Choose Your Own Apocalypse

by Robert Lamb |

11 Comments | Add Comment

 

"Hello, my name is Shiva and I'll be your harbinger of destruction for the evening." (AP Photo/Sackler Gallery)

"Hello, my name is Shiva and I'll be your harbinger of global destruction for the evening." (AP Photo/Sackler Gallery)

So the other day, fellow blogger Marshall Brain posted a couple of YouTube videos about whether the world’s going to end in 2012. Naturally, this has led to a lot of discussion about religion and just what the likes of Yahweh and Shiva have to say about all this. So I thought I might take just a moment of everyone’s time to point out an excellent online tool for deciding just how boned we are.

Slate recently compiled a couple hundred different scenarios for the end of the world as we know it and arranged it all in this excellent Flash display. You can choose to arrange the different apocalypses by clicking various filters, such as “God,” “war,” “sex” and “Canada.” Clearly, all the possibilities are covered.

They included one of my favorites, nuclear winter, yet managed to leave off a few of my other favorites. Namely, the semantic apocalypse, destruction by horrible monster gods and the ever-present threat of twisted, sorcerous cabals raising up some kind of soul-twisting, casket tornado demigod that brings human reproduction to a staggering halt.

So what are your favorites from the list? How about from fiction? And — dare I ask — how do you think this delightful little exercise in human civilization will eventually come to a close?

EDIT: I should point out that Slate puts the focus on the end of America specifically, so while many of the scenarios are either extinction events or civilization busters, others relate more to the United States.

Fall in love with the end at HowStuffWorks.com:
How the Doomsday Ark Works
How Nanotechnology Works (Grey Goo Apocalypse!)
What’s the technological singularity? (Robots take over!)
Will the world really end in 2012?
Top 5 Scary Technologies of 2008
How to Prevent the Zombie Apocalypse

 

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11 Comments

  • Rob Sheppe says:

    I think humanity’s most likely ELE will be some kind of airborne pathogen that attacks the respiratory system or CNS so quickly that people are dead before they can even be diagnosed, and for which 99.99% of the population lacks any kind of immunity against. And it will probably, unintentionally be man-made.

  • Robert Lamb says:

    Rob,

    That’s certainly a frightening one. One idea that I came across in researching “10 Scariest Bioweapons” was the creation of a disease that’s designed to cause immediate death when treated with a particular medication — such as the a common suppressor or cure. Not only would it kill those seeking treatment, it could possibly turn the infected populace against the government medical teams seeking to aid them. So you get a little extra chaos gravy drizzled on top of everything else.

    http://science.howstuffworks.com/bioweapon.htm

    ~rl

  • Brian E says:

    Well, if you believe any of the GOP blowhards, then Obamacare should certainly seal all our fates :)

    But personally, if I have to choose a doomsday, I’m hoping for angry aliens. It always looks like so much fun in the movies and videogames!

  • Robert Lamb says:

    Brian E,

    Who says we can’t combine the two? Obama — clearly an alien in disguise — uses government health care to plant otherworldly larva inside our bellies. Only a dedicated band of gun-toting birthers can save the world from alien domination.

    Greenlight it, I say.

    ~rl

  • Lee says:

    Now Rob, you had to see me coming…. so now I obviously have to comment on your blog no don’t I?
    My honest belief, if anything short of a asteroid or similar catastrophe whacks us it will be man who destroys himself. Yup, agree with the first post, maybe the virus thing, swine flu anyone? Wars, justified by someone’s religious psychosis or simply depleting the resources to the extent of making life impossible. Whatever it is, there will be no lack of prophets, scripts and calenders who spoke of these things…. crap! we’re all gonna get it and they knew about it all along and told us so to boot.

  • Lee says:

    Aliens.. yea!
    actually Obama is not an alien, but part of an alien conspiracy, an unwilling victim if you will…. see these beings live on the part of the brain that contain the memory of promises made pre-election… obviously, since they are a hungry people, they are active all over the world. Finally, during the phase leading there, we thought that Keanu Obama would eradicate this terrible race, but alas he has been sucked dry like the rest of them, o bother!

  • Eric Ye says:

    I think something along the lines of “Manna”, by Marshall Brain or his disposable bodies should do it.

  • tanvir says:

    i think thats it is going to be one of many diiferent Apocalypse(s) (spelling?):

    #1: there is going to be something wrong with the sun and it will send rays of destruction onto the earth (from the movie knowing; watch it :) ) or the sun will explode/expand onto earth killing us all.

    #2: we are going to use up all of our natural resources (lumber and such, but oil especialy) and we are going to have huge wars and/or regulations. there is going to be a point in the near future, a point in time where we can go into the age of flying cars without emisions and futuristic homes (like star wars) or we will colapse as a society and have to live like dogs till we all die.

    but in the end we are going to self destruct somehow and it is going to be humanities fault.

    dont take me wrong :p

  • Robert Lamb says:

    Tanvir,

    Our buddy Ian O’Neill over at Discovery Space pointed out this interesting article about sun flares and the film “Knowing.”

    http://www.astroengine.com/?p=6270

    ~rl

  • tanvir says:

    movies fail me again…

  • Tom M says:

    hi,

    One more actor in doomsday scenario: smallpox. I explain it in my blog.

    http://tomtommytom.blogspot.com/

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