4 ms·

How to Prepare Now for the Complete End of the World

27 points by laurex 7y ago

jdkee 7y ago
It is from the NYT “Style” section which should tell you all you need to know about its contents.
mikestew 7y ago
There was an old ax they used instead. Its head periodically flung off, each time narrowly missing someone. Perhaps before someone gets killed or maimed, we can learn how to hammer a wedge into an axe handle. It’s a mentality that I have difficulty grasping. That doesn’t make it bad, I just fail to “get it” (and I spend plenty of time in the woods). For example, the angst of not having a cell connection: that tells me this isn’t aimed at me. But it also says some folks have a need for such programs.
- dpcan 7y ago
  People only have a need for these things because they don't know any other way to live. You can't fault someone for not being raised or inspired to try living in the woods (or wherever). Plus, it's completely okay to rely on modern technology and luxuries. That's why we invented them. The axe was probably a modern technology and convenience at one time too. Some elder or survivalist of the time was definitely irritated that a young person was using an axe when their sharp stone and biceps did the trick for years.
  - mikestew 7y ago
    You can't fault someone for not being raised or inspired to try living in the woods (or wherever). Stating that I have difficulty grasping a mental model would, to me, imply that if I can't grasp it I can't fault it, either. Pretty sure I hammered that point home in my comment. Regardless, if you can't go a weekend without a cell connection without undue stress, head to Methow, WA with my blessing. But do me a favor: first thing you do when you get unpacked, drive a little wedge or two in that axe handle before you use it. The wedges are probably still Scotch-taped to the axe handle, and could literally save someone's life.
lambdasquirrel 7y ago
Something tells me that if the end of the world comes, this sort of article will be a moot point. The Earth just can’t handle that many subsistence farmers and hunter/gatherer types. So most of us won’t make it. Besides that, this is a strangely American fixation. You never seem to hear about doomsday sort of things in the same vein from Europe’s news outlets. China’s culture has endured the collapse of centralized authority many times over (most recently in the 19th and 20th centuries). Western Europe eventually came back from the collapse of the Roman Empire. If things really fell apart in North America, you can bet that the EU and China would figure out a deal to maintain some semblance of stability near the coasts, for the sake of protecting economic interests.
- kiba 7y ago
  How about we just learn skill for its own sake and hobby? You never seem to hear about doomsday sort of things in the same vein from Europe’s news outlets. American sure have a strange fixation on doomsday prepping for their own family, but not on a societal level. Prepping on a societal level will likely stave off collapse of society as we know it as opposed to living through a post-apocalypse. Like, we could use a little bit of prepping for a pandemic that we're currently undergoing through instead of being unprepared every time, like investing much more in learning how to make and test vaccines quickly or keeping more masks on hand.
- spectramax 7y ago
  > You never seem to hear about doomsday sort of things in the same vein from Europe’s news outlets. https://www.dw.com/en/doomsday-clock-suggests-the-end-is-closer-than-ever/a-52124725 https://www.dw.com/en/doomsday-clock-suggests-the-end-is-clo... Is it me or I see, sometimes regular thrashing of America - which is good if its valid - but I feel like there is some sort of deep bias by Europeans that everything is rosy up in the EU and everything America does is substandard. May be you didn't mean that but I want to mention this bias as part of the HN community as a whole. The pattern largely is: X seems to be an American issue. We never do X in Europe. It comes off as a prejudice filled opinion - I've met many europeans that come off extremely rude against Americans. Tribalism makes people less pleasant and unproductive in making arguments. We should stop doing this and talk about the issue at hand.
plessthanpt05 7y ago
If it were (literally) "the complete end of the world", I don't think you'd need to prepare -- I mean, I know this is just semantics, but the end would be just that. And I get that's not what the article is actually saying, but the title is very clickbaity.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- stallmanite 7y ago
  The same thought crossed my mind. I want to know how to survive the big rip. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Rip https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Rip
  - chillacy 7y ago
    The third book of the Three Body Problem is pretty amazing to read if you like sci-fi which goes to the heat death of the universe.
    - stallmanite 7y ago
      As a huge fan of Isaac Asimov’s “The Last Question” I’ll have to check it out. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Question https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Question

27 points by laurex 7y ago

It is from the NYT “Style” section which should tell you all you need to know about its contents.

There was an old ax they used instead. Its head periodically flung off, each time narrowly missing someone. Perhaps before someone gets killed or maimed, we can learn how to hammer a wedge into an axe handle. It’s a mentality that I have difficulty grasping. That doesn’t make it bad, I just fail to “get it” (and I spend plenty of time in the woods). For example, the angst of not having a cell connection: that tells me this isn’t aimed at me. But it also says some folks have a need for such programs.

dpcan 7y ago
People only have a need for these things because they don't know any other way to live. You can't fault someone for not being raised or inspired to try living in the woods (or wherever). Plus, it's completely okay to rely on modern technology and luxuries. That's why we invented them. The axe was probably a modern technology and convenience at one time too. Some elder or survivalist of the time was definitely irritated that a young person was using an axe when their sharp stone and biceps did the trick for years.
- mikestew 7y ago
  You can't fault someone for not being raised or inspired to try living in the woods (or wherever). Stating that I have difficulty grasping a mental model would, to me, imply that if I can't grasp it I can't fault it, either. Pretty sure I hammered that point home in my comment. Regardless, if you can't go a weekend without a cell connection without undue stress, head to Methow, WA with my blessing. But do me a favor: first thing you do when you get unpacked, drive a little wedge or two in that axe handle before you use it. The wedges are probably still Scotch-taped to the axe handle, and could literally save someone's life.

lambdasquirrel 7y ago

Something tells me that if the end of the world comes, this sort of article will be a moot point. The Earth just can’t handle that many subsistence farmers and hunter/gatherer types. So most of us won’t make it. Besides that, this is a strangely American fixation. You never seem to hear about doomsday sort of things in the same vein from Europe’s news outlets. China’s culture has endured the collapse of centralized authority many times over (most recently in the 19th and 20th centuries). Western Europe eventually came back from the collapse of the Roman Empire. If things really fell apart in North America, you can bet that the EU and China would figure out a deal to maintain some semblance of stability near the coasts, for the sake of protecting economic interests.

kiba 7y ago
How about we just learn skill for its own sake and hobby? You never seem to hear about doomsday sort of things in the same vein from Europe’s news outlets. American sure have a strange fixation on doomsday prepping for their own family, but not on a societal level. Prepping on a societal level will likely stave off collapse of society as we know it as opposed to living through a post-apocalypse. Like, we could use a little bit of prepping for a pandemic that we're currently undergoing through instead of being unprepared every time, like investing much more in learning how to make and test vaccines quickly or keeping more masks on hand.
spectramax 7y ago
> You never seem to hear about doomsday sort of things in the same vein from Europe’s news outlets. https://www.dw.com/en/doomsday-clock-suggests-the-end-is-closer-than-ever/a-52124725 https://www.dw.com/en/doomsday-clock-suggests-the-end-is-clo... Is it me or I see, sometimes regular thrashing of America - which is good if its valid - but I feel like there is some sort of deep bias by Europeans that everything is rosy up in the EU and everything America does is substandard. May be you didn't mean that but I want to mention this bias as part of the HN community as a whole. The pattern largely is: X seems to be an American issue. We never do X in Europe. It comes off as a prejudice filled opinion - I've met many europeans that come off extremely rude against Americans. Tribalism makes people less pleasant and unproductive in making arguments. We should stop doing this and talk about the issue at hand.

plessthanpt05 7y ago

If it were (literally) "the complete end of the world", I don't think you'd need to prepare -- I mean, I know this is just semantics, but the end would be just that. And I get that's not what the article is actually saying, but the title is very clickbaity.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
stallmanite 7y ago
The same thought crossed my mind. I want to know how to survive the big rip. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Rip https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Rip
- chillacy 7y ago
  The third book of the Three Body Problem is pretty amazing to read if you like sci-fi which goes to the heat death of the universe.
  - stallmanite 7y ago
    As a huge fan of Isaac Asimov’s “The Last Question” I’ll have to check it out. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Question https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Question