Ok here is the scenario.

It is 20 years in the future. It is 9 years after humanity has engaged in global biological / germ warfare with devastating results. State sponsored terrorism and the use of bio / chem weapons resulted in a third world war. No nuclear weapons were used. The weapons used made the human species exceptionally susceptible to disease and illness that we previously had strong immunities to. Women were rendered infertile and children were the most vulnerable and had the highest rate of mortality.

The human population globally has been reduced to 30,000. There are no functioning governments, civilization has broken down. It was never understood why a small percentage of the species seemed to have some resistance before those studying the problem died out. That vast majority of the remaining survivors are the disorganized remnants of former violent gangs. In the US these include groups such as Crips, Bloods and MS13, in Africa these groups are tribes such as the Huttu and Tutsi. In every part of the world, the only large population centers (which never exceed more than a few thousand) are exclusively savage, powerful and barbaric former gangs that operate on a tribal level.

They control the remaining large weapon arsenals, warehouses of food and medicine and whatever constitutes wealth. The rest of humanity, which exist in much smaller population groups (usually no more than two dozen) live in fear of the larger gangs and avoid them and the population centers they reside in at all cost. Their numbers in the last few years have been dramatically reduced by the larger gangs and they now represent about 2% of the surviving human population. The larger gangs hunt them with the goal of completely eradicating them so that they will be all that remains.

The human wanderers who are not simply murdered are kidnapped and forced into slavery. Females are kept as sex slaves and raped. Males used as expendable labor. Those who possess threatening traits such as intelligence, strength, organizational or leadership skills are executed immediately. The dominant gangs tolerate no challenge to their authority and will not permit the survival of anyone they don't control. Constant inter gang rivalry and warfare prevent any additional organization and continue to reduce the human population.

You are one of the human wanderers, trying to survive the every day struggle for food, shelter and avoiding predators. You have no surviving family members and only occasionally come into contact with small bands of humans such as yourself. While searching for supplies you come across a medical center that had successfully developed vaccines that were never distributed. You hold in your hands the key to save the human race.

There is just one problem.

The only population centers large enough to sustain the species are the large gangs. The vaccines (which will allow females to become pregnant) would not realistically have the necessary success rate on small bands of a dozen or so humans. More importantly, these fertile females and their children would most likely fall into the hands of the violent gangs and be used to breed their offspring. So while most people would prefer to build up the less violent remnants of humanity and have them reproduce the future of the species, that really isn't a viable option and they are already at great risk of becoming extinct.

So to rescue the human species, you would have to supply the vaccine to the larger, violent gangs. They would become the future of humanity. And to add insult to injury they would most likely kill you as soon as they no longer needed you if you did provide the vaccine to them.

So there is the ethical dilemma.

Now it is true that our modern present civilization began in many cases thousands of years ago with it's roots in savage and barbaric societies that preyed on the innocent and we evolved into something very different. But if our "humanity" becomes lost, do we really deserve a second chance? And do the innocents deserve another millennium of growing pains as we struggle towards civilization and enlightenment. And is there even any guarantee we will do it again. The societies based on the foundations of MS13, crips and tutsi might simply be endless generations of savage barbarity.

So what would you do if you held the future of the species in your hands?

I'm not a big fan of humans.



They make crappy pets.



Way of the Dodo, I say.

Burn it to the ground.

Keep walking with my donkey and maybe start a postal service.

f em

Give it to the good people and hope they have luck. I understand in your story it won't work with a small group, but I'd give it to them ( and myself ) and hope for the best. If it doesn't work, oh well didn't lose anything by trying.

I would find 20-30 good looking women first.
I can repopulate the earth all on my own

[facepalm]

You've been watching that movie again, haven't you?

Bring it all down man!

You'd be trying to commit suicide by the end of day 2.

Free the male and female slaves as well as anyone else who opposes the gangs and engage in guerilla warfare against the gangs.

Don't stop until they are all dead...by any means. Execute anyone who supports the gangs...bomb them in their houses, sneak up on them and execute them on the streets, blow them away while they are on the shitter, etc.

Administer the vaccine to the freed slaves and anyone who is fighting the good fight.

Intellectuals, the young, and those with combat skills get the utmost priority.

Correct answer.

Also, widely distributing it to small groups achieves the same net effect as a single larger group which will eventually start to self destruct.

I would give the vaccine to smaller groups, even if it means the end of humanity.

I realize that isn't one of your choices, so I picked #1. I understand what you are saying, it probably wouldn't work and frankly I agree with that line of thinking. But I also wouldn't just leave it there and do nothing, and I certainly wouldn't give it to the gang scum. Although, if I thought the gang scum were going to get it, I would destroy it.

Your premise fails.  There would be pockets of civilization somewhere.   Utah, New Zealand, The Amish.  Somewhere.  The challenge would be to find them.



If captured by the gangs, I would destroy the serum.  

I would not give the vaccine to the large violent gangs.

I'd give it to the wanderers and hope for the best.

Or, more likely, with what I had I could start my own "gang".  Then we'd eradicate all the worthless shitheels.

ETA: now that I thnk about it, if there are only a few tens of thousands of people left alive, I could almost certainly hide from the larger gangs.  I'd bide my time and start recruiting from the wanderers, distribute the vaccine, build my numbers.  Within one generation my people would outnumber theirs.  Then we'd invade and kick the shit out of them.

No Nukes used. OK, use them on the degenerates. There are hidden everywhere. It does not take a genius to read  instructions and set targeting. Eradicate everyone

Your ideas intrigue me, and I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter.

LOL



This.



 

30000 people worldwide.  Gang groups by nature would be centered on urban areas.  If they control the food why would they ever even leave their shitty cities?

Hook up with wanderers, head out to the hills.  In a generation the shitheads will be gone since they can't reproduce and you can start over.

Or just hunt and kill all the assholes around you.  Look at it this way, let's assume 1/10 of the survivors are in America.  3000 people in America.  That's 60 people for every state, although there will be variances by size of state, but you get the idea.  No way that small of a number of people can lock everything down.  Get with a couple survivors, learn how to shoot long range, loot a Guard armory or two, mortar the hell out of the idiots and go on with your life.

I try to avoid cities now, so I certainly wouldn't try to visit or empower any in a situation like you presented. I would try to find like minded people, and head for deep wilderness, after procuring weapons and ammo for hunting and defense.

I'm going to head out to the waste land in my Interceptor V8. Then call my wife on the phone and go off on a drunken rant, demand blow jobs and other crazy shit.

Your assumption fails. If the human population was reduced to 30,000 globally it would pretty much mean the end of civilization. Especially if the "civilized" folks were being exterminated.

Additionally the post is a philosophical / ethical question. Not one of a likely scenario.

what you did there... I see it..