Fiction - Protect and Survive, 2018 Edition

[Zzzptm]

https://www.peerlyst.com/posts/fiction-protect-and-survive-2018-edition-dean-webb

I wrote this... is it grim? Yes.

Is it overly so? That's debatable, at best, I'm afraid...

[Vyn]

I don't think it's overly grim. It seems kind of "worst-case-scenario".

BUT...

Let's examine a real-world example of what a major supply chain disruption due to electronic malfunction looks like:

A little over a year ago, A.P. Moller-Maersk's computer systems became infected with a virus (Petya, specifically). It brought Maersk's entire ocean shipping business to a halt.

To give you an idea of the scale involved, about 90% of world trade gets moved on the ocean. Which means it moves via container. Maersk handles almost 20% of all container business in the world. That is a massive amount of trade goods being moved by one company. Maersk also owns ports in various countries, which were non-functional as well.

Maersk's systems were offline for five days. People went ape-shit. You'd have thought that the scenario you described in your article had come to pass. Billions of dollars were lost. The authentic Borneo headhunter's mandau somebody bought as a gift for their Aunt Effie took a month longer to get to them (speculation). Tons of grain meant for starving families in central Africa rotted, had to be destroyed, and the folks in central Africa went without (true story). And everything in between.

And that was just one company that moves freight being out for five days. The fallout from an entire country's critical infrastructure being hosed? The circumstances you present in your article are well within the realm of possibility.

 

[Billy Underdog]

Let's just cross our fingers and hope it'll happen one day...

[Zzzptm]

Billy... you crayzee...

Vyn: it's stuff like Maersk that made me consider what would happen if a nation state pulled the rip cord and went for a simultaneous massive attack.

Not only would big companies have disruptions due do the attacks, but also from smaller suppliers and outsourcers going dark.

We're only 72 hours away from running out of food at the stores, if the trucks stop rolling.

Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk

[Billy Underdog]

Billy... you crayzee...

Why? I'm conserned about our mother earth. We know for her survival we need to get rid of a good deal of the parasites that is humans, and a self-inflicted disaster due to our own hubris and stupidity is the most fair way to let that happen. A good part of humankind will survive anyway, and we can go on building a better society using the knowledge and technology we've got.

The best way would ofcourse be a sunstorm that knocks out all electricity, but one can't hope for everything either...

[Tyr66]

Billy... you crayzee...

Why? I'm conserned about our mother earth. We know for her survival we need to get rid of a good deal of the parasites that is humans, and a self-inflicted disaster due to our own hubris and stupidity is the most fair way to let that happen. A good part of humankind will survive anyway, and we can go on building a better society using the knowledge and technology we've got.

It reminds me of something:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones

[Billy Underdog]

It reminds me of something:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones

I like the idea and some of the guidelines, but the idea of humans in charge of birth control gets way to facist for my taste...

[Tyr66]

It reminds me of something:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones

I like the idea and some of the guidelines, but the idea of humans in charge of birth control gets way to facist for my taste...

Agreed.
And yet global overpopulation is a major factor in the troubles we all face today:
deforestation, pollution caused by industry and different modes of transport, intensive farming to produce meat, population migrations, worsening of the differences in living standards (Africa / Europe) with an overwhelming and unreasonable observation and fact: a poor country has a high birth rate.
Remember the analogy of Agent Smith in The Matrix movie between humans and viruses. He was fucking right.
A manichean point of view for sure but nevertheless a true one.

[Billy Underdog]

^^^ Absolutely, and a problem that should be dealt with, but rather through a fair disaster where the most capable survive than a "world order" pointing out "you can live, you must die"...

[Tyr66]

^^^ Absolutely, and a problem that should be dealt with, but rather through a fair disaster where the most capable survive than a "world order" pointing out "you can live, you must die"...

fully agree.
That said, birth control should be a priority, but everything must be done through the establishment of a true secular education system, especially in areas too heavily influenced by religious principles that prohibit abortion or the use of condoms. To be clear : under current conditions, having 7 or more children is unreasonable. Traveling pregnant while crossing the Mediterranean sea as well.

[Typhon]

And yet global overpopulation is a major factor in the troubles we all face today:
(Africa / Europe) with an overwhelming and unreasonable observation and fact: a poor country has a high birth rate.

This is precisely the reason I never donate to the major charitable organizations who say they are helping people who have not got enough food.  They never say any of the money will go towards contraceptives.  Giving people who already have too many children food, is like giving a drug addict more drugs.  It does nothing to solve the problem.

[Zzzptm]

I donate, knowing that getting enough food and shelter - improving economic chances in general, in fact - reduces the birthrate. Populations under stress tend to reproduce more. This is demonstrated in all kinds of animals - insects on up to mammals. When things are good, families focus more on a few children and the population stabilizes.

[Typhon]

I donate, knowing that getting enough food and shelter - improving economic chances in general, in fact - reduces the birthrate. Populations under stress tend to reproduce more. This is demonstrated in all kinds of animals - insects on up to mammals. When things are good, families focus more on a few children and the population stabilizes.

This would take too long.  You would have to educate an entire generation before any significant change in behavior could occur, while in the meantime they continue to reproduce like rabbits.  Contraceptives now, then proceed with your plan.

[Zzzptm]

Thing is, people won't want them until they've got the better conditions. It's a chicken-egg thing... As long as you work towards the solution, I don't think it makes a difference where you start as someone else will start where you don't and then you meet in the middle.

[Typhon]

^^^^^^
Slip a little something in the food so they won't get frisky.