A planet killer is inbound… unless it isn’t
July 29, 2010The end is near. Well, not near. It is sort of in the “mid-distance” future. Maybe.
A giant asteroid called 1999 RQ36 may crash into Earth on September 24 2182, scientists believe.
A team of experts, including some working for NASA, believes the 612-yards-wide object has a one-in-a-thousand chance of an impact 172 years from now.
So let’s imagine together, shall we? Let’s imagine that we knew for certain that a planet killing asteroid was going to smack into the Earth on September 24 2182. Let’s say there is absolutely, positively nothing we can do about it. No technology exists that can stop it. What would we do differently?
I mean we are all going to be long dead in 172 years. So will our children. So will their children. I am sure that people would behave differently as the day approached, but what – if anything – would people do differently today?
I, for one, would no longer recycle pop bottles. Just wouldn’t do it. What about you? Would you see the world differently or not?
AW Mens :
Date: July 29, 2010
I’ve always thought that if I was going to “write that novel” one day it would in some way involve the subject listed above. Not a particularly new idea I realize but here would be my plot twist.
The earth will be destroyed in a year.
All life will end.
Boom.
Done.
Dust.
It can’t be stopped.
People start living their lives differently.
Some become more kind.
Some become more evil.
There are a million variations in between.
Some even don’t recycle pop bottles!
Globally society changes.
People change because of the choices they make change.
Wow….lots of fun (but predictable) writing here in the first 1/3 of the book.
So OK….it’s a week before the end.
We are what are are now and all of us await the great beyond.
But whoops….damn…..turns out all those wacky scientists were wrong!
The world does not end!
The asteroid misses us!
No big deal.
Just looked like a falling star.
But oh oh….now I’m a totally different person because of the choices I made over the last year.
What kind of person am I now??
The interesting part of “the novel I will write” is more about exploring what living with the choices I made when I thought there was nothing to lose but instead… the world just goes on as it always has.
Am I a better person?
Am I a shithead?
What toothpaste would I have to shove back in the tube?
Who we really are is probably more defined but what we do when nobody is looking I think.
Bman :
Date: July 29, 2010
I would choose plastic over paper. I usually do anyway. They make nice bags for scooping our the litter box. Maybe now, when they ask me at the grocery store, I’ll just respond, “Who cares! We’re all going to be killed!”
Other than that, maybe we all could say, “screw the limit” when it comes to fishing…..
MadBrad :
Date: July 29, 2010
I would try to build an Asteroid Accelerator.
jacksonsdad :
Date: July 29, 2010
I second that Bman…SCREW THE LIMIT!
I would take really long, really hot showers and keep my thermostat set very high in the winter and very very very cold in the summer.
Did I mention how friggin’ hot it is in SE NC? I know, I know…it’s July…
One last thing…. I would run my tire pressure at 26 psi all the time. Fuck Obama.
Really though… I was just joking (kinda). There is a second reason for running low tire pressure… it makes is much easier to 4WD on (in) the sand at the beach. Refilling those tires every time gets old (especially in this heat) but I’ve been doing it ‘for the cause’… cause Obozo said it would cure our energy dependence. WRONG!
So, I’ll gladly pay more at the pump because of my shitty gas mileage caused by underinflated tires and every time I fill-’er-up I’ll smile cuz in my mind I’m givin’ Obowma the middle finger…
R.D. Walker :
Date: July 29, 2010
“I would run my tire pressure at 26 psi all the time. Fuck Obama.”
Hilarious!
Bman :
Date: July 29, 2010
How about putting up Christmas lights and displaying them all year long…. I would also do that.
R.D. Walker :
Date: July 29, 2010
AW Mens… Yes, there are a million stories to be told if we knew it was coming in a year. The whole world would change.
In this case, I am specifically interested in how the world would act if we knew it was coming in 172 years. Would we change anything?
I think people would stop having children. I think, at least among those who understood the implications, populations would start radically falling. I think that environmentalism would dead as a door nail almost immediately. Beyond that, I don’t know. Your scenario is intense as all hell. Mine is subtle. Interesting…
Bman :
Date: July 29, 2010
I remember reading “On the Beach”. It’s about the world after a nuclear war. The radiation is gradually working its way down to the southern hemisphere and the people all know their days are numbered. Interesting read. Morbid.
Locke n Load :
Date: July 29, 2010
Sounds uplifting Bman
thanks for the pickmeup! hehehe
OK, so I’m walking past the magazine rack out here in rural montana, VERY rural montana and the answer to RD’s question slaps me rudely in the face. There it is, bottom shelf. Stars Without Their Makeup! If thats the sum of modern life, our civility encapsulated, then fuck it, I’ll play your little game RD but I get to be King of the World.
First things first. Since we’ve obviously slipped into some alternate dimension where women are allowed to bitchslap each other in public a la Jerry Springer on magazine covers I think it’s fair to assume the fairer sex now views itself as cattle. Allowing that, a dictum should go out that two weeks from now any of them that want to continue with the gossip games, the snarking, the tittering behind each others backs about dresses that don’t look right or whatever..well I have a fleet of C130′s waiting for you. Yup, as many as we need to relieve your husbands of their headaches and YOU of the horrors of oh so parochial american style, theres a seat waiting for you to PARIS! Yes, all of you. pack your shit, all excpenses paid. Go wild, just stay there. Simultaneously I will create full employment through the “Everybody should have an In-Ground Pool” initiative.
After a monthlong airlift we commence phase two. We go all Viking on the Swedes, Nords, hell, Europe, and pilfer all their leggiest curviest women. The beer commercial types. Lets hope they like parties, right? Theose Light beer commercials wouldn’t lie, would they? Properly ensconced in the states they’ll soon learn our ways as MadBrad instructs them in proper citizenship.
Phase three: party time. As the end of the world is coming anyway, and since I’m King and LIKE fireworks, we’re gonna have a hell of a fireworks show. Yup, biggest ever, sonic booms like ya bnever heard before, a lightshow that can be seen from the moon. Where? Well of course Iran, North Korea, Syria, Lybia, selected outposts in Afghanistan, a half dozen African “nations”, and maybe Mecca. We’ll see what their schedule looks like.
Sound harsh? Yeah, I suppose, but hey, its the end of the world and the aforementiond shitholes have had MILLENIA to get a functioning society started that didn’t worship DEATH. Besides, it seems like a perfectly efficient way to “disarm”….
sortahwitte :
Date: July 29, 2010
If it was going to end, I would want to be like my father-in-law. He passed at age 90, but between 70 and then, he was the funniest man alive. There’s something about older people, but they become extremely honest. Well maybe not honest, but they lose all reserves as they view those around them. We were in line at WalMart. The lady in front of us has a large ass. I mean really large. My daddy in law leans around me and comments in a loud voice: “I believe you could set a tray of beer mugs on her butt.” I miss him very much.
Bman :
Date: July 29, 2010
funny Witte…classic! I love what funny shit old people say. My Grandpa Gary had me almost puke from laughing so hard one time.
I came home to Washington from UND for summer break back in ’95. I went over to visit my Grandpa to shoot the shit. He was around 88 at the time. I began to tell him how cold the winter was, for it was my first winter in North Dakota. I told him, “It’s so cold, that the snow won’t stick together. You can’t even make snowballs or a snowman.” Without skipping a beat he said, “Of course not! They have to import ‘em!” It hit me as the funniest thing I’d ever heard. Not sure why. But it still cracks me up thinking about it.
Bman :
Date: July 29, 2010
Oh, and L&L? Im all about the fireworks. Great idea. However, since you would be KING, I have a small request….Do you think you would be so kind as to get some of thoes snakes? You know, the little tablets that when exposed to fire turn into a black snakes, (turds). I know, they arent spectacular and don’t make any noise, but they smell great.
Locke n Load :
Date: July 29, 2010
Bwahahaha! (maniacal power laugh) Snakes you say?!
hell yeah man, tell me where to send them, I have a stash at home right now for my girls,lol. Like smokebombs too? plenty of those…
Locke n Load :
Date: July 30, 2010
Ahem.
Bet ya didn’t even know that WAS a language.
My mother, sticking up for all the women in my household and family, would like ya’ll to know that NO, none of them would be on a plane to Paris. She’s correct of course. Not a one of them speaks french or pissy-bitch-who-whines-about-clothes
Nobody :
Date: July 30, 2010
I would invest heavily in companies connected to private commercial spaceflight ventures. RD said we can’t stop the killer asteroid, but he never said we couldn’t move somewhere else, and 170 years is more than enough time to invent a good space bus. Even though I wouldn’t live to buy a ticket, I suspect that for about the first 150 years, spaceflight would be THE ultimate growth industry. After that, society would pretty much collapse as the billions who hadn’t saved up or prepared decided that they “deserved” a free ride off the planet at someone else’s expense, and would take by violence if it wasn’t given to them. Hmmm, now the late 22nd century is starting to sound a lot like the early 20th.
Nobody :
Date: July 30, 2010
Sorry, I meant to say early 21st, referring to the present time. Forgot what century I was in for a second there.
Locke n Load :
Date: July 30, 2010
Its all good as long as you don’t start getting into Battlestar Galactica shit. Then fistfights breakout.
Nobody :
Date: July 30, 2010
All I know is that, with that giant, deadly space rock hurtling ominously and inevitably towards Earth, I will feel much better knowing that the full efforts of our entire national space program will be dedicated to making Muslim nations feel better about their math skills.
Bman :
Date: July 30, 2010
If you think about it, the survival of the human race will HAVE to vacate earth eventually….
AW Mens :
Date: July 30, 2010
I think the issue of global debt proves that for the most part the vast majority of human beings on this planet would take no action at all that is any different than what they currently do until 30 seconds before the damn space rock actually smashed into the earth. Then a solid 50% of human beings would blame George W Bush.