The Ancient Apocalypse - io9 Comments

The Ancient Apocalypse

Silver_Back — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:35:14 PDT

Forget that garbege movie 10,000 B.C. make a movie about this!

The Ancient Apocalypse

Klebert L. Hall — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 08:28:47 PDT

Um, we've known about the 70K die-off for decades, at least...

The drought's a good root-cause guess, it's too bad we'll probably never find out for sure. I've wondered about it ever since I first heard of it.

As for the "right people" surviving, it doesn't much matter. A tiny population like 2000 people can't possibly maintain civilization, no matter how "right" they are. The best bet would be if the people were fertile and had good, diverse genes.

-Kle.

Klebert L. Hall

The Ancient Apocalypse

russdanger — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 08:19:21 PDT

@Ghede:

More likely be a bunch of Skin-Headed swastika-tattooed AK-47 toting survivalist morons from the highlands of Montana.People with real lives have no time to prepare for the apocalypse.
Oh God I'm so depressed....

russdanger

The Ancient Apocalypse

Ghede — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 01:43:55 PDT

I don't think we should be worried about survival as much as we should worry about whether or not the right people will survive. If 2000 were to survive, I would hope they would be all in the same area, have access to books, and have a collection of scientists, engineers, and others.

Ghede

The Ancient Apocalypse

phoenix — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:03:57 PDT

Very cool. :D Always good to read that the species is a little hardier than the movies make us out to be. ;)

phoenix

The Ancient Apocalypse

Charlie Jane Anders — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:05:56 PDT

@johnjosephadams: It's in my stack... I'll try and get to it soon! It definitely looks awesome...

Charlie Jane Anders

The Ancient Apocalypse

johnjosephadams — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:42:33 PDT

Jeez, you guys keep talking about the apocalypse, why don't you just review my anthology, Wastelands, already? (You know you want to.) Besides, that image you posted is on the cover, you're already half-way there!

johnjosephadams

The Ancient Apocalypse

geekzilla — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:30:21 PDT

@DocGratis:
"Would it be freakier if was from man (humanoid ape) produced global warming?"

Wow, yes, I think it would be freakier. My mind is now blown. Thanks.

geekzilla

The Ancient Apocalypse

geekzilla — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:21:55 PDT

@Plague:
"Well, except for the fact that it was a drought, sure."

Oh yeah, that. Uhm.

No, but seriously. We can't tell it was a drought based on human mitochondrial DNA. They're saying that since: "Eastern Africa experienced a series of severe droughts between 135,000 and 90,000 years ago...", they are theorizing that it must have been some of that drought activity, but they could be wrong.

Last I looked there's a lot of time between 90,000 and 70,000 years ago (20,000 years, in fact), so it could have been anything else.

geekzilla

The Ancient Apocalypse

Dillenger69 — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:17:40 PDT

I'd like to think we'll come out of the next apocalypse with something similar to "Things to Come" but with fewer white people.

Dillenger69

The Ancient Apocalypse

Grey_Area — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:16:30 PDT

@Plague: Yeah but all the water for the flood had to come from somewhere, see? Africa got the drought, Mesopotamia got the flood.

Grey_Area

The Ancient Apocalypse

DocGratis — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:14:29 PDT

@geekzilla: Would it be freakier if was from man (humanoid ape) produced global warming?

DocGratis

The Ancient Apocalypse

Plague — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:10:46 PDT

@geekzilla:
Well, except for the fact that it was a drought, sure.

Plague

The Ancient Apocalypse

geekzilla — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:00:43 PDT

Boy, wouldn't it just freak everyone out if this coincided with a huge cataclysmic flood 70,000 years ago? :)

geekzilla

The Ancient Apocalypse

geekzilla — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:55:13 PDT

@Argyle:
"Lies! The world is only 5000 years old. Look it up, it's in the bible... "

Aww, I am so disappointed! If you're going to make fun of someone else's beliefs, at least get your snappy comments right. It's between 6,000 and 10,000 years old! (according to the literal creation story in the Bible).

geekzilla

The Ancient Apocalypse

Priam — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:45:57 PDT

@Priam: And speaking of works of the empire, I am going to make some Indonesian peanut chicken. I will chat with y'all later.

Priam

The Ancient Apocalypse

Priam — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:44:58 PDT

Wow, this conversation is starting to sound preachy like a Dr. Who episode.

Priam

The Ancient Apocalypse

Gann — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:37:02 PDT

The human will to survive has brought us through many catastrophies, but it has never had to cope with 6.6 billion humans. As a species we are very good at surviving, but we are also very, very good at destroying. It will be interesting to see what equilibrium these two facets of our nature come to.

Gann

The Ancient Apocalypse

moff — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:35:10 PDT

@russdanger: Yeah, that seems like a major difference to me, too. Our capacity for destruction has literally increased exponentially since 70,000 years ago.

moff

The Ancient Apocalypse

Dunny0 — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:29:49 PDT

@russdanger: The B Ark, yes.
We're all the descendants of TV producers, hair stylists, telephone sanitizers and marketing personnel.

Although I meant that the Earth being only 5,000 years old was a result of the "reboot" of human history, as the previous version wasn't doing well enough in the ratings.

That's the only explanation for conflicting evidence: All just holdovers from the old continuity, mostly kept there to keep the fanboys happy and tuned in.

Dunny0

The Ancient Apocalypse

Priam — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:28:33 PDT

@russdanger: that's "We're all the descendants of um,...morMons."

Priam

The Ancient Apocalypse

Priam — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:27:34 PDT

Well maybe if they had made electrical sockets for their televisions, our ancestors could have avoided disaster.

Priam

The Ancient Apocalypse

russdanger — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:24:10 PDT

@Dunny0:
It would be an interesting plot-device, to have the fleet arrive on our Earth, only 70,000 years ago...
Oh, wait...Douglas Addams already wrote that in the Hitchiker's Guide...
We're all the descendants of um,...morons.

russdanger

The Ancient Apocalypse

jbq — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:16:50 PDT

@92BuickLeSabre: Agreed! As long as we keep Roland Emmerich away from it :-D

jbq

The Ancient Apocalypse

Dunny0 — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:14:51 PDT

@russdanger: Naw,more like a franchise reboot, like BSG.

Dunny0

The Ancient Apocalypse

X: The Eliminator — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:14:00 PDT

actually, it was the 2000 survivors of a ragtag fleet from space.

X: The Eliminator

The Ancient Apocalypse

Grey_Area — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:13:15 PDT

Isn't there some evidence that there was more genetic diversity during that diaspora? That all the humans today, as different as they might appear now, are descended from a relatively small gene pool after the species was culled by aforementioned disaster(s).
Or did I make all that up?

Grey_Area

The Ancient Apocalypse

DocGratis — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:11:54 PDT

It is an interesting finding... A biological bottleneck..

Of course on the other hand that population isolation and stress is what produced us moder humans...

So really it is mother nature's fault that we exist to screw up the environment.
(whaaa my mother starved me as child species.. that is why I destroy the environment...)

DocGratis

The Ancient Apocalypse

russdanger — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:07:36 PDT

@Argyle:

Maybe there was a prequel. God is like George Lucas...

russdanger

The Ancient Apocalypse

Argyle — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:04:34 PDT

Lies! The world is only 5000 years old. Look it up, it's in the bible...

Argyle

The Ancient Apocalypse

russdanger — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:04:18 PDT

Okay, but the survivors of said prehistoric calamity were blessed with a pristine environment that had not been crapped-upon by 6.6 billion people, their toxic-waste, radiation, virus, etc, etc...

We need to learn to behave. Or develop speedy space-travel in a hurry so we can pillage the cosmos like a swarm of locusts...I'm good either way...

russdanger

The Ancient Apocalypse

92BuickLeSabre — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:56:22 PDT

No that would make a cool movie.

92BuickLeSabre

The Ancient Apocalypse

Dunny0 — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:49:46 PDT

Piffle and hooey!
Everyone knows that climate change cannot harm humans!

It was probably aliens... Or time travelers with some sort of crazy grudge against their ancestors.

Dunny0

The Ancient Apocalypse

motionmonk — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:44:22 PDT

Nice matte painting! Do you have a reference for where this is from?

motionmonk