The world just ended. Now what?

[Livewire]

Much is made in the scientific community about how civilization might meet its end at the hands of Pandemics, Natural Disasters, Famines, etc, but not much is made about what happens AFTERwards.

Say a major, exceptionally virulent pandemic struck across the globe, killing tens of millions of people in a relatively short amount of time. Could our 'society' survive? Where would we be afterwards? Could we ever recover as a species, with the same level of technological capability as before? Where would religion, politics, science, medicine, the arts be without any pastors, politicians, scientists, doctors, or artists? What do you foresee happening after such an event? And what of the earth itself?

Discuss.

 

[~*!*~Tatsujin Gosuto~*!*~]

Could our 'society' survive?
I believe we can because Humans can repopulate pretty quickly

Where would we be afterwards?
?

Could we ever recover as a species, with the same level of technological capability as before?
We could, but it will take a long time (just as it took us a long time to get to where we are at today)
Where would religion, politics, science, medicine, the arts be without any pastors, politicians,
scientists, doctors, or artists?
In another world, or it will not exist.

What do you foresee happening after such an event?
The whole society starting all over again

And what of the earth itself?
Slowly recovering


:t354:TG

 

[Captain Fabio]

God Live_Wire, I thought you were posting a stupid 'OMG A ELF IS FLYING INTO A SWIMMING POOL, THE WORLD IS ENDING' thread then.

killing tens of millions of people

Although it would be a real loss to society, There are ove 6 Billion people in the world, I think we would be able to live and interact and survive fine after a few months.​

​

 

[Livewire]

Although it would be a real loss to society, There are ove 6 Billion people in the world, I think we would be able to live and interact and survive fine after a few months.​

True, but remember that's just from the pandemic. The panic and anarchy during and afterwards would drive that total up exponentially. To put it in perspective, The US has a population of around 310 million. The Black Plague during the Middle ages killed around 50 million people throughout Eurasia. Should the US, or any country, lose 1/6th of its population it would be irreplaceable damage.

 

[Myles]

If we're only talking about a sixth of the population being wiped it, it will be a blow but I don't think it would cause a lot of lasting damage.

If you're talking about billions being wiped out, then I still think that we could come back much more quickly than last time, simply because we know about this stuff. If you know electricity exists and the basics of how to get it to work (e.g. friction), it wouldn't take a lot to get it back. Certainly not thousands of years.

Not to mention all the information about our technology in books and (once we got power back up), the Internet.

But frankly, I don't think a pandemic would be very likely to do that much damage, because we as a species are pretty good at containing diseases through quarantine, it would probably only affect some countries.

 

[Spinor]

I think would actually probably take about 150 years or more to fully recover if destruction is massive. A lot of research and knowledge might be lost. But as long as a few experts in the non-liberal-arts important fields survive, mankind will rise again.

If the destruction results in only about hundreds being left due to a sonofagun pandemic then we're probably screwed as an intelligent species.

 

[Steven]

I think we'd quickly pick up where we left off due to the knowledge and skills that every person possess. We might be set back a few decades, but within a century I think we would have recovered.

Assuming it was something that didn't do damage to everything, such as nuclear war or an asteroid.

 

[Livewire]

If we're only talking about a sixth of the population being wiped it, it will be a blow but I don't think it would cause a lot of lasting damage.

If you're talking about billions being wiped out, then I still think that we could come back much more quickly than last time, simply because we know about this stuff. If you know electricity exists and the basics of how to get it to work (e.g. friction), it wouldn't take a lot to get it back. Certainly not thousands of years.

Not to mention all the information about our technology in books and (once we got power back up), the Internet.

But frankly, I don't think a pandemic would be very likely to do that much damage, because we as a species are pretty good at containing diseases through quarantine, it would probably only affect some countries.

True, but you have to remember, not everyone is an electrician/doctor/physicist, etc. Some dude may know how an atomic bomb works, but that doesn't mean he can build one. Same applies with almost every occupation/field of study.

If we lost our power grid, we'd be effectively screwed. Look at how bad the New York black out was back in 2000. Now apply that to the entire country.

 

[PokemonLeagueChamp]

It would take a long long LONG time, but eventually humanity would get back on its feet. People would start dusting off old blueprints on how to build an infrastructure, and farming will most likely already be taking place to some degree. I suppose it would depend mostly on what kind of apocalypse it was, and how many people are left.

 

[Steven]

True, but you have to remember, not everyone is an electrician/doctor/physicist, etc. Some dude may know how an atomic bomb works, but that doesn't mean he can build one. Same applies with almost every occupation/field of study.

If we lost our power grid, we'd be effectively screwed. Look at how bad the New York black out was back in 2000. Now apply that to the entire country.

It doesn't take an electrician/doctor/physicist to do all that stuff.

Well, alright, maybe a physicist would be the exception. Nurses could do a lot of what doctors do (and there are a lot more nurses than doctors), anyone can create electricity, it's not *that* hard. The job of an electrician involves more of the set up, not the creation.

 

[Alley Cat]

We're human beings, we're made to adpat to an ever-changing environment. We have before, we are now, and we will continue to.

Humans are resilient creatures, don't you think? If not, we probably would have been wiped out a long time ago. Slowly, maybe, but surely. We've faced disasters before(Haiti earthquake, Japan tsunami) and what's the one thing in common? We always, as humans, band together to make sure that we live on. The same thing would happen. Maybe not on such a larger scale, but in times of disaster, there are ALWAYS going to be those that join together.

I think this thread would be more effective if what wiped out the masses was more than a Pandemic. Diseases aren't exactly destructive. They are biological attackers, and destroy living things. The flu doesn't have much effect on your house. There would be looters, rioters, and people of that sort, but nothing that the local police forces wouldn't be able to keep down(unless of course, they are among the casualities) but even so, the looting/destruction would be a temporary thing as new law enforcement agents stepped in to their job.

Will post more later, have to go now.

 

[deoxys121]

I'll name a speculated event that people theorize may occur: The eruption of the Yellowstone super-volcano. There is speculation that when this occurs (it's not an if situation), it would have worldwide impact. A large chunk of the United States would be completely obliterated. It's possible that such a massive eruption could even alter the rotation of the Earth. The atmosphere would be filled with hot volcanic ash that would fall all around the world. After said ash cools but still remains in the atmosphere, the sun will be completely blocked out. It would then become "survival of the fittest/eat or be eaten" until it subsided, and it would cause a new ice age. My theory on this: Humans surviving this would be incredibly difficult, but not impossible. If we do survive, we will slowly but surely be able to re-civilize the planet.

 

[Mario The World Champion]

As much as I find this very thought provoking, what makes you believe that people who are technologically sound, as well as doctors, artists, politicians, priests and others will just die from a pandemic? I know it's a "what if" thing, but we humans can adapt to any challenge that is thrown our way.

 

[Livewire]

As much as I find this very thought provoking, what makes you believe that people who are technologically sound, as well as doctors, artists, politicians, priests and others will just die from a pandemic? I know it's a "what if" thing, but we humans can adapt to any challenge that is thrown our way.

Because a virulent pandemic (Remember a virus outbreak has to be very serious in order to be classified as a pandemic to begin with) would kill anybody who comes into contact with it? Particularly those in the health field, because they'd be the ones most exposed to it. Notice how the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic spread to every continent on Earth and killed 50 million people in 2 years.

The only way to for sure to avoid a pandemic is to literally live underground or without zero human contact, with enough rations, until the disease burns itself out.

 

[JimJams]

The birds will inherit the earth, obviously.

 

[Mario The World Champion]

Do you think that all the people who work in the medical field will be wiped out by a pandemic? Don't they got research facilities that house really dangerous diseases? I really don't see that being a possibility.

 

[Alley Cat]

Not everyone in the medical field would be wiped out. The disease wouldn't target doctors, and doctors wouldn't be immune either. Yes, they have research centers, but that won't stop the spread of the disease. They have their containment centers and protocols, but those are only ever so effective. It wouldn't wipe out the whole medical community. But it does have the potential to. It could wipe out a large chunk. And let's face it, millions of scientists working towards a cure is a lot better than thousands of them working towards it.

 

[Ephemeral Euphoria]

I believe that humanity as a whole would survive but I can imagine a Fallout 3 style of world that we would be living in at the time TBH.

 

[dante1w]

Well, we could definitely survive as a species. Its bad enough losing tens of millions of people, and losing order makes it even worse.

In this case, I believe that even though most humans will stick to their religion and beliefs cause it gives them peace of mind, people will put religion aside when it comes to common work and shared survival.

No one in such a situation would let their religion out weigh the survival of an entire race.

[FONT=77fe8d0899de873c0659f200#181200]Could we ever recover as a species, with the same level of technological capability as before? [/FONT]
[FONT=77fe8d0899de873c0659f200#181200]Where would religion, politics, science, medicine, the arts be without any pastors, politicians, scientists, doctors, or artists?[/FONT]

Well to sum this up, I believe the death of tens of killions of people is a terrible thing, yet we won't run out of our supply of thinkers.

We will always have people capable of re-building society in terms of technological advancement and religion, as well as art and everything else you mentioned. It would be hard, near to impossible, but if the survivors really care for their race and lives of future generations, they would put together their efforts to protect our society from falling over the edge of doom, and prevent future generations from having to re-live the original chain of advancement that humanity followed from the stone ages until today.

Of course if it were to happen that we lose our league of supreme thinkers, in the case that said catastrophy lead to more death then you mentioed, humanity would be back in the stone ages.

What would be different in this case is that we would know our capabilites. Stories of our capabilities would be passed down through generations, then it would depend on our effort:

1- If we were to raise a thinking throttled generation, said capabilities would immediately be put into action, and we wouldn't be far from following in the paths of those before us, again in terms of technological advancement.

2- If we were to leave the world as is, and only hope for the best, stories of what the human kind is capable of in terms of science and development would be passed down as, well, merely stories, and would start fading until they reach a point where flying and reaching the moon, even projecting digital images and storing information and data in electronic units would be myths.

If we think about this, it gets us thinking. How can we be sure that this hasn't happened in the past. How can we be sure that humans in the distant past didn't have halograms or could fly to the very far extents of the univers. What is to say that people and generations before us didn't land on mars, and leave the Milky Way ?

What if they too had faced such a catastrophy, that has lead us to what we are today, possibly far behind past generations in science and development ?

That being said, religion and art won't be a problem. Unlike technology, which is created by the few and is left to be simply used by the many, art and religion weren't created. They are the very essence of our existance as humans. The very components of beliefs and creativity that make us what we are in nature, living thinking, and feeling organisms.

Although art and religion have representatives around the world, they are not bounded in these people. No, art and religion are part of our daily lives, and as such, between us live people who know more about art and religion than even those who idol them !! This is what keeps them safe.

Wooh, a long speach there. I hope someone reads it, took quit a while to write !

 

[pokecole]

Well, obviously not everyone will die from the pandemic. There will be survivors, and people who may be immune. After all those people die, and virus burns itself out, the death toll will continue to rise, from famine, lack of water, and fights over needs.

As for regaining technology, how did we gain it the first time? People being born and having new ideas. And survivor's memories will help furthermore to give details and finish ideas, and tell people they're not crazy for wanting to fly to the moon, or wanting to talk and write thousands of miles away, like we do now. Memories from survivors will inspire them to create the world we once lived in.