History Main / HumanitysWake

* ''Manga/LandOfTheLustrous'' takes place long AfterTheEnd. Humanity is extinct, evolving into three distinct species, thematically called the "Soul, Flesh, and Bone". The Gems are the "bone", immortal beings made of mineral who have symbiotic relationships with microorganisms to produce energy to move. The "flesh" is the Admirabilis, a race of intelligent slugs living in the sea [[spoiler: who can transform into humanoid forms]]. Lastly, the "soul" is the Lunarians, mysterious beings who come from the moon to abduct the other two races. It's speculated that the "soul" want to become whole humans again. The "Ice Floes", pieces of ice and water that whisper to the Lustrous during the Winter, are revealed to be what's left of humanity's genetic data scattering into the ocean, hoping to be made human again.
** Later plot revelations reveal that [[spoiler:the Lunarians are literally the soul of humanity -- specifically, the souls of the lowest scum of the old human race, unable to pass on to the afterlife because no living "true" humans remain to pray for them. Finding a way to do that is now their only objective, even though they know succeeding will obliterate the Gems and the Admirabilis alongside them.]]
* [[Creator/ChiakiKonaka Chiaki Konaka's]] ''Malice@Doll'' focuses on [[{{Sexbot}} robot prostitutes]] in a future where humanity extinct. They still have to cruise looking for men because it's in their programming.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Nine}}'': The world is a tombstone for humanity.

* The original ''Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes'' films.
** ''Film/WarForThePlanetOfTheApes'', which caps off the reboot trilogy, pretty much ends on this.

* Creator/DougalDixon has written two versions of this trope.

* Many Creator/HPLovecraft stories don't take place in such a setting but have the idea of humans as an insignificant blip in a universe of monsters about to be snuffed out. Mike Mignola's works also have visions of a future-earth where man is no more.
** "Literature/TheShadowOutOfTime" explicitly states that at least 14,000 years in the future humanity will die out and be replaced by a race of intelligent beetles (into whom the Great Race of Yith transfer their consciousnesses). Given what a [[CrapsackWorld nightmare universe]] the ''Franchise/CthulhuMythos'' is, it's impressive we make it that far.
** Lovecraft takes the theme in a different direction in "Memory", in which a demon and genie idly contemplate a number of apes who frolic in ancient ruins. The demon eventually remembers that the apes are the descendants of an older race called "man", the original builders of the ruins.

** When taken in the context of ''Literature/TheMartianChronicles'' where it's reprinted as part of the setting, the smart house has only been going through the motions for a few days at the most after WorldWarIII (it still has fresh bacon and eggs to make the uneaten breakfasts with, and the master's dog is still barely alive). Though humanity hasn't been wiped out completely, human civilization has essentially suffered the same fate as that of the Martians', dead and remembered only by those few survivors (Human or Martian) left.

* Creator/RogerZelazny:
** "The Stainless Steel Leech" from the story collection ''Last Defender of Camelot'', in which humanity has died out, leaving behind a society of robots. They've adopted the behavior of humans for the most part, though developed strange superstitions. One of the robots developed a hardware problem and became a vampire of sorts, and while hiding from the rest came upon a human vampire, the last of its kind and slowly starving from lack of blood.
** "For A Breath I Tarry" from the same collection has a similar setting, used as a retelling of Faust, though the tragic ending is averted by the creation of a new race of humans.

* ''Series/{{Aftermath}}'': "Population Zero" is a speculative documentary that looks at what would happen to the earth if the human race suddenly disappeared.
** Another ''Series/{{Aftermath}}'' episode, "Red Giant/Swallowed by the Sun" features the human race (along with all other life on Earth) being cooked into extinction by the Sun (which, in this experiment, has had its aging into a red giant being sped up, skipping billions of years). Once humanity goes extinct, concrete structures and objects made of synthetic materials are the first to crumble. Stone structures like the Great Pyramids and Mount Rushmore last longer, but they eventually melt when Earth reaches 1,320 °C. Ultimately subverted, as some people escaped to the Solar System's outer planets, where temperatures have now reached habitable levels.

* ''Series/LifeAfterPeople'' and explores what might happen to the world if the human race simply vanished today.

* {{Creator/Nintendo}} loves this trope.
** PNF-404, the planet {{VideoGame/Pikmin}} is set on, is a future version of Earth where humanity is extinct.
** ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'' is set millennia after humans (and many land-dwelling animals, including ''all mammals'') were wiped out due to rising sea levels and global conflict, with marine animals forming a society within what humanity left behind. While they are fully aware that humans were the previous dominant species, their knowledge about them is limited... which is ironic, considering that the [[CavemenVsAstronautsDebate Splatfests]] that the Inklings adore so much are based on them receiving ancient recordings of human conversations.
** There are implications that the ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonRescueTeam'' games take place after humans have either left the area or have gone extinct. Future ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon'' games make it more vague, though in ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonGatesToInfinity'' discusses humans as being present in in-universe myths.
** Shiver Star in ''VideoGame/Kirby64TheCrystalShards'' is a post-apocalyptic earth where humanity there is likely extinct with what remaining survivors (going by Ado's presence) being forced to live in space or other planets.

* A fairly common background to Furry Comics, some notable examples:
** ''Webcomic/{{Jack|DavidHopkins}}'', where humans created furries and then [[spoiler: [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters were wiped out by the first furry]], Jack]].
** In ''Webcomic/FurthiaHigh'' humans turned themselves into furries at least a couple generations ago, Kale is the last known human.
** ''Webcomic/ForestHill'' takes place in a distant future resembling the 1990's. Humans disappeared in the distant past and took much of their technology with them and their creations now worship them.
* ''Webcomic/InOurShadow'' is set 50,000 years after humanity vanished from the Earth and every other species with something resembling hands has evolved sapience. Though primates other than lemurs are oddly absent. [[spoiler:It eventually turns out the majority of humanity got bored with physical reality and migrated en masse to virtual reality, and the apes and monkeys did the same 35,000 years later. However, a minority of humans called the Adverse rejected VR and boarded a relativistic ship, returning at the end of the first part.]]

* In the ''Literature/ChrysalisBeaverFur'' short story on Reddit, humanity is killed off when invading aliens glass the surface of Earth with thermonuclear weapons, to make room for a resource mining operation. This process takes longer than the aliens anticipated, giving humanity enough time to create an AI successor. The team creating the AI debate how "human" it should be, versus how coldly ruthless it should be. They pair the sentient AI with a subsentient worker AI that manages all of humanity's remaining machines below the surface of the planet, allowing the new sentient AI to rebuild civilization... or build an intergalactic war machine of vengeance.

* ''Fanfic/DayOfTheBarneyTrilogy'' has Barney [[spoiler:temporarily]] succeed in creating a society that, had it existed long enough, would have resulted in this. After the Great Act of Love, every adult and teenager hides from Barney and his followers while every human child has become Barney's Special Friend. Barney cares for them and makes sure they're well-fed and happy [[spoiler:until they turn thirteen, at which point he murders the boys and takes the girls away so he can rape them and impregnate them with Loved Ones. Due to the allure of Barney and the inclusiveness of his group of Special Friends, as well as the combination of boys generally not being able to reproduce before reaching the age of thirteen as well as them (hopefully) not performing sexual activity with the girls, the full-blooded human race would have died off if Barney had reigned for long enough, with the Loved Ones as the last surviving remnant of humanity.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': A lighthearted cartoon series where the existence of the [[LastOfHisKind last boy on Earth]] is rather surprising, after the [[WorldWarIII "Great Mushroom War"]] and given that humans are considered extinct delicacies.

* In short story "Pots" by Creator/CJCherryh a race of aliens comes across a space probe with Pioneer plaque on the board, after mankind is long gone from the Earth. They attempt to find remaining descendants of humanity, while spreading romantic legend about first space travelers across galaxy. They remake their whole social structure, with hibernation and cloning for top leaders and scientists, for this purpose. When group of archeologists finally finds something on third planet of small, yellow star [[spoiler:it turns out humankind destroyed itself shortly after setting foot on the Moon.]]

%%** There's also a short story (whose name and author I can't remember) that basically does the same, but with an automated bomber jet. It is implied that it nuked the remains of that one city for a few ten thousand times.

-->But on eliminating every other reason for our sad demise
-->They logged the only explanation left
-->This species has amused itself to death.

* Similar to the above, one episode of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' had Superman catapulted into the future thousands of years by a so-called disintegration ray, where he discovered [[GoodThingYouCanHeal Vandal Savage]] had inadvertently wiped out the rest of humanity in one of his attempts at world domination. As the only sapient being on Earth, [[WhoWantsToLiveForever he went insane]], grew BoredWithInsanity, and then invited Superman home for dinner. "Like you've got anything better to do."

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': A lighthearted cartoon series where the existence of the last boy on Earth is rather surprising, after the great mushroom war and given that humans are considered extinct delicacies.
** A good number of characters though are either partly human or used to be human. [[spoiler: Also, with the arrival of Betty there is now at least one other full-blooded human in Ooo. Finn's Dad has been released from the cosmic prison he was held in, though he immediately ran off just to continue doing whatever he wants, and in the "Islands" arc Finn meets his mother and a whole colony of humans who survived the war.]]