What if everyone over 21 Disappeared?

[ray245]

Inspired by this thread: http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=155480

While we do a clear idea that most of the world's infrastructure is going to collapse if children under 15 are the only ones left in the world, how much infrastructure can we retain if young adults manage to survive as well?

In this scenario, the world would have retain a significant portion of military personnel, although it would lack any form of senior leadership. How would all the armies in the world cope with the sudden loss of their senior commanders?

Will we be able to retain most of our infrastructure that relies on skilled labour? Is it feasible for the power plants to remain operational if the only members left are nothing more than a bunch of trainees that have 1-2 years of working experience at best?

Can developed countries retain a portion of its aviation industry in such a scenario? What about our communication infrastructure? Would the telecoms manage to find some way to continue operating?

Which countries would be better off in such a scenario? Would the developing nations gain a much bigger advantage than the developed world because these countries aren't so reliant on a developed infrastructure to operate?

[The Imperator]

We'd still all die, it would just be slightly slower.

[ryacko]

Not really.

This will be less lord of the flies. Would be possible to ration and manage a recovery, although much knowledge would be lost, except for the occasional young savant.


This wouldn't affect the poorest countries of the world much.

[Simon_Jester]

What if everyone over 25 disappeared?

Thirty?

What's the cutoff point?

[Lonestar]

Boy it's a good thing that there isn't a hierarchical organization that 16-21 year olds can join in the US that can help maintain order.

[Esquire]

Honestly, this would be disruptive and terrible but I don't think society would collapse. How much knowledge do you think would be lost, ryacko, keeping in mind that 21-year-olds are old enough to have graduated college and there isn't much that isn't written down these days?

The most serious problems I can see coming would be in politics. Who's in power everywhere? Older people, for goodish reasons, albeit mixed results. It seems to me that even if the line of succession extended down far enough not many people would actually care about it. We might see societies condensing, geographically speaking, and looking rather more communist than is currently fashionable. If the only people around are idealists, or people the right age to be convinced to follow one, why not?

[Themightytom]

Boy it's a good thing that there isn't a hierarchical organization that 16-21 year olds can join in the US that can help maintain order.

Boy and girl scouts are 14-18 unless you're talking about explorers.

[PREDATOR490]

How much responsibility and training do militaries actually give to someone aged 21 ?
Putting military firepower in the hands of inexperienced 16 - 21 year olds is such a shockingly good idea ?

The crash in education alone would be unimaginable with entire fields being decimated and even in the first few days the amount of deaths would be unimaginable.
Children dying in their cribs unless their carers / parents just happen to be under 21
Folks in hospitals dying because the Doctors, Nurses and medicine is no longer available.
Law & Order completely destroyed as the Police, Army, Firefighters.... infact most organisations have lost their chain of command and whats left scramble to figure out what to do.

[evilsoup]

Boy it's a good thing that there isn't a hierarchical organization that 16-21 year olds can join in the US that can help maintain order.

Boy and girl scouts are 14-18 unless you're talking about explorers.

but seriously Lonestar, I'm pretty sure the army &etc would collapse just as much as civilian government. Everyone senior would be gone, but I guess there would be roaming gangs of army guys carving out their own little empires.

Also, everything is written down, but it's not all in easy-to-reach places. Who's going to deal with the mobile phone infrastructure? Or phone lines, or electricity, or water, farming, food logistics... yes, there would be some people with the basic skills required (though they would still be lacking experience, which I think Esquire is underestimating as a problem) - but who would organise them? On a local level, some people would realise the issues, and a small number of those could get other people to listen to them, but they would need to act fast. How long could the power grids survive without maintenance? How long would power stations keep going? A few days, maybe, at most.

Supermarkets won't be getting any food; what food is in centralised warehouses will just sit there. Again, maybe some people locally would be able to organise something, in a few areas. Those in cities will starve, or will begin a mass exodus to the countryside and then starve.

The only question is: how long would it take to rebuild? There is quite a lot of knowledge out there, but people will be focusing on day-to-day survival for quite a while, and there's the de-skilling effect (you use it or you lose it). I'd think at least a generation or two to get things put together again, and that's on the optimistic side.

[Lonestar]

Boy and girl scouts are 14-18 unless you're talking about explorers.

The military, numbnuts.

but seriously Lonestar, I'm pretty sure the army &etc would collapse just as much as civilian government. Everyone senior would be gone, but I guess there would be roaming gangs of army guys carving out their own little empires.

Oh, absolutely. But I mean, I envision a situation where military academies(at university level) etc. are called upon to help what's left of the Army and NG to maintain local order. It would be safer to be near, say, VMI then it would be to just be hanging around in DC.