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So Q pops into existence right now, here in our present day world, and tells you you have two choices. No talking your way out of it or avoiding it in any way, one of the following things is GOING to happen :

1) Humanity will be destroyed completely, but life on Earth will continue on. The planet will revert to a more "natural" state, like that "After People" show, and evolution and nature will continue on its way.

2) Humanity will not be destroyed... but every single non-human living thing will be. Every plant and animal species on Earth that's not us, rendered extinct forever. Humanity will be given technology to enable it to produce food and other similar animal and plant products synthetically - replicators or similar. So we will continue on as a species... just living on a completely sterile planet.

If you decline to choose, he will choose whichever option appeals to him instead.

Which would you choose, and why?

My God. What kind of choice is that? Well, the vast majority of life on this planet has gone extinct leaving room for other things to fill in. Rather than consign all life to the crapper I'd choose number 1. Man has had a rather stellar run of it, let the next critter make the climb to sapience.

Number 2, no doubt.

I can hope we can revive some through our DNA data bases at some point, but if not. Better them than us.

Also I can hope for life elsewhere, or artificial life.

Number 2, not even a real choice.

For myself I'd honestly be kind of torn over this. I think I'd go with option 2... in the end I'm a human and I'll bet on my species every time. But I don't think I'd ever stop feeling guilty about it.

It's not a fun choice to be sure but in the end I'm not going to be responsible for ending seven billion sapient lives.

Yeah with the options being, I and my family live, or dont. Its not an real hard choice.

A harder choice is: Which one would you choose,

Everyone in your own country dies, including you, your family and friends and everyone else.

Or

Everyone else in the world die, leaving only your country populated by humans.

Teaos wrote:Yeah with the options being, I and my family live, or dont. Its not an real hard choice.

A harder choice is: Which one would you choose,

Everyone in your own country dies, including you, your family and friends and everyone else.

Or

Everyone else in the world die, leaving only your country populated by humans.

See, I'd find that one quite easy. My country in a heartbeat.

80 million rather that 7 billion?

The way I see it, you'd be eating each other with in a year. My country is self sufficient in food but not modern tech.

Option 2. I would feel guilty about it but really my own species first.

Don't we already have an Ark filled with animal DNA/specimens?

McAvoy wrote:Option 2. I would feel guilty about it but really my own species first.

Don't we already have an Ark filled with animal DNA/specimens?

Yes, perhaps, but I would have thought that Q would destroy that too.

Could we, in the future, build them again if he have sequenced their DNA? I know we have a few species fully mapped.

Teaos wrote:Could we, in the future, build them again if he have sequenced their DNA? I know we have a few species fully mapped.

Depends if Newman's involved.

Option two. Although that's one hell of a sadistic choice.

IanKennedy wrote:

McAvoy wrote:Option 2. I would feel guilty about it but really my own species first.

Don't we already have an Ark filled with animal DNA/specimens?

Yes, perhaps, but I would have thought that Q would destroy that too.

That wasn't clear in that somewhere in the future we could create domesticated Lions and Bears and giant dogs we could ride into battle or a Griffin.