New answers tagged civilization
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Adventure, travel and adaptation.
They'd (for some unspecified reason be forced to leave their homelands) and learn along the way.
They'd encounter Slavic languages (from whence they'd maybe get their name of "You mountain dweller" or Diggoran or "you farmer", depending on etymology. Maybe coincidence is involved in the naming.).
They would learn to cope ...
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The primary differences are probably going to be that a northern cultures must deal with a several-month winter, while the desert tribe has to deal with a less seasonal variation, but probably does not have the huge surplus of a summer harvest. So they will be concerned with different things and consider different behaviors to be prudent and proper.
The ...
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I see one problem: where will they find oaks to do their rituals? Norses need oaks to do sacrifices, both animal and human. The oak was the World Tree, all oaks are projections of the World Tree, not representations but projections, they are the world tree projected on Midgard. Being projections they could not simply replace it with, say, palms. That would ...
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The issue here is that the main hallmarks of Nordic culture, seafaring fishers and raiders, are anathema to a dry, landlocked region like Xinjiang. Most of the things that go into a culture, food, clothing, even social structure, are based on the environment, and while some of these things can carry over, the environment you're suggesting is just so vastly ...
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Megavolcanos like Yellowstone and Lake Toba: In the case of Yellowstone the richest nation of our current era would lose half of its territory and it's most fertile farmlands. Even ignoring volcanic winter (and that can't be ignored) the food markets will be chaotic for decades as one of the major food exporters go from exporter to importer. Any shock like ...
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Smallpox
The World Health Organization (WHO) describes smallpox as:
[O]ne of the most devastating diseases known to humanity. Smallpox is transmitted from person to person by infected aerosols and air droplets spread in face-to-face contact with an infected person. The disease can also be transmitted by contaminated clothes and bedding... Two forms of ...
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Impact/bombardment from the Taurid Meteor Stream
Example; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9So2SfJzE8
Every year we pass through/by this meteor stream twice, which originated from the breakup of a much larger comet named Encke (we've actually been hit with things from this stream a few times, https://www.space.com/beta-taurid-meteor-shower-tunguska-...
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If you want to go for a tech related catastrophe, check out this article on the future of AI:
https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-2.html
Basically your biggest problem isn't a terminator-like humanoid, rather a super intelligence with a single task at mind. If we die this way it's a pretty cool way to die.
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Create an organism with
infectiousness of the common cold,
payload when triggered like Ebola (mechanism may differ but Ebola is "pretty effective"
Silent transmission like HIV.
It doesn't trigger until we all have it and then it presents an Ebola like worldwide effect with nobody to help those who may otherwise survive with proper care. Charming.
Y'All ...
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1) Do not throw out asteroids - they are not all mapped! And they are not tracked 365/24/7. Asteroids have a tendency to change their course due to the influence of the planets (mostly Jupiter). And even quite large asteroids (up to 1 km in size) will be detected only months before impact. That is the reason why asteroids that would pass by millions of km ...
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My personal opinion is that genetic engineering will cause an ecological catastrophe of one kind or another.
Many times a non-native species was introduced in a habitat it caused havoc there. Australia is a prime example with rabbits and cats. The genes on earth form an "ecology" in themselves, divided in "habitats". While there is a lot of interaction ...
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Biological warfare/terrorism aimed at hitting food production could contribute.
Say a pathogen aimed at disrupting grain supplies is unleashed by a malicious state or terrorist organisation, and proves more effective & resilient than intended.
Terminator gene fails (the pathogen keeps spreading forever)
The pathogen hits more forms of grain than ...
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The biggest problem with coming up with a disaster scenario here is the need to kill 90% of the population. That's going to be a very difficult thing to do. Most of the disaster scenarios mentioned in other answers (climate change, a Carrington event, a limited nuclear war) would not come close to that.
The IPCC says climate change could cause a loss of ...
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another Carrington event
A solar based EMP would essentially throw us back 150 years in technology.
No major city would survive the first winter. Only hardened electronics, or those stored in nice faraday cages would survive. An estimate of 1/2 to 2/3rds of the worlds population would be dead within a year.
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The most likely suspects
Molecular Nanotechnology (either weaponized or accidental). ~31%
Artificial Super Intelligence (terminator scenario). ~27%
Large scale wars, including nuclear and terrorism. ~27%
Engineered or natural pandemic. ~15%
I've summarized the Source and redistributed the probability under the assumption that there was such an event. Note ...
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I would argue famine is a good contender in general.
Over the last 100 years, we've come to rely on refrigeration and a global network of food shipment to supply local needs across the globe. As a planet, it's almost as if we've collectively decide to put all the production of any particular farm production into one ecosystem, and just ship the products ...
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I also believe climate change is the most likely source of catastrophe over the next century. Not only starvation and migration-induced wars, but weather pattern changes that could lead to much more rapid changes in habitability of populated regions. For instance, a five year drought in Brazil would probably depopulate half of South America, and have knock-...
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The Four Horsemen
Global warming is making crop failures look likely. Famine can kill large numbers of people and historically has done so often. Tens of millions died in the midcentury famines in China and the USSR. If global warming makes the tropics unsuitable for agriculture that would lead to famine in Africa and India for sure and possibly China. ...
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The first public building would be a pub, saloon, or bar. people want to socialize and doing so over a beverage of choice along with a little food is the most common way to do it.
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Take your inspiration from buildings made for various purposes. In your search I would consider:
Churches
Monasteries
Community arenas
Day schools
Boarding schools
Frat houses
University dorms
Hotels
Ski Resorts
Fishing Resorts
Soviet cold ware era apartment houses.
Israeli Kibbutzes.
Each one has a different impact on how people live together.
Also, a ...
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Ah humanity, a tendency to overcome any such barriers in the path of technological progress. Hostile water life would be killed, a religious sect would be overrun by a group without such hangups. No such situation would be tolerated for particularly long. The great seafaring nations were those that overcame problems like shipworm, the wrath of the gods at ...
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It would still end up the same, despite not being able to use Rivers for Transports.
Water sources are important. It doesn't need to be a river, but a large lake, a spring or well would all work. Humans can only survive 3 days without water, so a large body of fresh and clean water means that you can basically ignore that aspect of survival. You don't need ...
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A General Store
In most towns, this was built privately by whoever had the capital to build the building and then was the first to set up the store (which takes a fair bit of money to stock). A town served by a railroad is the standard here.
In a town without a place of worship, they would still, as Monica points out, need a place to assemble, but it's ...
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Colonialism is built upon a solid foundation of military force.
There's a reason why so many of those frontier towns have or had names that start with 'Fort'.
At the very least you're going to want a parade square, which is convenient for all sorts of things.
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Depending on the age of your settlement it is possible they would use a re-purposed building.
The Old Dormitory
Immediately after landing everyone needs somewhere to sleep. Can't sleep in the ship, it's already left/we were in cold sleep/it's being dismantled. So first things first we run up a big barracks type dormitory. It's got bunk rooms, a kitchen and ...
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Here's a simple answer: curiosity. After centuries of rising noise and trash-dumping from the surface, the sudden silence might get them reasonably concerned, and start sending scouting parties above.
Question: can your submariners deal comfortably with the changes in light and pressure?
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Noneat least not as such
With reduced resources and no ideological constraint, it is unlikely that the pioneers will devote much efforts to any buildings that has no definite functionality: if they are a community depending on trade (exporting delicious Venusian potatoes in exchange of antibiotics that prevent them dying of horrible diseases) they will ...
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Our old ruined stuff is still pretty sweet.
Your submariners have cargo cults.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult
Cargo cults are marked by a number of common characteristics,
including a "myth-dream" that is a synthesis of indigenous and foreign
elements; the expectation of help from the ancestors; charismatic
leaders; and lastly, belief in ...
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Increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide causes catastrophic increases in carbonic acid in all open bodies of water, the decreased pH causes the pelagic food chain to collapse and a mass extinction event occurs.
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In the early usa, as colonists spread across the land, typically the first thing built was a brothel that served alcohol.... then a church to give the women something else to do.
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Every society needs to have multiple functions, so if you can only build one building for general civic use, it needs to accommodate all these functions
You cannot just focus on one purpose for one building, you need to incorporate as multiple functions as possible.
This is because if you group more than a few people together, they need to:
Governance: ...
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Sports field.
Sporting events are great entertainment and a fine way to bring a community together. Having sporting contests with other local small towns is also an opportunity to mix with people from other small towns which is especially good if your town has no cute people in it.
Ample raised seating for spectators makes the field suitable for open ...
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Since we are talking about a space environment, the actual first public space will be the radiation "storm shelter".
This will be an enclosure somewhere near the center of the colony structure so the bulk of the colony itself will provide the first layer of shielding, and the inner structure will be heavily armoured with thick metal or regolith walls to ...
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I think the very first thing to get built would be a Well. Even if there is a nearby water source like a river, that same river may dry up in the summer and freeze in the winter making it's use impractical. In addition, rivers flood sometimes, so building too close is not always the greatest idea.
A Well, is not what I think the OP is after though.
As ...
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An assembly hall (town hall). The reason those churches get used for other things is that there are reasons other than worship for everybody to gather at times. A church's main hall is only in use for a few hours a week, so gatherings at other times are feasible.
Your need for those gatherings doesn't go away just because your society doesn't have ...
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Either a Courthouse/Jail or a School
The determination as to which of these would be built would depend mostly on the characteristics of the population. If they have a lot of children (mostly families, farmers, etc.), then it'd be a school, if this is a mining town (a bunch of bachelors) then a Courthouse/Jail.
It really just depends on what they need most....
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A deep ocean society relies upon geothermal energy to live. What if, for reasons that don't have to be explained anytime soon in the story, the geothermal energy subsides to nothing at the ocean floor? Without energy, the community becomes unsustainable and has to go to the surface to get the energy needed to make food and sustain civilization. So, they ...
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Well, for Humans mass migrations (and the claiming of already inhibited territories) seemingly mostly were triggered by either the "homeland" becoming un-inhabitable due to climate changes and the shortage of food that comes with it or by aggressors driving the population out of their homeland en masse (maybe because they, in turn, are facing one of those ...
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What reason would a hidden, deep ocean society have to come up to the surface of a post-apocalyptic Earth and claim the land for themselves?
I can think of only two offhand... revenge or reclamation.
Revenge... they don't intend to claim the surface for themselves, after all, it is: horrible, hot, dry, the pressure is all wrong, the sounds are all wrong, ...
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The decay and detritus of the surface dwellers is beginning to impact their society.
Leaking nuclear waste, mass mutating bioweapons, ash, all these things are threatening their own way of life. So they send expeditions up to the surface to explore our ruins, fix our leaking waste and scrub radiation, destroy our bioweapons.
This would only really need ...
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