Screw Iraq, ASTEROIDS!!

[mik3cap]

Now that the chance of asteroid collision is 1 in 37 can we please stop spending 6 billion a month in Iraq and start talking strategies for preventing devastation?

Comments

[creatrixx.livejournal.com]

screw that, the world is ending december 21st 2012 since that's when the Mayan calander ends. What a way to spend my birthday. :-)

[bonisagus.livejournal.com]

Oh please...you do realize that the probably figured okay we've gone out 2000 years that should be more than enough years to calculate out for now when we get closer to 2012 we'll calculate more. You don't think that modern people were the first to corner the market on laziness now do you? I can tell you that in the data warehouse I'm building right now we are only pre-populating the time dimension out 10 years and you know why? Because we can go back and add more later. Same thing with an effective end date...setting to 1/1/3000 it's far enough out in the future that we won't have to care if we didn't set it high enough.

[creatrixx.livejournal.com]

actually, it's much more complicated than that. They had a value for a long amount of time and there were 13 of them in a cycle. 13 of that unit from the begining date of that calander ends on the winter solstice of 2012. But it's still funny to think that the world might end on my birthday.

Let's Swap!

[griffytime.livejournal.com]

If/when you celebrate on Dec 21, 2013, I will begin to worry about MY birthday on April 13, 2027!

[jessnut.livejournal.com]

Bust out the oil drilling cowboys, nukes, experimental spacecraft, and secret underground military shelters!

[mikecap.livejournal.com]

See, we really should be spending money on alternative habitats. Underwater and underground cities, and lunar and Martian colonies... the more places people exist, the less chance of people becoming extinct. Too many eggs in one basket!

[bonisagus.livejournal.com]

I like eggs. They are tasty...especially with ham.

[jessnut.livejournal.com]

You seem to have this weird idea that things wouldn't be better if humanity becomes extinct. Dinosaurs went extinct and then we showed up, soon it will be our turn and then next critter will get to drive their SUVs powered by our rotten corpses. :)

[mikecap.livejournal.com]

It's because I know my genes are superior and I want my descendants to propagate my greatness across the galaxy.

[bonisagus.livejournal.com]

Yes sweetie...and my descendants will rule the galaxy as queen.

[creatrixx.livejournal.com]

I'm with you. I believe that everyone is fanatical about something, this is mine. I would join/start a fringe rebel group to destroy any method for humans to propagate themselves and their greedy destruction around the galaxy.

[mikecap.livejournal.com]

How do you know that any force that replaces/supplants humanity won't be more destructive and greedy?

Better to work with the devil you know.

[creatrixx.livejournal.com]

intellegent life is not exactly common. if life on earth is destroyed, I have doubts that we will be replaced by intellegent life again. And besides, I'm talking about populating unpopulated plants, ender's game style.

[sirroxton.livejournal.com]

What good is a beautiful world if there's nobody around to appreciate it?

DAGGERS! YOU'RE STARING DAGGERS INTO MY EYES! OW! OW! OW!

[creatrixx.livejournal.com]

too bad most people don't appreciate it. I cannot tell you how many times I've seen a large moon rising over distant mountains, or the way the pine trees look against the bluest sky and showed someone and had them just give me a funny look.

[sirroxton.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping that the standard liberal answer of "Educate!" and a few generational revolutions will correct this problem before we screw ourselves over too badly. Like a god who gave autonomy to his creation, I know disappointment awaits.

[creatrixx.livejournal.com]

we are the fringe. my super liberal (and unfortunately totally moronic) sister told me that she wants a Hummer.

[sirroxton.livejournal.com]

I was going to keep this short, but the rant started coming, and I couldn't make it stop.

The human aesthetic is important. The desire for a Hummer is not something to be squelched, as it's reflective of genuine, human desire. The path to "enlightenment" isn't ascetism.

What is important is to have your aesthetic informed by your rational mind. What do you value in this world? How does human behavior affect what you value?
If
1) Your rationale refuses to entertain contradictions.
2) You genuinely value the environment in any form.
3) You are willing to accept, even on a tentative basis, the conclusions of the scientific community about human impact on this world.
Then your aesthetic desire for a Hummer will be trumped by your aesthetic desire to see the environment thrive.

There are also tainting influences on the human aesthetic of society that need to be mitigated or done away with (nominally through education). Without proper training, the human mind is highly impressionable. Many free market advocates will say that the commercial environment only reacts to what the people want, but they fail to point out that the relationship is synergistic. We should only see the content we explicitly pull, even if that means an end to advertisement in favor of subscription-based models.

More and more, I am convinced of the need to eradicate ignorance about the notion of God as an absolute center of certainty invisibly accessible though the human brain. This, more than anything else IMO, is responsible for the devastating level of unwarranted certainty, which in turn is responsible for extreme polarizations of issues, radical behavior, and a general dismissal of new ideas.

Can all this be achieved with education? I hope so. I have no stomach for the draconian measures that would otherwise be required, nor do I have faith in their efficacy.