Demerzel’s China Blog - Intellectual Analysis on China, SEO, and the Web
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Life After People by the History Channel
Author: Demerzel30 Dec
Bump and Update on 1/29/2007:
Please go here if you are looking for my thoughts on Life After People.
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What looks to be a fascinating TV special by the History Channel coming up on January 21st called “Life After People“:
The human species appeared on Earth about two million years ago and has been changing it ever since. What will Earth look like in the days, weeks, months, years and millennia after humans are gone? How long would it take for our edifices to crumble–all traces of us gone, to be replaced by primordial forests, wild boar, rare cranes in pristine marshes? The clues to the future are right here in the present but are illuminated when we look through the lens of history. Experts from all fields of science will paint the picture, and the destructions and resurrections will all be animated by the magic of George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic. (Genres: Science & Technology, Special)
Even David Brin is will be getting into it as he notes on Daily Kos:
Watch your favorite Brin put down his pundit thing on the History Channel (again) on January 21, in a docu-future bit called Life After People… a fun look at what could happen to our cities… and animals… if humanity suddenly disappeared.
Would like to put a note via an RSS feed or something, but its unfortunately too far out on the History Channel’s website at this point, but so it goes.
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39 Responses for "Life After People by the History Channel"
it is amazing that we think as a species we are going to last forever….the trailer is fantastic and had people in the theater talking about the show. I think we need to see that mother earth will go on with out us. she was here way before us and will be here and probably a little happier when we are just a faded memory
I’m a bit more optimistic about the human race and prefer to have good thoughts about what we can do (once we get past the Late Industrial Era pollutants) to really benefit Earth.
That said, I definitely will enjoy dystopian sci-fi (or futuristic history?) to make one think about how fragile our buildings are. Not to mention the curiosity of how long it would take before all visible traces of human civilization would be gone if another race were to stumble upon our planet.
[...] wanted to follow-up on my previous post about Life After People by the History Channel as I ran across an article online by the Discover Magazine called “Earth Without [...]
We must ask this same type of question when thinking of Mars. I have a hunch that Mars was once populated by intelligent beings. However, if they disappeared 1 million years ago would there be any trace for our human explorers to find?
Humans Are:
Invasive Species #1
Monoculture #1
Virus #1
Planet Destroyers #1
War Mongers #1
Hate Mongers #1
Self Serving #1
Plague #1
Pandemic #1
Earth without People? Good riddance!
Jason,
It’s a good point up to what level of intelligence and really how long ago. I personally think 1 million years would not be enough time to remove all non-natural made features by an industrial civilization, but I’ll see if “Life After People” on the 21st of January really does go into more details on how long to really make it no longer visible.
Kurt,
You forget a few things:
Love, Caring, Charity, Curiosity, Knowledge
Sure you can list a lot of negatives (that can arise out of an abuse of our intelligence and knowledge), but that intelligence and knowledge used properly can result in many positive and amazing things that I would hate to see disappear.
Does anyone know if this special will have any kind of connection to Alan Weisman’s book, The World Without Us?
I admittedly had not heard of the book before, but I would not be surprised if the special gets some of its ideas from a large variety of these sources to inspire their TV special.
Yah. People suck. Humans are the only animal in the world that kill their own species for fun, money, or feelings. NORMAL animals kill their own because they’re sick or retarded and stuff. I love humanity, it’s people I hate. People are annoying. I think the planet would be better off without us. At least it would survive. I think we will eventually kill the planet and ourselves. Just because we’re stupid. Look on youtube.com for “the scariest video you’ve ever seen”. He’ll explain it to you. He’s so right! Better safe than sorry. There’s a book? Cool!
Okay Demerzel, but love must be returned, caring is usually paid for, charity gives back in one way or another, curiosity killed the cat (duh), and knowledge hurts. People are selfish and dumber than the cat.
I agree with Jason Clark, Mars went wrong somehow.
Ninety-five per cent of all life that has ever existed on this planet have gone extinct. Human beings have deluded themselves into thinking that they are a permanent feature of this continuous evolving world. In fact we are merely temporary participants in the passing parade of life.
More information from HistoryChannel.com:
Humans show the highest and lowest potential of any species ever on Earth. That we can discuss and contemplate our potential, good or bad, is proof of our extraordinary position among all life ever on Earth. To paraphrase Descartes: We think, therefore we are forever apart from all other life. True?
@Lee: I think we are definitely apart from all other life now, but not necessarily from all other life until we learned agriculture. That was when we could really begin to control nature (in a very minor way of course, but more than any other animal) and truly develop as a species, after our ability to control fire of course.
Kurt says:
>>Earth without People? Good riddance!
Yeah. Why don’t you lead the way Kurt? We’re all right behind you.
He has all the depth of puppy pee on a sidewalk.
Dent- I think Kurt has enough problems as it is…lets leave him alone.
But you are right.
Now this tops it all!! I really find it interesting how scientists by examining ice can predict what happened billions of years ago. Now they are going to tell us how we will go extinct and what will follow us. Hey Einsten’s, how about predicting the next winning lotto numbers. Or at least let me know with some accuracy tomorrows weather forecast. Laugh!!!!!!!!!!!!
The irony of your statements is that financial econometric analysts do actually predict the stock market for a living and make money of that. Obviously, once they can predict it, they make the money, but those predictions only work for a very short time. That’s the beauty of science, science, done right, can do a lot for predictions.
If anyone in here actually has studied Biology on a higher level, then they would know that what Kurt has said is actually right. The world, as an ecosystem, can only sustain a specific number of a species, this is known as “critical mass.” Once a population, such as the human race, has gone beyond that, it begins to destroy the ecosystem around it. Eventually, the species uses up all of its natural resources, destroys other species in hopes of finding more resources. This is not just a product of the human race though, there are a few other species that have this issue.
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Actually, many animals kill their own over territory, sex, food etc.. But, if you look at it per-capita, there is probably less of that among humans than among animals, I dont know for sure, not sure if that has been compared before, but the results would be interesting either way. We do have the potential to be benevolent and sentient, we also have the potential to degrade into selfishness and destruction, and either of these may or may not happen one day. Stop hating on your own race and start proving you can actually make a difference before you betray your fellow beings.
Mars? Don’t think so, current science (which is much further along when Hoagland and all his anti-science friends saw the Face on Mars) says that its atmosphere was blown away far too soon for intelligent life to take hold. This show will be cool though, as long as it isn’t as bad as the Discovery show a couple years back that attempted to show us where evolution would take animals of the future. That show was utterly absurd.
This show is going to be done well, we might find a way to hold on forever, Put muther nature under control, direct the valcano lava a different way,stop tittle waves with a huge bord or somthing ext.. and theres no telling what we could do with world peace.Also helping the earth wake back up cleaning it up Stop using cars and air polutionproducts, A PIPE DREAM I NTHINK NOT.
Hollie,
Speak for yourself about humanity being “retarded.” In fact, we are not the only species that kills for sport. Nor do we have the power to “kill the planet.”
Of course humanity would not last forever! Even the religious know there’s a beginning and an end–it’s in the bible, after all. This entire concept seems to assume that we would not spawn another species that would continue after we’re long gone. This concept ignores the rapid development of artificial intelligence and the possibility of a technological Singularity that would explode everything we think about technology.
It’s interesting idea. Humans would die in the future, naturally. But that doesn’t mean extra-human intelligence would not survive.
Reading some of these comments, I’m reminded that a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing.
Enjoy:
Battle of Kruger
[...] those of you with the long MLK weekend, just sending out a reminder about Life After People being shown on the History Channel on January 21st from 9PM to [...]
In 1999 a naval facility in Hawaii was closed, and many parts of it were left to grow as they would. Today (9 years later) freely growing trees, shrubs, grasses, wild flowers (aka weeds), etc., have grown under, up, and through every road, sidewalk, foundation, etc., that has not been intentionally maintained. There are many places that are simply unidentifiable as having been roads or parking lots or whatever they were when the facility was operational. Figure this information into your equation when trying to predict what the world will look like once we are gone.
Of course, most of us are so arrogant that we don’t even think of ourselves as a species; so, how are we to admit that extinction is the most likely result of our future?
[...] also act like a bunch of inbred monkeys, to some extent or another. Even the idiots commenting and speculating about this show have failed to produce much beyond a typical string of Youtube [...]
This show was interesting in a very morbidly indulgent way but it’s entire premise was ridiculous. It presents a scenario were people simply disapear leaving buildings and automated systems intact, pets must fend for themselves etc…
This was a greenie nut’s wet dream, who wrote it Erik Pianka?!!
Well, it was an interesting show, but I must say that I’m skeptical about all of humanity suddenly dying off. There’s just too many of us for every human to die off without a major catastrophe that would probably render much of the other points moot. Given that suspension of disbelief, it seems to have been well thought out. The real down side was the incredible amount of commercials during that two-hour spread. Thank goodness for DVRs.
[...] the off-chance that one has yet to watch History Channel’s Life After People yet, please note that below will have spoilers on the show and my thoughts on it as [...]
Please note that I have now posted my thoughts on this topic as well on Life After People.
[...] History Channel now buying PPC ads after the fact of their great special that I blogged about on Life After People and also my thoughts on Life After People (not to mention creating the pages all after they ran the [...]
Eric…
Man, your mind fascinates me. Thanks again for sharing….
Garen Fountain…
Why would you say that, when you can see that what you sy is not correct….
bob hoskins movies…
I Googled for something completely different, but found your page…and have to say thanks. nice read….
Jessie…
Man, your mind fascinates me. Thanks again for sharing….
travel channel discovery.com…
Good comment. It is a pitty that many people does not think like that. Thanks….
Life after people? WHO CARES? What a ridiculous premise! I can’t believe somebody would spend money to produce a show like that. I can’t believe anyone would find it interesting. Naturally, of course the human species isn’t going to last forever. Naturally, of course the infrastructure we’ve built, whatever of it survives us, will eventually deteriorate and disappear. As to the exact form and mechanism of that decay, WHO CARES? If we’re already gone, who gives a rat’s behind? The rats, I guess, or the great great great great great great great great great grandchildren of todays cockroaches. Life after people? GET a life. Then you you’ll be too busy to worry about such baloney
I thought the show was an important insight into the grand scheme of things. Moreover, it is a reminder of our impermance and to treasure each moment for what it really is, a miracle. It is miraclous that we, humans, came about under the conditions in which the earth inhabited throughtout its history. A particular line in the show commentary lingers in my mind, it states that the human race was made possible in a small window of opportunity in the history of the earth’s conditions. Any other time the conditions would not be suitable for our life. With this said, enjoy it while you can.
[...] was somewhat odd to after watching the History Channel’s Life After People and not wonder how the ruins could still be around after millions of years, but leaving that aside, [...]
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