The Apocalypse Panel

Hi everyone!

A fellow, well respected author and friend, Randy Lindsay, has invited me to join a panel of authors as we discuss the idea of a possible world apocalypse.  You can view the full panel discussion HERE.

Firstly, thanks to Randy for starting this panel! I was honored to be included! I must admit that the idea of an apocalypse is something that has fascinated not only myself, but countless others since the beginning of time! It would be fair to say that the first 'recorded' apocalypse was in the Bible, during Noah's time of the Great Flood. The human race almost entirely extinguished after 40 days and nights of floods. Prior to that, we have the extinction of the dinosaurs, various Ice Ages etc etc. The earth is forever
shedding its old skin and starting fresh, and it is inevitable that it will do so many more countless times, in my opinion.

In reality though, these events are, more often than not, spread across many thousands of years, so Anthony is correct in saying it would be impossible to exactly predict the year, never mind the actual month or day, that this would happen again!

As for HOW? Well, let me count the ways... To be honest, in today's day and age there are hundreds of ways this could happen - nuclear war, asteroids, viruses... the list is endless and really only limited by one's own imagination. And seeing as we are a panel of authors, who probably have the wildest imaginations on the planet, let me throw my 'imaginary' hypothesis out there...

Quite ironically, I read in a local newspaper yesterday that scientists discovered a 30000 year old virus in a frozen Siberian tundra, and REVIVED it! You can read the full article HERE.

This had my mind spinning. Can you imagine a world infected by an ancient virus that humans know absolutely nothing about, and that quite possibly could have been the reason the dinosaurs were wiped out?. What chance would our weak genetic makeup have against such an unknown, ancient threat?

I could ramble on for hours about this, including scenarios and impact, but I believe Randy's posed question is designed to spark the imagination and promote discussion for whoever reads the responses. Have fun playing that one out... :)

My conclusion: We have already predicted the way our world will end one day when we came up with the phrase: "Curiosity killed the cat." :)