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> And then COVID-19 came along and basically rendered the whole thing unneccessary because we are all getting a real world crash-course in how we deal with peop

by bhaak 7y ago

> And then COVID-19 came along and basically rendered the whole thing unneccessary because we are all getting a real world crash-course in how we deal with people suffering from a viral pandemic, and we do /not/ generally deal with them using shotguns and baseball bats even if they're so contagious that contact might kill us. But that's not the standard zombie scenario. Having 1% of the population being somehow sick and dying or a strain on the medical resources doesn't make society collapse. The zombie scenario is that only 1% of the population is unaffected and society breaks down and disappears and modern humans, humans living after the Enlightement, have to survive in a hostile environment. I agree with Charles Stross that people don't just bash their heads in a crisis but that they start to look after their own community. But this probably stops after we reach the magical number of 150 people. After that, other people are not friends anymore and how we deal with them when resources are scarce, well, I'm not as optimistic as he is. Just look at the current mediterranean situation and that's when resources aren't actually scarce.

XorNot 7y ago
Person 151 is not a non-person, they're just a member of another group, who's leadership will include the other groups within the 150 monkey-sphere hence the basis of hierarchical human societies. The dumbest thing about most "preppers" is that they invariably develop absurd ideas about how their fortress will beat back the hordes they imagine to descend (sound familiar?) yet pay basically no attention to their local council, who would be the nearest level of organization and planning continuance which would allow a practical response if the larger systems failed. This isn't even speculative: the current the COVID-19 response in America has required local councils and city boards to coordinate, particularly in the absence of any clear direction at a Federal and frequently State level.
- Gibbon1 7y ago
  Reminds me of the Subgenius advice for the faithful. In the end times don't be a sap holed up waiting for defend yourself against marauding gangs. Join a marauding gang as soon as possible.
  - Gravityloss 7y ago
    I guess creating an apocalypse simulator game where you could play it very differently would be very hard to create (agent simulation) and might not be fun at all to play...
    - philipov 7y ago
      You don't need agent simulation to do that, you just need properly-motivated writing and design teams.
    - golergka 7y ago
      This War of Mine already has this kind of moral choice in gameplay, right from the start.
- eru 7y ago
  > This isn't even speculative: the current the COVID-19 response in America has required local councils and city boards to coordinate, particularly in the absence of any clear direction at a Federal and frequently State level. Yes. And so far the local responses have been better, or at least did less damage, than most of the more centralized actions. Like the FDA banning almost all tests. Here's an article https://reaction.life/why-is-germany-able-to-test-for-coronavirus-so-much-more-than-the-uk/ https://reaction.life/why-is-germany-able-to-test-for-corona... exploring aspects of centralization vs decentralization by way of comparing the German and UK responses to the pandemic so far. The German system has centralized advice and coordination from the Robert Koch institute, but no centralized institution to ban local initiatives.

by bhaak 7y ago

XorNot 7y ago

Person 151 is not a non-person, they're just a member of another group, who's leadership will include the other groups within the 150 monkey-sphere hence the basis of hierarchical human societies. The dumbest thing about most "preppers" is that they invariably develop absurd ideas about how their fortress will beat back the hordes they imagine to descend (sound familiar?) yet pay basically no attention to their local council, who would be the nearest level of organization and planning continuance which would allow a practical response if the larger systems failed. This isn't even speculative: the current the COVID-19 response in America has required local councils and city boards to coordinate, particularly in the absence of any clear direction at a Federal and frequently State level.

Gibbon1 7y ago
Reminds me of the Subgenius advice for the faithful. In the end times don't be a sap holed up waiting for defend yourself against marauding gangs. Join a marauding gang as soon as possible.
- Gravityloss 7y ago
  I guess creating an apocalypse simulator game where you could play it very differently would be very hard to create (agent simulation) and might not be fun at all to play...
  - philipov 7y ago
    You don't need agent simulation to do that, you just need properly-motivated writing and design teams.
  - golergka 7y ago
    This War of Mine already has this kind of moral choice in gameplay, right from the start.
eru 7y ago
> This isn't even speculative: the current the COVID-19 response in America has required local councils and city boards to coordinate, particularly in the absence of any clear direction at a Federal and frequently State level. Yes. And so far the local responses have been better, or at least did less damage, than most of the more centralized actions. Like the FDA banning almost all tests. Here's an article https://reaction.life/why-is-germany-able-to-test-for-coronavirus-so-much-more-than-the-uk/ https://reaction.life/why-is-germany-able-to-test-for-corona... exploring aspects of centralization vs decentralization by way of comparing the German and UK responses to the pandemic so far. The German system has centralized advice and coordination from the Robert Koch institute, but no centralized institution to ban local initiatives.