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Post by zarono on Oct 2, 2019 13:35:22 GMT -5
Great movie! The Spanish Flu of 1918 killed somewhere between 50 to 100 million, if something like that got unleashed in modern times it could be "the end of the world as we know it". International travel would spread it like wildfire and the resultant panic would mean the system collapses as people "dig in" and stop going to work or participating in society. Richard Preston's "The Hot Zone" and Laurie Garrett's "The Coming Plague" are both must reads if you are interested in this subject. I will skip those books, they look like a global equivalent to looking up your symptoms on WebMD.
My paranoia level is quite high enough.
Of the two The Hot Zone is more entertaining, apparently National Geographic made a mini series of it this year starring the autumnal but still attractive Julianna Margulies, I need to see that.
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Post by Char-Vell on Oct 2, 2019 14:13:08 GMT -5
I had to google Julianna Margulies to remember her.
I agree with your assessment.
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Post by kemp on Oct 3, 2019 8:17:28 GMT -5
Charleton Heston appeared in a another movie with a post apocalypse setting, The Omega Man, set in a near desolate Los Angeles in a time when most of the world’s population has been wiped out by a plague. Heston plays a scientist who has rendered himself immune with a vaccine, trying to survive against a cult like band of nocturnal mutants. It was adapted from Richard Matheson’s novel ‘I Am Legend’ , and adapted again as a movie in 2007 starring Wil Smith. In this case it is a plague that virtually wipes out humanity and destroys human civilisation. Apart from the mutants, probably not that far fetched if you consider that the infamous Black Death or Great Plague wiped out 30 to 60% of Europe's population in the 1300's, reducing the world's population from 475 million to 350 - 375 million in the 14th century. It took 200 years for the world population to recover to its previous level. Small outbreaks of the bubonic plague appeared until the 19th century. Great movie! The Spanish Flu of 1918 killed somewhere between 50 to 100 million, if something like that got unleashed in modern times it could be "the end of the world as we know it". International travel would spread it like wildfire and the resultant panic would mean the system collapses as people "dig in" and stop going to work or participating in society. Richard Preston's "The Hot Zone" and Laurie Garrett's "The Coming Plague" are both must reads if you are interested in this subject. That’s quite a high death count for the time, and that's not counting the death toll from the first world war. The symptoms of this particular strain of flu are extreme fatigue, fever, headache , people turning a bluish hue, violent coughing, vomiting and blood exiting through the mouth, nose and ears. I agree that it would be worse if it reoccurred these days. Places where large numbers of people gather would be closed due to the highly contagious nature of the influenza, just as they were in many cities back in 1918, travel restrictions would be in place, especially in this era of global travel. It would severely cripple our civilisation. Synopsis for the book ‘The Coming Plague’ that you posted ‘Unpurified drinking water. Improper use of antibiotics. Local warfare. Massive refugee migration. Changing social and environmental conditions around the world have fostered the spread of new and potentially devastating viruses and diseases—HIV, Lassa, Ebola, and others. Laurie Garrett takes you on a fifty-year journey through the world's battles with microbes and examines the worldwide conditions that have culminated in recurrent outbreaks of newly discovered diseases, epidemics of diseases migrating to new areas, and mutated old diseases that are no longer curable. She argues that it is not too late to take action to prevent the further onslaught of viruses and microbes, and offers possible solutions for a healthier future.’
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Post by zarono on Oct 3, 2019 21:35:29 GMT -5
A few years back there was some fear of nano-technology getting out of hand and creating a self repicating "grey goo" that would destroy everything, don't hear as much about it anymore though. I imagine a runaway Artificial Intelligence with control over some form of grey goo would be a very bad scenario for human civilization. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_gooThe scifi "Bloom" by Will McCarthy features out of control sentient nano-tech that has consumed Earth and the inner planets, what remains of humanity are forced to live in the asteroid belt and Jupiter's moons.
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Post by charleshelm on Oct 3, 2019 22:20:59 GMT -5
A few years back there was some fear of nano-technology getting out of hand and creating a self repicating "grey goo" that would destroy everything, don't hear as much about it anymore though. I imagine a runaway Artificial Intelligence with control over some form of grey goo would be a very bad scenario for human civilization. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_goo Michael Crichton's Prey was also about nanotechnology.
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Post by kemp on Oct 4, 2019 16:53:26 GMT -5
In some ways the concept of runaway AI probably goes as far back as Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, or even before that, a story about a creature built in the laboratory, who eventually runs amok creating chaos. The Cylons from the Battletar Galactica television series from the 70’s were created to serve a reptilian race, but the reptilians allowed themselves to be betrayed and overcome by their own technology. The story starts with the Cylons turning their focus on humanity, with the goal of wiping them out. In the reimagined series the Cylons were created to serve humanity, but turned against their creators and virtually wiped out human civilisation (in the form of the twelfth colonies ) with only a few survivors making the leap into space to escape the destruction.
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Post by zarono on Oct 4, 2019 20:12:16 GMT -5
A few years back there was some fear of nano-technology getting out of hand and creating a self repicating "grey goo" that would destroy everything, don't hear as much about it anymore though. I imagine a runaway Artificial Intelligence with control over some form of grey goo would be a very bad scenario for human civilization. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_goo Michael Crichton's Prey was also about nanotechnology. I'll have to give it a read, Crichton knows his stuff.
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Post by zarono on Oct 4, 2019 20:15:33 GMT -5
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Post by kemp on Oct 6, 2019 7:56:37 GMT -5
Many of the dystopian/big brother/totalitarian depictions show us a large population of people in some controlled environment. Given that the human population in question would be living in such restricted conditions making it difficult for people to form normal human relationships and keep reproducing in large numbers would such a society be truly sustainable in the long term ?. We also have no way of predicting the effects of increased pollutants/pesticides on the reproductive systems of people, although I could easily give data regarding early and late term abortion statistics due to the chance of birth defects in various countries. Do the high number of abortions in some societies hide another grim reality, apart from the moral debates on the subject ? The world population is a little under eight billion, but for how long can the population of the Earth keep increasing ?. I am not going to attempt to answer the above questions or go into any deep discussion as this is not the place to do so, but I think it is noteworthy. Low birth rates in many European countries has meant that there has actually been a population decrease on the continent, especially in nations with high emigration and low levels of immigration. It is true that the populations of many cities and the larger towns have grown worldwide, but much of that is the result of people moving from rural districts into urban areas in different parts of the world. Tokyo Megacity, population of the greater Tokyo area has a population count of more than 38 million, a greater number of people than the population of all of Australia.
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Post by charleshelm on Oct 6, 2019 10:41:44 GMT -5
The demographic trends in the developing world are still favoring increasing population. I don't know how much change there is when the populations move to places like Europe but I could see it taking a generation or more to align. Honestly a lower trend is better for everything except societies who have promised benefits from the government to the people that rely on a large tax-paying working population to support a retired population.
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Post by kemp on Oct 6, 2019 19:46:16 GMT -5
Bulgaria’s declining birth rate is due to both low fertility rates and emigration.
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Post by kemp on Oct 6, 2019 19:49:38 GMT -5
The demographic trends in the developing world are still favoring increasing population. I don't know how much change there is when the populations move to places like Europe but I could see it taking a generation or more to align. Honestly a lower trend is better for everything except societies who have promised benefits from the government to the people that rely on a large tax-paying working population to support a retired population. A lower trend would alleviate some of the inherent problems associated in crowded urban areas, but it does seem that modern developed nations favour the opposite simply to have that large tax paying and working population to pay for retirement ( as you noted ). This would also include the other welfare arrangements of course. This is part of the reason that Japan’s government for instance views the nations declining birthrate, and men identifying as ‘herbivore men’, as a problem, even though its cities have congestion and overcrowding. Herbivore men is a term used to describe men who are not interested in getting married or finding a girlfriend. Aging population of Japan. The Danish government is so worried about the declining birthrate it has produced somewhat embarrassing ads encouraging its population to procreate in a campaign called ‘Do It For Denmark’. I will not even post the ad on this thread ( it’s that bad ).
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Post by sorcerer on Oct 7, 2019 16:09:39 GMT -5
Tokyo Megacity, population of the greater Tokyo area has a population count of more than 38 million, a greater number of people than the population of all of Australia.
(So... is that strip of green running through the left side of the photo above where all the immigrants will go?)
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Post by charleshelm on Oct 7, 2019 21:38:49 GMT -5
"Herbivore man" as I eat a rare rib eye steak...and have three kids...interesting terminology!
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Post by zarono on Oct 9, 2019 21:02:17 GMT -5
"Herbivore man" as I eat a rare rib eye steak...and have three kids...interesting terminology! There should be a Herbivore Man comic
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