Discussion: Apocalypse: How, And What Happens After?

Hey all! The General here! I'm putting this up because we've been having some fun discussions over at the Post-Apocalyptic Interest Check for a group RP I put up a while ago. It's good to see that we're searching for ideas, but the discussions themselves gave me an idea as well.

This idea.

So let's get talking? How do you think the apocalypse could happen, why would it happen, and then let's talk about what happens after!

How I can't really tell you, as there is so many ways. Besides nuclear war and total destruction, it can be the government itself finally collapses on itself crossed with such distrust of it that everyone balkanize to individual city states or organizations. I am one of those who don't thing anarchy = mass chaos in the streets. I am very close to being an Anarcho-Capitalist in my politics (I fall between Minarchy and an Anarchist) and have read half of The Dispossessed, written by an Anarcho-Communist, putting it down only because I got too many other stuff I want to read. While the question of ownership of property is the biggest difference between us, Ursula Kroeber Le Guin vision of an AnCom world (actually moon) might seem like a post-app one of anarchists living peacefully, with all property shared and the concept of money does not exists.

My most ideal and peaceful effects of a big whoops:

With government weak or out of commission, people gather around in groups during (whatever big event is happening) to help survive. Once things start to calm down, and the realization anarchy now exists, those with the same beliefs band together. Like the game Alpha Centauri, who a person want to associate with deals more on ideology more than anything else. Instead of every man for himself, its every political, religious, or philosophical belief (and combination thereof) for themselves. Hopefully something similar to this will happen. I know I am not the first with such thoughts, but don't know what the proper term for it is. Meanwhile those with knowledge of survival become the town managers of the world.

You might also want to take a peek at the following:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Apocalypse/
http://www.reddit.com/r/collapse
http://www.reddit.com/r/survivalist

Oh thank Jesu, I thought you were going to shut me down for a minute, heh.

Phew.

At any rate, I wanna see what anyone else has to say to this. I'll give my own opinions in time, but right now I just want to observe how this goes.

I am one of the nice ones, the WC! Its others who do the unpleasant stuff.

*scribbles that down in her supervillain notebook*
>.>

For whatever is chosen one needs to take into account if they wish for any infastructure or utilities to remain functioning.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ApocalypseHow

Right now, I'm not trying to drive this toward any kind of solution.

I'm going with: what if an event ended civilization as we know, why do you think it happened and what do you think would happen afterwards.

So right now, all I want people to do is brainstorm these ideas, the purpose being for you guys to either gain inspiration on something you're writing or to see what other people think of the end of the world and how humanity will react.

So burst forth and... stuff.

Thinking caps on, let's think up some scenarios!

Having aliens come is the end of the world as you know it. So is solving world hunger. At this point in time there is literally no realistic way for all of civilization to collapse within the next century. In cases like this you may wish to just give ideas of your own, which we would then pick apart for the best bits and use the criticism of the unlikely bits to make a better RP experience. Not that it would matter, as we probably wouldn't be able to get out of the average American county in anything less than two days without clear roads and steady fuel supplies. Not to mention nuclear reactors losing their failsafes. Dams are a hit or miss.

Generalfoley said:

I've read the book, it sucked.

And the cartel business is only rumor.

And besides, we're talking about a certain amount of time after the "Event" happened, and what that event could be.

Click to expand...

Well, why not have invasive plant, animal, and fish creatures break lose and upset the ecosystem everywhere by killing the native creatures like Argentine ands in California or an Asian fish in the Mississippi that they are trying desperately to keep from the Great Lakes so that it doesn't eat everything. Might even try and Audrey II scenario. Dam the Mediterranean, destroy the Dutch dikes, burst the Aswan Dam and have most of the Egyptian population be crushed and drown, have war between the Indians and Chinese break out, knock down La Palma Island in the Canaries and get a giant wave on every side of the Atlantic...

Second post, wrong board amigo.

And I'm just looking for people to collaborate and expand, not nitpick. This is supposed to be fun. Yay and all that.

Dip away from a bit of realism for a moment and let your mind explore. This is purely speculative and fictional, so all ideas are welcome.

Collaboration and expansion, amigo. Tis the aim of this discussion.

Super-volcano erupts
Nuclear power plant goes boom
Asteroid hit
Highly contagious and fast killing disease
An electronic virus kills all modern technology

Opening the Northwest Passages with nukes, disrupting the Gulf Stream leading to Europe freezing over, as well as sending icebergs around the globe, causing areas to cool and killing off their marine life, not to mention the radiation from the nukes, while the rising waters swallow up shoreline and flood the most highly inhabited areas on the planet and flooding their infastructure, undercutting the soil on which they were built. Or make all land into water and all water into land.

Kadavro: I love it.

Madam Admin of Awesomeness and Non-Villainy Patricio: I like the first three, and I've used the contagious disease, but it being fast killing may or may not prevent widespread infection, if proper quarantine procedures are followed anyway.

And the virus... I see what you did there. Premise for Revolution. Hah.

Though how do you think some of the more... exotic weapons out there might have an effect on how the world ceases to be?

Is this discussion dead or are people still thinking of how to end the world?

... Or did everyone go off to cause it?

Hmm...

OK I know this is going to sound so nerdy but zombies guys it's getting more and more believable due to scientists creating something to restore dead tissue and now this crazy naked guy eating someone's face off. I don't know it's getting more real and I think it's going to happen eventually scientists are fucking around with way too much stuff and hell the guy that was eating the other guys face was shot and it had no affect on him it took six bullets to kill him. Some may think this is a stupid assumption but I'm really starting to think that it is a possibility.

A type of zombie actually does exist today. A parasitic fungus can attach to an ant and cause him to become one. It is one reason why one might see an ant 'grooming' itself or another.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2irXpAMBHkE

However, if humans do become zombies, I highly doubt they will violently eat other humans. They will either be vegetable like or act purely on instinct, like simplistic animals. Hollywood zombies... erm, no. In fact I wish they will make such of a non-horror zombie film. Which was why I made this: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18XEmxfmsdwBC7Rinw4vms9rYA6dVxipUOgNJDlm9s6Y/edit

While I am a zombie fan, I have to say that zombies might not really happen. The fungus, I've heard of, and they're playing with that in the new game "The Last of Us". Looks good. The naked guy in Florida, I have to say PCP. Hell of a drug, and it would cause a man to eat someone's face off. And he avoided the hair on the guy's face. As much as I'm a zombie fan, I doubt that zombies have the mental function to be picky about hair in their food.

And Madam Admin Patricio, I look forward to reading Dark Wind. It looks good, and I always enjoy a good read.

I also am a huge zombie fan and the stories I've been seeing and hearing on the news have been really creepy ha ha it is my own humble opinion that there is something really messed up that is being hidden by government that can destroy us all whether it be a virus or a poison even bombs. I'm definitely one to be paranoid about this type of stuff and think that there is a possibility for something like a zombie apocalypse to happen but not necessarily like in the movies or video games.

darkangel76 said:

Click to expand...

Is this because zombie ants exists? Or me being called “Madam Admin Patricio”, which makes me want to go...

ಠ_ಠ

… which better be formatted correctly! I have a penis! And I do fall between a minarchist and a anarchist. While INTPs do like building abstract systems, administration of people drives me bonkers and make me want to grow quills and yell FREEDOM!

… … …

But that's just me. Okay, everyone ignore my off topic comments and continue along.

๏_๏ Oh, shite.

My apologies, Sir Patricio, it's just been my experience that most admins on RP sites (not including my own) have been female. Maybe it's become habit now, which is sad.

And Krys, while zombies may or may not happen, I think your theory has one large flaw: your faith in the government's ability to cover things up effectively may be too strong.

I mean, really? I don't think the U.S. government has the ability or the funding to cover up something in America any more. In the fifties, sixties, and early seventies, maybe, but now? I doubt it. With the recession and the Internet, I don't think it's really possible to cover anything up effectively anymore. Aye, I realize that much of what may be on the Internet is fiction, but still.

And even then, I think there are some people in the government who'd know what a zombie outbreak looked like in order to allocate the scant few resources they have to suppress it.

Same issues with the government making these zombies. No funding, no ability to keep the secret.

Sorry, I have a poor, poor expectation with a "government cover-up/experimentation" situation happening.

Dude... Patricio isn't admin. He's Welcoming Committee. I'm the admin and I am female. =P

The apocalypse already started when Justin Bieber was born.

The apocalypse started when you killed this thread.

Now all is lost.

For what it's worth, heh. My favorite apoc (and post-apoc) scenario to RP is actually one brought about by alien annihilation. Zombies are nifty and all that, but for some reason, I find more pull toward surviving a massive blow out by an alien threat that is way advanced compared to our own. Their reasons for doing so can be numerous. It could be that they need our resources (ala V), it could that we got in the way of an intergalactic war and were an unfortunate casualty, it could be that we offended them in some way (obviously without knowing it), it could be that we intrigued them research wise and then when done they saw no reason to keep us around...... the reasons could go on and on (and yes, I do realize that these are outlandish, and part of that is the fun and point as I'm seeing this from a fun and ficticious standpoint, not a real one... though perhaps some could be on some level though I doubt it, who knows). But I think it would be rather interesting to see how humanity would try to oppose a threat such as that. And, when all was said and done, how we'd band together in the aftermath and try and rebuild.