User blog comment:VonGlusenburg/Alternate universes, probability and alternative outcomes/@comment-1375165-20120816052432/@comment-1777104-20120817194657

Yes, Guns, anything is possible given an "outside" influence. In this genre even God is considered an outside influence (though I will not blaspheme Him using the tag in discussion). And there is my point -- there are things that are indeed impossible given the observed "laws of science." People who die, stay dead, for instance. But God raises the dead, doing the impossible. Chance is actually a very poor director of nature. Things come to pass not by chance, but by causality. Everything can be traced to a cause. If the cause is changed, then history changes following observable laws.

To avoid the ASB tag, then, an alternate history must be determined by changing a cause (the point of divergence). Technically speaking there will only be a singe POD, but multiple unrelated POD's are allowed sometimes. The only sure-fire POD's are those caused by decisions and actions of the people involved. The course of nature is unalterable, for the most part, by mankind. Earthquakes and comets do not depend on "chance" as to when and where they might strike. Therefore, to change the time and or place is to attract the ASB - Environmental tag.