What apocalypse would you want to "deal with"?

[Bullgrit]

Zombie Apocalypse, Robot Uprising, Alien Invasion, Plague Pandemic, Asteroid Collision, Biblical Rapture . . .

99.9% of the world population is wiped out, but you are a survivor. What apocalypse scenario would you prefer to be in? Why?

Which apocalypse scenario would you have the best chance of surviving? The least chance of surviving? Would you want to survive any kind of apocalypse?

Bullgrit

 

[Hand of Evil]

Odds are I would be "food" in all of them but Plague Pandemic, I see it as the only one I would have a chance of survival for any period of time. Plus, it is the one I think people would at least be more friendly to others.

Why food in the others, age (53), weight and general health, which could improve quickly in a world of life and death, I would only have a few years at best.

 

[reelo]

Wow, great question! I guess it all depends... Asteroid collision would be bad, because the climate change would make finding a sustainable supply of food/production very difficult. Biblical rapture, no, that's bollocks. I don't believe in the myths of a bronze-age tribe from the Middle-East. That leaves Zombies and Pandemics. If surviving a Pandemic meant having survived due to being unexplainably immune to the disease (rather than having survived due to not having come into contact with the disease) I'd say a lethal pandemic would be easier to deal with. Every other survivor you meet is as likely or unlikely to be hostile to you as you are to them. With zombies, the threat is an ongoing one, you never know if the person you see might already be infected or not, or if *you* might get infected at some point. Other than that zombies/pandemics are about equal. Robots/Aliens? I don't even know if I wanted to survive that. Once robots/machines become smart/autonomous enough to overcome mankind, there's no stopping them.
This said, considering the current state of our planet, Earth, as well as mankind itself, would only profit from it in the long run if its population were suddenly reduced to less than half (at least)
Makind would have to rethink and cooperate, and our planet would have some time to recuperate...
As Einstein once said (I think)
"I don't know what weapons a third World War will be fought with, but a fourth one will be fought with bows and arrows."

 

[Kaodi]

I don't believe in the myths of a bronze-age tribe from the Middle-East. That leaves Zombies...

There is something kind of ironic about dismissing the Rapture scenario because you think religions are false and yet seriously considering the possibility of a zombie apocalypse. Even the 28 Days Later "super rabies" scenario could not plausibly do the 99.9% damage premised by Bullgrit.

 

[Kaodi]

Anyway, it is a bit of a toss up between the Plague Pandemic, Asteroid Collision, and Alien Invasion. I mean, realistically I guess I would choose the Plague Pandemic, because the fact that I am alive at the end means I must be immune to the "problem" , but Asteroid Collision would be an interesting test of human capabilities and the Alien Invasion has, well, Aliens! And their technology.

 

[reelo]

There is something kind of ironic about dismissing the Rapture scenario because you think religions are false and yet seriously considering the possibility of a zombie apocalypse. Even the 28 Days Later "super rabies" scenario could not plausibly do the 99.9% damage premised by Bullgrit.

Who said I took a zombie apocalypse for serious? Because I don't. In terms likelyhood, it's just that the rapture is at the very bottom, and zombies just above that. In the middle-field we have the aliens (I do think it's likely extraterrestrial life exist, just not the way aliens are often depicted). More likely are the natural disaster type apocalypses (asteroids, super-volcano) and pandemics. Most likely imho are man-made disasters like global war and climate change. If, for example, the gulf-stream stopped bringing warm currents to western Europe, something that might possibly happen if the arctic icecap continues to melt away due to climate-change, Europe would become considerably colder/wetter and other changes around the globe could lead to massive migrations of people, which in turn might spark wars and all that. I don't say it will happen, but as far as likelihood goes, it's more likely than zombies, robots and aliens.

 

[Janx]

Assuming the question is "after I didn't die in the initial catastrophe", global pandemic seems the safest.

Germs hit all people relatively equally. poor people will probably get hit more due to overcrowding or lesser access to cleanliness that prevents infection.

That means, the remaining survivors come from all walks of life. A mostly even spread. Statistically, I'm smarter than half of the current population, and would retain that advantage. From there, the surviving population doesn't have any statistical advantage to out survive me or kill me. So I'll be useful in the new society and have a higher position.

Whereas, in a zombie apocalypse, survival is mostly due to better skill in combat and running away. this means more of the people who remain will be more suited to violence or running away from me than I am. This diminishes my chances as I could be the slower or less fighty one to get taken down.

In the Rapture, all those in the Winning religion disappear (if I recall my Simpsons lore, it's the 7th Day Adventists). Let's pretend the Raptureful deity isn't that picky and chooses all the good people, not just folks who went to a certain church. That means I'm left behind with all the "bad" people. Aside from what that says about me, it means the rest of the population is liars, thieves and murderers and can't be trusted. That makes for a very dangerous world to live in, where isolation is your friend.

In the Ice Age, I might be OK. I live in Texas. I'm from Minnesota. In all likelyhood, TX becomes the new MN, and I can handle that.

Asteroid collision is worse than Ice Age. While I can deal with a simple shift from hot to cold. The asteroid is going to cloud the skies for years, preventing crop growth regardless of where I am. I have no geographical advantage. I'll be scavenging for supplies and freezing all year round.

In the Invasion scenario (robot or alien is pretty much the same), I don't like my chances. The monsters are likely to do a purge or round-up. So there ain't nowhere safe. You can't go to the country and build a compound with crops and stuff. It'll show up on scans and you'll be caught.

So Pandemic is the best:
same diversity of people puts me in the upper half* for skills and smarts
survivors don't have a heavy concentration towards evil or violence
no significant post-event to deal with (not counting rats)

*by upper half, I mean I have more skills and higher IQ than the average human, which means I can do more useful things than the average person, not that I am some elite super human, there are people who can do a lot more than I can.

Being in the upper half of skills/smarts is going to be an advantage. People who can fight, shoot, hunt, farm, build/repair are going to be valuable. Especially if they can do all of those things. As a tendency, people who can farm, tend to have some experience in shooting, hunting and building, so they already have a leg up on the competition where self reliance is a key to survival. If I only knew how to program computers, I would be screwed.

 

[Umbran]

Zombie Apocalypse, Robot Uprising, Alien Invasion, Plague Pandemic, Asteroid Collision, Biblical Rapture . . .

99.9% of the world population is wiped out, but you are a survivor. What apocalypse scenario would you prefer to be in? Why?

Which apocalypse scenario would you have the best chance of surviving? The least chance of surviving? Would you want to survive any kind of apocalypse?

In the Zombie, Robot, and Alien scenarios, you have the zombies, aliens, and robots to deal with. No thanks. In the asteroid collision or nuclear war, you have climate damage that's going to hound you, probably for decades. Biblical rapture is not well-defined as to what happens.

Plague pandemic, though... That's not so bad. You survive, so you're immune to the plague. Society as we know it is gone, but the planet is otherwise intact? Yeah, that sounds like a decent scenario.

 

[Deset Gled]

How about the apocalypse from Y: The Last Man. Can I have that one?

 

[Kaodi]

Plague pandemic, though... That's not so bad. You survive, so you're immune to the plague. Society as we know it is gone, but the planet is otherwise intact? Yeah, that sounds like a decent scenario.

"Intact" should probably be understood loosely. There are a lot of potential things that could happen because of the plague. Devastating but short lived wars, some ecosystems shattered. Realistically you could probably surmise that humans were not even the only thing to get wiped out. A virus that deadly probably got passed on to a few other species as well.