Have I stolen this idea?

[Dasquian Belargic]

The whole of mankind becomes infertile. Either instantaneously by a freak 'miracle', or over a prolonged period of time due to a number of factors (chemicals, etc). Consequently there can be no more children born. The population at the time of the change simply must carry out the rest of its life until the end. As a result, the world becomes less and less populated as the older generations die off. Some people become extremely selfish as a result, arguing that there is no need to be concerned with the future of the environment and so forth as within 100 years there will be no human beings left on the planet. Maybe some people become ultra-promiscuous and the traditional idea of the family unit collapses. I'm still fleshing it all out in my head.

I'd like to know if anyone has heard of anything similar to this before, as I have a sneaking suspicion that I have unintentionally borrowed it from somewhere. I'm aware of the comic 'Y: The Last Man', in which all of the men in the world (except one) die, so I guess there is some influence there... but I'm hoping that I haven't stolen the concept itself from anywhere.

Help? :huh

[Sudoku]

The inferility idea has been done in anime, but they always seem to have the women dying off and being replaced by aliens/robots/loaves of bread/etc.

I can't think of anything you similar to what you've thought up though :)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Aeon Flux is similar, although they are perpetuated through the miracles of cloning, unbeknownst to the survivors of the sickness that killed most of mankind and made everyone else infertile.

[Khendon Sevon]

There was a SG-1 episode where aliens used drugs (a cure all type medicine) to make the whole of humanity infertile so they could easily take over the world.

SG-1 managed to use a wormhole to get a message to their past selves and prevent it from happening.

[Liam Jinn]

I saw a trailer last year sometime, about how everyone became infertile and all of mankind was in some serious trouble, but then it was discovered that one woman was pregnant and some dude was assigned to protect her from all the sects or whatnot and yadda yadda action flick stuff. I'll see if I can find a link to it or whatever.

Children of Men (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0206634/plotsummary)

Found it, there's the plot summary.

[Mu Satach]

I've seen a similar idea in an Outer Limits episode. A woman has a healthy baby and the government rips it away from her and then we are introduced to a group of freedom fighters who are trying to hide their healthy children from the government who would use the healthy children as lab rats to try and cure the disease.


Originally posted by Dasquian Belargic
I have a sneaking suspicion that I have unintentionally borrowed it from somewhere. I'm aware of the comic 'Y: The Last Man', in which all of the men in the world (except one) die, so I guess there is some influence there... but I'm hoping that I haven't stolen the concept itself from anywhere.

Don't worry so much about using a basic idea or concept you've picked up somewhere. Say you decide you want to write a story about a spaceship crew in future that explores space. (A concept has been done over and over.) You won't run into trouble or be accused of "stealing" the idea unless your ship has a human alien hybrid with no emotions from a very logical race and an old crusty southern doc who go on a lot of the missions with a Captain that gets a lot of poon tang from hot alien chicks. ;)

Borrowing a basic idea, concept or situation isn't a problem and all writers do it, even Shakespear and as the saying goes, if Shakespear can do it, you can do it.

The challenge is to move beyond the concept and create a story arc that is uniquely your own. Identify what the heart of your story is about. Is it about the loss of tomorrow? or the loss of humanity? or the loss of love? Is love tied solely to the idea of procreation? There are hundreds of different stories that could come out of the situation you've described.

Once you've decided what your story is about, then you can move forward with something that will be your own.

[Dasquian Belargic]

That was thought provoking, Mu. Thanks! :)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Excactly - I mean, how many post-apocolyptic stories/movies, or 1984 type scripts have been done? The trick is to set yourself apart with originality after you have your base concept.

[Mitch]

Cyborg: American Warrior.

[Mu Satach]

Originally posted by Dasquian Belargic
That was thought provoking, Mu. Thanks! :)

I hope it helped. The "What is it about?" question has been drilled into me from several different people & sources. It has also helped me out more than once when I've become lost in the forrests of thought.