Imperium Offtopicum XXIII

NinjaCow64

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Welcome to the 23rd Imperium Offtopicum! Gosh, I can't believe there have been exactly 22 other IOTs. What a big number

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Let me reserve one other post for safekeeping and then feel free to post ideas for crises.
 
1. Singularity goes wrong. Very very wrong. AI is developed, and it turns out to be extremely violent, and tries to wipe out humanity. Society collapses, but pockets of resistance remain dotted across the world.

2. Climate change plus peak oil leads to the gradual, but still dramatically total, collapse of the old order as resource chains dry up and areas become uninhabitable to live in.

3. GIANT METEOR HITS NORMANDY, GLOBAL COOLING INNIMENT
 
1.Everything Changed When the Kaiju attacked: Due to Worst nuclear fallout in history with the Kashiwasaki-Kariwa nuclear plant destruction lead unknown amount of lifeforms being infected (while growing to epic proportions) and wreaking havoc on earth.
 
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1. Limited nuclear exchange between China and The US, annihilating most minor Pacific US isles and heavily damaging the US west coast and the largest Chinese cities.

2. Combined Eruption of Ätna and Vesuvius. Massive Eruption flattening most of Southern and Central italy, causing a nuclear winter.

3. Exhaustion and complete melting of the Greenland glaciers, leading to the end of the Gulf Stream
 
This looks cool!

1. Artificial intelligence disasters. I think this would be way more interesting if it isn't an out-and-out global robot rebellion but instead is a slow burn of below general-intelligence AIs pursuing their goals in dangerous, sometimes widespread ways - e.g. autonomous military hardware deciding the best way to pursue its initial mission goals is to ignore subsequent orders (leading to a region being stuck in a quagmire of autonomous warfare), stock market AI finding profitable equilibria that cause market crashes, and sometimes appliances becoming "malicious" because humans are in the way of their goals (e.g. to optimize factory production, the factory manager who plans to recommend the plant be closed needs to die).

2. Anti-modern revolutionary wave. With the proliferation of modern technologies (designer babies, cybernetics/transhumanism, advanced/ubiquitous surveillence, destruction of the environment) humans are becoming agitated, a revolutionary wave against existing technological societies (at first protests, then various violent and revolutionary actions).

3. Environmental disasters. Refugee crises due to equatorial region being uninhabitable for parts of the year, sea level rising to point of flooding coastal cities, food crises from soil erosion, etc.
 
1) the sea levels have risen; certain cities and plenty of isles are under the sea now.

2) while sea levels rise drinking water decreased in parts of the world.

3) decrease in suitable farming soil; food production risked.
 
1. The Big One: A massive Earthquake originates in California and ripples across the Ring of Fire, leaving widespread destruction and devastation in its wake and crippling the United States and most of Southeast Asia.

2. The Collapse: An economic upset spirals out of control and the world economy nosedives, leading to widespread civil unrest and the breakdown of traditional institutions as world trade and globalism utterly collapse.

3. Humanity's Civil War: With the rise of cybernetics and trans-humanism, the tension between new humanity and old boils over into a Pyrrhic civil war.
 
This looks cool!

2. Anti-modern revolutionary wave. With the proliferation of modern technologies (designer babies, cybernetics/transhumanism, advanced/ubiquitous surveillence, destruction of the environment) humans are becoming agitated, a revolutionary wave against existing technological societies (at first protests, then various violent and revolutionary actions).

3. Environmental disasters. Refugee crises due to equatorial region being uninhabitable for parts of the year, sea level rising to point of flooding coastal cities, food crises from soil erosion, etc.

I like these ideas, especially 3. I'd also like to vote against anything too sci-fi.
 
No War But the Class War: Four hundred years have passed since the beginning of industrialization, and with it, the capitalist mode of production. Yet, despite all of the technological changes, whether they be the railway or the (currently limited) AI and automation, one thing did not change. The struggle that has characterized all of history is still going on in all states - between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. Technology is yet to be freed of the conditions it has been created, that is to say, the distinctly capitalist reality we still inhabit. While, today, the crisis period of the mid-21st century has passed, no mistake is to be made - the conflict is far from over, and it'll never end, until the victory of one class over another.

Revolutions of the 2050s: Ever since the so-called "end of history", declared amusingly in the 1990s after the fall of the USSR, the contradictions within the capitalist system increased ever so highly, until climate change and the general decay of capitalism caused the people across all six continents to rise up, with varying success. It was not only a leftist revolution, but also a fascist "revolution", in parts. To this day, these newly born states are still in turmoil, waiting to birth the new - or end it in its cradle.

Climate Change: You know, the radical crisis that capitalism is facing? Some real stuff, man.
 
  1. Total Societal Collapse: Wealth disparity gets so bad that the working class have no choice but to fight for survival. Riots the world over lead to the ruling class being completely destroyed, but millions of workers also die in the process; a literal decimation in world population.
  2. Technological Enslavement: The Rich, in a final push to maintain their power, enslave the working class through technology (brain implants, surveillance, mass media). The world is unknowingly under mind control but pockets of resistance exist here and there.
  3. Solar Storm EMP: A solar storm leads to a complete shutdown of all electronic devices on Earth. Everything from Hospitals to Public Transports is completely shut down.
 
Spoiler :
On a (only slightly) more serious note:

1. A mishmash of genetic engineering, physics nonsense and weird occult stuff are used by various nations to create real gods to govern Earth. Turns out they all hate each other and have a super god battle in which they all die or run off into space leaving a broken battleground in Earth.

2. Unkown chemical reactions at the bottoms of the oceans have poisoned the sea and nothing can live there anymore and pure water has become a super scarce thing and everyone is worried.

3. A giant meteor hits Normandy causing global cooling AND the meteor is also carrying an alien supervirus
 
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  1. I third the Meteor strike.
  2. As a result of the meteor, satellites have been destroyed. Space is now filled with flying junk, some of that returning to Earth.
  3. Massive floods from climate change.
 
1. Yellowstone finally blows: The North American Supervolcano(s) erupt after thousands of years of dormancy. Life over much of North America is wiped out, pockets still exist on the Eastern and Western coast. The federal government absolutely fails to respond to and deal with the crisis and collapses in the ensuing Chaos. Ash and soot are thrown into the atmosphere blocking out the sun, at first seen as a boon that reverses some of the worst of climate change, however, the ensuing ash cloud eventually leads to a crisis of global cooling. Crop shortages are abundant, and famines are rampant. The hardest-hit territories are those already cold and difficult to inhabit, followed by the very urban very industrial European states. The territories least affected are warmer more rural societies, better known as the "global south". Ironically, the societies that are best able to deal with the crisis are those that are the poorest. Even then the Global South still faces societal collapse and revolution as Neo-Colonial ties and western funding for their regimes dries up.

2. Gradual Systems Collapse: or how I stopped worrying and learned to love the second fall of Rome: Capitalism proved surprisingly capable of facing its challenges, even climate change was eventually halted and reversed. However, the internal contradictions of capitalism continued to grow, until eventually, they grew too great. The numerous complex wheels and cogs to maintain society and deal with minor crises had grown too great, the cost to maintain each one outweighed the value they provided, and yet society was too dependent on each of them to get rid of, leading to a greater cost to eliminate or change the structure. The ruling classes, unable and unwilling to make the drastic changes necessary and give up their power, were content to leave the system chugging along as normal slowly dying. The working classes, lacking class consciousness, being too content, or being too impoverished to do anything were unable to stop the collapse. Eventually, the systems just... fell apart. Following the collapse was great conflict and destruction, new societies and ideologies were born and old ones died. While some still hold onto the glory days of the past and seek to restore them, due to current material conditions, they are no more capable of restoring capitalist civilization's height than Charlemagne was capable of restoring Rome.

3. Age of Strife: For decades humanity has been a member of the galactic community. For decades humanity has sought its place among the stars. New worlds, new species, new challenges, all of which have been overcome by the growing Interstellar Human Government. However, it was not to last. Uprisings, food shortages and interstellar system collapse have taken hold of the galaxy. The relatively young, and weak Human government quickly collapsed. Contact and trade were severed with Earth's colonies and the United Nations of Earth was unable to maintain its control over Humanity's home planet. Local governments collapsed without support from the UN, and eventually, the Earth was nothing but a bunch of bickering warlords seeking to stabilize their economies, and reunite the Earth, and restore Humanity's place among the stars.

BONUS (MEME) - 4. Rapture/The Snap: No one knows or understands what happened. The new societies across the globe all have different names for it. The Rapture, the Apocalypse, the Event, the Great Dying, Armageddon, Ragnarök, and The Snap just to name a few. What we do know, however, is that one day roughly half of all life on Earth just vanished in an instant. Not even bodies were left behind. The fallout was immediate, supply chains collapsed overnight, cars and trucks ran themselves off the road, governments collapsed as leadership vanished and lines of succession were broken, new religions formed that tried to explain what happened, old religions struggled to cope and find an explanation in their holy texts or leaders. Chaos reigned as the survivors tried to pick up the pieces from a broken system, but the damage had been done, and new societies must build upon the dust of the old.
 
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M E T E O R

Gets my vote too.
 
While I will be sticking to my desire to have sea level map in this game I will have to say: this is going to be a icon for this game and I will support such a consideration.

Spoiler icon for the game :
 
1. A meteor strikes Antarctica, completely wiping it out, causing massive flooding globally and complete disruption of the climate. Lets call this "Second Impact"

2. Age of Strife.

3.

3. Environmental disasters. Refugee crises due to equatorial region being uninhabitable for parts of the year, sea level rising to point of flooding coastal cities, food crises from soil erosion, etc.
 
1. A meteor strikes Antarctica, completely wiping it out, causing massive flooding globally and complete disruption of the climate. Lets call this "Second Impact"

Changing one of my votes to this.
 
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