Oh, hell (frozen over)

Quote: Nareed

At a guess, how many people have lived and died all over the world since say 3,000 BCE until today?

I have often heard quoted that there are more people alive today that have died. Not sure if it is true.

Quote: kenarman

I have often heard quoted that there are more people alive today that have died. Not sure if it is true.

It doesn't ring true. Most people alive in 1900, or all of them, are dead now. The population then was in the billions already.

Upon googling the question the consensus seems to about 108 billion people far more than todays 7.1 billion. The urban myth seems to date from the 70's when some writer made the claim that 3/4 of the people who had ever lived were still alive. Kind of like some of the shit spread about global warming.

Quote: kenarman

The urban myth seems to date from the 70's when some writer made the claim that 3/4 of the people who had ever lived were still alive.

Urban myths are urban myths because they sound really good.

I counter them usually with "Did you know 79.3% of all statistics are made up?"

"To this day, Captain, you can attend mass at a real church," Caroline said.

Steve nodded. "At the Vatican Museum."

Caroline smiled. "No, those are reenactments. I mean real people actually praying to God in a real church."

"You're joking, right?" Asked the captain.

http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2002/HowManyPeopleHaveEverLivedonEarth.aspx

About 100 billion. Roughly 108 people by mid 2011, but over 7 billion are still alive. Since it is all conjecture anyway, I don't think anything more accurate than "about 100 billion" is sensible.

Quote: kenarman

I have often heard quoted that there are more people alive today that have died. Not sure if it is true.

This bit of trivia is widely cited as an example of so called factoids that is fairly easy to disprove, but gets repeated over and over without anyone really thinking about it.

Quote: Pacomartin

About 100 billion. Roughly 108 people by mid 2011, but over 7 billion are still alive. Since it is all conjecture anyway, I don't think anything more accurate than "about 100 billion" is sensible.

Funny thing, in an early 80s Spanish translation of 2001: A Payoff Odyssey (what?) much was made in the foreword, I think, that there are 100 billion stars in the galaxy, about one for every person that ever lived.

I don't think that had anything to do with the plot, but then I'm not even sure there was a plot past the moment when Bowman kills HAL in self-defense.

I loved watching the movie until the interview of the Discovery crew. It's all downhill from then on.

Clarke was at his absolute best with short stories. I cried at the ending of "A Wind From The Sun."

I've got it all nearly planned, I just need an ending.

Unfortunately, the ending is very important. You can start writing if you've no idea who your characters are, or even what they'll do, but not without an ending. The ending is the sine-qua-non of fiction. If you don't know where you're going, you won't know how to get there.

I had an ending, but it was a disappointment for my characters. I don't like that. I can easily solve it, but then I can't end the story...

I still need an ending.


Bare bones, here's what I have:

Three big ships are orbiting a yellow star paired to a rather distant yellow-orange star. The humans who find them notice a lot of radio chatter between them, as well as to a few of the worlds in the system, but it consists entirely of data. It's all computers talking to one another. Attempts to make radio contact fail.

Next they try to get inside the ships, but the airlocks will open only for their drones. Not so bad, then. They explore what they think is the oldest ship (determined by measuring the residual radiation on the fusion rocket nozzles of all three), and find three things only: tombs, temples and robots. Ditto for the second ship. The tombs are of varying size and opulence, but they all contain dead aliens embalmed in various ways (aka mummies), as well as wall paintings and much in the way of personal possessions. The robots tend to the tombs, keeping them from decay. They'll also guide the drones, letting them into every tomb and keeping them away from the temples.

In charge of exploration is Caroline Mertz, the ship's cook and tissue engineer, because she's an amateur historian (any resemblance to any actual transgender women, living or dead, is entirely my doing). She does come up with many observations and discoveries, but also many unexplainable mysteries and stumbling blocks. One being the size of the temples.

The third ship also contains tombs and temples, except there are many, many more tombs, and they vary in content as well. These tombs contain each one rather small box with ashes, and something Caroline thinks may be a data card of sorts. This ship contains billions of remains.

In a rare flash of insight, coupled with a recent nova nearby, Caroline figures out where the tomb builders came from. Unfortunately this also leads her to believe their world is dead, and they all died as well. All that remains is the three necropoli ships.

There's more, like the appearance of an overseer robot coming up from one of the rocky planets, who finally lets the humans into the third ship. This proves equal parts revealing and frustrating, as the robot won't talk even though it tries hard to communicate.

So, I thought of an open ending, where Caroline and the crew will be sad and angry these aliens all died and chose to save their dead. Worse yet, they may all have committed suicide as the end of their world approached. But then the humans would come up with theories as to why the aliens died this way. maybe they couldn't take space travel for some reason, for example (I have many; history teaches us to throw "maybes" around rather well). Caroline would then throw herself fully into finding out everything possible about them, before the ship carrying a group of archeologists finally shows up.

I need an ending.

I thought of a possible ending.

Instead of finding three ships they find two, and detect one approaching the system. Shortly before the third one is close enough for a rendezvous, Caroline figures out where the ships come from, and conjectures they're either all dead or the third ship carries the only survivors.

As the story is called "The Third Necropolis," the answer is given away. I could rename it "The Third Ship," but that seems too generic (and, come to think of it, all this reminds me of the movie "The Third Man.") Of course, I can always come up with another title. "Paradise Not," for example, or "Anubis' Realm," or something.

I also thought of this dialogue snippet:

Caroline: "Primitive, yes. We keep saying this, because we outgrew religion decades ago. Does it have to be so? Can a religion not be invented after a civilization reaches a high stage of technology?"

Steve: "But that's ridiculous!"