probability, Bayesian 17–22, 182
Prometheus 27–9
Prose Edda (Snorri Sturluson) 37–8
Puluga 32
R
Ragnarök 9, 37
see also Norse mythology
Ramis, Harold 154
Ray, John 134–5
Red Alert (P. George) 107–8
religion, purpose of 24
religious doomsday 23–4
belief of imminence 25–6
Book of Revelation 8–9, 15, 39–54
floods 28–9, 30–2, 34
gods’ inability to uncreate 26–9
messiah figures 25, 33–4
Norse mythology 34–8
punishing human sinfulness 27–30, 31–3, 38
saving the faithful 32–4, 38
valiant defiance of Vikings 34–8
Resident Evil video game and film franchise 65
Revelation, Book of 8–9, 15, 39–54
Reyes, Xavier Aldana 71
Rigaut, Jacques 11
Robinson, Kim Stanley 170
Robles, Angelo 7–8
Roche, Boyd 173–4
Rocher, Dominique 72
Roddenberry, Gene 169
Roman Empire 45–6, 48–50, 164
A Romance of Two Worlds (M. Corelli) 117
Romero, George A. 9, 56, 61
Russ, Joanna 88
Rutherford, Ernest 135–6
Ryan, William 31
Ryle, John 104
S
Saberhagen, Fred 114
Saint John’s Book of Revelation 8–9, 15, 39–54
Saint Luke 48
Saint Matthew 48
The Satan Bug film 87–8
Schopenhauer, Arthur 142
‘Science in the Capital’ trilogy (K. S. Robinson) 170
Scott, Walter 5–6
‘The Screwfly Solution’ (A. Sheldon) 87
Self, Will 175–6
Sellers, Peter 109–10
The Sense of an Ending (F. Kermode) 186–7
seven suns, Buddhist 23
Seveneves (N. Stephenson) 6–7
sex and plague 100–3
Shaun of the Dead film 66–7
Shelley, Mary 27, 93, 97, 111
Shelley, Percy Bysshe 93
Sheol, Hebrew 10
Shippey, Tom 35–6
Silver, Amanda 90
sinfulness, punishing human 27–30
Skyrim video game 175–6
slavery and racial discrimination 59, 60–1
Smith, Agent (The Matrix) 90–1, 116
Snowpiercer film 164–5
social decay and zombies 69–70
Sontag, Susan 103
Soylent Green film 159–61 ‘Space’ trilogy (C. S. Lewis) 117
Spanish Flu 83, 103–5
Sparta 80
Special Report on Global Warming (IPCC report 2018) 162–3, 167
Spider Woman, Hopi culture’s 38
The Stand (S. King) 39
Star Trek 169
Stephenson, Neal 6–7
storytelling and the apocalypse 6–9, 32–4, 38, 145–6, 185–9
Stross, Charlie 59, 60
Sturluson, Snorri 37
Sun, death of the 134–9 ‘Supper’s Ready’ (Genesis) 39
survival guides, zombie apocalypse 56
Survivors TV series 84
Sveinsson, Brynjólfur 35
T
Taoism 33–4
Tasmania 82–3
Tawa 38
technology-/machine-led apocalypse advanced alien lifeforms 117–18, 119–24
destruction by asteroid 124–8
human loss of control 111–13
life-hating computer intelligence 112, 115–17
life-hating killer robots 112–15
The Matrix film trilogy 115–17
The Terminator film series 112–13
Temple of Jerusalem 46, 50
‘The Terminal Beach’ (J. G. Ballard) 134
The Terminator film series 112–13
Thacker, Eugene 70
thinking in the wrong direction 12–14
This Is The End (S. Rogen and E. Goldberg) 15
The Three-Body Problem (Liu Cixin) 121–2
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (F. Nietzsche) 151
The Time Machine (H. G. Wells) 130–4, 142, 183
timor mortis 4
Tipler, Frank 149–50
Titus 45–6, 49, 50
Tlapanec people 32
Tolkien, J. R. R. 145
Torah 29
Trump, Donald 86
U
Übermensch, Nietzsche’s 153
UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 162–3, 167
universal heat death 138–42, 153–4, 183
Utnapishtim 32
V
vampires 72–3
Vermes, Géza 44–5
Vespasian 28–49, 45
video games 9, 65, 88–9, 115, 174–9
Vishnu 32
von Trier, Lars 126
voodoo 59
W
Wachowski sisters 115–16
Wailing Wall 46
The Walking Dead graphic novel and TV series 57–8
Wampanoag people 82
War and Peace (L. Tolstoy) 52
The War of the Worlds (H. G. Wells) 89, 119–20, 183–4
Ward, Peter 127–8
Wells, H. G. 6, 89, 119–20, 130–4, 142, 146, 183
Western imperialism 118
When Worlds Collide film and novels by (P. Wylie and E. Balmer) 125
White Plague (F. Herbert) 88
White Zombie film 59
wildfires 157–8
Williams, William Mattieu 135
Women in Love (D. H. Lawrence) 96
World of Warcraft series video games 175
World War Z: An Oral History (M. Brooks) 72
World War Z film 56
Wulfstan, Bishop of London 52
Y
Yucatán Peninsula asteroid hit 127–8
Z
Zeus 27–9
Zika virus 85
zombie apocalypse 55–7
alternative names in fiction 57–8
bodily and mental decay 73–7
caused by humans 70–1
characteristics in popular culture 61–2
comedy 66–7
consumerism/capitalism 64–5, 67–70
decay of society 69–72
loneliness and grief 72–3
personification of disease/plague 62–3
slavery and racial discrimination 59–61
survival guides 56
vampire comparison 63–4
Zombies (R. Luckhurst) 65
Zone One (C. Whitehead) 58
First published 2020 by
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epub: 978-1-78396-475-8
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Copyright © Adam Roberts 2020
The Author has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this Work.
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It's the End of the World : But What Are We Really Afraid Of? (9781783964758) Page 14
