I read a great article today about the implications of a serious solar storm in 2012 (or sooner/later — they happen every 500 years or so). The short version is that it’s a massive natural EMP attack that completely destroys our electrical grid to the extent that it takes years to rebuild.
The problem we have as a modern society is that what we have is built on the shoulders of previous societies — so when you give us a hard slap, like this would do, we don’t get knocked back fifty years, we don’t get knocked back a hundred years — we get knocked back into the stone age. How many of the things in your house, in your life, can you make from scratch? Can you make a table, or a chair, without a hardware store? How will you mill the wood? How will you make the nails? What will you use for a hammer? How much first aid do you know? How much first aid do you know without what you can buy at a pharmacy? Can you even grow vegetables? And do you know how to store them over a winter? Can you shoot a bow an arrow? Can you make one?
Of course, we can scavenge the massive pile of junk that we have lying around, but how long does that last? Probably longer than it takes to rebuild from a solar storm, but if you threw a second problem at us — even a minor pandemic — and it’s all over.
Anyway, read it — 90 seconds from catastrophe.
17 Comments
if you look at mayan concepts of time, it’s cyclic. So the world does not end in 2012, the world changes… a huge change, on the order of the spanish conquest for the maya, or the collapse of the Classic Maya civilization before that. And, whatever happens in this time, it does seem that this IS a time of huge change.
this article is written from a soft point of view, many people believe that since the magnetic poles of earth move at 15km a year right now, the magnetic storm from the sun will shift the magnetic poles from the sun and the earth, bringing also great natural disasters to earth, in whatever scenario, is amazing how much we depend on stuff to survive…
I know how to fish, and can exchange it for other stuff!!!
https://video.google.co.uk/videosearch?q=ian+x+lungold&hl=en&emb=0&aq=0&oq=ian+x+#
Along a similar vein, I became convinced back in the late 90′s that the world, in one way or another, was soon to change to a degree enough that we might as well say that it has ended. So my wife and I moved to the country and started all of that preparedness stuff. Subsequently I came to the opinion that Armageddon would likely come while we were on vacation and so we quietly dropped the idea.
I think the total destruction of our global means of barter and exchange is slightly more pressing.
The whole 2012 Maya thing… isn’t this really about the return to balance of ‘the eagle and the falcon’? it’s not falcon, it’s something else… stupid memory… but it’s based on the return to harmony of the forces of the intellect and the emotions, something like that.
*shrugs*
And anyway… This whole ‘period of extreme change’ meme could have been applied to any period of time going back to the invention of agriculture.
some people will be loving it, majority…not so much.
humanity has lost is chance to rise above acting like animals or worse then animals) anyways, so maybe it time to wipe us out before we do any more damage to the earth.
would it be so bad knocked back into the stone-age?
i think it would be nice. when this happen, we get another chance.
I’ve always theorized that they just never got around to finishing the calendar.
“Well, we got plenty of time, we’ll do it NEXT year.”
The one thing that makes these apocoliptic evens odd to me is: If only 10% of the population survives worldwide, there is still 10% that has knowledge from jobs, school, experiences. My mother is a botanist, my father a physics major. Out of this 10% there is a collective knowledge; one that in small pockets could have the ability to rebuild very quickly. This does not throw us back to the stone age per-se but creates a time where invention and nostalgia become the norm again. Oddly enough, every 500 years there is some sort of “revolution” One would assume, on the theory of “genetic memory” that people over the past few million (billion?) years have simply overcame the pitfall of a 500 year cycle because some of the population survived. Oddly enough, I’m drunk, and typing this on an htc cellphone. This is something I will remember, and pass on. Genetically or by word of mouth when the fateful day comes. I also drive an ancient military jeep with “analog” ignition. My jeep will start will yours after an emp?
Ever since I can remember, I have always dreamt and thought about a world that is forced to go back to basics. I long for that, as difficult and sad it would be to loose some of those people I love, I hope I am one of the few to survive. As hypocritical as it is (i`m using technology to type this damn message) I hate all the gadgets and doo-hickeys we have now, I want an excuse to ignore `work`, throw electronics out the window and build a homestead, basic survival is the best excuse ever! Our world is far too fast paced, we need something to slow us down a bit.
I was in guatemala back in November, and on a tour of a town, the guide made a big point of saying that the calendar just starts over. If anything does happen, it will be pure coincedence.
David Tibet agrees.
there is something attractive about the idea of no tech, no electricity. but it only works if people still have enough food and the ‘strong’ dont just stand raping and pillaging everything. also, its seems likely that there will be folks that just start burning coal, tires, plastic etc to keep warm and humanity ends up doing more damage then before.
i think if something like this happended, we could all survive and have plenty to eat and other necessities….but the minority (with the guns, etc) will freak out, try to control everything they can and destroy us all.
humans suck.
This is something I’ve spent many hours debating. Eschatology is fascinating, there is so much we can only speculate on.
One of my favourite podcasts is the intelligent and well considered C-realm podcast. It covers the subject from so many angles with some great thinkers as guests.
https://c-realmpodcast.podomatic.com/
(p.s. I’m nothing to do with this podcast, please don’t think I’m spamming, it’s recommendation)
I think the change is already occurring… a shift from industrial to post-industrial mode of production…
I think the Mayans are hopeing that this Baktun is going to be better than the last one for them.
The world does not end. There is only one stela suggesting that 2012 is the end, and many more with dates in the far future on them.
Hey maybe if we let neoliberals further deregulate the energy sector, the “free market” will come up with solutions for this one. *rolls eyes*
To commenter number 6– the idea that Humans act like animals is a diservice to most of the animal kingdom is it not? And why not just ditch this dichotomous bullshit that anyone who has come to terms with darwinism should have ditched a long time ago. Humans are a form of animal — humanity / animality is a false dichotomy. See the writings of cultural anthropologist tim ingold for the most thorough punking down of this fucktarded notion of separate natures.
And for the record the world has been ending since human beings have been talking and writing.
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