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Status:
"Moldy Tater Gangrene, even before Moscow Marge."
(set 6 days ago)
Location: Dallas, TX
5,790 posts, read 3,603,799 times
Reputation: 5697
Impossible to say, but barring some kind of apocalyptic scenario, I'm sure it'll still be around. What kind of shape it will be in as far as quality of life - that's another story, impossible to predict. Still, I can say that we'll probably no longer be "Number One", China and India will have passed us up, if only because of their sheer size, just as we passed up the UK in part because we were so much bigger than the UK.
As for nuked or an EMP, unfortunately a distinct possibility. A lot can happen in 200 years. But in that time span, it can happen anywhere. Oh, if you're gonna say 200 years into the future, you can add kamikaze space craft as well, especially if even lo earth orbit travel becomes as routine as air travel. Let's think of deorbiting even the ISS, assuming it hits the earth at about 3 miles per second (5 km/s). If you don't want the science, it's enough to say here that if it deorbits, hits the earth at that speed, it has 10% the kick of the Hiroshima bomb. Now granted it'll be in a lot of pieces before it hits due to atmospheric drag, and the drag itself will disssipate some of that energy, but even 1% of the Hiroshima bomb is still equivalent to 0.13 Kilotons of TNT, or 130 tons of the stuff..and this is an off the cuff low-ball figure.
You can skip the math/science stuff below the dotted line if you want. I only post it so you can see where I got my answer from.
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5.439 X 10^13 Joules = Hiroshima bomb
5.24656 x 10^12 Energy in joules = COLLISION DESCRIBED
Formula: Energy = (1/2) * mass * velocity squared. Or,
Energy in Joules = 0.5 x kilograms * speed in meters per second squared.
I'm expecting there to be a man made problem that will cause a massive loss of life.
There will be a Swedish underground pharmaceutical manufacturer that will attempt to make a new club drug. In an amazing combination of drugs (acid, amphetamine, speed, PCP, mescaline, and six other unknown synthetic chemicals) someone will finally create "zombies." After privately blackmailing the United Nations for one quadrillion dollars and a million acres of land on every continent; they will release their drug on two continents once their demands are not met. Once the airborne drug is released by self-timed exploding Amazon delivery packages in flight, people will uncontrollably become hostile and aggressive. There senses will be amplified to near 50 times the normal level, and all they want to do is stop all the: noise, light, sound, heat etc... Millions of people will be attacking cars for being loud by trying to rip mufflers out by hand, clothes off people for being too bright without any concern for the skin underneath, TV commercials for being too startling without being concerned about getting cut up by the glass that will cause them to bleed out, etc... In the five hours the effects last on the recipients, 80% or roughly 6 million people will die in New York City alone.
People across the globe will live in fear for the next 2 years living underground, and wearing gas masks when outdoors, until Johannes Gustafsson is caught. When police escort him right through times square to make a point, mob rule takes over. As police nonchalantly stand by and say "no, stop" (with zero emotion), the mob rips his limbs off as the world watches and cheers in unison when a young kid from the Bronx holds up his head. Tony Manzini, who lost his both of his parents and his three brothers two years ago on Z-day, was now the reason the world could sleep soundly tonight.
After the culmination of the worst time of human history, people started to realize how valuable life can be and learn to be more civilized to one another. Its going to be a great time for those of us who will survive.
-no paper currency. Everything is digital via implants
-some type of government control over living/working conditions due to too many people, too few jobs and lots of automation
-actual population control. How I don't know.
-possible global government run by the money makers. There are no elections.
It doesn’t look promising. Our society has become a lot more divided just in the last couple of decades with all of the red state vs blue state nonsense.
America will still be here although the political system on the Northern American continent may shatter into smaller pieces. Probably there will be an upper and lower portion of the left, right and middle sections, so probably six new political entities? What is now California with perhaps Arizona and Nevada would break off into one entity. Oregon and Washington would be another. Then the Upper Midwest from Washington state to Michigan would be an entity and Texas would probably be it's own country. That leaves the Upper East Coast and the Lower East Coast. Maybe Key West could be it's own entity, it's kinda already in it's own headspace.
Overall temperatures will probably rise so populations may shift a bit north on the North American continent and they'd head south on the Southern American continent. But, it won't happen overnight, these sorts of things have their own momentum.
-no paper currency. Everything is digital via implants
-some type of government control over living/working conditions due to too many people, too few jobs and lots of automation
-actual population control. How I don't know.
-possible global government run by the money makers. There are no elections.
Automation will wipe out millions of jobs "Americans (allegedly) won't do" - all janitorial will be wiped out in 100 years. That means the millions of illegals' anchor babies (tens of millions) will have nowhere to find work.
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