If the earth had rings like Saturn...

[theholycow]

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So cool! I wonder how it would have affected evolution and human history. Plants and animals would have developed differently with the extra light at night. Human religions would have been different. Population centers and economies would be different too.

Those thoughts vaguely bring to mind a book I read but I can't remember it. It was sci-fi, about a low-tech population on a planet that has some kind of barrier, I think a wall, at its equator or prime meridian. Someone embarks on an ambitious project to get past it by building scaffolding up to the top. He gets a look at the other side and IIRC he sees himself looking back at him, like a mirror.