h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hey there WP,

I was just reading your 'Extinction Levels' article - a great read! Will we be seeing it in PR anytime soon?

Anyway, I just thought I'd ask you if you're collecting *all* the events speculated in history and science fiction or if it's only the *probable* (aka Sometime Soon) ones you're collecting, because it seems that you have missed a couple of interesting ones.

For example, there's this story in the anthology 'Dinosaurs II' (I can't remember the name of the author off-hand, but I could go look it up for you) that tells of the dinosaur extinction - not as a result of a giant rock hitting Earth, but as a result of aliens poaching them for food. (It was told from the viewpoint of a guy who'd done a spot of time-travelling). Anyway, the guy suggested that the aliens had stopped after the dinosaurs because there wasn't any big game left, but then went on to say that in the recent millennia the human population had boomed to the extent that what they lacked in size they made up in numbers, and hinted that mankind might be expecting another visit from the aliens sometime soon. Well, there you go - alien delicacies!

Another 'story' of the extinction of humankind comes from Isaac Asimov, Grand Master of SF. The book is called 'The End of Eternity'. Don't know if you've read it; if not, then in a nutshell: In the future there is this agency on Earth that intervenes, through the technology of time-travel, to make changes in the flow of time for the 'improvement' of mankind. (such as preventing the discovery of nuclear energy that would result in nuke warfare etc). Unfortunately, we learn at the end of the book that this results in mankind discovering the technology that would lead them to the stars *far* too late - by the time they get around to making interstellar journeys they find that every other sentient race in the universe has laid claim to every system, every planet and every star. Finding that they are not welcome anywhere in the universe, mankind ultimately dies of depression and despair.

And let us not forget AC Clarke's 'Childhood's End', which is possibly the strangest tale of human 'extinction' in the history of SF.

I just thought they were rather interesting speculations on the fate of mankind, that weren't cast from the same mold as your typical Hollywood aliens-blow-up-USA or terrorist-unleashes-bioweapon movies.

Cheers,
Far.

Hi Farlander - I'm working through the entry right now as it happens! My original entry in 1999 is so bad I blush every time I see it. I am definitely going to put in a section on the less probable / fictional events, so what you have written here is very useful! I probably won't go for an exhaustive catalog, more a popular look at some of the more fashionable ideas. I will include an anthology at the end - that's a good idea!

This one will take me a while to put together I think!

Thanks a lot!

Woodpigeon

Want a hand getting together a list of books and movies on The Impending Doom(s!) of Mankind? You could keep a running tab.

This might work! I could put them at the end of the entry.

You know... you left out The Most Important 'alien invasion' subcategory: Blowing up the earth to make way for a hyperspace bypass. How could you!!!



I'll get to work on that list this weekend.

I left out lots of stuff - GRB's, Supervolcanos... - but for some reason I put in the Millennium Bug! What was I thinking? *bangs head against desk*

I've just updated a bit of the entry.. still a lo-ong way to go!

Erm, WP... do you wear glasses? 'Cause I refuse to take any responsibility for ruining your eyesight.

I decided to get a headstart on the book list. Mind you, not all of the titles below are about the *complete* annihiliation of mankind, but I felt that the decimation of earth/destruction of society themes made them worthy of inclusion (you'll probably have to filter through the titles ):

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Alien invasion/intervention
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (DNA) – earth gets blown up to make way for hyperspace bypass
- The War of the Worlds (HG Wells)
- Childhood’s End (AC Clarke) – humans fuse with Overmind to become one single entity
- The Forge of God (Greg Bear) – humans are killed off by aliens through misdirection and self-replicating machines; a handful survive – most are bent on finding the killers (in Anvil of God)


Creations of mankind gone foul
- The Day of the Triffids (John Wyndham) – mutant, mobile plants, thanks to mankind's tinkering with genetics, terrorise the earth, kill and eat humans
- Red Dwarf: Backwards (Rob Grant) – agonoids, built by humans for the purpose of sport-killing, take revenge on their creators, wiping out all of humanity except for one man


Depression
- The End of Eternity (Isaac Asimov) – mankind destroys its own chance for interstellar travel by controlling its past, present and future; dies out in despair


Global catastrophes
- A Wrinkle in the Skin (John Christopher) – earthquakes of epic proportions, of global scale, decimate the earth

Hot viruses, superbugs & plague
- The Third Pandemic (Pierre Oulette) – about a superbug ‘naturally’ created when various dangerous bacteria exchange virulence and antibiotic-resistance genes
- The Plague (Albert Camus) – bubonic plague (well…. It’s not the end of mankind but…)
- The Stand (Stephen King) – a rapidly mutating virus accidentally released from a US military facility kills off most of the world population
- The Andromeda Strain (Michael Crichton) - microbes from outer space!
- The Fourth Horseman (Alan Nourse) – bubonic plague
- Resident Evil (the games) – scientists make all sorts of horrific creations, including the T-virus (which turns the dead into zombies), all of which turn upon mankind
- Some Will Not Die (Algis Budrys) – super-plague wipes out most of earth
- Eternity Road (Jack McDevitt) – plague wipes out most of humanity, destroys earth
Earth Abides (George R Stewart) – pandemic wipes out all of earth except one man
- Y: The Last Man (comics) – a mysterious plague wipes out all male mammals on earth except for a man and his pet monkey
- I Am Legend (Richard Matheson) – a bacterial pandemic turns all of mankind into vampires, save for one man bent on hunting them all down
- The Last Man (Mary Shelley) – plague wipes out almost all of mankind
- Empty World (John Christopher) – a virus wipes almost all of mankind


Nuclear (or other) war
- The Martian Chronicles (Ray Bradbury) – earth is destroyed by war. Two human families survive, who escaped to Mars
- Walk to the End of the World (Suzy Mckee Charnas)
- The Foundation series (Isaac Asimov) – well, the end of earth anyway. Nuclear holocaust causes earth to become radioactive; by which time mankind has travelled so far out in space that ‘earth’ is nothing more than legend
- A Canticle for Leibowitz (Walter M Miller) – atomic holocaust devastates earth… twice, I *think* (it's been awhile)
- This is the Way the World Ends (James Morrow) – nuclear holocaust
- Alas, Babylon (Pat Frank) – nuclear holocaust
- Fiskadoro (Denis Johnson) – yup, more nuclear war
- The Last Ship (William Brinkley) – nuclear war kills off all but 178 people, who are on a ship


Stellar Catastrophes
- Shiva Descending (Gregory Benford) – hail of meteors bombard earth. Cause: giant 30 billion-ton comet
- Moonseed (Stephen Baxter) – nanovirus that blew up Venus devastates earth
- Aftermath; Starfire (Charles Sheffield) – cosmic blast from Alpha Centauri supernova decimates earth


Rapture, Divine Intervention etc
- The Nine Billion Names of God (AC Clarke) – mankind discovers all nine billion names of God - thus achieving its ultimate destiny - thus bringing the world to an end (or so it is implied)


Superseded by more ‘developed’ superhumans; Weird natural causes
- Darwin’s Radio; Darwin’s Children (Greg Bear) – retrovirus dormant in human genome for thousands of years wake up and transform foetuses into a genetially 'enhanced' super-human species (tagline for the first book: 'in the next stage of evolution, humans are history'); the mothers develop some sort of immune reaction to their children and die out
- The Children of Men (PD James) – people become infertile overnight; population decline, threat of human extinction
- Greybeard (Brian Aldiss) – another variation on human infertility (only this is caused by nuclear testing gone bad, which allowed hard radiation to saturate the earth and sterilising humans – along with various other animals)


Technology
- Cat’s Cradle (Kurt Vonnegut) – a scientist ‘invents’ a way of making water freeze (actually, it’s a new rearrangement of water molecules called Ice-Nine, that tells other water molecules to behave the same way… you have to read it to understand); an accident occurs involving the spilling of said Ice-Nine. All water on earth freezes. Most survivors commit suicide by ingesting said Ice-Nine
- Oryx and Crake (Margaret Altwood) – mad scientist creates genetically engineered hybrid humans to create a society that will live as one with nature; releases epidemic to kill off non-engineered humans – which leaves only one ‘survivor’ (who was intended as guardian of these creatures)

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I won't bother making a list of movies, because I've found you a site with all the info you need: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/9941/madmax1.html

Cheers,
Farlander - eyes going blurry...

*gasps*

Thanks a lot FL, I'll try to wind this in. It should make an excellent addition to the entry.

You'll be included on the credits for this BTW.

Woodpigeon

I'll be credited for giving you a *migraine*? Anyway, I'm touched by your generosity - I was just fulfilling my compulsive need to write *something*. Thanks.

There are probably plenty more variations of how mankind gets wiped out, only I'd have to dig real deep into my overstuffed bookshelf - and quite frankly, my eyes are in no condition for that.

Cheers,
Far.

Oh no!!!!

I've just realised that I'd confused *Agonoids* (from Red Dwarf, who learnt that there was only one human left alive in the universe, and were hell-bent on finding him and slowly torturing him to death) with *Cylons* (from Battlestar Galactica, who purged the entire system of humans, except for those on the Galactica). Sorry!

Far.

No bother Farlander - I'm still working through the probable events, and I will then start to address some of the theories that have come from the world of fiction or history. Wondering if it's going to get a bit too long though. When I finish it maybe we can make that decision.

QUOTE: Wondering if it's going to get a bit too long though.

Ha! I'm the last person you should discuss this with!

It's coming on, and nearly there. I've got rid of all the old stuff, added your selected reading list, added you to the credits and checked to see if there were any other comments worth making. It just needs a proof-read and a link check. After that I think we're done!

This is one of the biggest entries I have ever done! I'll need a lie down after it!

Whoa, that's a long one allright! I'm going to read it again (it's a great read, btw) tomorrow, but in the meantime.... You forgot to remove the reference to Red Dwarf - I got that one wrong, remember?

It's now in the Update Forum. I'm fairly happy with it (a 1000% improvement on my original entry in any case). Let's see where it takes us.

Yay! That was a great job you did.

Thanks Farlander! Your contribution to this was enormous.