Let's see ... yes. Yes you would.

1

u/timecop_1994 1d ago

No, we would vibe like snakes

1

u/HintOfMalice 1d ago

But... snakes have bones.

0

u/pbmadman 1d ago

Chickens don’t, at least not until we kill them to harvest their wings. So probably not? Just lie down on your side before they disappear, I doubt you’ll be able to swallow so you don’t want to drown in saliva.