World Without Grown Ups (RAR!)

[Majin Gojira]

Okay, one day, every human over the age of 25 suddenly disappears. While it is inevitable that society as it was before will collapse, what I want to know is . . . to what degree. I've already gone over a lot of stuff about a general collapse of population like that (Life After People, Earth: Population Zero, etc). But with a few people still around, how much of what was built up before can be saved? How much of the infrastructure, knowledge, and power stations can be saved? What do you expect to happen when the highest government officials are rookie cops, recent West Point graduates, and Interns?

What would such a world look like in about 10 years or so?

Variations:
All the above, but it happens in the Marvel Universe?
All of the above, but it happens in the DC Universe? (edit: yes, I know about the thing in Young Justice in botht he comic and TV show, why do you think I titled it as I did?)

Each of them has about a thousand known superhumans under 25 that could help keep things in some semblance of order.

Can they tip the balance, and if so, how much?

Keep in mind, the massive amount of plane, car, and boat accidents, as well as other disasters caused by mankind's absence will still be a thing to deal with.

[Solauren]

The question is, for any given essential utility, are there enough people under 25 skills and trained enough to keep things running?
Are they actually going to try to?

The odds are, there are not enough to keep things running.

Therefore, this scenario....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_After_People

Except you have alot of kids ending up dying or suffering without their parents to comfort them.

[Simon_Jester]

You'd be very, very unlikely to see the complete collapse of the human species in such a scenario.

Also, there are a lot of countries where the population is younger on average than that of the US or other developed nations, and/or where a larger fraction of the population exists on a subsistence level.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... median_age

There are a lot of developing countries where nearly half, or even more than half, of the population would survive. And where a lot of the economy is based on cruder technologies that could be more readily maintained by the youngsters. They'd have problems, but they'd also have temporary relief of population pressure. For them, this event might not be nearly as Earth-shaking as you imagine it being elsewhere in the world.

[Crossroads Inc.]

So first off, since this seems to happen INSTANTLY, we have to start by calculating the sheer amount of destruction caused by such an event...

Vehicle Armageddon. Planes, Cars, Ships and Trains across the world crash as their drivers, pilots and operators wink out of existence.,

Power Plant Meltdown. Aside from Nuclear Power Plants who suddenly loose the seasoned veterans who know how to make sure they don't blow up.. Similar Gas, Oil, Coal, and other power plants loose the people key to their operations.

Death by Doctor. Thousands upon thousands of Doctors, many who may be right in the middle of life saving operations vanish,

Heavy Industrial Insanity. Construction projects, Mining, Manufacturing, logging, any big dangerous industry where you can easily get mashed if your are not careful, overnight are plunged into chaos.

The first 60min of this New World will see perhaps tens of thousands dead and many many more injured and left homeless by world wide destruction caused by the above events. That all happens within the first HOUR or so, a lot of it within the first few minutes.
So what happens within the first 24hours afterwards?
Lets break thing down in terms of large aspects of civilization affected by this...

#1 Good By Governments!
Rather certain that 99.9% of any elected officials across the world are over the age of 25. Every single nation in the world will basically be without any political figures, elected or otherwise. While this will be an improvement to certain dictatorships. The rest of the world is fucked.

#2 Education Eradication!
The great collages of the world are typically home to older professors. The great scientists of the world again are for the most part over the age of 25. Sure there are child prodigies, and they may be "Smart" but the knowledge they have is debatable. Smaller schools may have hosts of "assistants" who know perhaps the lower tiers of how to run a university. But pretty sure none of them know "M-Theory" or Nuclear Mechanics backwards and forwards.

#3 Corporate Collapse!
Similar to governments, the average age of CEO's across the world I am pretty sure are over 25. Every single Mega Corporation across the planet has it's leadership gone overnight. These corporations may have numerous employees UNDER the age of 25... But how many of them know how to RUN the company?

So, to START with, three of the key aspects of civilization are fucked.
The Organizational aspects of Government.
The Knowledge base of Education
And the Financial stability of the World Economy.

So what ISN'T Fucked?
Well, ironically, some key aspects DO have a preponderance of people under the age of 25. Although the usefulness of these are debatable.
Firefighters, Police and the Military across the world have a large population of young individuals. Of course the "Command" structure of all three of these are gone for the most part...

Imagine waking up in a world where a good chunk of the militaries of Europe, America, Russia and China, find themselves with No Generals, and no one to tell the what to do. The same goes for Police officers, who have all these Guns available to use on people...

[Simon_Jester]

#2 Education Eradication!
The great collages of the world are typically home to older professors. The great scientists of the world again are for the most part over the age of 25. Sure there are child prodigies, and they may be "Smart" but the knowledge they have is debatable. Smaller schools may have hosts of "assistants" who know perhaps the lower tiers of how to run a university. But pretty sure none of them know "M-Theory" or Nuclear Mechanics backwards and forwards.

I won't speak to the other issues involved, but frankly, most of the knowledge lost by having all the oldest grad students and all but a handful of Ph.D. recipients vanish at major universities is... It's a lot, but it's also stuff that isn't critical to the urgent task of reorganizing a surviving civilization.

What you DO have are a reasonable proportion of medical students much if not all of the way through their education. And science and engineering grads who have at least a reasonable idea how to design and operate technological equipment, IF NOT the equipment actually available for use.

Imagine waking up in a world where a good chunk of the militaries of Europe, America, Russia and China, find themselves with No Generals, and no one to tell the what to do. The same goes for Police officers, who have all these Guns available to use on people...

I worry less about this outcome than you're hinting at. Not everyone is a pair of jackboots waiting to happen.

[Elheru Aran]

You know what soldiers without commanders tend to do? Sweet fuck-all, ridiculous nonsense, or go back home. Military enlisted are, by and large, remarkably heterogenous in that they have steady 'jobs' which basically consist of walking around with a gun, tinkering with machinery, or some other blue collar task, but past that they have three meals (well, maybe less depending on what military you're in, but you're generally guaranteed *some* meals), a place to sleep, and a few [units of currency] in their pocket every few weeks. They don't actually OWN the stuff they're working on, it's all issued, there's a bit of less responsibility there. So it's a pretty comfortable setup, which tends to promote a laid back attitude towards getting things done if it weren't for their NCO's and officers pushing them around.

So I'm not hugely worried about the enlisted starting a war. The ones who manage to take command on the other hand.

Anyway. This isn't a total Lord of the Flies here. Yes, the global economy will probably collapse. Yes, things will probably be pretty shitty for awhile. But we can get by without technology. The nerds who know how to work that stuff are going to get very popular very quickly. The redneck kids are going to make big money hunting for meat and running farms. Economies are going to become very much a more local thing as I'd imagine the great majority of truckers, train drivers etc. are over 25, which will mean that most goods are going to be transported by pickup truck or U-haul. The breakdown of the Internet with nobody to maintain (at least temporarily) the servers-- I imagine a LOT of young computer geeks will be getting on this posthaste-- and likewise cell phone networks, will possibly push us back on landlines if those still work. But we can expect communications to become very much a word-of-mouth affair for awhile.

[Simon_Jester]

Fuel for vehicles is going to be a HUGE problem. I'm pretty sure there are no oil tankers crewed primarily by 24-year-olds, and no oil transport ports or refineries likewise. Pretty much the entire global chain of petrochemical supplies is going to break down and take decades to rebuild, I suspect. That might well blow up a lot of other stuff, too.

[Raw Shark]

LORD EAGLE: We give thanks to Akela for providing this firewood, game and forage. We give thanks for this clean water, and to those who gave their lives to dysentery finding it.

ENCAMPMENT: We give thanks.

LORD EAGLE: Let us now recite the Survivor's Law:

ALL: A Survivor is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, and Reverent.

LORD EAGLE: May it ever be so. Check the sandbox for your individual assignments. Patrol One is on fire duty. Two is doing sanitation today. Three and Four, report to Dr. Feelgood for First Aid lessons. All pregnant women, you're feeding the chickens and fletching, then guard duty. Everybody make sure they have enough bullets.

ENCAMPMENT: [three-finger salute] Yes, Scoutmaster.

[The Romulan Republic]

Okay, one day, every human over the age of 25 suddenly disappears.

24 isn't considered a grownup anymore?

While it is inevitable that society as it was before will collapse, what I want to know is . . . to what degree. I've already gone over a lot of stuff about a general collapse of population like that (Life After People, Earth: Population Zero, etc). But with a few people still around, how much of what was built up before can be saved? How much of the infrastructure, knowledge, and power stations can be saved? What do you expect to happen when the highest government officials are rookie cops, recent West Point graduates, and Interns?

Considering that the world's greatest power is currently run by a man with the mind of a sociopathic toddler, probably comparatively okay?

I'm guessing everyone who has the nuclear codes has bought it? If so, that ought to keep anyone from doing anything TOO apocalyptically stupid for a while.

What would such a world look like in about 10 years or so?

Massively reduced population, obviously, though I expect it would rebound pretty fast if they could keep industrial farming going. A society composed primarily of teens and people in their early twenties? With all the old social conventions in chaos, and most forms of modern entertainment probably breaking down? There is probably going to be a lot of casual sex.

But since I doubt that their will be anywhere near enough people to keep all the industry functional, or even most of it...

I'm guessing that we'll be going back to 19th. Century tech. or so. Worse, power plants will break down (including nuclear meltdowns), and their will be no one to fix leaky oil pipe lines and so forth. Lots of environmental damage.

Maybe there'd be some civilized enclaves, particularly around military bases (lots of gear, a lot of trained personnel under 25). Otherwise, I'm guessing scavenging/raiding gangs.

Oh, and probably lots of apocalypse cults and such. Its scary how easily this scenario could be fit into stories of the Rapture.

Variations:
All the above, but it happens in the Marvel Universe?
All of the above, but it happens in the DC Universe? (edit: yes, I know about the thing in Young Justice in botht he comic and TV show, why do you think I titled it as I did?)

Each of them has about a thousand known superhumans under 25 that could help keep things in some semblance of order.

Can they tip the balance, and if so, how much?

A new Justice League composed of side kicks is formed, and does its best to maintain control. Given the situation, we might see them taking over political leadership, forming a "Justice Lords" type of organization.

President Robin, maybe?

Keep in mind, the massive amount of plane, car, and boat accidents, as well as other disasters caused by mankind's absence will still be a thing to deal with.

Yeah, that too.