What to do if a nuclear disaster is imminent [pdf] • Hacker News Board

Re: What to do if a nuclear disaster is imminent [pdf]

#51

Post by chasd00 » Tue, Nov 15, 2022, 10:11 PM UTC

themeiguoren wrote: post #33

I find it almost satirical that a guide on an imminent nuclear disaster is a 13-page pdf of dense text. If the producers of this guide are serious about their mission, this needs to be condensed into a flowchart with short statements and plenty of pictures that can be absorbed quickly. More detailed info can be tacked on the end, but some bolded statements in the middle of a wall of words is not how you communicate i…

i skimmed through it, it only makes sense for population centers not targeted or attacked. If you're in a city that is a target the best thing to do IMO is setup an informational circuit breaker where, once flipped, you get the hell out of dodge and wait for more information.

Re: What to do if a nuclear disaster is imminent [pdf]

#52

Post by stareatgoats » Tue, Nov 15, 2022, 10:13 PM UTC

HL33tibCe7 wrote: post #39

stareatgoats wrote: post #18

The site is down so I can only speculate what it recommends. Whatever it is, I suspect it is not a list of suggestions for how to avoid nuclear disasters altogether. Because that is simply not in vogue. It seems we must all accept as something inevitable to have the specter of millions dead, if not billions, if not life as we know it, hanging over our heads for time eternal. Because we as humans are seemingly only en…

What’s your alternative? Everyone agreeing to sit round the campfire, hold hands and sing kumbaya? You can’t possibly be this naive. There’s something uniquely frustrating about seeing somebody like you, who has a completely naive and childlike worldview, assuming that YOU are just a genius and everyone else is an idiot.

I may be an idiot, but you seem confused: first you assume that I can not be this naïve, then you conclude that I am? Let me assure you, I'm not that naïve, but I don't presume to have the solution either. I agree that would have been better, but there you go. Maybe if we were more people than the vanishing few that I encounter, maybe then we would have something we could try.

More weapons that are likely to start a third world war by mistake is not a satisfactory solution IMO.

Re: What to do if a nuclear disaster is imminent [pdf]

#53

Post by ravi-delia » Tue, Nov 15, 2022, 10:13 PM UTC

stareatgoats wrote: post #42

ravi-delia wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It takes literally 0 imagination to avoid nuclear disasters altogether. A handful of people in the entire world need not to do something extremely stupid. They can leave their special keys at home, overwrite the codes with baseball scores in their mind, and no nuclear apocalypse will happen. The fact that this has not happened is not due to a failure of imagination. That doesn't mean the reason is good, obviously, bu…

> you haven't presented a solution any single person can work with either- perhaps it is a difficult problem. Exactly; it's a tough problem. Much as I admire my own intellect [/s], I hardly think I can come up with a solution by myself, no. If we were an "army of millions" who were thinking hard about the problem then we would have sporting chance I think - but we are not that many (which, again, is frankly baffling)…

I absolutely agree, but doesn't that precisely undermine your point? There's nothing about trying to prevent nuclear apocalypse that isn't "in vogue", it's just widely seen as a hard problem. And if it's a hard problem, isn't there a place for looking at the far easier one of reading a few papers and noticing that a few steps taken in advance could make a big difference in survival odds (assuming you aren't one of the many people annihilated instantly and pointlessly in the initial blast).

And yeah, I'd like to believe there's a good reason for nuclear proliferation, and today things are pretty locked in by game theory, but there was absolutely a decision made early on! During WWII Germany was nowhere near finishing a nuclear weapon, and the Soviet Union only worked it out with the help of a spy. Seems like there was at least a shot of no one developing nukes if the Manhattan project hadn't happened.

Re: What to do if a nuclear disaster is imminent [pdf]

#54

Post by ravi-delia » Tue, Nov 15, 2022, 10:15 PM UTC

mistermann wrote: post #44

ravi-delia wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It takes literally 0 imagination to avoid nuclear disasters altogether. A handful of people in the entire world need not to do something extremely stupid. They can leave their special keys at home, overwrite the codes with baseball scores in their mind, and no nuclear apocalypse will happen. The fact that this has not happened is not due to a failure of imagination. That doesn't mean the reason is good, obviously, bu…

> It takes literally 0 imagination to avoid nuclear disasters altogether. A handful of people in the entire world need not to do something extremely stupid. They can leave their special keys at home, overwrite the codes with baseball scores in their mind, and no nuclear apocalypse will happen. The fact that this has not happened is not due to a failure of imagination. That doesn't mean the reason is good, obviously,…

Absolutely not! Is this because I have failed to imagine a world without a nuclear threat, or because the problem is very hard? Not the former! As proof see counterexample- I can imagine a nukeless world just fine.

Re: What to do if a nuclear disaster is imminent [pdf]

#55

Post by rdtwo » Tue, Nov 15, 2022, 10:15 PM UTC

wordyskeleton wrote: post #36

rdtwo wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m going outside. I don’t want to survive into the world after. Better to die in the initial flash then die slowly in the aftermath

Can't hear your negativity over the sound of my bathtub approaching 100% capacity.

lol to each their own. Hopefully you stashed away a couple years of food and lots of guns

Re: What to do if a nuclear disaster is imminent [pdf]

#56

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Nov 15, 2022, 10:16 PM UTC

scarecrowbob wrote: post #3

This reminded me of the better documentary films I have seen, The Atomic Cafe (1982). It is a well-crafted film, with a neat-o formal technique of only using found footage/ audio to describe the history of US atomic-age propaganda. More interestingly to me, it offers a useful commentary about the contradictions between the use of media to present nuclear wars a survivable and possibly necessary event but simultaneous…

[deleted]

Re: What to do if a nuclear disaster is imminent [pdf]

#57

Post by bsagdiyev » Tue, Nov 15, 2022, 10:16 PM UTC

function_seven wrote: post #13

recursivedoubts wrote: post #4

Controversial take, but I'm going to be pretty upset if there is a global thermonuclear war and we all die, I am not going to sugar coat it.

My entire financial planning model is founded on a lack of global thermonuclear war. Now I need to figure out what to short so I can take advantage of this black swan event? Eh, this is good for crypto.

Let me just login in to the intern... oh right. Well the radios should still wor... no? Shit. I need to pay for clean water from my neighbor.

Re: What to do if a nuclear disaster is imminent [pdf]

#58

Post by LightG » Tue, Nov 15, 2022, 10:17 PM UTC

isbjorn16 wrote: post #14

kjkjadksj wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great more water for the raiders when they bash down your door

I think you mean the delivery food

The Deliverator will not abide.

Re: What to do if a nuclear disaster is imminent [pdf]

#59

Post by ravi-delia » Tue, Nov 15, 2022, 10:19 PM UTC

BaculumMeumEst wrote: post #17

i think its better not to spend time and energy coming up with ways to prolong your suffering in an unlikely scenario but that’s just me. that’s to say i don’t have a plan, but rather it’s much shorter and weighs on me less

Eh people lived and died for generations doing awful subsistence farming and watching half their children die (if they didn't die in childbirth themselves). Not getting acute radiation poisoning and dying painfully over days in one of the worst ways possible for the low low cost of having a basement and keeping some water in it seems within the cards. I guess you could just kill yourself and your family immediately, which would also prevent a slow agonizing death from radiation poisoning, but I don't hate my basement enough to go out and buy a gun.

Re: What to do if a nuclear disaster is imminent [pdf]

#60

Post by jmkni » Tue, Nov 15, 2022, 10:20 PM UTC

CamperBob2 wrote: post #43

function_seven wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My entire financial planning model is founded on a lack of global thermonuclear war. Now I need to figure out what to short so I can take advantage of this black swan event? Eh, this is good for crypto.

My entire financial planning model is founded on a lack of global thermonuclear war That's funny, my financial planning model is founded on the opposite premise.

Bottle caps?