Nukefest 2040

I like it, get's the point accross if you dont mind me saying so.

not at all, thank you

I am far more concerned about the quiet destruction of both civilisation and the earth itself than with a nuclear war between now and 2040. TS Elliot's "not with a bang but a whimper" seems all-to-applicable.
John

These things will be cleaned up naturally in a couple hundred years, don't fret. I'm hoping there will be absolutely no evidence we were ever here. Good riddance to us.

I know what you're saying Zetherin but I also think it would be a great/sad loss.

Well, in the hypothetical here, there would be no one alive to contemplate the loss

Lol. But you know what I mean and besides how do you know, life after death, God perhaps?

Civilisation as we know it might be in big trouble, but the Earth will be pretty much peachy for billions of years yet. There's nothing we could really do to it with our current level of destructive capability that would damage it in comparison to collision with Tethis, or the larger asteroids it's faced before. It's faced that in the past. In the future it'll face the sun going nova, and collision with Andromeda - we're a piffling irritation in comparison!

Besides - it's a big ball of rock - it doesn't care what's done to it. But if you do please don't worry - it'll be home to fascinating life for aeons to come despite the acts of any species currently infesting it.

When people bemoan loss of civilisation they really just angst over western civilisation because that's what they know best. If we are to face a sharp drop in number (as is likely given our recent exponential spike in numbers set against the stasis or diminishment of the resources needed to sustain us) I think there's no reason to assume that we will be made extinct - more likely we will suffer the fate of other plague animals such as rabbits in australia, or rats in a grain silo - we'll still be here after the big die off - just in far lesser numbers.

Until something usurps us from our ecological niche, such as a more successful sapient tool-maker, or a truely catastrophic event like a big asteroid strike, we'll probably hang on in some sort of humbled state in various enclaves, and maybe even experience a renaissance.

It's not like humans can't live humbly - there's no reason to believe those following a hunter-gatherer lifestyle in the middle of a large island would have to perish just because the oceans rise and coral reefs die and species get lost.

Now I don't say this to engender any sort of feeling of complacency - if we want to minimise suffering and maximise the chances of ourselves and our offspring from losing quality of life I think we have to make major changes.

But let's be realistic - humanity will likely not face extinction because of it's own behaviour, it will likely face a Ragnarok scenario where many people suffer war, pain, privation and horror whilst the scales rebalance themselves and a much diminished human population are once again able to live with a share of the resources more suited to their newly humbled needs.

---------- Post added 07-14-2009 at 01:40 PM ----------


Not to wish to get at you in particular but I think you're just indulging in a well-worn fin de siecle fantasy. Since the very first writings about what people believe people had been claimed to be living in a final age, an end of days that they or their direct descendants will bear witness to. It's a central tenant of most major religions and there is only one reason that I think it is so pervasive...

It panders to human arrogance to believe that they will bear witness to the end of history.

We, by and large, would have liked to have been at the start, but that's not possible, so we can claim to be there for the end. This is what Jesus told his followers 2000 years ago and it is what secular and religious doomsayers preach today. But there is no real reason to believe in an armageddon, a snap extinction, it's a mere matter of the satisfaction of saying "I am going to bear witness to the end" that people say it is.

As I stated in my last post - what's more likely is that humans will cope somehow - in vastly diminished number very probably - but even the most doom-laden of human-wrought environmental disaster scenarios don't leave Earth wholly uninhabitable - and the religious visions are bad fairytales with a proven track record of not coming true.

There will be no armageddon unless nature takes a very unexpected turn - there may well be some sort of ragnarok, at the end of which the blearied survivors of the upcoming famines and resource wars reach a state of closer equilibrium with their ecosystem.

"Good riddance to us"? Likely in a lot of cases, but there is no logical reason to doubt that enclaves of human life will cope - even with the worst.

My response wasn't indicative of any religious tenant or "armageddon", as you may have thunk. Our history isn't the end of all history, and I think it's greatly arrogant to think we're anything special. "The end" is not anything overly dramatic, mystifying, or poignant. It's just the end of our existence, just like the end of many other species' existence. And based on the fact that well over 90% of species that have ever lived on this earth are gone, and something like 25 species of varying animals (irrespective of how we act) become extinct daily, it seems more likely we'll eventually be phased out too. If you can't think of any other logical reasons why we may bite the dust, I'd be happy to fill you in on our human friends, matey.

My comment was simply a wish, a hope, that when we leave (and I think it's likely we will eventually leave), there won't be much of a trace of our existence.

By the way, what is your logical reason for thinking we will never become extinct?

Is this the opening to a story?

So you like what i wrote?

Yeah, just trying to contextualize it in something. Not too fond of the humans are a plague theme that goes round here, but its cool prose.

I am bitter about the nature of man, i suffer first hand experience on both sides, i was a monster and i have met worse

LOL I have no illusions about the nature of man, positive and negative, but I also understand that we are what we are. Being is not a plague, it is being. Having a nature is neither good nor evil, it is simply having a nature.

But the fact that wherever we go we destroy makes my blood boil

It is sad, indeed,
but back to the piece.
Is it a prelude to something larger?

I hope so Inspiration pops in my head with no cause or path but i do try and make something from it, any suggestions?

Opening monologue of a protagonist? build a character around it.

You try, expand on my source and see if together we can get a bestseller