Quotations and Literature Forum

If it was only for survival I'd agree.

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السلام عليكم

Aye, but then we use our tools for various non-essential shiny toys, gadgets and thingamajigs, like Roman Abramovich's new megayacht.

Incidentally, it DOES have an anti-missile early warning system, which undoubtedly increases its survivability.

che

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Re vera, cara mea, mea nil refert.

Some people have all the fun while others live in fear of H1N1....

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Ishrat Noor Khan

I'm actually surprised about H1N1, my hopes died down a while back, but now that it's a pandemic... AAAAH, WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!

Actually, so far it's been relatively moderate. I've seen much worse plagues before, even during my time, I'm sure it will almost completely die down soon. Besides, they discovered someone in my area with it, someone I know personally and saw on a daily basis, yet I haven't gotten sick yet.

Back to topic, it would take something major to knock humanity off it's feet. A complete wipeout would take hundreds of years to complete, seeing as how good we are as scavengers.

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"The sun rises every day. What is to love? Lock the sun in a box. Force the sun to overcome adversity in order to rise. THEN, we will cheer! I often admire a beautiful sunrise, but I will never consider the sun a champion for having risen."
Garth Stein

A large enough EMP to take out the electric system would cripple the population. No heating and cooling systems, other than fire and the wind. Planes would be dropping out of the sky, causing explosions and fires to many cities. A limited amount of supplies would make people kill each other, causing another death toll. The sick, elderly and youth would take a dive from heat stroke and hyperthermia. The rich would be ramsacked by the less fortunate. Waterfiltration would be slowed down, leading to more sickness. All the porn addicts would die of boredom. The microwave generation would die of starvation. Cities would be abandoned for more readily sources of food and water. Millions would die within their prison cells. Nuclear Power Plants would lose power and their cooling systems for Nuclear Waste. Meltdowns would ensue all across the globe, creating radioactive and unstable environments.
The survivors of this catastrophe would only have to deal with the next Super Volcano eruption and all that that entails. Then they'd have to survive the impending asteroid impact, polar shifting, gamma bursts, alien invasion, and h1n1.

Heatstroke AND hyperthermia?

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السلام عليكم

Hehe. . . Heatstroke and Hyperthermia at the same time. Surely jesting, of course. Colder climates, and winter would cause hyperthermia. Warmer climates and summer would cause the heatstroke. The damages of an EMP would last years, not just a few weeks. If certain types of humans could survive and learn to live in harmony with the earth, it'd be real hard to kill off the species. Only due to large catastrophes, would the species ever be in jeopardy. And after a long time, Humans wouldn't be humans anymore anyways. The new species would be descendents of humans, but not exactly humans anymore. Some people think that our species will always be the same. If there is one constant in this world, it's change. People would eventually evolve into odder forms of life. Maybe they get smarter, maybe they get dumber, but either way, they will all change. Just as the species was already changing and splitting away from the original, so will our descendents.


~Have Fun, Good Luck~

Heatstroke, more correctly heat stress or exhaustion, and hypERthermia are the same thing. Could it be you mean hyPOthermia?
I'd also be curious (Science types please?) as to how much energy would be expended to create an EMP of that magnitude.

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السلام عليكم

I see the error of my spelling. Hypothermia is the correct version of the malady that I was referring to. Thanks for the correction. As for the energy needed for the emp, I'd guesstimate at about 13.5 megatons of nuclear energy exploded at a 300 mile altitude and spread over the surface of the planet should suffice.

How about an alien disease? Released after an Alien Spacecraft crashes into Earth, it tears through all species of animals. It's extremely tolerant of oxygen and is soon airborne. Dogs, cats, birds, mice, reptiles, and all manner of life are at risk. After contracting the disease, it takes only hours before it kills you from fever and cardiac arrest.

Hmmm... Kinda reminds me of that movie 12 Monkeys, where everyone lives underground.

I think something like an EMP pulse would happen. Knocking out all the electricity. People who would be doing moderately okay without it would be getting killed by the people that are greedy. The lazy people would die in their homes, or kick themselves in the a** for once. The show Dark Angel is about what happens when an EMP pulse hits. Disease would spread because doctors wouldn't know how to make their medicines without the machines they use. We would be raiding pharmacies and the hospitals would be overflowing spreading more disease because of how many people would be packed into it. Hospitals would run out of supplies. People would start stealing livestock, and killing tons of people while their hunting. Because everyone who knows how to hunt will be hunting. As this all finally dwindles down we will all be back in the ages of wagons and horses.

Raven

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"You must learn there is a time to speak all of the truth, and a time to govern your tongue."
~Verin (The Wheel of Time)