- #106
Graw
- 33
- 0
Ryan_m_b said:
Ryan_m_b said:
Both settings are actualy in one story, but that second group (colonists) are living on another planet.
Ryan_m_b said:The OP has two settings to consider:
1) A disaster happens on Earth, wipes nearly everyone out. The few left become tribal people.
2) At the time of the fall man was colonising another planet. That colony survived the fall of Earth but spent 1000 years stagnating.
The story is about the two groups meeting.
Ryan_m_b said:The OP has two settings to consider:
1) A disaster happens on Earth, wipes nearly everyone out. The few left become tribal people.
2) At the time of the fall man was colonising another planet. That colony survived the fall of Earth but spent 1000 years stagnating.
The story is about the two groups meeting.
Graw said:Both settings are actualy in one story, but that second group (colonists) are living on another planet.
Good. Quite satisfying to see that there are still people who can understand my inferior grammar :DRyan_m_b said:Yes I'm aware.
Dr_Zinj said:Philip Jose Farmer did a nice novel (The Stone God Awakens) where humanity has been extinct for millions of years and cats and dogs evolved into bipedal intellient people. He left the mechanism of our extinction deliberately vague. David Gerrold's, "War of the Chtorr" series is a good one about an alien species causing the extinction of humans on Earth by biosphere modification. There are already,
That's one of the keys to writing acceptable science fiction. Keep it simple, use the basic premises but don't explain too much, especially if you're writing toward a teen audience (and a lot of adults are reading at that level today.) I forget who said, "Never let the facts stand in the way of a good story."
newjerseyrunner said:If you allowed capitalism to grow to it's most extreme form on a planetary level, perhaps other planets will have more resources and human colonies could eventually just suck the Earth dry. Think what Detroit was/is to the United States. Perhaps Earth just went through hundreds of years of poverty due to a multi planetary plutocracy, business might just have been better on the moon or Mars. Without money to drive their government, they'd let Earth just sit there and rot.
I'm not sure whether you haven't simplified the story a bit. I mean sure - Detroit lost a lot because its companies failed in fight with international competition (a marketing problem). However, when they went into troubles, then local gov which was seriously corrupted and was making unrealistic spending promises got into trouble. So problems with jobs were accompanied with problems about gov services. Then a white flight started which undercut tax base, deprive city of smaller businesses and deprive local democracy of those who care. Only debts, to weak to escape, troublemakers and decaying buildings remained.newjerseyrunner said:If you allowed capitalism to grow to it's most extreme form on a planetary level, perhaps other planets will have more resources and human colonies could eventually just suck the Earth dry. Think what Detroit was/is to the United States. Perhaps Earth just went through hundreds of years of poverty due to a multi planetary plutocracy, business might just have been better on the moon or Mars. Without money to drive their government, they'd let Earth just sit there and rot.
DHF said:You could go with a genetically engineered downfall. Instead of a plague that causes disease and outright death, What if the eventual rise in genetic engineering led to an outbreak of sterility? if passed like a common cold, the effects would be slow as people might not realize anything was wrong at first, by the time we know what is happening, population is in at an irreversible decline. The end of the human race would not be a loud bang but rather a slow withering that takes place over several generations.
With a device like this you could either dial down the population to a fraction of a percent of our current total. A few thousand scattered over the globe who are born with an immunity to the sterility.
OR
You could say there was never a cure and little by little humanity died off completely. fast forward a few million years an a new species steps up. Curious individuals could start to wonder where all of the ruins come from. For as long as anyone can remember they have always been there but where an explorer comes across Mt. Rushmore, it could be that awe inspiring realization that the ruins come from someone other then themselves.
Czcibor said:I'm not sure whether you haven't simplified the story a bit. I mean sure - Detroit lost a lot because its companies failed in fight with international competition (a marketing problem). However, when they went into troubles, then local gov which was seriously corrupted and was making unrealistic spending promises got into trouble. So problems with jobs were accompanied with problems about gov services. Then a white flight started which undercut tax base, deprive city of smaller businesses and deprive local democracy of those who care. Only debts, to weak to escape, troublemakers and decaying buildings remained.