Talk:Timeline (1989: Wipe-out)
From Alternative History
Don't forget that pertro-chemical plants will go up too, lots and LOTS of smoke and gases.--TEAKAY 22:26, 15 January 2008 (UTC)
- Changes made.
The virus is 100% fatal and only those entirely immune are safe in exposure then.--TEAKAY 20:04, 16 January 2008 (UTC)
- Technically true, however the Ebola strain in this ALT is not pure Ebola Zaire (which is not airborne, as non-fatal Ebola Reston is), so I postulate a 0.5% possibility that some inherent immunity might be possible.
- That's rough ;) --TEAKAY 12:29, 18 January 2008 (UTC)
If the Riverside population does manage to survive inbreeding, how long could it take for their population to reach 1000?--TEAKAY 21:09, 18 January 2008 (UTC)
- Too many variables. A cholera or typhus epidemic could wipe out the town. If the genetic anomalies were held under control somehow, and figuring 3 children per fertile woman surviving to adulthood....maybe 100 years.
[edit] Technology
You said that human technology would not reach 20th century-level again until 6500 AD. I disagree. While it is true that humans might regress technologically, I think that at most it would take a few centuries to return to the original level. Unlike the last time the world population was 10 million, people would know far more about the world. As you noted at the end of the timeline, most villages know about various farming and hygiene techniques that were unknown millenia before. And that's just scrathing the surface. Naturally, the survivors would not want anything humanity had learned to be lost, so they would pass on everything they knew to their descendents. Plus, since some communities are scavenging abandoned cities and towns by 2008, wouldn't they likely go through libraries and bring back science textbooks?
Considering all these things, I'd say that with regard to technology, the only real obstacle would be population. The only reason there would cease to be advanced technology would be that there'd be too few people to build and maintain it.
Daedalus Georgios 00:49, 19 May 2008 (UTC)