Post Disaster Movie Humanity Discussion

[Technical Ben]

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We have all seen a disaster movie where the world is nearly destroyed and is saved at the last minute or has only a handful of survivors. Whether the Earth's going topsy-turvy (2012), a devastating plague (Twelve Monkeys), alien invasions (War of the Worlds), technology-gone awry (Terminator) or Bruce Willis blows up the asteroid with 2 seconds to spare... This is not to discuss the implausibility of the physics or reality of the film themselves; just the lasting repercussions. Here is the question.

How do you think mankind would react realistically to near extinction?

Would we realize our humanity and put our cultural differences aside or would it be "Whew, that was close!" and go back to treating each other like crap?

We already have small scale examples of this. I would assume the same continues. Large catastrophes do mean those working hard to help others stand out more, do more, and succeed more during those times, but I don't see it as the creating force of those people. People themselves decide to do good, treat others well, or not. Thankfully we can influence others to do good, to some degree, so it's worth the effort trying.

But changing humanity for the better? While we rightfully aim for that goal now, we hope for something stronger than ourselves to achieve it.

[Kibble]

The problem is that you only have a limited amount of time to figure it out; if you don't get the crops planted at the right time, there's going to be a lot fewer people to try again next year. Hopefully, you'll get it figured out before the local "tribe" become too small to sustain itself.

We lived for hundreds of thousands of years without agriculture!

[razark]

We lived for hundreds of thousands of years without agriculture!

Yes, but we also knew how to recognize which plants were edible and which would kill us.

And the landscape is not the same as it was before the neolithic revolution. Vast areas have been turned into living space, and other areas have been turned to agriculture. Those areas can no longer support the hunter/gatherer populations they once could. Eventually, they could be returned to wilderness, but it's going to take a long time, and the problem is feeding the population during the first year.

[Rematog]

There are enough isolated groups living "traditional" lifestyles (some even Neolithic) that the earth would be repopulated. I'm talking about groups such as:

Isolated Amazonian tribes, tribes in places like Philippines, New Guinea, tribes in southeast Asia, Mongolian herdsman, peoples in Siberia, isolated islands (Falklands, etc). Once pressure of outside groups is removed, these groups would slowly spread and grow, and would eventually come across remains of other bands. Someone will re-invent the wheel and....