Apocalypse

[Meirelle]

I'd pick the red giant theory. 'Cause I won't be alive then anyhow. twisted


No T-Virus! I don't wanna get eaten! crying  

[Cirosan]

I'll propose an alternative theory to the end of our society: Virulent virus. Let's say a virus is thrown into the mix, be it biologically developed or just evolved from another strain of its ancestor. Let's also say that this virus has a 99.9% mortality rate. If you're lucky, and you have some sort of immunity, you'll be safe.

Now, assuming it destroys a significant majority of civilization, society crumbles around us and everything we ever knew and loved is gone. America's population, for example, is reduced from 320 million to a mere 3.2 million (roughly).

No one would know what to do. Many, if not all, would be catatonic from the loss of their family and friends. Many would kill themselves, and others would die from not being able to function normally. Believers in Darwin's philosophies would attribute this to natural selection.

Eventually, however, leaders would emerge. Grand individuals who were strong enough to have then drive to reorganize and rebuild, they would establish societies again with those around them. Small, miniature civilizations would be established again, maybe with only 20-30 people to their name. Given time, two would merge. Given more time, another two would merge, until we have a full-fledged society again. Eventually two would clash, probably out of self-interest. Slowly, they would begin to reproduce, minimally growing the population back up slowly but surely.

Given a few millenniums, and we'd be back to normal.

Given a few more millenniums, another plague would emerge.  

[ProjectOmicron88]

Cirosan

I'll propose an alternative theory to the end of our society: Virulent virus. Let's say a virus is thrown into the mix, be it biologically developed or just evolved from another strain of its ancestor. Let's also say that this virus has a 99.9% mortality rate. If you're lucky, and you have some sort of immunity, you'll be safe.

Now, assuming it destroys a significant majority of civilization, society crumbles around us and everything we ever knew and loved is gone. America's population, for example, is reduced from 320 million to a mere 3.2 million (roughly).

No one would know what to do. Many, if not all, would be catatonic from the loss of their family and friends. Many would kill themselves, and others would die from not being able to function normally. Believers in Darwin's philosophies would attribute this to natural selection.

Eventually, however, leaders would emerge. Grand individuals who were strong enough to have then drive to reorganize and rebuild, they would establish societies again with those around them. Small, miniature civilizations would be established again, maybe with only 20-30 people to their name. Given time, two would merge. Given more time, another two would merge, until we have a full-fledged society again. Eventually two would clash, probably out of self-interest. Slowly, they would begin to reproduce, minimally growing the population back up slowly but surely.

Given a few millenniums, and we'd be back to normal.

Given a few more millenniums, another plague would emerge.

Sorta like what the Architect told Neo in Matrix: Reloaded, about how Zion was destroyed and rebuilt numerous times, only darker and not stupid?  

[Cirosan]

ProjectOmicron88

Sorta like what the Architect told Neo in Matrix: Reloaded, about how Zion was destroyed and rebuilt numerous times, only darker and not stupid?

Something like that, yes. Common sense tells you that eventually, something will wipe a lot of people out. Everyone? No. Humans are far too self-sufficient to be destroyed by a single cataclysmic event. It would take a series of events to destroy them all. A vast majority of humans? Absolutely. That's going to happen eventually, one way or the other. Any statistician will tell you that if it can happen, it will happen. Can a vast majority of human life be eliminated? Yes. Ipso facto, we will be. Maybe not too soon, maybe far past our lifetimes, or maybe during them.  

[Dark_lord_15]

The christians are going to start a war with everyone else, saying they are stupid dipshits, and while killing everyone, they are going to be using their tanks and other gas consuming materials, and if you take into consideraton how many christians there are, and how many of them would be fighting, and tearing things apart non-stop, things would be absolutely ruined within maybe... 2 years.

Now I'm major picking on them, but I haven't had a chance to in a few weeks (like you people noticed that I completely dissapeared), so I have another one.

They will all go over to Africa as missionairies, and develop all of the viruses and diseases over there (and we all know that's alot) and then come back over here and spread them to all of us, and our immune systems won't know how to fight it, so we would all die, just like the native americans. After we were wiped out (keep in mind, people do this all over the world), there wouldn't be much left. The "leftovers" would fall into a desperate state and commit suicide, because, who wouldn't? Everybody around you is dieing of a deadly virus, and they wouldn't even know if they had picked up the virus or not, seeing as how they wouldn't know what it feels like, they haven't died yet, and so, if they weren't in some sort of "chronic depression" they would use common sense... find more people. And so, said virus would spread throughout the "world", and, eventually, theier immune systems would get used to the virus, they would probably be dead by the time that could happen.

The future looks pretty bleak. The virus thin was kinda out there, but it's because I've been playing this game, so that probably explains it.

 

[ProjectOmicron88]

Meirelle

I'd pick the red giant theory. 'Cause I won't be alive then anyhow. twisted


No T-Virus! I don't wanna get eaten! crying

Well actually, I took an astronomy course this past semester, and the fate of our sun is to turn into a red giant, collapse into a white dwarf, then cool off into an inactive black dwarf that gives off no heat or light. The only question is whether humanity will still be around in five billion years or so.  

[sora987]

I personally think that our lifestyles will eventually destroy most of the ozone layer and the sun's rays will come through so intense that most of us will die in a series of heat waves or floods. Some people would survive, but the remaining society would go in a serious leap backward technology-wise. An amusing way to die would have to be being stuck in a vicious hurricane when a random coconut flies from out of nowhere and strikes you in the back of the head and kills you.  

[ProjectOmicron88]

sora987

I personally think that our lifestyles will eventually destroy most of the ozone layer and the sun's rays will come through so intense that most of us will die in a series of heat waves or floods. Some people would survive, but the remaining society would go in a serious leap backward technology-wise. An amusing way to die would have to be being stuck in a vicious hurricane when a random coconut flies from out of nowhere and strikes you in the back of the head and kills you.

That last part wasn't really apocalyptic, but it made me think about how I would want to die.

Basically, I want to live to a ripe old age. And at that age, when I know I could kick off at any second, I would write my will, divide up my assets, but use a bit of it to buy a sports car. I would then take sharp curves doing upwards of 80 MPH, and flip it.

Either that, or have two fully-loaded Uzis in my hands, pinned down by relentless thugs....the ultimate death: the blaze of glory.  

[AboveSkies]

This is what I feel will destroy us..

Alpha Centauri, the closest sun is in it's final stages, while it may not explode anytime soon; if it does, it could release a gamma ray burst.

What a gamma ray burst does, is depending on the distance, can either cook our planet, or just get rid of the ozone layer, either way: we would be screwed.


If it was close, like Alpha Centauri is; well I can't really explain it, just imagine a nuclear bomb going off on one half of the world. The other half would get hit with a shock wave, and that would also remove the ozone layer.

Suppose a star, thats some distance away goes, and a GRB happens: It would damage the ozone layer, and it could damage it enough to permanently wipe out the human race, this wouldn't though destroy any buildings, it would though kill all living things, with an exception to sea organisms.

The ozone layer does rebuild itself from these events, in about five years; but with the ozone layer gone, I highly doubt we'd last more than a month.

A GRB doesn't kill all species, ones under water will survive, and when the Ozone layer is repaired, in theory: evolution will start a new.

Scary, and could very well happen. The bright side is though: One probably wont happen in our life time.  

[Kharybuce]

This is one of the few ares where I am not my typical pessimistic self. I really don't think humanity will ever die out. Even if the inevitable sun becoming a red gaint happens, who says all of humanity will still be on earth. We may have abandoned our solar system for a new one by then, especially since that won't happen for some-odd billion years. I just think humans are evolving very differently from most organizms, and that we will probably never die out. However, we may evolve into something that we wouldn't today recognize as human.  

[Xiporah]

What would I do and what would be the most entertaining way to go?

Hmmm. I'm not sure, exactly. I know I would want to stick around to the absolute bitter end. Inquiring minds want to know.

On the other hand, it would be amusing if we just faded into obscurity and the world ended exactly like in H.G. Wells' The Time Machine. If you haven't read it, do so. The movie blew balls and was only loosely based on the book.

 

[CaprinaePsi]

You forgot to mention evolution. The human race, as we know it, will one day come to an end, however that end will hopefully be the beginning of a completely new race of beings. Obviously, it won't be a jump from one race to another, but after a while humans will not exist simply because they would have evolved to something else.

But that's boring. A cool way to go would be most of the human population turning into zombies. After a while, everyone will become zombies, run out of brains, or be killed by their own stupidity (nothing is funnier than a zombie initiating the nuclear ice age).  

[CaprinaePsi]

Kharybuce

This is one of the few ares where I am not my typical pessimistic self. I really don't think humanity will ever die out. Even if the inevitable sun becoming a red gaint happens, who says all of humanity will still be on earth. We may have abandoned our solar system for a new one by then, especially since that won't happen for some-odd billion years. I just think humans are evolving very differently from most organizms, and that we will probably never die out. However, we may evolve into something that we wouldn't today recognize as human.

Exactly. It is possible for a species to, after one point, be non-existent, without having died out. With humans, that's what I'm betting will happen... that is, if we get off of the planet Earth before we make it uninhabitable.