The TankSpot Apocalyptic Scenario Thread

Which of the apocalyptic scenarios do you think is the most probable?

In the blue corner: the army of homicidal robots (Ion)
In the red corner: the zombie plague (Krenian)
In the yellow corner: the cohorts of Cthulhu (Leucifer)
In the green corner: the marauding alien invaders (Wildcard Entry)
Bursting through the arena floor: the blindingly fast Triffids (Tengenstein)


Who will win? Who will lose (other than humanity that is)? Time for the face-off to decide the future of the planet!

If you think none of the above stand a chance of happening, post your alternative scenario in this thread! Alternative scenarios will be added to the list in the OP, however thanks to the awesomeness that is the VBulletin forum software, the poll cannot be edited. And no, we aren't interested in "there will not be an apocalypse" :)

So we got Terminator vs The Walking Dead vs Anything Cthulhu was in vs what...Close Encounters of the Third Kind? Or we going Independence Day aliens?

Either way, Cthulhu's OP so he should be struck out from the competition.

Leucifer insisted that Cthulu be included :/

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Either way, Cthulhu's OP so he should be struck out from the competition.

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Not interested in class balancing, this isn't an MMO ;)

I insist Triffids be added

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Originally Posted by Krenian

So we got Terminator vs The Walking Dead vs Anything Cthulhu was in vs what...Close Encounters of the Third Kind? Or we going Independence Day aliens?

Either way, Cthulhu's OP so he should be struck out from the competition.

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Robots would include nanites or nanomachines.

Walking Dead could include those not technically dead but rendered into cannibalistic state by disease or pharmaceuticals.

Chthulu and anything of a demonic/supernatural nature. Lucifer, Satan, Biblical End-times included.

Aliens being H.R. Giger through and including Independence Day type of aliens.


Not sure what Transformers would technically qualify as...... maybe a split? 0.5 point split between robots and aliens?

The problem with zombies is they're unreliable. They're slow (or not, if you're using the 28 days later type...but even so, they're not as fast as aliens or robots...they're maxing out at run speed), their food is their biggest predator (us) and they're stupid.

Cthulhu et al ... well, that's sort of like saying "GOD WILL SMITE US ALL DOWN"....not really the sort of thing I buy into.

Aliens are, perhaps, a bit more likely than Cthulhu but the universe is a big place...seem equally unlikely, all things considered.

Which leaves us with robots. Cylons (though, they nuked the shit out of the colonies in the BSG reboot...which is a problem for me because I'm looking for "wipe out humanity" not "destroy the world" for my apocalypse), Terminators/Skynet, the Matrix...all of them had a pretty solid reason for bumping humanity off and while such high tech robots aren't really within reach Right Now, they're not really COMPLETELY outside the realm of possibility. It doesn't even require much more than a rudimentary intelligence to make them a FAR more serious threat than any of the other options. Problem with a lot of robot apocalypse scenarios is they tend to destroy a lot of the planet in the process of taking us out. Though I'd suggest Cthulhu and aliens are probably as big of a problem there too.

Also, since there is no "Other" option, I'll mention another perennial favorite: a pandemic plague. Problem with that is SOME people are going to be immune to it or live through it...it's just inevitable. A disease just isn't apt to get the job done.

That leaves ye olde giant asteroid to the face...there's a reasonable chance that a decent amount of people would live through that too, though. Plus there's the whole collateral damage of "nuclear winter" to deal with...which might be a bit more extensive than I'm looking for.

So basically, robots are our only hope for a good, thorough apocalypse.

Edit: You could, however, go for a robot-disease hybrid via nanites/nanobots...a compelling idea, I must admit.

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Originally Posted by Tengenstein

I insist Triffids be added

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Triffids can be considered "zombie plants".

pshaw

have you seen the news lately, zombies will get the job done

The sun supernova is being totally neglected in this conversation (man I looove Sunshine). Small scale nuclear war leading to fallout and mans self annihilation from small faction competition ala The Road Warrior, Fallout, Tankgirl has potential as well. OR even environmental self destruction like Soylent Green or Solarbabies ( oh yeah, I went there) has consideration.

zombies.

Not Zombies.

There is this thing called putrefaction. Essentially, dead bodies turn into corpse soup fairly quickly, and the hotter it is, the faster it happens. Any zombie plague would literally disintegrate within a week, if not less.

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Originally Posted by Fetzie

Not Zombies.

There is this thing called putrefaction. Essentially, dead bodies turn into corpse soup fairly quickly, and the hotter it is, the faster it happens. Any zombie plague would literally disintegrate within a week, if not less.

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Not to defend something that I'm not voting for...well, no, that's exactly what I'm going to do:

I'd assume that whatever is animating the corpse has some reason to be doing so, and if it does that then I suspect it'd have some way of fighting off putrefaction.

Both the Newsflesh trilogy by Mira Grant (wherein the zombies are basically just virually-infected people) and 28 Days Later (similarly infected people who are basically still alive) handle this concept...Newsflesh actually even has some..."science" (you know...for explaining a zombie apocalypse values of science).

I like the explanation in The Zombie Survival Guide as to how it could possibly take years before a corpse rots to the point that it is no longer a danger.

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Originally Posted by Kazeyonoma

zombies.

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This.

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

So... at the moment.... DK's are in the lead!

Obviously the Human Spirit would overcome any of these tribulations and emerge shining like a beacon of hope for the future.

What the fuck am i reading?

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Originally Posted by leethaxor

What the fuck am i reading?

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I think Bov has the flu :) Or he is being so sarcastic that he just made my sarcasmometer explode.