What apocalypse would you want to "deal with"?

[Dioltach]

I'd best suited to deal with an invasion of cheesecake. I don't really have any other survival skills.

 

[sabrinathecat]

"28 days later" was a re-fluff of Day of the Triffids. Can't believe people didn't recognize that earlier.
I'd go with Rapture, because I would laugh at all the "holy" or "religious" people forced to come to terms with the fact that they were left behind.
Second would be the pandemic, because I have DVDs of the original "Survivors" TV show by Terry Nation to use as a guideline. Plus my mother has a nice farm with acres of fruit trees. Pretty sure she'd let me in.
Plus, the loss of 99.9% of the population of about 8 billion leaves about 8 million people. So long as we aren't all one sex, that is more than a viable gene pool.
What about the animals, though? Do they die in these scenarios as well?

 

[Hand of Evil]

What about the animals, though? Do they die in these scenarios as well?

This comes down to the pandemic, odds it would be man-made and just target the human race.

It is the breakdown of everything that you have to worry about in a pandemic like this. People out sick and dying, nothing gets done and things start to fall apart, it is messy. Fires start, bodies rot, animals go feral, power goes out, things explode, landscapes go wild.

 

[Umbran]

"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.

Yes, but that's true for pretty much all the scenarios listed. While there may be some local issues, short of the nuclear option, it takes humans a lot of work to really screw up global ecology.

A virus that deadly probably got passed on to a few other species as well.

Sorry, this one is pushing my science-literacy buttons: No. Wrong.

Being deadly does not mean a virus is more likely to jump species. If anything, killing more victims quickly (the typical view of "deadly") decreases the chance, by simply decreasing chance of exposure. If a disease is zoonotic (jumps from animals to humans, of humans to animals) the effects are usually not of equal severity. For example, the strains of influenza that knock us flat don't generally do so much to the chickens or pigs in which they originate.

Moreover, while over time we've developed quite a list of zoonotic diseases, this is because there's thousands of years, and thousands of strains of viruses involved. The chances for any single particular strain making the jump is small.

So, to answer sabrinathecat's question - a plague that kills off humans is likely to leave most animals alone.

 

[Kaodi]

Sorry, this one is pushing my science-literacy buttons: No. Wrong.

In my defence biology was the only science I never took in high school, . I guess I put too much store in armadillos.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Sorry, this one is pushing my science-literacy buttons: No. Wrong.

Indeed, the odds of any individual pathogen being able to cross species are not great, and the lethality to different species tends to vary widely when that does happen.

Personally, I'd rather face a plague than any of the other options because plagues are real and accepting their existence would not ruin my worldview. Also because I know how to combat pathogens.

 

[dogoftheunderworld]

I'd best suited to deal with an invasion of cheesecake. I don't really have any other survival skills.

This.

(I don't think I would survive any other scenario anyway. And I really hope not to "survive" the Rapture.)

 

[SkidAce]

Alien Invasion.


Because after surviving and stealing their technology (fingers crossed) I could become a space fighter pilot, and organize a rebellion. After which, using said technology, mankind would colonize the stars and be free of the shackles and dangers of "one" apocalypse wiping us out.

And the expanding of our viewpoint to realize we are not alone would drive humanity to greater heights of understanding and achievements.


/end [early 60/70's scifi optimism]

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Suspending disbelief and assessing that list, I'd choose Biblical Rapture. Everything still works, minimal damage, nothing out there trying to eat or enslave me, and everything just got a lot less crowded!

Second choice would be Alien Invasion ... because the Truth is Out There.

 

[Morrus]

Pandemic. There was a disease, but you survived? Sounds OK (at least compared to fighting zombies, aliens, or robots for the rest of your life).

But I choose Rapture. It proves a given religion, ending religious wars and laws. Takes away those who subscribed to that religion. Leaves the rest of us to get on with a non-religious but otherwise perfectly intact world. I don't have to hide from zombies or aliens or robots, no asteroid flattened my house, and there aren't millions of diseased corpses everywhere. Sounds good to me.