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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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 Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2007 3:40 pm Post subject: The World Without Us, neat stuff |
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http://www.worldwithoutus.com/did_you_know.html
The latest SETI podcast has an interesting interview with this author. He lays out what would happen to the world if humans simply went "poof". You sometimes see movies like Planet of the Apes or even AI with massive cities like New York still standing, just these cement forests. However, the author notes most skyscrapers, while well anchored, are anchored assuming the current ground water conditions. A world without plumbing would change that, erode the foundations, and many of the towers would tumble and take other buildings down. Worse, those movies where they're moving through the NY subway system. Fact: the tunnels would flood ASAP.
Neater still, rats and roaches would, contrary to visions of them ruling the world post disaster, would find their doom. Roaches aren't adapted for cold weather. It is only because our buildings provide heat that they have a place to survive. Rats also depend on the trash of humans and are not very effective predators.
Plastic would probably vanish after a time, leaving future space aliens no record of much of our culture. Plastic is made from hydrocarbons. Bacteria would eventually evolve to consume this plastic. Some already can digest nylon, after all.
About the only thing that humans have made that would survive in the vast long term are, it turns out, are bronze sculptures. |
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Zutronius
Joined: 16 Apr 2007
Location: Suncheon
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| Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2007 3:51 pm Post subject: |
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| Neat! |
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Pligganease
Joined: 14 Sep 2004
Location: The deep south...
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| Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2007 5:19 pm Post subject: |
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| Quite interesting. Thanks. |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2007 5:53 pm Post subject: |
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| He was on the Daily Show about a month back. |
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Julius
Joined: 27 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2007 8:41 pm Post subject: |
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| I say go ahead with it. the earth needs to recover from its most destructive pest species. |
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BS.Dos.
Joined: 29 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2007 11:58 pm Post subject: Re: The World Without Us, neat stuff |
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| mindmetoo wrote: |
Rats also depend on the trash of humans and are not very effective predators.
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Not sure that that is entirely true. In the 50's when the US was performing nuclear tests on those uninhabited Pacific Islands, after detonating the bombs they were surprised to find rats on the Island when they returned.
Rats are incredibly adaptable and can exploit most habitats. They can swim for long distances, they can climb sheer gradients such as walls and have a very varied diet meaning they can live pretty much anywhere.
It may be true that a large percentage of the population would die if we suddenly vanished, but I think that as a species, they'd probably survive. |
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Juregen
Joined: 30 May 2006
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| Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 12:01 am Post subject: |
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| Julius wrote: |
| I say go ahead with it. the earth needs to recover from its most destructive pest species. |
Why not start with yourself. |
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BS.Dos.
Joined: 29 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 12:03 am Post subject: |
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^LOL
Nice. Far to sharp for a Friday afternoon. |
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Jeju Rocks
Joined: 23 Aug 2004
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| Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 3:49 am Post subject: |
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| During this Chusok holiday, I will make a bronze statue of myself. Just in case. |
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Julius
Joined: 27 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 8:08 am Post subject: |
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| Juregen wrote: |
| Julius wrote: |
| I say go ahead with it. the earth needs to recover from its most destructive pest species. |
Why not start with yourself. |
I was expecting that old line.
maybe we'll all go together at some point in the not too distant future. Problem is we'll take everything out with us.
Millions of species on the earth, but only one is trashing everything it touches. |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 8:31 am Post subject: |
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| Julius wrote: |
| Juregen wrote: |
| Julius wrote: |
| I say go ahead with it. the earth needs to recover from its most destructive pest species. |
Why not start with yourself. |
I was expecting that old line.
maybe we'll all go together at some point in the not too distant future. Problem is we'll take everything out with us.
Millions of species on the earth, but only one is trashing everything it touches. |
I agree. From the planet's point of view, we are a malignant and agressive tumour that needs some radiotherapy and a bit of chemo (courtesy of climate change perhaps?) to get rid of us, or at least blast us down to manageable levels. We have buggered up the planet for everything else too, except those animals that thrive in our artificial habitat.
But of course from my own point of view (and of course from Julius's) I want to live and live and LIVE! But I can't help feeling I'm sailing with a ship of fools. |
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endofthewor1d
Joined: 01 Apr 2003
Location: the end of the wor1d.
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| Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 8:54 am Post subject: |
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| Big_Bird wrote: |
| Julius wrote: |
| Juregen wrote: |
| Julius wrote: |
| I say go ahead with it. the earth needs to recover from its most destructive pest species. |
Why not start with yourself. |
I was expecting that old line.
maybe we'll all go together at some point in the not too distant future. Problem is we'll take everything out with us.
Millions of species on the earth, but only one is trashing everything it touches. |
I agree. From the planet's point of view, we are a malignant and agressive tumour that needs some radiotherapy and a bit of chemo (courtesy of climate change perhaps?) to get rid of us, or at least blast us down to manageable levels. We have buggered up the planet for everything else too, except those animals that thrive in our artificial habitat.
But of course from my own point of view (and of course from Julius's) I want to live and live and LIVE! But I can't help feeling I'm sailing with a ship of fools. |
i don't think so. from the planet's point of view, i think we're just something new. if we ever do create the scary doomsday scenerio and nuke ourselves into oblivion, the planet (and life with it) will keep on going long after we're gone.
i don't even think that's going to be an issue. earth's time is limited to when our sun burns out. i'm confident that by that time we'll have colonized other planets by then, spawning countless generations of people all the while predicting that the end of all life in the universe is 20 years down the line, and that it's all our fault.
on a side note, has a study ever been done as to how many new species have been created as a result of our 'meddling' against those that have been destroyed by it?
or a study on how many species have been destroyed by nature itself as compared to how many we've destroyed by our 'meddling'?
don't flatter yourself. we're all just a tiny part of the same big picture. |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 9:06 am Post subject: |
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| endofthewor1d wrote: |
| Big_Bird wrote: |
| Julius wrote: |
| Juregen wrote: |
| Julius wrote: |
| I say go ahead with it. the earth needs to recover from its most destructive pest species. |
Why not start with yourself. |
I was expecting that old line.
maybe we'll all go together at some point in the not too distant future. Problem is we'll take everything out with us.
Millions of species on the earth, but only one is trashing everything it touches. |
I agree. From the planet's point of view, we are a malignant and agressive tumour that needs some radiotherapy and a bit of chemo (courtesy of climate change perhaps?) to get rid of us, or at least blast us down to manageable levels. We have buggered up the planet for everything else too, except those animals that thrive in our artificial habitat.
But of course from my own point of view (and of course from Julius's) I want to live and live and LIVE! But I can't help feeling I'm sailing with a ship of fools. |
i don't think so. from the planet's point of view, i think we're just something new. if we ever do create the scary doomsday scenerio and nuke ourselves into oblivion, the planet (and life with it) will keep on going long after we're gone.
i don't even think that's going to be an issue. earth's time is limited to when our sun burns out. i'm confident that by that time we'll have colonized other planets by then, spawning countless generations of people all the while predicting that the end of all life in the universe is 20 years down the line, and that it's all our fault.
on a side note, has a study ever been done as to how many new species have been created as a result of our 'meddling' against those that have been destroyed by it?
or a study on how many species have been destroyed by nature itself as compared to how many we've destroyed by our 'meddling'?
don't flatter yourself. we're all just a tiny part of the same big picture. |
What I really mean by 'planet' is the planet's overall ecosystem/s, not the water and mineral ore on which they are situated, which is not 'alive' in the sense we know it. The planet will go on, but our 'meddling' has enormous repucussions for us and our fellow passengers. |
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endofthewor1d
Joined: 01 Apr 2003
Location: the end of the wor1d.
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| Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 9:20 am Post subject: |
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| Big_Bird wrote: |
| endofthewor1d wrote: |
| Big_Bird wrote: |
| Julius wrote: |
| Juregen wrote: |
| Julius wrote: |
| I say go ahead with it. the earth needs to recover from its most destructive pest species. |
Why not start with yourself. |
I was expecting that old line.
maybe we'll all go together at some point in the not too distant future. Problem is we'll take everything out with us.
Millions of species on the earth, but only one is trashing everything it touches. |
I agree. From the planet's point of view, we are a malignant and agressive tumour that needs some radiotherapy and a bit of chemo (courtesy of climate change perhaps?) to get rid of us, or at least blast us down to manageable levels. We have buggered up the planet for everything else too, except those animals that thrive in our artificial habitat.
But of course from my own point of view (and of course from Julius's) I want to live and live and LIVE! But I can't help feeling I'm sailing with a ship of fools. |
i don't think so. from the planet's point of view, i think we're just something new. if we ever do create the scary doomsday scenerio and nuke ourselves into oblivion, the planet (and life with it) will keep on going long after we're gone.
i don't even think that's going to be an issue. earth's time is limited to when our sun burns out. i'm confident that by that time we'll have colonized other planets by then, spawning countless generations of people all the while predicting that the end of all life in the universe is 20 years down the line, and that it's all our fault.
on a side note, has a study ever been done as to how many new species have been created as a result of our 'meddling' against those that have been destroyed by it?
or a study on how many species have been destroyed by nature itself as compared to how many we've destroyed by our 'meddling'?
don't flatter yourself. we're all just a tiny part of the same big picture. |
What I really mean by 'planet' is the planet's overall ecosystem/s, not the water and mineral ore on which they are situated, which is not 'alive' in the sense we know it. The planet will go on, but our 'meddling' has enormous repucussions for us and our fellow passengers. |
big bird. for whatever reason, i have some respect for you. i'll continue this conversation tomorrow when i'm sober. i'm going to bed now. good night. |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 9:39 am Post subject: |
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| endofthewor1d wrote: |
big bird. for whatever reason, i have some respect for you. |
| endofthewor1d wrote: |
| i'll continue this conversation tomorrow when i'm sober. i'm going to bed now. good night. |
Goodnight.
And what an appropriate name you have for this thread, I might add! |
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