[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

[kuze]

Yeah, let's go back to coal.

[Giligan]

That's assuming that whatever wiped us out doesn't affect the planet.

[Jatsie]

I'm hoping for pestilence.

[undeaf]

0 to 20 years - apes, monkeys, elephants, bears, etc start messing around with human things, some undoubtedly find some uses for them. Whether this will have any permenant effect on them is uncertain.
300 years - great apes no longer at endangered levels in africa
1 000 years - dolphins move in on ecosystems formerly inhabited by recently extinct large carnivorous fish
1 500 years - chimps start getting a foothold in a small portion of the places they've been taken to by humans
4 000 years - niches opened up by human caused extinctions are occupied
15 000 years - some of the animals that filled these niches are greatly changed
500 000 to 8 000 000 years - another superspecies, most likely ape again, but possibly meerkat instead, begins to emerge
2 000 000 to 12 000 000 years new superspecies develops, starts finding and making sense of archeological remains of humans

(all dates just my guesses if you're wondering)

[rlpw]

There will be one true boy left as foretold in the great master Jack Kirby in his great work of Prophecies called Kamandi, Last boy on Earth All others will be simple humans will be no more than simple minded beasts controlled by the animal masters or strange bizarre mutants.

Yes I have seen the future, and it is a comic book

[Crunchy in milk]

Originally Posted by undeaf

(all dates just my guesses if you're wondering)

your data is no less accurate than that in the image.

[Squinky]

Well, gee, I was wondering what happened to all those humans... and where all those giant pandas and Siberian tigers keep coming from...

[After a brisk nap]

I presume the scenario here is that all human beings simply vanish into thin air. I expect that the immediate aftermath would be somewhat chaotic, as chemical factories and power plants run untended. You'll probably see huge fires, many cities would burn. Toxic spills in the short term as tankers run aground, and later as storage barrels rust through.

Most farm animals starve to death, but some escape into the wild, where many become easy prey for predators... including cats and dogs that are forced to turn feral.

Plants and animals that humans have introduced to other parts of the world continue to compete with the local flora and fauna, sometimes driving them into extinction. The distribution of species across the globe is irrevocably changed, and traces of this huge diaspora will be detectable for many millions of years to come.

Most satellites will see their orbits decay and eventually burn up in the atmosphere. However, some may stay up essentially indefinitely.

[artwking4]

So our revenge on this earth and its flora and fauna will be complete, then? At least our deaths will be avenged and our assassins will get what's coming to them.

[Catbert]

Yeah, god damn Earth.

[akane_t]

This thread remined me of George Carlin's The Planet is fine routine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5QFocUp7EE


George's a god. Nobody does cynic (disappointed idealist in Goerge's book) better than George.

I don't have anything to add the topic discussed here though. After a brisk nap pretty much pointed out everything that I would have. I would just add that after a substantial period of time has passed, it will be very hard for any entity to notice any impacts we would have had on Earth. As AABN observed, "traces of this huge diaspora will be detectable for many millions of years to come" but one would have to look very hard to notice them. In the big scheme of things, I doubt we matter a whole lot. Of course to us, we mean everything but to the universe in general or the earth itself, we mean very little if at all.

[MoriartyL]

Well, if we were gone, there would be no one for us to matter to. Animals don't tend to care about the big picture.

[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.

[pinkgothic]

Originally Posted by artwking4

This would piss off PETA and all the vegans.

*snorts soda all across the keyboard*

That made my day.

[rlpw]

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.

That was as good as the billboard that PETA put up in Paducah KY saying 'Fish are Friends, Not Food' and 'Fish have feelings too.

Besides don't worry about food folks, There is always Soylent Green to fall back on.

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Originally Posted by After a brisk nap

I presume the scenario here is that all human beings simply vanish into thin air. I expect that the immediate aftermath would be somewhat chaotic, as chemical factories and power plants run untended.

Heh. No, I think it's the assumption is that we would vanish, and everything would turn off. It's clear to me that the point to the graphic is 'how long would it take everything to recover from our presence'.

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)?

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Originally Posted by rlpw

Besides don't worry about food folks

You know, Food Folks would make a good band name.

Okay, maybe not.

There is always Soylent Green to fall back on.

Every time I go to the produce market and see this stacks of colored fruit strips, I cry "Soylent Green is peepul!!!". I always get the strangest looks. I guess produce folk don't watch sci-fi. Kids these days...

[After a brisk nap]

Originally Posted by Not A Speck Of Cereal

Heh. No, I think it's the assumption is that we would vanish, and everything would turn off. It's clear to me that the point to the graphic is 'how long would it take everything to recover from our presence'.

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.

If your thought experiment is not going to give us a chance to clean up after ourselves, you have to accept the consequences of that. If, on the other hadn, you want a realistic estimate of how long it would take the world to recover, it would obviously depend on how we go.

Besides, isn't it interesting to think about? How many seconds would it take before abandoned cars crashed or slowed to a halt? How many minutes or hours before the airplanes fell from the sky? When would the power go out? How long would automated factory robots keep turning out gadgets on conveyor belts? When would the Internet go down, and the cell phone network? Would some of the zoo animals be able to escape? I suppose most potted plants would die from lack of watering. Mold in the fridge might stand a better chance. If your house collapses quickly enough, maybe your uneaten potatoes, onions and garlic might find purchase in the earth.

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)?

The Quiet Earth.

[SnorkleCat]

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