An artificial virus (biological) with most of its code devoted to maintaining a mutation-free strain of itself and avoiding elimination/detection by the human immune system. Extreme speed of host-to-host transmission is also a must. The virus must be completely harmless except for destroying human gametes in an efficient and unstoppable manner. Introduce anywhere - it would spread worldwide before anyone realized what happened. Thus, humans would no longer be able to reproduce.
-- dsm, Jan 19 2001

The Screwfly Solution http://www.mtsu.edu...ories/screwfly.html
Way-awfuller method of dealing with our species. [centauri, Jan 19 2001, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Voluntary Human Extinction http://www.vhemt.org
[mrthingy, Jan 19 2001, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Frank Herbert's "The White Plague" http://www.amazon.c...104-6868649-5492712
[phoenix, Apr 03 2002, last modified Oct 17 2004]

This and 'Suicide Booths' in one session, dsm? Apart from your current mood, any particular reason for advocating this?
-- Monkfish, Jan 19 2001, last modified Jan 20 2001


This sure would give cloning technology a boost.

Oh, wait, you need healthy eggs for that, don't you? Scratch that plan. Hey, have you ever heard of something called "The Screwfly Solution"?
-- centauri, Jan 19 2001


Dude, this is some heavy-duty ish. My only question is: How will the Halfbakery survive?
-- iuvare, Jan 20 2001


Obviously, we must fully automate the halfbaking process!
-- baf, Jan 20 2001


After a few episodes of "Z" way back when, I was fairly convinced I'd be led away from human reproduction by a fine lookin alien someday.
-- reensure, Jan 23 2001


If it had been in Public:Evil I would have been able to vote for it instead of against it.
-- phoenix, Mar 03 2002


um, just had a quick flick through all of your ideas dsm and I was wondering.....Have you ever had any pets?
-- notripe, Mar 03 2002


The Anti-gamete virus is possibly one of the best ideas a human has ever had! The sooner it is released, the better. It would wipe us out but with less pain than other kinds of viruses. It's not fair to endanger other animals by promoting our exsistance.
-- gwkc, Apr 03 2002


If you wanted to soften the effect, you could make the virus decay after N generations. That way, people in close contact with the infection site would be affected.

Drop it randomly around the world to eliminate 80-90% of births. Or drop it in an annoying area to prevent the next generation from being so annoying.
-- sadie, Apr 23 2002



random, halfbakery