# 80% of earth’s population disappear **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 17, 2002, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80-of-earth-s-population-disappear/119359 "2002-07-17T05:58:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Aceospades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Aceospades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aceospades)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80-of-earth-s-population-disappear/119359/1 "2002-07-17T05:58:41Z")
Here’s the situation. An alien force communicates via telepathy to 20% of the population of the earth that in two day’s time they will be the only one’s left on earth. They want to do us a favor and they think that if they repopulate 4 other earthlike worlds on the far side of the universe with the other 80% of earth’s population, it would be good. Two days go by and –POOF- 80% of the earth’s population with no regard to age, sex, or race (totally random), is telaported away. What happens next here on earth? ---
**Author:** ![irae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f0a364/32.png) [@irae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irae)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80-of-earth-s-population-disappear/119359/2 "2002-07-17T07:46:13Z")
Five of everything for everybody! ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80-of-earth-s-population-disappear/119359/3 "2002-07-17T10:23:06Z")
Traffic lights are considered “historical landmarks” ---
**Author:** ![Neptune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@Neptune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neptune)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80-of-earth-s-population-disappear/119359/4 "2002-07-17T10:26:14Z")
I bet it only takes two generations to return to the previous population. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80-of-earth-s-population-disappear/119359/5 "2002-07-17T11:59:02Z")
Wooohooo! Job Security! ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80-of-earth-s-population-disappear/119359/6 "2002-07-17T11:59:15Z")
> [@](#): > > 80% of earth’s population disappear Again?!? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80-of-earth-s-population-disappear/119359/7 "2002-07-17T12:34:36Z")
Various techincal & scientific fields take a giant step backward. Remember-- there are only a _tiny umber_ of scientists relative to the size of the global population. And a smaller number within each technical speciality in each field. Further, if it is truly a _random_ selection, there will be larger or smaller numbers of people in various professions in each area of the globe, due to uneven distribution of the various professions. So, if 8 out of 10 scientists in, say–Podunk–vanish, little will be lost in the way of knowledge. But when 8 out of 10 scientists in Harvard or MIT go bye-bye, whole technical fields of science will vanish forever. If the random selection is not determined by location, but by 80% of a given profession from the _total global population_, things are almost as bad. Large #s of researcher & their projects go _poof!_–as do their students. The # of viewpoints in each field narrows, with the inevitable increase in dogmatic views. Welose–big time. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80-of-earth-s-population-disappear/119359/8 "2002-07-17T13:33:23Z")
Isn’t a lot of that science stuff written down? I mean if 8 out of ten science guys from MIT go can’t the other two look in the files. Or the science guys from Oxford or New Deli look at the files? I’d be more worried about auto repair. Although there would be a lot of extra cars you could I guess just get a new one instead of changing the oil. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80-of-earth-s-population-disappear/119359/9 "2002-07-17T13:40:14Z")
Sure, all that science stuff is written down. Published, even. Unfortunately, the millions of current projects and studies that have not yet been published would likely be incomprehensible to the remaining scientists. So the population loss would set back science in that fewer people would be doing the work. As for auto repair and the like - well _that_ you can read from a book. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Aro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@Aro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aro)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80-of-earth-s-population-disappear/119359/10 "2002-07-17T13:40:35Z")
Do you think a whole country may exist completely unaffected? Luxembourg,…maybe Iceland? Maybe Northern Ireland? ---
**Author:** ![MachV](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@MachV](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MachV)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80-of-earth-s-population-disappear/119359/11 "2002-07-17T13:53:02Z")
Pat Robertson will become very smug until someone points out that he was left behind. ---
**Author:** ![PolishSausage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@PolishSausage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PolishSausage)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80-of-earth-s-population-disappear/119359/12 "2002-07-17T14:25:07Z")
What’s fascinating about this concept is that it could go so many different ways. > [@](#): > > Do you think a whole country may exist completely unaffected? It could totally happen. Even though it is random, possibilities could happen akin to drawing four of a kind in poker. Wow. Think if the majority of ruling power was taken away from country X or what if MIT got to keep most of its people. Or if half of The Backstreet Boys and half of N’Sync were taken and they formed a super group called N’Boys! Ha. sorry… Back to what I was trying to say, having one country stay mainly intact would give that government more stability than the rest of the world, depending of course on the country in question. This is really causing my imagination to get away with me. Thanks **aceospades**! Really, this is fun. I will try and think about one country in particular and let you know what I’ve come up with. ~t ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80-of-earth-s-population-disappear/119359/13 "2002-07-17T14:27:40Z")
What kind of 'random" are we talking about, here? By population (global/total)? By population (national)? Population(regional)? Profession? Ethnicity? Gender? Shoe size? _Que pasa_ random??? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80-of-earth-s-population-disappear/119359/14 "2002-07-17T16:46:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor \* > Various techincal & scientific fields take a giant step backward. Not really. Much of our science and technology is only a few decades old. At worst, we might have to fall back to a 1980 level of technology, and that’s hardly stone age. New computer technology will stall, but with 80% of the population gone, the need for computing power is geatly reduced. We’d lose progress on just-around-the-corner technology like genetic engineering, nanotech and fusion, but we could recover to our current levels in just one generation, or faster. Economically, we’d be screwed, but even that’s not impossible to overcome. ---
**Author:** ![ResIpsaLoquitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b3f665/32.png) [@ResIpsaLoquitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ResIpsaLoquitor)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80-of-earth-s-population-disappear/119359/15 "2002-07-17T17:21:49Z")
Could the remaining population consist entirely of women, plus me? And a helper monkey. I want a helper monkey. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80-of-earth-s-population-disappear/119359/16 "2002-07-17T20:00:53Z")
Would we get to visit the other 80% ever? Like could they come over, maybe on Thanksgiving, holidays? It would be kind of depressing to never see friends/family ever again. But on to the fun stuff…entertainment. If all five main actors of “Frasier” happen to disappear, I might just have to kill myself. Oh, but if all members of WB Programming disappeared…I wouldn’t have a huge problem with it. It might be harder to get the help you need. In terms of technology. If your computer goes on the blitz, and you call up Tech Support…there are fewer peopel to help. Then again, there are fewer people who are on the line, so maybe it’s a good thing. It would be fun to do the stuff Homer Simpson did in Springfield when he thought EVERYONE was dead. But I would do it in wanton disregard of whatever percentage of my town was left. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80-of-earth-s-population-disappear/119359/17 "2002-07-17T21:41:27Z")
I’m more interested in what happens to the 1.2 billion that go to each of the other four planets. Do they have to build civilization from scratch? Houses, roads, schools? _There’s_ your story! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Aceospades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Aceospades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aceospades)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80-of-earth-s-population-disappear/119359/18 "2002-07-18T02:30:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor \* > \*\*What kind of 'random" are we talking about, here? > By population (global/total)? > By population (national)? > Population(regional)? > Profession? > Ethnicity? > Gender? > Shoe size? > _Que pasa_ random??? 😕 \*\* it would be by population (global/total) > [@](#): > > _a35362_I’m more interested in what happens to the 1.2 billion that go to each of the other four planets. Do they have to build civilization from scratch? Houses, roads, schools? There’s your story! they would be on there own. yes they would have to build from scratch. but you don’t have to worry about them. there on the other side of the univerice and there not coming back. back to the op. i’m sure there would be rioting, but for how long. how would goverment in the U.S. and other first would countries hold up in say a year, 10 years, 50…ect? what else am i not thinking of? ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80-of-earth-s-population-disappear/119359/19 "2002-07-18T03:12:43Z")
Do you know something that we don’t know? Have you been hearing those aliens talking to you again aceospades? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80-of-earth-s-population-disappear/119359/20 "2002-07-18T03:35:34Z")
Well, no use doing those dental TV commercials anymore because “\*three out of four dentists \*” who chew gum will be gone! 😃 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/80-of-earth-s-population-disappear/119359.md?page=2)