End of the world theorists....

[ArenaBoy]

A thread on CS got me going, I hate, loathe, despise, detest, dislike, and am peeved by end of the world theorists. Mainly because I find them to have no life or to be just a bunch of pathetic people who realize that they can make money by writing some crap book and getting the better of people's fears. Add in a paranoid media too (This is why I read the BBC, little to no paranoia and just news. There's a reason why I'm canceling TIME magazine.)

I love it when people try and quote Nostradamus especially, that thing in 1999? Well it's 2008 and I'm still here. I saw him as just a bad poet with a nasty paranoia streak (Reference points).

Then there's that hilarious Mayan thing. 2012 and whatnot. Really, it's just a calendar cycle ending. There are present day Mayans in Central America that HAVE DISPROVED THIS THEORY! Jeez, these are the worst types.

Then there was Y2K, world ending because of bad computer programing? You mean we might have to make do without computers for a while? Oh noes! Run! Whatever will we do without our computers? Forgive me if we have to pick up new hobbies because we might have to make do without computers even though it has been possible in the last few decades? Crap that was the worse.

This bug any of you?

[powerboy]

Oh yeah. Life will always go on. I don't watch the news, because it is all crap. I will read the news paper, but just not watch it. Whenever someone talks about the end of the world, I just never listen.

[Boozy]

End-of-the-world theorists ignore real dangers to human extinction, too.

Certain Christian groups are the worst for this. They support junk science that refutes global warming, but insist that the Second Coming is upon us and the end is near!

[Millahtyme1983]

It's complete junk science to the point where it's almost funny. One book I was flipping through brought up that the suns poles are due to reverse in 2012, and how that would cause all sorts of catastrophic events on earth. such as we would loose our orbit, we'd reverse direction and start revolving the other way, and it would have a huge impact on the atmosphere possibly elimiating it.

The only problem with that theory is that the suns poles reverse every 11 years so if this "science" was true the world ended billions of times over. it is a completel joke.

[Seshat]

Certain Christian groups are the worst for this. They support junk science that refutes global warming, but insist that the Second Coming is upon us and the end is near!

But Boozy, if global warming is real, they have to DO something. But for the Second Coming, they just have to Be Good Christians. Which, of course, they just KNOW they are.

[Amethyst Hunter]

I HATE these people with a vengeance, no pun intended. Even worse - there ARE actually people that WANT and ARE trying to accomplish exactly this! (One word: dominionism. I only wish it was just a sick joke)

I admit to feeling nervous about the Y2K thing, but other than that, I think end-of-the-worlders need a big cup of STFU.

[lordlundar]

Then there was Y2K, world ending because of bad computer programing? You mean we might have to make do without computers for a while?

Granted it was overblown, but there was a genuine fear there. Consider how many vital systems in place today have the grunt work done by computers. The electric grid, water treatment plants, traffic signs even. The developed world is very much dependant on computers. Now consider that all the computers tied into these systems went poof! And it would take several years to rebuild them. Do you honestly think that the developed world could survive long enough for that to happen without some major loss of life? And that's assuming the people doing the rebuilding were left alone, which I doubt would happen.

Look at the blackout on the eastern seaboard as an example, and that was a short time of a few hours. New York went into anarchy within minutes. If such a fallout occurred, I could see a Mad Max scenario forming. That is why an emergency system is in the works in the event of an EMP blast. People would survive the blast itself, but the chaos from it could do far worse damage than any nuke and be a lot safer to use.

Now like I said, it was overblown in the hysteria produced. The panic was at paranoia levels and because the politicians had no clue to it, they were fueling this fear. But it was a case of a small fear blown out of proportion. nothing else.

[Seshat]

<OVERSIMPLIFICATION WARNING>

I was working in IT in the late 1990s. In the early part of the Y2K-concern stage, sysops and programmers would talk to management and say "Hey, Joe? We've got to audit our systems, make sure they'll be okay when 2000 hits".

And management would say "What the fuck? NO! You're supposed to be doing X, Y and Z. You don't have time to waste time on silly audits."

No matter how hard the programmers tried to say "this is a real concern" or "we need to do it because" or anything, only the smartest, most savvy managers were willing to let them even have a weekend.

Out of desperation, the geeks talked to the geek-journalists, who talked to management-journalists. All we were trying to do was convince management to let us audit the code and make sure everything would be okay.

And, of course, you know what happened then.

On the good side, enough managers let enough geeks do the audits that pretty much nothing happened at the changeover. Though I know geeks who fixed things prior to the changeover that might have been bad had they not been fixed, so it wasn't all hype.

</OVERSIMPLIFICATION>

[BlaqueKatt]

but at my job-Y2K(1 time occurance)did nothing-but leap year(every four years) crashed our systems-and keeps crashing them every time!!!

[Seshat]

That's really bad programming, and your managers need to get your programmers (or the programmers of your suppliers) to fix it.

[crazylegs]

That's really bad programming, .

I would suggest its CHEAP programming.

[lordlundar]

I would suggest its CHEAP programming.

And that was really the case of why the issue developed. Most companies weren't looking beyond 1999 and the price of memory was at an insane premium. (for a megabyte of memory then would cost you more than a beyond state of the art ultimate gaming rig today) As such, every byte was monitored, and shortcuts were used whenever possible to save money. Cost cutting on the data level.

When you factor those two effects, the corporate environment was "do it this way now, worry about it later" when they are no longer directly involved in the company. Hey, not their problem anymore! The government agencies adopted the same stance.

So now the new generation has to deal with the mess that was made from the past one, who say "Not my problem!".

[protege]

Now like I said, it was overblown in the hysteria produced. The panic was at paranoia levels and because the politicians had no clue to it, they were fueling this fear. But it was a case of a small fear blown out of proportion. nothing else.

That's not the first time. The media will do or say *anything* to increase viewers and ratings. Why is it that as soon as winter comes to Pennsylvania, one little snowflake turns *every* road in the county to a parking lot? Simple--our news stations go nuts over it. They're constantly telling us that the "storm" is going to bury us, turn everything to ice, etc. They do it because they know people freak out over it. (Of course these are the same people who said we'd get a *light dusting* in 1990-91. In reality, we got nearly 4 feet )

I too was working for a bank, checking their systems in '97...when all the Y2K crap started. Nearly every news outlet was freaking out over it--basically claiming that the world would end. Needless to say, I wasn't too surprised when that situation came out to be practically nothing. We didn't have planes falling out of the sky, no power plant meltdowns, etc.

My favorites though, are the scientists that claim comets (or meteors) will bring about the end of civilization. I mean really, what exactly can we do about those? Are we going to evacuate the entire planet, or shift the Earth's orbit? Give me a break