What is the fascination with doomsday predictions in media?

[Ivan Seeking]

How many examples from sci fi movies, tv shows, and books, can be cited in which the world [modern civilization] was either destroyed by some means, ranging from alien invaders to flu epidemics, or plunged into WWIII and a nuclear holocaust, by now?

 

[Simon Bridge]

Is anyone counting?

 

[jedishrfu]

my favorite is 2012. It was smorgasborg of every type of disaster known to man. The real funny insider joke was the naming on the ark site in China as Cho Ming (say Joe Ming) which really means help in Chinese Mandarin dialect:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_movie