Bad Science Television – Life After People
I remember a special on how long it would take things to decay if all the people left the earth some years ago. Now that idea is a television show. There is just one small problem, it is based on a silly premise.
The entire show is based on the idea that the entire planets population of humans disappears all at once. By disappear the show assumes that we humans have not left in space ships or have died off from disease. We just disappear.
How is this a problem? Because how we leave the planet is critical to figuring out how things fall apart.
If we all die of disease then there will be stack of bodies everywhere. The wildlife will eat well for a time, and then we will really nourish plants.
If we all got on spaceships or were teleported away in some planned excursion to another reality in a planned manner then we would shut down the power plants and open the gates so the animals can fun free and fend for themselves.
The idea that we all suddenly disappear does not make this fantasy or horror, it is just a bad premise. The producers chose one easy scenario and it allows them to take 10 minutes following the Queen of England’s Dogs around presuming how they would get out of Buckingham Palace.
Why not use the possible extinction scenarios and then talk about how the planet would react. It is just bad science and ultimately a waste of time. No research endeavor is good if it starts with a failed premise.
