End of the world (ish) scenario 99% mortality
- Thread starter moon man
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I always wonder why people think there would be gangs.
Imagine in this scenario, 99% of people die instantly. That leaves 10m people alive, they wouldnt all be clustered together, unless it was some weird coincidence.
195 countries / 10m = 51282 people per country.
UK survey says there's 112 major populated towns and cities, so that's not counting villages and low populate places.
That's still 457 people per city. That's less than 1 person per square mile in London.
It's less than a football stadium full of people spread out across the whole country, and ours is quite a small one, you'd probably go unnoticed, in the USA you'd barely find anyone..
If it wasn't even distribution of deaths either then London isn't even in the top 20 most populated cities on earth, so the 1% would be broken up into countries..
China and India make up like 40% of the world population, they get 4m, that 6m broken up around the next 20 or so countries, the UK would be bottom of that list getting about 2%. At most there would a few 100k in the whole country.
Imagine in this scenario, 99% of people die instantly. That leaves 10m people alive, they wouldnt all be clustered together, unless it was some weird coincidence.
195 countries / 10m = 51282 people per country.
UK survey says there's 112 major populated towns and cities, so that's not counting villages and low populate places.
That's still 457 people per city. That's less than 1 person per square mile in London.
It's less than a football stadium full of people spread out across the whole country, and ours is quite a small one, you'd probably go unnoticed, in the USA you'd barely find anyone..
If it wasn't even distribution of deaths either then London isn't even in the top 20 most populated cities on earth, so the 1% would be broken up into countries..
China and India make up like 40% of the world population, they get 4m, that 6m broken up around the next 20 or so countries, the UK would be bottom of that list getting about 2%. At most there would a few 100k in the whole country.
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Because humans are not uniformly distributed they're concentrated in cities so they'd be more in London than vast swaths of countryside.
Also humans are communal first thing anyone is doing it finding other people to team up with
People in those roles tend to be above average intellect which means they are likely to be quick learners and relatively wasted in the medium term on basic manual labour, if there is skilled labour tasks available.
I think in this scenario you'd have various phases, there would be the initial looting phase where there is enough processed foodstuffs already in homes and on shelves etc to sustain the 1% for a couple of weeks. This would double as a discovery phase where people start to understand the state of the world around them, exploring their environment and obtaining news where feasible.
You'd then have the transition phase where 'low hanging fruit' supplies dry up people start to forge alliances with others, driven either by existing relationships or potential a sort of barter economy whereby shelter/water/food is exchanged. I see this phase playing out differently for different people, some more forward-thinking ones might move into it quite early whereas others who have plentiful supplies nearby and less forward thinking may go much longer in the initial phase. I think people are likely to migrate towards large settlements (perhaps those where friends and family used to live) because they realise there will be more people there and people naturally tend to group together in times of crisis.
As resources, especially foodstuffs become more scarce I then see the emergence of tribes who may be more aggressive in their approach, with smaller or more peaceful groups being squeezed out. Some of these may seek to take control of key assets, perhaps locations where you can produce power, or farmland. Over time this could result in a 'scaled up' version of the barter economy mentioned above whereby groups controlling different assets realise the benefits from sharing.
Any attempts to re-establish some semblance of broader society I can't see working in the first couple of years but if a 'stablility' period was reached whereby there is a natural order established amongst tribes then it might be a possibility as skills improve and people adapt to the new supply chain etc.
One of the stranger things I think would be all the abandoned infrastructure slowly decaying and being pillaged because it isn't scaled for a 1% society and has nobody to operate it.
In the longer term people in that kind of role are going to be needed for building society back up but they don't as a gross generalisation tend to be the best adapted to surviving the initial months and years which will favour people with a broader, more adaptable skill set who can quickly dive in in a practical situation vs ability to learn everything there is to know about a subject in the longer run.
That's probably true but I still think if there are skilled labour tasks available it might be inefficient to assign them basic manual labour, unless those tasks are both high importance and in surplus (i.e. not enough people to perform them). A software engineer might adapt to mechanical engineering (e.g. repairing machines) for example (indeed some of them may have a background in relevant academic disciplines such as Physics and Engineering).
Op said 99% of the world's population, which is different to 99% of the people in your city.
I did mention that in my reply. If it were 99%morality in London then ud have about 100k people roaming around a 600sqm area. You'd find some people sure, but I still say that you could quite easily avoid any gangs that arose, just by leaving a popular city like London.
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Reminds me of Day of the Triffids where they head to isle of wight... Yeah, I'd head to Scillies or Shetlands myself.. Former warmer though... Less bodies to deal with
I have enough to nearly last me a decade without repeating anything. I've maxed out my 12Tb drive and have 4TB for retro gaming to catch up on.