War Room Lounge V35: Doomsday. Everything is fine until it isn't.

[Trotsky]

I think all of the scenarios are highly unlikely, but that is more likely than any of them.

Haven't seen that movie.

Cat's Cradle has my favorite doomsday scenario in fiction (ice nine changing the freezing temperature of water).

I think climate change/resource scarcity leveraging into nuclear warfare is the most likely.

 

[HockeyBjj]

We all think Zombies would be fun, but for zombies to actually work it couldn't start off just from a patient zero biting people. We'd get that under control pretty quick. It'd have to be some virus infecting 40+% of the population and flipping on the non infected ones at once.

With us Sherbros luck, we'd either get the virus and turn in the first wave, or have our heads buried on our phones at work as the weird guy in the cube next to us comes over and bites our shoulder.

 

[Jack V Savage]

I think climate change/resource scarcity leveraging into nuclear warfare is the most likely.

I think a more likely nuclear attack scenario is that weapons fall into the wrong hands, and that would be horrible, but not an extinction-type scenario. I can't see any organization seeing nuclear war as being in its interests.

On that note, second-best extinction(ish) scenario in fiction is Dr. Strangelove.

 

[OverCoronavirus Pressure]

So did someone try to E-suicide in the final posts of the last lounge, but the rope snapped leaving him alive and very confused as to why he's still around and what his true purpose here is?

Yes, with an if.
No, with a but.

 

[waiguoren]

TYT

I mean MSM TV or radio network

 

[curryjunkie]

I think climate change/resource scarcity leveraging into nuclear warfare is the most likely.

this, combined with food chain collapse.....and general fuckwittery..

 

[Trotsky]

Imagine a mother telling her kid while they hide from predatory animals in a luxurious but decaying bunker about how humans were on every continent and had great cities and fought terrible wars.

Imagine living in a post-apocalyptic world and hearing about how advanced and spectacularly brilliant your species was and then seeing a speech by Donald Trump and realizing that humans elected a legitimate moron and a grade-A douche bag to the highest position in the world.

Or finding some lost footage and it's this

Spoiler

 

[Jack V Savage]

Imagine living in a post-apocalyptic world and hearing about how advanced and spectacularly brilliant your species was and then seeing a speech by Donald Trump and realizing that humans elected a legitimate moron and a grade-A douche bag to the highest position in the world.

I wouldn't assume that someone in that situation would know enough to regard Trump as a moron or douchebag.

 

[Higus]

What about just population growth falling below replacement level all over the world and population naturally declining until it hits zero (obviously we'd see it coming but it might be too late)? I think that's the most likely human extinction scenario.

Related topic, there's an ethical debate about a potential technique that could eradicate mosquitoes forever using Gene Drive technology.
http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.u...odified-mosquitoes-and-gene-drive-technology/
Basically, they take a group of male mosquitoes and modify them with a gene that makes it so that they can only reproduce males when they mate, then they introduce them into the wild. The offspring have the same gene, so the next generation will be all male, and so on. Because they have such fast reproductive cycles, it could wipe out the entire species in a very short time.

 

[HockeyBjj]

Related topic, there's an ethical debate about a potential technique that could eradicate mosquitoes forever using Gene Drive technology.
http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.u...odified-mosquitoes-and-gene-drive-technology/
Basically, they take a group of male mosquitoes and modify them with a gene that makes it so that they can only reproduce males when they mate, then they introduce them into the wild. The offspring have the same gene, so the next generation will be all male, and so on. Because they have such fast reproductive cycles, it could wipe out the entire species in a very short time.

I am fully willing to accept a 20% chance this modification somehow leaps to humans and eradicates our entire species if it means no more mosquitoes in 10 years. 30% is allowable if they can knock it down to 5.

 

[Anung Un Rama]

Is that before or after the Angry Deity thing?

pre deity post asteroid

 

[Andy Capp]

Related topic, there's an ethical debate about a potential technique that could eradicate mosquitoes forever using Gene Drive technology.
http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.u...odified-mosquitoes-and-gene-drive-technology/
Basically, they take a group of male mosquitoes and modify them with a gene that makes it so that they can only reproduce males when they mate, then they introduce them into the wild. The offspring have the same gene, so the next generation will be all male, and so on. Because they have such fast reproductive cycles, it could wipe out the entire species in a very short time.

Is say there's a pretty good chance that negative consequences would be minimal, relatively, and that as soon as we can be sure it works as advertised, go for it. The toll mosquito-borne diseases take on humanity makes it worth it, imo.

 

[Andy Capp]

I think all of the scenarios are highly unlikely, but that is more likely than any of them.

Haven't seen that movie.

Cat's Cradle has my favorite doomsday scenario in fiction (ice nine changing the freezing temperature of water).

Based upon what, if I may ask? I don't agree but before I rebut I'd like a better idea of where you are coming from.

 

[Anung Un Rama]

I think all of the scenarios are highly unlikely, but that is more likely than any of them.

Haven't seen that movie.

Cat's Cradle has my favorite doomsday scenario in fiction (ice nine changing the freezing temperature of water).

Children of Men is a great movie.

 

[Jack V Savage]

Based upon what, if I may ask? I don't agree but before I rebut I'd like a better idea of where you are coming from.

Based on current trends and my view of the difficulty of changing worldwide trends in birthrate. Note that I'm not saying that it's more likely than not to happen any time soon, just that I can easily see it, and I think it's *more* likely than the other scenarios.

 

[Jack V Savage]

Children of Men is a great movie.

Yeah, I've meant to check it out for a while.

 

[Higus]

I am fully willing to accept a 20% chance this modification somehow leaps to humans and eradicates our entire species if it means no more mosquitoes in 10 years. 30% is allowable if they can knock it down to 5.

It would be easier to contain if it moved to humans. But it makes you think about a whole bunch of "Children of Men" or "Y: The Last Man" scenarios. What if there was a virus that permanently changed the ratio of men to women one way or the other? The effect on society would be immeasurable.

 

[Anung Un Rama]

Yeah, I've meant to check it out for a while.

Easily top 5 Sci-Fi movie of the last 20 years (along with Her, Minority Report, and Moon (can't think of a bonafide #5 that doesn't include time travel).

 

[HockeyBjj]

It would be easier to contain if it moved to humans. But it makes you think about a whole bunch of "Children of Men" or "Y: The Last Man" scenarios. What if there was a virus that permanently changed the ratio of men to women one way or the other? The effect on society would be immeasurable.

China's got like 33 million more males than females. 115:100 ratio

 

[Andy Capp]

Based on current trends and my view of the difficulty of changing worldwide trends in birthrate. Note that I'm not saying that it's more likely than not to happen any time soon, just that I can easily see it, and I think it's *more* likely than the other scenarios.

I guess I am just not seeing any justification for thinking that. There are at least 2 or 3 other scenarios I see as more likely, and yours is one that gives us lots of lead time to deal with, especially considering a technological solution already exists. The ones I'm thinking of have no countermeasure.