Gradually and then suddenly.
Doomsday scoreboard
31–40 of 167 posts
Re: Doomsday scoreboard
#32I've been in the "doomer" camp for over a decade and been surprised how many things I thought were far off in the future have come to fruition earlier. But, the one thing I always find interesting, philosophically, about believing the world-as-we-know-it is coming to an end is that all of the things people are concerned about will happen no matter what . Being afraid of the end of the world is ultimately being afraid…
'The world continuing to go on' is the status quo and has been for millenia at this point. Sure, the argument can be made that the world will end eventually, but if we do not have our reference timescale, what do we have? People aren't afraid that the world will eventually end (because 'eventually' should be thousands of years from now), people are afraid the world will end NOW, which does nullify your experience and efforts on the subjective human timescale. Life as we know it continuing to go on without ambiguity on our confidence to prevent world-ending events does resolve those anxieties.
Re: Doomsday scoreboard
#33A bit in the doomer camp, and what worries me the most are the lifestyle changes needed to not fuck up the climate in the next few hundreds years. I believe I heard that we should slash 7/8th of our emissions (as individuals living a modern lifestyle) to keep the wet bulb temperature in check worldwide by the end of the century. This is, in my opinion, a target that we'll surely miss and it won't be nice.
Europe is already struggling with few millions people trying to enter over several years. I can't imagine what happens when large parts of India/Pakistan/Bangladesh become literally deadly during the hot season. That would displace ~1B people basically at once (if you stay and you don't have Air Conditioning you die). The following turmoil will be like nothing we ever saw before as a species (IMHO).
Re: Doomsday scoreboard
#34I've been in the "doomer" camp for over a decade and been surprised how many things I thought were far off in the future have come to fruition earlier. But, the one thing I always find interesting, philosophically, about believing the world-as-we-know-it is coming to an end is that all of the things people are concerned about will happen no matter what . Being afraid of the end of the world is ultimately being afraid…
beautifully stated thank you
Re: Doomsday scoreboard
#35Survival bias. I get this is a joke but... There are many societies which have collapsed. We can't know who predicted it because they are dead. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Societal_collapse And of course, this list will no longer exist after societal collapse.
Out there, somewhere, is a nerd, laser etching Wikipedia onto metal plates, and burying them to be dug up later, just to be able to say, I knew this would happen!
Needs to carved in stone if they are serious.....
Re: Doomsday scoreboard
#36Basically, the ultimate, "Nothing ever happens" scoreboard [0]. If any of your acquaintances are ever in doubt of anything ever happening, this will be a handy guide for them to consult. [0]: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/nothing-ever-happens
Plenty happens, but: 1. Events, including big ones like 9/11, don't unfold like in the movies as even direct consequences are often far removed. 2. Pax Americana + Hypernormalization + Cheap Food + Digital Escapism = a drug which convinces its users of neverending stability and order.
That's basically the point the meme is making. It's not arguing that nothing literally happens in spacetime; it just asserts that we rarely, if ever, see events that fundamentally change the world from its slugging baseline.
Re: Doomsday scoreboard
#37Reminds me of the old gem of the Web 1.0 internet that was Exit Mundi
Re: Doomsday scoreboard
#38What qualifies moving from "pending" state to "active". There seem to be many predictions at the bottom that are only a few years out that are not "active" Some are even end of year. I could see why the ones with several hundred years deadline are "pending"
Pending means we haven't reached the start of the predicted time range for that event yet. If I predict a collapse in November of 2025, it would be pending for the rest of October, then active on November 1st until either the collapse happens and it becomes successful or December 1st arrives and it becomes failed.
Re: Doomsday scoreboard
#39I've been in the "doomer" camp for over a decade and been surprised how many things I thought were far off in the future have come to fruition earlier. But, the one thing I always find interesting, philosophically, about believing the world-as-we-know-it is coming to an end is that all of the things people are concerned about will happen no matter what . Being afraid of the end of the world is ultimately being afraid…
I am reminded of Roy Scranton's essay Learning How to Die in the Anthropocene [1]
> I found my way forward through an 18th-century Samurai manual, Yamamoto Tsunetomo’s “Hagakure,” which commanded: “Meditation on inevitable death should be performed daily.” Instead of fearing my end, I owned it. Every morning, after doing maintenance on my Humvee, I’d imagine getting blown up by an I.E.D., shot by a sniper, burned to death, run over by a tank, torn apart by dogs, captured and beheaded, and succumbing to dysentery. Then, before we rolled out through the gate, I’d tell myself that I didn’t need to worry, because I was already dead. The only thing that mattered was that I did my best to make sure everyone else came back alive. “If by setting one’s heart right every morning and evening, one is able to live as though his body were already dead,” wrote Tsunetomo, “he gains freedom in the Way.”
[1] https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/20...
Re: Doomsday scoreboard
#40I've been in the "doomer" camp for over a decade and been surprised how many things I thought were far off in the future have come to fruition earlier. But, the one thing I always find interesting, philosophically, about believing the world-as-we-know-it is coming to an end is that all of the things people are concerned about will happen no matter what . Being afraid of the end of the world is ultimately being afraid…
For me the problem is managing the transition minimizing unnecessary suffering.
The world is inevitably going to end, our work isn't going to be forever preserved into the future and there will be no "end of history" until there are living humans.
The thing is that the world can end in many ways. My world can end in many ways. I'd rather pass on with a clear consciousness, with my faculties preserved more or less, and with a legacy of having at least tried to make the lives of other that tiny bit better, so I'm aware if I'm not vigilant I can spend my final days suffering from an avoidable disease or accident or regretting I wasted my life chasing a better tomorrow that never came while neglecting what I already have today.
This is virtually the same for all society. It's going to fade into oblivion, but it matters a great deal that the process is as gentle as possible for everyone involved.