Question Demography of the Whateley-verse...

Demography of the Whateley-verse...

Gen1:

How has mortality rate changed due to super-activities? Not much?

Is World Pop. lower than IRL? Or higher, somehow?

Kidnapping by supers isn't a big issue right? Most of it is done by baselines?

Kristin Darken wrote: Could make up an answer for these questions, but I would quite bluntly be making it up only to give you an answer. Is there some obvious logic progression that would lead to changing global level data like that? Not one that I can see.

Well, there's more ways to die in the Whateley-verse, with all the supers running about... But, there aren't that many deaths, as far as we know, and...

EDIT: "Crucible attempts to get people to appreciate life by causing disasters that kill and cripple thousands." ... Ok...

What's the super:baseline ratio again?

There may be more ways to die, but there are also more magical and super-human ways to live (saved by a superhero, magically cured of disease, etc). Human nature being what it is, even the "supervillians" will do superheroic acts to save those they love, so, I'm not sure.

I'm a romantic, I believe more good then evil is being done, more saved then killed. I doubt either way though it's enough to statistically change the population of the world. It's not like some super-pandemic has devistated the world, or they've cured cancer or anything like that.

Phoenix Spiritus wrote: There may be more ways to die, but there are also more magical and super-human ways to live (saved by a superhero, magically cured of disease, etc). Human nature being what it is, even the "supervillians" will do superheroic acts to save those they love, so, I'm not sure.

True. One nitpick:

magically cured of disease

Isn't essence limited enough that mages usually wouldn't be doing that? ... Gadgets and Devises, on the other hand, would?

Well apparently Nebraska is the new zombie homeland. Not sure how that plays out on the census though.

Unless someone released a Blackdeath level pathogen, I am looking at Jobe here, the variation for our earth isn't going to be statistically important.

Most crime will be committed by baselines, since there are more baselines.

I think people are overestimating the demographic impact of mutants over such a short timeline. Yes, Crucible killed thousands. So what? World population has been over a billion since about 1800.It takes quite a lot more than a bunch of supervillains to make a dent on it. It takes famines, large scale wars, pandemics.
To give some perspective, all the dead of World War II amount to just a few percent of the world population. It wasn't enough to even stop the net growth, only to slow it a bit. Supervillains are a mere statistical blip compared to that.
And... then there are things that mutant-driven superscience can do to increase world population. Consider Jobe's dysentery vaccine, for instance. There are certainly other examples of mutants actions which had far-reaching impact in terms of improving general health worldwide. Norman Borlaug had this sort of impact, and he wasn't even a mutant.