So said the Dinosaurs about the puny weak inferior mammals crawling about...

There is one thing that is a certainty with this universe.
The comfortable, cocksure, mighty, and smugly superior ...
fall...
they always do.
and doubtless it won't be by a species of Cat or Dog that wakes up...
It will be by a species of bacteria or virus...
so seemingly insignificant...
that will bring us down...
lay us low.
expunge us...
it will be something that the high and the mighty will curse that something so small did us in.
And it won't take getting rid of us all ...
that is not needed.
Just an epidemic big enough to impact on a single generation of our species.
Then we are screwed.
All it takes is one pandemic ..virulent enough...and we are WAY overdue for the next big one...
Once we disrupt the supply train system of goods ...at that significant level....
we are done.
We don't have enough food stocked anywhere...that runs out in days in warehouses and storage facilities...
We have mined all the surface metals minerals and oil byproducts on the face of the planet...
that means specialised equipment needed to go as far deep as we have to extract what we need now...in remote and inhospitable areas of the planet ....those equipments will break quickly....
couple that with the lack of specialised and trained personnel ..ability to GET to these locations...repair and maintain and get parts from suppliers struggling with staffing and manufacturing during a pandemic and afterwards ....
and you have a breakdown of epic proportions.
Everything begins to fall apart.
And there is no getting back up as a civilisation after this collapse.
This isn't an isolated civilisation beside another or others we have here...that can recover with help from neighbouring ones ...as in the past.
We have a global civilisation.
And there will be no climbing out of a collapse...not this time..
the past ages...bronze, copper, iron ages..are just that...metals based ages...that crawled up the ladder of civilisation by mining the available and easily accessed surface metals on the planet.

We fall ...now...and there is no coming back...
we won't have the ability to.

It doesn't necessarily need to be aliens.
Viruses don't care either...

I agree with everything you've said except with comparing viruses doing us in with mammals. Mammals did not do the dinos in. Something else did. Some say it was a big rock from the sky. I wasn't there so cannot confirm. But I am almost 100% sure it was not the mammals. They seized the opportunity, that's for sure. A virulent disease cannot do that. It is good as a scary bogeyman and definitely a bad news for us, but a disease that wipes out all its hosts will not get too far. At best it may act as the modern equivalent of the rock from the sky, to pave the way for whoever comes after us. It won't be the virus.

I didn't say the dinosaurs were done in by mammals...
supplanted yes.
done in...no..
But most certainly the "dominant" species or culture thinks itself inviolable ...
until it suddenly finds itself on the way out....
and the "inferior" feasting on the carcass of the surprised ...fallen once mighty

The chunk of rock that hit the gulf of Mexico is deemed what did the deed...for the dinosaurs...
Still...
How quickly people forget the epidemics of the past...
the Black Plague, Scarlet Fever, Spanish Flu, Bubonic Plague and so many others...
that wiped out in recurring waves so many ...
our memories will be refreshed shortly I am sure.
We have too many people in too close a proximity to one another.
We have incredibly convenient air travel ...
We have goods and produce transported quickly and easily across the planet...
We have a poor armoury of old drugs to combat now and increasingly more virulent strains and increasingly resistant old foes...and super bugs in the fore waiting ...
All because there is no money in keeping ahead of them...
there is no money in fighting them...
the Pharma corps would be....if there was money there...
So just wait...
We are so overdue it isn't even funny...
and it just takes enough of a kick to the population ...just take out a good chunk of a generation...
to hurt supply chain, production, manufacturing and maintenance ..to send us reeling..
And worse...it used to be that communities could and did conscientiously quarantined themselves if plague were discovered in their community...warning outsiders to steer away and not enter until it had passed.
No one has this sense of community responsibility like that anymore...
It would be impossible to enforce quarantine ...and keep a plague today from rampantly spreading...
Also...it used to be...homes and families quarantined in their homes would have food brought and set in front of their doors...
Who will be so conscientious and thoughtful today to do so?
So ...either the family members recovered and their quarantine lifted..
Or ..the food wasn't taken ...meaning they had died...
and their house burned down to prevent the spread of the plague...
Try burning down an apartment building in our modern age...
Try quarantining people nowadays who enjoy generations of ease and lack of concern over the next meal, who have never been told that they cannot leave a quarantine...
We are so inadequately ready for a plague that has a high mortality rate..
From a bureaucratic, or law enforcement ...
from a pharma , distribution, inoculation, quarantine,
From a supply management system for goods and food..
From a level of preparedness to the general population...
We are no where close to being prepared.

Bogeyman?
Sure...ok...
But it doesn't mean this Bogeyman doesn't exist...

People forget...
Ring-around-a-rosy...
Nursery rhymes created ...and chanted by kids ....about plague...
It is enough to give me the shivers...

Thankfully I live in a big and virtually empty enough country ...in small areas ....away from the few big cities we have...it is easier to quarantine ..to close down areas affected...to restrict free travel during a time of an outbreak...
But the countries with dense and close populations...
It will be an abattoir...

Sorry, endso. I did not mean to ruffle your feathers. I did not say the threat was not real. I even said explicitly that I agree with you.
My only objection was to the (unintentional) parallel you drew between the relationship between the dinos and mammals and us and viruses and the suggestion that the viruses will inherit the earth.

ach ...
no feathers ruffled pichlo
its all good debate..

naw I was just making easy ref. to Dave's Planet of the Ape's "they would never revolt..." concept....

Alien viruses?

Alien virii could not harm us easily IMHO.
A virus needs to adapt to the host organism really really well to be able to take control of it; our viruses do that by actually being part of our own runaway dna.

<mode=smartass>
Latin is not my native language <g> but I have been told that virii is wrong for at least two reasons:

1. Plurals of words ending with '-us' is made by turning the 'us' into 'i'. Octopus -> octopi. Virus -> viri. You would need a virius to turn it into virii.
2. The word 'virus' means 'poison' in Latin, which is an uncountable noun. It does not even have a Latin plural form.

The modern use of the word 'virus' does have a plural but it is no longer a Latin word and should follow the rules of grammar of whatever language it was imported to. 'Viruses' is fine, as is 'virukset'
</mode>

Otherwise you are absolutely spot on. Viruses are specialized pieces of genetic code that work only when attached to another piece of specific genetic code. They evolved hand in hand with their hosts. Even on earth, inter-species contamination is rare. Conversely, even within a given population of any given species you get individuals with a slightly different genetic makeup that makes them immune to that particular strain of virus.

An alien virus is not impossible but very, very unlikely.

On the other hand, it does not mean that there is no danger from space. Cyanide is not 'alive' by any definition but a few milligrams can kill you in seconds. There may be literally millions of yet unknown chemicals with even more lethal capabilities. A piece of rock from the sky carrying one of those could well be the curtains.