• Apparently, civilization will collapse soon.
    88 replies, posted
Not soon enough in my opinion. My thunderdome is starting to collect dust
[QUOTE=seano12;44260214]That's why China is investing in Africa correct?[/QUOTE] Its investing in Africa to hold on to resources without military means.
"civilization" nah only the West and fake countries
[QUOTE=LVL FACTORY;44263445]"civilization" nah only the West and fake countries[/QUOTE] with how interlinked economies are, when one economy ie the states goes to shit, so will Europe and the rest of the world.
What happened to nuclear doomsday scenarios? Suddenly it's all about "Economy" and "Consuming".
[QUOTE=DestinyDstryr;44260309]It has happened for every other great civilisation. Egyptians, Romans, Chinese, all those kinds. It was only a matter of time until the western world collapses. It's someone else's turn to lead.[/QUOTE] [b][i]Waddles over, huffing and puffing.[/i][/b] "Man, I've got to tell you about how the west is DOOMED."
[QUOTE=LVL FACTORY;44263445]"civilization" nah only the West and fake countries[/QUOTE] So Serbia is safely tucked away in the pre-industrial age?
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I can see Islam being the prime cause for western societies collapse. Religion and politics should never mix. That or WW3 with Russia.
[QUOTE=Angua;44259737]Yea it's funny that i think that 40k is one of the positive outcomes.[/QUOTE] Please don't even get me started.
ill make ur mom collapse in bed after i fuck her u twat
[QUOTE=seano12;44259510]How tragic would it be if there was a World War 3 started over lack of resource, an economic collapse, and some sort of pandemic all at the same time?[/QUOTE] WWIII during the zombie apocalypse during the great depression II communist zombie dust bowl
While a social and economical collapse is bad, it's preferable to death.
Reminds me of the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov.
[QUOTE=Kommodore;44260478]Really annoys me when people from the physical sciences feel entitled to go on an ego trip and take up the role of social scientist or historian. Just because you happened to notice that both X and Y empire fell doesn't entitle you to construct a model based on it that completely excludes social, cultural and ideological motives. "the Elites eventually consume too much, resulting in a famine among the Masses that eventually causes the collapse of society”. pfft[/QUOTE] But this was written by social scientists, only one guy is doing something else. You don't have to be a physicist to get grants by NASA. [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/UUIjy0c.png[/IMG]
OPTIMISM!
[QUOTE=T553412;44259784]I don't need canned food. I live one hour away from fertile land. Beat that[/QUOTE] Yeah I'm sure you'll be able to grow food in under 2 weeks before you starve, and I'm sure no one else will want all that land. [editline]17th March 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=LVL FACTORY;44263445]"civilization" nah only the West and fake countries[/QUOTE] Yeah you have fun with those massive resource deficiencies when you try and start manufacturing all your own modern tech instead of importing it.
[QUOTE=Nevec;44264509]Reminds me of the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov.[/QUOTE] All we need is a mule.
All that is needed is one more black swan event.
These models are just models and nothing more. They are not even proved to be correct (and hardly can be), not to mention their accuracy. Millions of hardly predictable variables, and each one can heavily twist the big picture.
[QUOTE=Swebonny;44264609]But this was written by social scientists, only one guy is doing something else. You don't have to be a physicist to get grants by NASA. [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/UUIjy0c.png[/IMG][/QUOTE] Point well taken, but Rivas is probably a grad student, Motesharrei is actually an applied mathematician and Kalnay is the only PhD. My point being that they probably got grant money from NASA because it billed itself as applied science. Instead of invoking a massively oversimplified historical narrative and multiple contexts that had more or less nothing to do with what they were studying they should have stuck to their guns and called it what it is: statistics.
I'm actually interested to see what will happen to people and how they react if it happens, that's all I can say. Maybe people will be able to adapt, maybe they're too stuck in how wealthy they were before it happened and wanted things to be like they were.
[QUOTE=Recurracy;44268251]I'm actually interested to see what will happen to people and how they react if it happens, that's all I can say. Maybe people will be able to adapt, maybe they're too stuck in how wealthy they were before it happened and wanted things to be like they were.[/QUOTE] I think it's fair to say you'll be too busy scavenging for food/being eaten by hairy bikers to conduct a sociological study on post-civilization society.
Thomas Malthus had similar dire predictions about society in his time and look how he was wrong, we always find a way.
[QUOTE=Recurracy;44268251]I'm actually interested to see what will happen to people and how they react if it happens, that's all I can say. Maybe people will be able to adapt, maybe they're too stuck in how wealthy they were before it happened and wanted things to be like they were.[/QUOTE] Most likely it would be a reversion to a semi-medieval society. When civilizations collapse, technology is the last thing to go, and I can bet that even if say 90% of the worlds population was wiped out, the rest would still be farming in scrubby fields for a living. Wherever it was impossible to farm (which are a very very few places) but possible to also hunter/gather, you would see some bands and tribes of people. Most likely with schizo technology. We'd probably have things like bicycles, but no cars. People would be practicing crop rotation and using manure, but probably be using GMOs that survived the fall. Firearms would be commonplace (well, simple ones), but not really organized armies. Just look at the aftermath of the fall of Rome. Complexity generally degraded, but peoples living standards actually started quickly rising after the Empire finally died. A great deal of information, technology, writing, etc ended up surviving as well, so in many ways the Medieval world continued to heavily resemble the late Roman one.
[QUOTE=T553412;44259784]I don't need canned food. I live one hour away from fertile land. Beat that[/QUOTE] If any bombs go off near you, you'll have to get that fallout tainted topsoil cleared away.
[QUOTE=Sobotnik;44268472]Just look at the aftermath of the fall of Rome. Complexity generally degraded, but peoples living standards actually started quickly rising after the Empire finally died. A great deal of information, technology, writing, etc ended up surviving as well, so in many ways the Medieval world continued to heavily resemble the late Roman one.[/QUOTE] Yeah but the fall of Rome didn't mean food and water supplies completely vanishing for 90% of people. Electricity is a concept now that didn't exist back then, but today losing electricity would be the final nail. In fact our entire society looks remarkably fragile when you remove electricity and gasoline from the mix.
[QUOTE=The Combine;44263507]What happened to nuclear doomsday scenarios? Suddenly it's all about "Economy" and "Consuming".[/QUOTE] Our end of the world scenarios are reflected by what we fear the most
[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;44274357]Yeah but the fall of Rome didn't mean food and water supplies completely vanishing for 90% of people. Electricity is a concept now that didn't exist back then, but today losing electricity would be the final nail. In fact our entire society looks remarkably fragile when you remove electricity and gasoline from the mix.[/QUOTE] It depends on the destruction done. If the collapse were slow, people would just swap to coal and diesel generators, solar and wind and hydropower. Infrastructure would generally rot, but people would cannibalize it, switch to gas or wood burning, generally more simpler sources of fuel. A catastrophic collapse would be something like nuclear war. Society is anything but fragile. It's remarkably resilient and able to withstand powerful shocks to it, usually by adapting to the changing times. When a complex society falls to bits, the residents adopt something more stable. Anarchism eventually yields to feudalism. Feudalism eventually ends with some sort of heavily centralized state taking power. That sort of thing.
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