How would humans react to the appearance of a superpredator?

[AllWalker]

So, tomorrow, everyone wakes up to find the world filled with, um, skysharks. These skysharks attack people with reasonable regularity but can be killed, though their population can't be drastically reduced. In other words, they are here to stay.

How do people react to them?

I believe that for one thing, the skysharks will become a key political factor. Any administration which doesn't appear to be dealing with the problem will be destroyed at the elections.

Another reaction would be religious interpretation. Some will say they are a punishment from God, some will say a punishment from nature, some will worship them in the way some worship demons.

Go.

[pepperlandgirl]

Skysharks? Shit yes, I'd be worshiping those things!

The way we view homes will change. Large yards with well-cared for lawns would be a thing of the past. Every residence would be reinforced so the skysharks can't do a nosedive through the roof. Events that traditionally happened outdoors would be modified or cancelled altogether (open air sports stadiums would also disappear). All of the schools in California would have to be redesigned because a good number of them are not enclosed buildings.

[OneCentStamp]

It would depend on what kind of people the skysharks ate. Consider the AIDS epidemic, and how long it took to get any serious attention and money thrown at the problem because, well, who cares about a few homos and junkies?

Similarly, if the skysharks preyed primarily on the homeless or something, I think it would be depressing how quickly we got used to it.

[Dangerously Unqualified]

We are not merely hairless apes fumbling about on a watery rock, we are Men.

There is nothing we cannot eradicate if we choose. However such eradication comes at a cost. As Men we will sit about scratching ourselves while Women and other Men come up with a balance point, a point where the collateral damage / population control of the skysharks reaches a livable and sustainable equalibrium.

Then we will kill them.

I hope they are tasty.

[Cluricaun]

I would gleefully join the Skyshark Raiders and shoot at them all day long. Can't make a dent in the population my ass. We're humans, if we can kill it, we can kill all of them. Just ask the buffalo. I'm also guessing they might affect air travel and that we'd have a lot more underground shopping malls.

Also:

[OneCentStamp]

We are not merely hairless apes fumbling about on a watery rock, we are Men.

There is nothing we cannot eradicate if we choose. However such eradication comes at a cost. As Men we will sit about scratching ourselves while Women and other Men come up with a balance point, a point where the collateral damage / population control of the skysharks reaches a livable and sustainable equalibrium.

Then we will kill them.

I hope they are tasty.

I would gleefully join the Skyshark Raiders and shoot at them all day long. Can't make a dent in the population my ass. We're humans, if we can kill it, we can kill all of them. Just ask the buffalo. I'm also guessing they might affect air travel and that we'd have a lot more underground shopping malls.

Also:

This would work if the skysharks were huge, slow and few in number, maybe. But what if they were piranha-sized and swarmed and multiplied like flies? I draw your attention to the fact that moquitoes, fucking mosquitoes, kill 2 or 3 million people a year, despite our efforts to eradicate them.

[Cluricaun]

This would work if the skysharks were huge, slow and few in number, maybe. But what if they were piranha-sized and swarmed and multiplied like flies? I draw your attention to the fact that moquitoes, fucking mosquitoes, kill 2 or 3 million people a year, despite our efforts to eradicate them.

Easy, you'd just set up traps for them, say a hunk of meat in a box that slams shut, then incinerate the boxes. We can kill a whole lot of them, if not all of them. I'm still convinced we'd find a way to make skysharks go extinct. You could also release sterile skysharks so that you impact the breeding, or develop chemicals and the like that would kill them.

[Oliveloaf]

Good name for an arena football team: Sky Sharks.

What about Power 'Possums? These would appear to be regular opossums, but blow up--like a puffer fish--and swallow smaller folks whole.

The nocturnal thing makes this threat more fun.

I would like to see a Sky Shark and a Power 'Possum fight.

As long as we're doing counter factuals, what if there were Sky Sharks, and the Germans had won WWII?

What if there were Power 'Possums and Kayne West was pope?

[Claptree]

I'd think a superpredator, in order to be a real threat, would have to be something like China Mieville's slake moths (see Perdido Street Station): intelligent, nocturnal, powerful, with a sense of family and some communication skills. Add something that makes extinction undesirable among some humans, and I could see a real threat.

[Oliveloaf]

I'd think a superpredator, in order to be a real threat, would have to be something like China Mieville's slake moths (see Perdido Street Station): intelligent, nocturnal, powerful, with a sense of family and some communication skills. Add something that makes extinction undesirable among some humans, and I could see a real threat.

You just described Sean Hannity.

[Claptree]

Hah! Way to kill the thread by win.

[Zuul]

Oliveloaf, you da man.

[puppygod]

This would work if the skysharks were huge, slow and few in number, maybe. But what if they were piranha-sized and swarmed and multiplied like flies? I draw your attention to the fact that moquitoes, fucking mosquitoes, kill 2 or 3 million people a year, despite our efforts to eradicate them.

It is because they are killing poor people in countries we don't care about or very few of our own. Actually fucking mosquitoes are almost eradicated in areas where combination of environmental, chemical and biological solutions were applied.

If superpredators need forests to lay legs, we can cut down forests. If they need water to drink, we can poison the water. If they are vulnerable to electricity, we can set thousands of giant bug-zappers. If they can't stand freezing temperature, we can fall back to arctic regions until we design methods of fighting them. And so on. We can change the environment. Superpredators can't. In the long run, we will be the last specie standing. At a cost, of course.

[ivan astikov]

Say the "Sky Sharks" could appear and disappear at will by some form of stealth camoflage, and cause disruptions to our power supplies and electronic circuits, by unknown means, and to top it all, could also zap us from our beds while we slept and shove a gizmo up our ass that controls our thoughts?

Oh,hang on - then they'd be called UFO's and couldn't possibly exist.