Doobybrain.com

Would the world resemble the illustration above if humans just suddenly disappeared off the face of the Earth?

That’s what author Alan Weisman would have us think in his book The World Without Us.

Weisman writes a pretty thought-provoking narrative about how humans have impacted the way this Earth exists by writing about how it might stand if we didn’t inhabit it anymore.

In this far-reaching narrative, Weisman explains how our massive infrastructure would collapse and finally vanish without human presence; what of our everyday stuff may become immortalized as fossils; how copper pipes and wiring would be crushed into mere seams of reddish rock; why some of our earliest buildings might be the last architecture left; and how plastic, bronze sculpture, radio waves, and some man-made molecules may be our most lasting gifts to the universe.

The book sounds really good and it makes me want to hurry and finish up the two books I’ve been reading so that I can go ahead and start on this one. Fictional narratives about Earth without humans sounds like my kind of leisure-reading. :)

Poke around with this interactive time chart to see just how Earth would survive and remain without humans around. It’s all guesses and such of course, but backed up with evidence and theory, it’s hard not to believe that this could be the reality of Earth once humans have come and gone from this place.

Visit the official website for The World Without Us for more information.

EDIT: All graphic illustrations by Kenn Brown @ mondolithic.