Re: 2012. Who's Ready?
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> I'm curious to know how many people have actually prepared for an apocalyptic incident. I'm sure, given a long enough timeline, it will eventually happen, but who here has actually taken the steps necessary with a bunker full of dehydrated food, a small arsenal and enough ammo to supply a small war? </div></div>
I don't. You may or may not believe me, your choice...
I don't believe such things are inevitable, and I have serious doubts about whether I'd really want to survive indefinitely under such negative conditions, or whether stockpiles would be a good or a bad thing in the long run. Prolonged agony may not be the best legacy I could leave my dependents.
Armed grasshoppers could upset the tale about them and ants, Hollywood animation could have some value here. Like as not, I've always been a Chris Walken fan, we coming from the same neighborhood in Queens and all. He's 3 years my senior.
When contemplating the submarine scenario, I am mindful that once the rations are depleted, it's just a tubular floating prison, with a potential for radiological disaster due to maintenance issues. Ask the Russians about that one. As a cautionary tale, I think <span style="font-style: italic">Run Silent, Run Deep</span> may be less helpful than <span style="font-style: italic">On The Beach</span>.
All in all, I think the universe has little need for, and pays little attention to the superstitions of mankind. In the greater order of things, only a handful of stars are close enough to us for any light speed emissions to have reached us that have originated within in the entire duration of any SETI schemes.
So when we talk about the end of the world, I ask, is the Moon included? Mars, etc.? Milky Way Galaxy, the Local Galactic Group? Just how much of creation is dependent upon the pronouncements of a (as the crow bars) thousand year extinct human civilization (although I think the were far from what I'd call civilized)?
Our society goes into these periodic apocalyptic tailspins. Good for business, bad for sleep, inconsequential in the long run. I'm a' gonna sit this one out; wake me when the dust has settled.
Greg
