Before the flamethrowers come out of the virtual woodwork, just remember Im totally immune to attack. Not because Im emotionally hardened, but cuz Im totally and utterly mad. Nuff said.

As some of you know, Ive been a doomer for decades. Not because of Y2K, I only heard of it in June98, but because of another data problem.

Meatware. The corrupted data between peoples ears.

We as a species are headed towards a downward spiral of our own making. This spiral will undoubtedly be similar to the devolutionary spiral of Infomagic fame. Since Y2K is a bust so far, there isnt a sharp punctuation mark to delineate the beginning boundary. Maybe the data erosion of Y2K failures in Y2K will be enough to trigger the collapse, but at this point I doubt it. Maybe a depression, but depressions are survivable by the majority. There are other reasons for pessimism.

Resources: I keep harping about resource constraints. Resource constraints are real. Theres only so much oil, iron ore, aluminum, etc. The average content level or quality of resources has dramatically declined in the last three decades. I know, there are rumors that we have enough oil for the next two centuries and that these predictions are so much hooey. However, even if true, we cant keep pouring CO2 into the air, not to mention all the other nasties. I see the smudge every time I fly, hovering there between the clouds and stratosphere. Besides, oil is only one piece of that puzzle. And, history shows how often wars are started over resources.

Terrorism: When else in history has a single person been able to push a button and kill a million people? We live in an increasingly dangerous world folks, and its not getting better. Does anyone here honestly believe it cant happen? What happens to our civilization if New York or LA has a 50 K-ton mushroom appear in the financial district? Its a real threat people.

War: Do you believe the Russkies and ChiComs are our buddies now? Put that Day After script in your head down for a second. As Edward Teller said, In a nuclear war, there will be victor and there will be vanquished. Most analyists tend to think that the commies believe Teller. Since such weapons exist, I tend to think that they will be ultimately used. Maybe, and I hope, Im completely wrong. I know our current natioanl security apparatus must have worked overtime during the rollover to mitigate the threats, but how long can they bat a thousand? Eventually, there will be a maniac get through with a backpack nuke, a few gallons of anthrax, or a truckload of nerve gas. Its just a matter of time. Then the spiral begins in earnest.

So, whats the point? If I can encourage even one prepared person to hang on to their preps, to increase their awareness, to dig out as much unbiased information as possible and make good decisions, then Ive done my job. I want as many prepared, capable and intelligent people left as possible to help rebuild whatever crashes. I owe it to my grandkiddies. I owe it to all of you.

Weve got maybe, at the most, three to five good years before the oil decline starts in earnest. Barring any alien goody two shoes beaming down and giving us 99 cent Ronco fusion reactors, we have to face that brick wall soon. The raw materials decline has already started. The political and economic scenarios can happen any time. Wake up folks, its a new world acomin, and ye best be prepared.

My 0.00000002 million dollars worth,

Proud Tinfoil Kook

-- Y2Kook (Y2Kook@usa.net), January 13, 2000

Answers

Boy, you are a KOOK

-- TED (ted@aol.com), January 13, 2000.

I agree completely Kook, and would go even further to point out that just getting unprepared can have disastrous consequences for the general public. Take this article for example, some tinfoiler discarded his hat in a fit of Y2K flop remorse, and look what happened.

ARCHIVE

WIRE HOME

Jan 13, 2000 - 10:09 AM

Discarded Tinfoil Causes Temporary Closure of British Train Line The Associated Press

LONDON (AP) - Transit officials are blaming a piece of tinfoil dropped on the train tracks for shutting down part of the London Underground at the peak of the morning rush hour. A section of the Piccadilly Line leading to Heathrow Airport was closed for 90 minutes Wednesday after the foil crossed two electrical contacts and caused a signal failure, London Underground officials said in a statement Thursday. Hundreds of passengers trying to catch flights were forced to take buses to the airport while engineers walked the tracks searching for the source of the problem.

"Our safety system meant all the signals turned automatically to red until the problem is solved," London Underground said. "These things happen because people are careless with litter - they should put it in their pockets and dispose of it properly."

-- Nikoli Krushev (doomsday@y2000.com), January 13, 2000.

---meatware, love it! Just coinkydinkly, boortz was just foaming about a similar thing. Goto any local dgi friend, startup a conversation about tv shows, current movies, local sports teams, etc, start getting actual names used. Most will be able to name the names fairly readily. then sorta slide it over to who are their state and federal reps in congress, what's the local big judges name, who are their senators,etc,etc. Usually-broadly, generally speaking, they won't have a clue. Fun to do, I've done it a lot, especially when I get some blowhard trying to give me some sort of lame political rap/opinion. Meatware. Bread and Circuses.

Recently got an email from a list I get, their graphs show some serious peaking of known reserves of oil, etc, coming up next few years. Not looking good at all. the good old days are here now. Meat ware. cyber big bro cops. Meatware.

zoggus

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), January 13, 2000.

Sure, today's technology isn't enough to solve tomorrow's problems. That's why you need me to do R&D, leaving you free to go back to banging rocks together in preparation for the Inevitable Big Collapse. ;)

Seriously? I can't imagine anything worse then living your life in fear. Other than realising on your death bed that you were wrong.

-- Servant (public_service@yahoo.com), January 13, 2000.

One doesn't live one's life in fear if one has a say so in the outcome. Don't prepare, and when it does hit, you will find a new definition of fear.

BraveKookHeart

-- Y2Kook (Y2Kook@usa.net), January 13, 2000.

Well said! It's only a matter of time. It may not even take a mushroom or garden sprayer full of anthrax to do it. Could be all it takes is to continue on the present course. The Japanese and other Asians have been dumping T-Bonds lately, in favor of the Euro. Not a lot just yet, but some. There is over a TRILLION dollars worth of them out there.

The US Government continues to sell its Treasury bonds to foreign countries, exporting debt all over the place. If the dollar were to take a really big hit, these countries could decide to cash out of the dollar completely, in favor of the Euro. Where is the US Government going to come up with the massive amounts of money to pay off all those bonds in days? Just like the fractional reserve banking system, the US Government doesnt have it all in cash. If the trend were to continue, the word Default may be spoken of on the news. If so, the banking system could experience panic bank runs like the 1930s. The stock markets, heavily invested in dollars, crash. Only this time, there wont be a half decade long World War II to assist in the recovery.

Inflation could eat up all the value of the fiat currency that modern man places so much faith in. Backed by nothing except the full faith and credit of the United States Government, what happens when credit ratings are non-existent and faith in the United States Government is completely gone? Its happened in countries like Weimar Germany in the 1930s, Russia in the 1990s, and repeatedly in Latin America. Your life savings might just be enough to buy you a loaf of bread.

Of course, if by some chance a backpack mushroom DOES light up Broadway, all bets are off, because you can be sure it's not the only threat out there. Every two-bit third-world country with a score to settle with the U.S. will jump on the pile, since there's no better time to beat up the bully than when he's already down.

Kook is no kook.

-- Powder (Powder47keg@aol.com), January 13, 2000.

Kook:

Sadly, much truth. We *might* have a better chance if we could move outward from this planet

We need fewer people. We need them to have a higher standard of living, to give an incentive to reduce the birth rate.

We need new dreams and goals.

I do not see any of this happening......

-- mushroom (mushroom_bs_too_long@yahoo.com), January 13, 2000.

Solution - Don't allow the poor to reproduce. That way they dont suck up all the valuable resources. They arent educated enough to use them wisely. Man is too dumb to keep reproducing. He will crush the planet so lets abort the dumb, poor because its better not to be born in a world of suffering, right?

(think what I am saying here, lots of irony)

-- Environmentalist Lies (Thinkfor@yourself.com), January 13, 2000.

After reading (haven't finished yet) this site:

http://www.dieoff.com/

I have to agree with you KooK!

-- sandi (sandihere@mailcity.com), January 13, 2000.

---Servant, I'm not that old, but old enough to remember popular mechanics and popular science from the 50's and 60's quite vividly. Well---it ain't happened. Sure we got peecees now, but we still got detroit using pushrod engines that can't be fixed or analysed reliably, and running fossil fuel. Nuke power was going to be too cheap to meter, and the disposal problem was going to be "all fixed". Hasn't happened. We went to the moon with analog computers and it's not possible today with our technology, at least not without a multi year bankrupt the economy effort. We still have new homes being sold with R-14 or 16 as the ultimate "good sense" energy efficient homes. But they have marvelous large walk in his and hers closets, don't they?

There's a lot more, point is, technology is only as good as what society wants to use it for. We have much more efficient ways to commit mass murder. We have a coincidental rise in violent behavior in school kids that parallels extremely violent, 3-D enhanced gore video games- one of the places where the "best and the brightest" are applying their talents, and where the dot coms get their speculation money. We have more efficient running shoes that kids get killed over.

And we still have government heck bent on taking away more and more and more freedoms, every place they can. With high tech surveillance and police/paramilitary technology.

It's past "1984"

Machines have no conscious, or scruples. And man's has been eroding, not advancing with this technology, generally speaking.

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), January 13, 2000.

Ah, the kook man, the zog, yes, they understand. Those who disagree without reason, are not readers of history, are not readers of economics, and do not realize, the great US is not looked at kindly, on a world scale. It's as though the Meatware is living in a glass bowl, with no ability to see out, but the outsiders can see in. Meatware in a glass bowl is not a good combination for my stomach.

John

-- John Greggory Smith (swru@hotmail.com), January 13, 2000.

Kook , WELL SAID. Couldn't aggree more. Stupidity (combined with arrogance and ignorance) will be the greatest killer of humankind ever.

-- XOR (drwizzard@usa.net), January 14, 2000.