[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Originally Posted by After a brisk nap

Yeah, but that doesn't make sense.

I don't have any problems imagining everyone just suddenly evaporating, but to believe that all systems would just turn themselves off, that all supertankers would pilot themselves into dock, that no stove would be left on and no gas pump left running... that defies belief.

Um, it's really just a hypothetical study: What if our influence on this planet vanished? There is no cause for realism in this question.

Besides, isn't it interesting to think about? How many seconds would it take before abandoned cars crashed or slowed to a halt? [etc.]

Indeed it is, but completely beside the point.

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Originally Posted by SnorkleCat

...wait a minute....does all this mean that Starman doesn't exist...and he's not going to save us?

That's quite a codpiece there.

[Kolzig]

I'm relying on Captain Planet to come and save us.

[D.C.]

Originally Posted by Kolzig

I'm relying on Captain Planet to come and save us.

You better believe it!

He's a hero. He's gonna take pollution down to zero!

[Huz]

Originally Posted by Not A Speck Of Cereal

There was an aussie sci-fi film that depicted that. Everyone vanished due to some experimental project, except for a small handful who happened to be dieing at that moment (but recovered). They drove around and found a lot of interesting things, like airliners that fell from the sky and whatnot.

Does anyone know the name of that film (early 90s, if I remember right)?

Man, I've been wondering that ever since I saw bits of it on TV years ago. I keep watching random films hoping they'll be it, but they never are. At least now I know what I'm looking for - cheers Brisko!

[After a brisk nap]

Originally Posted by Not A Speck Of Cereal

Um, it's really just a hypothetical study: What if our influence on this planet vanished? There is no cause for realism in this question.

*sigh*

Some miscommunication must be going on here.

When presented with a thought experiment, especially one so evocative, I feel compelled to work out all the implications in my mind, whether you would consider them relevant or not. Being asked to ignore one big part of the situation makes no sense to me. It would be like saying "imagine that tomorrow no one could leave their house, they had to live out the rest of their life inside those walls" and then adding "oh, and forget the fact that they would die of starvation within a month". Does not compute.

Besides, in its starkest form, the scenario has a great deal of elegance. Every human being on Earth suddenly vanishes in a puff of air. It's a miracle, it's simple, it needs no explanation. Adding lots of guff about some mysterious force that lands all the planes and puts out all the fires ruins that elegance, in my opinion. Call it an aesthetic preference.

Originally Posted by Huz

Man, I've been wondering that ever since I saw bits of it on TV years ago. I keep watching random films hoping they'll be it, but they never are. At least now I know what I'm looking for - cheers Brisko!

Brisko... That's a lot better than the other alternatives. Cheers!

[Melanie68]

This is kinda, well maybe not really related but I just watched Logan's Run (again...) on TV last night and my favorite scene is when they end up in Washington, D.C. and it's been taken over by plant life. The vines are all over the Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol building.

That's all.

[rlpw]

Originally Posted by Melanie68

This is kinda, well maybe not really related but I just watched Logan's Run (again...) on TV last night and my favorite scene is when they end up in Washington, D.C. and it's been taken over by plant life. The vines are all over the Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol building.

That's all.

You just reminded me of the movie 12 Monkeys where the main character is walking around with wild animals everywhere in New York.

[guyver1]

I believe we all will turn into the x-men in the near future

[Zanthia]

Future Is Wild

[After a brisk nap]

A new book, The World Without Us, explores the idea of humans suddenly disappearing, including the impact of our machines and technology continued existence without people to tend to them. Salon has an enthusiastic review (and the comments pages mention half a dozen other examples of the same thought-experiment), while the official web page has some cool artist's impressions of a decaying New York City (among other things):

[kuze]

Interesting read (the review, that is), I imagine the book is quite entertaining - I only hope that the end isn't as moral-filled as they made it out to be in the review.
I am not that intriqued what would happen to a city after a millenium, but what it would look like after a few years, maybe a few hundert. Decay is fascinating to me, but only if I can connect to it, i.e. if it hasn't progressed too much - Tschernobyl is a place I'd love to visit someday. A great example for a place where people vanished over night, leaving their belongings and such back.

[Henke]

Unfortunately we will probably totally destroy the planet before we all die making it impossible for almost anything to live here anyway. Hopefully we will come to our senses before it's to late.

Originally Posted by artwking4

Without humans to control the animal population, the animals would grow and populate unchecked, eating all of the vegetation from the earth's surface, forcing them to start eating each other's meat. This would piss off PETA and all the vegans.

Then maybe the animals will start killing and eating each other not only to survive but because they think it's fun. No wait, that's humans.

[Catbert]

While it's reasonable we'll make the world uninhabitable to a lot of species, to think that life won't go on is an underestimate of the resolve and natural survivability that most organisms possess, humans included.

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

A few science fiction novels of decades past have already covered this.

While the species wasn't usually wiped out, they covered what the urban landscape would look like after centuries or millennia of neglect. I'm thinking of Ursula K. LeGuin's early novels right now.

[Melanie68]

That image to the very right that Nap posted reminds me of Logans Run (the Washington D.C. part was my favorite).

[kuze]

Just found a very entertaining article about what could happen if humans don't vanish into thin air but continue to evolve and grow. It explains the different types of civilizations (rating us as Type zero, as children so to speak), goes into some detail about what more advanced civilizations than our's should look like, mentioning AI-controlled self-replicating factories and the power of the stars as an energy source. It also answers the question why we haven't seen any evidence of other species expanding into our system.

It was on the digg frontpage, so it is quite accessable and fun to read, I really recommend it (not that it really fits into this topic, describing the exact opposite of the proposed scenario...).

Link