"'Population Zero' / 'Life after People' by Nat Geo????" Topic

coming this next week…National Geo Channel is doing a 'Population Zero' show…with previews looking a LOT like same animation/stuff done for History Channel 'Life after People'…*sigh*

Of course…we had the two 'alien planets' shows from the networks last year or two?

I admit I got a LOT of RPG ideas from the TWO 'alien planets' shows…(I have both on tape) and the 'Life Without People' was fascinating…if not also depressing…but isn't a bit 'copycat-ish' to have THIS subject (from all appearances almost IDENTICAL)…this close???

Just my 'tuppence'…(I don't get NG channel now so it's moot')…

I want to see them do something on LOVECRAFT:AKA Cthullu's 'creator' or something on the MYTHOS…

*slish…slish*

I would, too.

Ain't holdin' my breath, though.

A Cthulhu Mythos overview seems a natural for the Sci-Fi Channel or History Channel.

"Aftermath: Population Zero" is playing right now on Nat Geo.

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How many nuclear plants are there world-wide?

How long will it really take before they all go "Chernobyl"?

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"How many nuclear plants are there world-wide?"

Quite a few.

"How long will it really take before they all go "Chernobyl"?

Never…Chernobyl was a bad design run by incompetents.

Thanks, EvilMike.

"Aftermath: Population Zero" threw around some loose figures for Europe (170?) and the US (30 in the eastern states). No true total given for all world-wide.

The lack of diesel for running the cooling engines, the show claims, will make all of them go critical a few months/years after humans are gone. I was wondering if that was really the case.

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I plan on being one of the people who brings about a world without people*

Life without people is something that you can pretty much guarantee won't be the way that they claim.

There was a recent article in Nature that dealt with projections of the future and each scientist said that making specific claims was sure to get you an "Absolutely wrong" prediction. It is pretty easy to predict what general capabilities or trends will be, but not specifics.

For instance, if people disappear:

How did the disappear?

Over what period did they disappear?

Was it something that the people intended to do (as I am trying to do)?

Maybe the people had a planned obsolescence, where they were changing their basic form of existence?

Maybe the people left slowly, and removed structures that would create any sign of their past presence (maybe an alien hoard was hunting them)?

The program is nothing more than a "What if the rapture happened tomorrow" sort of thing. It doesn't come right out and say that, but it seems to imply it very strongly…

Both shows (the one on Nat Geo and the one done by Discovery Channel) don't discuss how humanity disappears, though both make the event a sudden one.

Regardless of the catastrophe, I'm one that believes survivors would linger around for quite a while:

TMP link

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In the movie 'The Langoliers'….the aircraft passed thru some sort of 'time/space/dimensional rift'…where all the CONSCIOUS humans onboard the aircraft 'dissappeared'…only those 'asleep' at the time of 'rapture-ish' event…were left.

I both 'without people' specials…a similar event removes humanity from the equation…almost immediately.

Some sf movies I've seen, had a 'mutated virus' that was triggered by a solar flare…or a comet…or 'radioactive dust'….convert humans into 'powder'…(The Omega Glory-star trek original series had something like this)…almost
instantly.

UNLESS a 'quasi-religous event' or 'viral powdering' happened…there should be either 'survivors' or lots and lots of corpses…unburied.

But for the sake of trying to make this a sf-usable campaign…suppose some 'natural' time/space rift or cosmic 'glitch'…(super pulsar?)…hit the earth…(based on nutrinos???…and all INTELLIGENT life…(because it is intelligent)…phased out of existence…SOMEHOW…

There would be cars suddenly driverless, planes…trains…etc…equipment suddently 'controllerless'.

No 'quiet, automatic shutdown', like turning off the lights at night.

While a lot of systems, like nuclear reactors, etc…have 'safety' systems (like SCRAM) for auto-shutdown…I would imaging sometime, somewhere 'bad things' would happen!

You could game this in a lot of ways…(like the Langoliers out of time/phase thing)…or a returning 'deep-space' mission in near future…??? (or a certain blue police box zizzing in??? 8-)

If is was a 'rapture' type event…I doubt that a 'higher power' would leave poor animals to 'suffer'…and any energy/bio/viral/radiation? event…like a super pulsar/gamma burst…strong enought to kill all humans…instantly all over the earth…would probably kill about everything ELSE here too…plus fry most of the 'automated equiment'…surface structures…and so on.

So…other than THAT…is it gameable…or feasible that maybe an 'alien intelligence'…had a weapon that would convert say..all humans into nothing or reduce us almost immediately to 'dust'…(the Tom Cruise War of the Worlds movie seemed to imply the martian ray did that to humans? I mean, what would disintegrate humans WITHOUT burning their clothing??? I tend to think they were instantly 'dehydrated' leaving 'human dust' for 'fertilizer' for their 'red weed'…(they chummed other humans like native americans used to put a dead fish into the ground with corn seed to help 'fertilize' it…???)

I just can't imagine many DISASTERS that could REMOVE all humanity from the planet…almost instantaneously..without taking out almost all forms of life and most of the works of civilization…along with it…leaving much of any kind of 'infrastructure behind it.

'I am Legend' with Will Smith indicates sort of…what could happen to New York without 'human intervention'…but there were still 'survivors/life' of some sort.

It's fun to speculate and invent some sort of 'human evaporator' ray cannon/device/virus concept…but I just don't see it HAPPENING in practicality as those specials indicated.

Will we depart this mortal coil with a 'BANG' or a 'whimper'….or somewhere inbetween?

*slish…slish*…
Sgt DWW-bartentacle pondering the possibilities….and planning some URBAN renewal when the first INVASION waves are done…

"or a comet…or 'radioactive dust'….convert humans into 'powder'"

Wasn't that the premise behind a cheesy film called "Night of the Comet"?

"The Earth passes through the tail of a comet, which dooms all human and animal life except for those who happened to be completely enclosed inside metal containers (for example, the three main protagonists spend the night in a metal shed, a steel-lined projection room, and an 18-wheeler's trailer). Unprotected people and animals quickly dehydrate and turn into piles of red calcium dust. Those only partially exposed first gradually degenerate into cannibalistic zombies for hours or days before succumbing. It is indicated that this is what wiped out the dinosaurs as the last time it passed by Earth was 65 million years ago when they went extinct."
link

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