rate the chances that you will experience a cataclysmic, world-threatening event before you're 70

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

clutch mutch?

16 people leading the revolution

http://i.imgur.com/1eWtMFd.jpg

I'm about to turn 42, and I feel like I am living through one right now.

You are confusing the scaldingly high potential for a cataclysmic event with the actual event, which is scheduled for later this year.

51 and I feel as if everything has gone mad.

You're getting worked up over nothing. Everything is going to be fine. So just relax, okay? You're really overreacting.

http://www.theonion.com/multiblogpost/this-war-will-destabilize-the-entire-mideast-regio-11534

silicon valley hedge fund types certainly think they will

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/30/doomsday-prep-for-the-super-rich

“I think people who are particularly attuned to the levers by which society actually works understand that we are skating on really thin cultural ice right now.”

yeah man yr the only one who can tell

i read that piece and my real feeling about it was that there's a certain stripe of rich person that's constantly paranoid that something might bring an end to the lavish, crass lifestyles which they need yet scarcely deserve, the latter fact being something they're probably aware of.

When Marvin Liao, a former Yahoo executive who is now a partner at 500 Startups, a venture-capital firm, considered his preparations, he decided that his caches of water and food were not enough. “What if someone comes and takes this?” he asked me. To protect his wife and daughter, he said, “I don’t have guns, but I have a lot of other weaponry. I took classes in archery.”

...

Huffman has calculated that, in the event of a disaster, he would seek out some form of community: “Being around other people is a good thing. I also have this somewhat egotistical view that I’m a pretty good leader. I will probably be in charge, or at least not a slave, when push comes to shove.”

lol nerds (bolded part submitted for use on species tombstone obv)

love the implicit acknowledgement that there will be slaves -- just def not him

typical of these libertarian shitheads that their first and only thought in response to potential civil unrest is 'omg i'd better build a secret bunker' rather than 'omg how can i use my boundless wealth and influence to prevent this?'

lord of the flies is not a fucking instruction manual you dolts

http://s8.postimg.org/4qjmvxc5x/tumblr_ned75nk_LFX1s6efcxo2_500.gif

just for the record, this is the chinless manchild who believes he has the right stuff to go full immortan joe in the nightmarish hellscape world of the future:

http://www.deathmetal.org/wp-content/uploads/Steve-spez-Huffman.jpg

hmm, it appears deathmetal.org doesn't like hotlinking - try this:

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/11/29/17/3ADB96D400000578-3982922-image-a-23_1480439368880.jpg

if you want a vision of the future, imagine a flip-flop stamping on a human face - forever.

You can't fool me, that's Liam McPoyle.

Silicon Valley execs who think their leadership skills will transfer seamlessly to the post-apocalyptic economy of tomorrow might just maybe be in for a fun surprise.

Immortan Joe was the CFO at Fruit Ninja devs Halfbrick, iirc?

otoh psychopathy probably v useful

yeah was gonna say, he's got the right eyes at least

Sean Connery may still be alive when ZARDOZ comes true

It just occurred to me that the illusory nightmare world the more extreme factions of the right had been fearing under Obummer is exactly the world that the new GOP administration seems hellbent on ushering in for real. And those same people are probably cheering now. Probably because they'll finally get to use those shelters they spent their life savings on.

love the implicit acknowledgement that there will be slaves -- just def not him

― difficult listening hour, Tuesday, January 24, 2017 4:41 PM (fifty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i like the implication that there will be slaves and he'll be in charge off them

i talk to a few chinese people at work and theyve told me its obvious that china will go to war in less than 5 years

they said this about 1.5 years ago

the potential for destruction is there, but how much of it china is willing to risk is another matter

makes sense tho

The Cascadia Subduction Zone rupturing & the Yellowstone Caldera erupting definitely have a greater than 0% of happening within 37 years. Though those would mostly threaten just the Western US and Canada.

What really scares me is when giant asteroids make close pass-by's and NASA's like "oh we didn't see that one coming!" and the fact that even if we knew one was headed on a direct path towards Earth, we really don't have any way to divert it. They're working on that but currently there is no consensus that exploding a big nuclear missle near it/on it would be strong enough to nudge it enough to miss us.

But most likely, IMO, is that the effects of climate change get so severe there's a serious disruption in the global agricultural and energy sectors which would definitely lead to a panic that collapses the global economy. Though, in all likelihood that would happen at least 50 years from now. So, sorry teenagers!

I might just be a naive optimist, but I highly doubt President Trump is going start wars or cause events that are globally destabilizing. Fucking over poor people, minorities and women within the US, however... unfortunately very likely.

a greater than 0% of happening within 37 years

That 37 year window may apply to you, but as the poll was written, every respondent will have a differently sized window. In my case it is somewhat less than 8 years, which reduces the odds considerably closer to 0%. btw, if the Yellowstone Caldera erupts we can kiss our sweet lives of luxury goodbye.

if i dont see my pension and lump sum imma be soooo mad but really i dont see anything like this happening

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170418-how-western-civilisation-could-collapse

Eventually, investment in complexity as a problem-solving strategy reaches a point of diminishing returns, leading to fiscal weakness and vulnerability to collapse. That is, he says “unless we find a way to pay for the complexity[”]

bump

nah

https://media3.giphy.com/media/114YFLTN8BIQDe/giphy.gif

would need to be something much, much worse than this

this is more of a test run

well yes