@atoponce@fosstodon.org posted a poll earlier:
What is your preferred “end of the world” apocalyptic scenario?
– Aliens
– Nuclear fallout
– Pandemic
– Zombies
Assume strict science fiction and not fantasy fiction in the scenario (no supernatural magic).
The last time I looked Aliens was comfortably in the lead with 61% of the vote.
Quite naturally given that the world is undergoing an unprecedented period of stability and equality and… I took the question seriously and replied thus:
Feel free to accuse me of overthinking this 🙂 but is this based on the likely survivability of my family and me (ark ship, bunker, isolated cottage) or a quick and easy demise free from watching the inevitable dismantling of our, er… civilisation?
*Or* (cue spooky music) something painful in between, something extraordinarily painful?
Maybe I should think of the bigger picture. 🙂
Aaron’s response?
There aren’t really any rules other than no supernatural mumbo jumbo. I think that’s part of what makes this question kind of fun.
Are zombies animated only for a limited few days/weeks before decay makes them immobile?
Will the cancer from nuclear fallout kill you quickly, or will it be a slow painful death?
Are you food for the aliens or a science experiment?
Me, after a bit of thought:
I’ve voted for aliens on the basis that my preferred scenario involves the destruction of Earth for a hyperspace bypass, and it happens not long after the announcement. I’ve never been keen on prolonging things. 🙂
Ok, I’m not at all keen on the destruction of anything but if it has to happen I’d like my participation in it to be over quickly. Incidentally, the hyperspace bypass thing is borrowed from the novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy1, a trilogy in five parts.
So, why did I not choose any of the other worthy contenders?
Nuclear fallout?
I’m thinking of Chernobyl.2 I’ve watched dramatised documentaries34 and actual documentaries of the nuclear meltdown incident. That’s accidents. Thoughts on the intentional use of nuclear weapons leads me right to Threads – a film I cannot bring myself to watch but that I’ve read lots about.5
Not sure, but I don’t think I’d want to survive in a bunker, to see out my days cut off from ‘life’.
Pandemic?
2019- COVID-19. Everyone who reads this will have a memory of the 2019- pandemic. But not everyone died, and civilisation didn’t collapse, so that’s alright then.
1981- HIV/AIDS. Mostly under control, and it’s a good thing global outreach programmes are still well-funded isn’t it.
1918-1920 Spanish flu. Pretty much no-one who lived through this is alive now. A 100% mortality rate by now should annoy most people, right?6
1331-1353 Black Death.
Heck no, it’s not an exhaustive list, but this is only a blog post, I’m no academic!
Pandemics vs epidemics though, it’s all a matter of scale, excess mortality rates, pre-existing medical conditions, demographics, isn’t it.
So, a world-ending virus, bacteria, biological thing, has to be pretty, er… virulent, right?
Zombies
Watch the film ‘Shaun of the Dead’.7. That’s all.
It won’t be enough to prepare you for zombies, but it’s a good start.
I can’t choose this way to go because I wouldn’t want people I know and love to be consumed by or turn into zombies and want to eat my face off. Er… whether they consciously want to or not. I see enough of that with the increasing reliance on social media and propaganda shaping opinions instead of taking the time to have views shaped by ‘hard’ news organisations. So much for my 1997 dream of a golden age of information availability.
And, like most people, I rely on infrastructure spanning the turn of the 21st century for my survival. Were not ready for bartering and butchering and bravery.
So…
Aliens
Right. I’ve read and watched a good amount of science fiction. The ones that stand out, plot themes from memory:
‘Footfall’, novel by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle; conquest, assimilation, kinetic energy weapons.
‘The War of the Worlds’, novel by H.G. Wells; mass killings, enslavement, nourishment, climate change (in the grossest of senses).
‘Battlefield Earth’, large novel by L Ron Hubbard; mass killings, enslavement. Great book, dire film worth watching only after reading the book and then never again.
‘Doctor Who’, TV series; particularly extermination by the Daleks.
‘V’, TV series; sneaky extermination, eating us.
‘To Serve Man’, Twilight Zone TV episode; misunderstandings, a cookbook for humans.
There’s a theme that pervades (is that the right word?) most of these works, that humanity will somehow prevail against the might of space-going aggressors. Sure millions die along the way, but…
And that’s the problem. I’d still want to ‘go’ quickly. I’m not prepped and ready, not even for probing by little green men
Hyperspace bypass then. I don’t even want to know of the planning application. Ignorance is bliss.
Or is it…
Links:
- ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guidevto the Galaxy’ by Douglas Adams, Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheHitchhiker%27sGuidetotheGalaxy. ↩
- ‘Chernobyl disaster’, Wikipedia link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster ↩ - ‘Surviving Disaster review Chernobyl’, brief Aerial Telly review, 2006: https://aerialtelly.co.uk/surviving-disaster.php. (Page is broken but the review still stands).
‘Chernobyl Nuclear – Surviving Disaster (BBC Drama Documentary) FULL COMPLETE 1hr – ADE EDMONDSON’, video on DailyMotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6tufjj ↩ - ‘Chernobyl (miniseries)’, Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_(miniseries) (Jared Harris is superb in this). ↩
- ‘Threads (1984 film)’, Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threads_(1984_film). (One of the most terrifying things the BBC has ever shown). ↩
- Please note the sarcasm here, sorry! ↩
- ‘Shaun of the Dead’ film, Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_of_the_Dead ↩