In her column SDSAB mamber Una explained how long the power would last when the zombies came for us.
Now we all know how likely the odds are that the zombies would come for us. I want to know how long we* would all last in the much more likely event that a mysterious plague wiped out the entire male population, except, of course, for Yorick and Ampersand.
“Y the Last Man”. Great stuff - have to go back and pick up the TPBs when I get a couple extra bucks.
I think the report was great. Maybe one could be done exploring the situation that would arise after a massive plague, or nuclear or chemical war. Besides the obvious “just about all of us die” could there be some unexpected things like changes in environment, areas to avoid living due to that nuke plant that might go boom in a few years etc…
A while ago I was thinking about writing a few basic survival books, one for each of the major ways our world could end. Anything detailing what the first several months of a post apocolyptic world would be like and what to do and avoid would probably be a nice thing to have around, if not just in the library so someone could grab it when things go.
Has it been done?
Fantastic report. A full, well-composed essay that uses copious amounts of offbeat humor to answer the initial question and the followup. Well done, indeed.
With the exception of the Chernobyl disaster – which was the result of one boneheaded decision piled on top of another – nuclear plants do not “go boom.” If left unattended for a year or two, they would most likely just fizzle out as their fuel supply became progressively more depleted.
Are you asking how long the human species would last if all males died, leaving only female humans?
Well, the answer depends on the persistance of your “mysterious plague”.
Is it a one-time plague that wipes out all living human males, and then dies out for lack of any hosts to carry it on?
Or do spores or some infectious material survive to continue to infect & kill any males?
If it’s one-time, then the human species survives indefinately.
Because there are a sizeable number of females pregnant at any one time, with thousands giving birth every day. And about 50% of the newborns are male. In something like 10-13 years, those males will reach puberty and be capable of reproducing. And each male can impregnate many females (and will probably need to do so for the survival of the species).
In the meantime, there are various sperm banks, etc. available for reproductive purposes. There would be a dropoff in births for several years, but eventually the birthrate will go back up again.
A “mysterious plague” that kills all females would be much more deadly. In that case, the human species would last only until the youngest male dies of old age. So maybe 90-100 years.
Funny enough, I recently asked this question about a week or so ago on the message board before this was posted. (Just take a look at my past posts to find the thread.)
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<b>clayton_e</b>
Lucifer’s Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle is my choice for best (and most well thought out) post-apocalyptic novel.
It details the effects of a pretty decent sized asteroid striking the earth and its effects upon the population of America and California in general.
The Stand by Stephen King has some good stuff in there too, although it’s leavened by a strong dose of supernatural stuff too. Still quite a good book though, one of the best he’s done in my opinion.
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P
Incidentally, why would a plague that killed all the men but not the women be any more likely than a plague which just kills everyone?
I don’t think this is a total hijack, and I second Lucifer’s Hammer for a well-thought out postapocalyptic scenario, one that convinced me at least that I, for one, would probably fail to survive a cataclysm like the one described in the book.
I was just thinking it would be a good movie, if someone wrote a decent adaptation, now that we’ve (hopefully) forgotten those silly asteroid movies from a few years ago.
Zombies: although some have been reported to have unusually long lives (for most Haitians), zombies do die; they don’t eat brains (unless regular veggies (pun intended) are unavailable) or attack humans or other weird things.
They are good for working fields, digging ditches, you know, regular middle America stuff.
There have even been cases where zombies have recovered and returned o rejoin their families, if they remember who those families are; the zombification process takes a lot out of one, it is said…
If there were a plague that wiped out all living human females, we might still have a chance (as long as the plague was a singular event, and not a persistent condition). There are quite a few egg cells and fertilized ova in cryogenic storage. It’s possible for an embryo to develop outside the uterus; sometimes they attach to the inside of the Fallopian tube. We could try implanting zygotes in the abdomens of genetically-matched volunteer males. Female zygotes, of course. Worth a try.
It’s an allusion to Y, the Last Man a current comic from Vertigo (DC’s adult line), in which a mysterious plague has wiped out every male on Earth except the hero, Yorick (his parents were Shakespeare buffs) and his pet monkey, Ampersand.
Oh. And here I was thinking that Yorick and Ampersand were SDMB posters that the OP had a crush on.
And Rufus Xavier, there was one silly asteroid movie a few years ago and one pretty good comet movie. Unless you’re counting the made-for-TV abominations, which I think might also have been asteroids.
[off topic] I’ve read The Stand but I didn’t especially like the whole supernatural aspects of it, I like a good “plague wipes out humankind, story of person seeing what happens after and interesting things that happen to them.” Like George R. Stewart’s “Earth Abides”. [/off topic]
Disagree. The human species would last only until the youngest male reached puberty and committed suicide. Maybe 12-13 years.
Comic books aside, would a sex-specific plague be possible at all? Barring some massive human conspiracy to intentionally infect only men, how would the disease “know” if its host were male or female? Men and women don’t seem different enough for there to be a communicable disease that would kill one sex while allowing the other to escape.
Even an X-linked genetic disorder (either natural or engineered) seems unlikely to wipe out all men. If every woman on earth were a carrier for the disease, their male offspring would still stand a 50% chance of inheriting the “good” X chromosome. I think we could maintain the current birth rate even with a 2:1 female/male ratio, provided humanity could either organize widespread sperm donation from the healthy men or readjust social norms. At least four kids for every couple, at least two wives for every healthy man, or maybe just lots of FMF threesomes. Hey, there’s a motivation right there for some evil mad scientist to create such a disease: sure, half of all boys would be born with a deadly genetic disease, but the lucky half would get plenty of hot FMF action!
::: Moderator Hat on, but with a Very Friendly and Somewhat Sheepish Grin::::
I think that’s getting a little far afield, Lamia. I mean, it’s not as though a thread about zombies controlling the power grid isn’t fair afield already, and I’ve not said anything so far, but…
It’s actually that I think that would be an interesting question – whether there could be a gender-related plague virus/bacteria. I’m therefore going to ask that you post that as a separate question (over in GQ). Provide a link to this thread if you’d like, so people understand where it came from, but I think it will get better response from a wider range of people if it’s in GQ.
OK? Thanks.
Perhaps this whole inquiry should be moved over to GQ, but I was impressed by Una’s analysis regarding zombie attacks and the power grid. I was hoping she would be able to provide insight into how the surviors would be able to cope (from a power supply persective) if a plauge that some how was able to distinguish Y-chromosone carriers from non Y-chromosone carriers came through and killed all the men.
I am not intending to sound sexist, but I would assume (judging from my wife’s experience in engineering school) that most of the powerplant operators are male.
I would find this an interesting followup to the zombie article.
Chronos - In addition to the reference to “Y-The Last Man”, I was attempting to use irony for humorus purposes. Maybe I should stick to slapstick.
New GQ thread created, and thank you for the very pleasant Mod suggestion, ** C K Dexter Haven**: