Science: Fuck yeah (Oil 2.0)

[Vaporous]

It is worth noting that this entire exchange is idiotic because it assumes some kind of all or nothing choice between death and a life devoid of any kind of pleasure or contentment.

Then I weep for you. Yours is a sad life.

Yea, verily, and forsooth.

Enjoy dying. I shall provide a legacy for myself--you will slip away and be forgotten.

Are you fucking serious? Or has you obsession with "glory" gone to your head more than usual?

They will have a future to look forward to, for them and their children. Do you really think that isn't enough to motivate most people? It was what motivated most people for all of human history. Oh, but you're an oh-so-hip non-breeder, so you have no future through children. Well, good.

Also, they'll drink and smoke and fuck like, say, feudal peasants. Or anyone else ever. It turns out that oppressed people dealing with harsh conditions still like to enjoy life within their limits, and because humans are demonstrably stupid this way, beyond them.

And that's really just what he is. A kid barely out of school who thinks that his nihilistic, pleasure-seeking life with no plan for children and no plan for any sort of future is the Best Thing Ever.

And some enterprising adventurer can come along and accuse you of reveling in the potential collapse as a chance to fulfill your deluded hopes about turning the social clock back before 1789, only with space ships.

Finally, someone with the balls to actually say what we've all been thinking. Thanks Duchess, and again, I apologize for my post at the beginning of the thread.

Speak for yourself.

[Battlehymn Republic]

There.... there really are no optimists on this thread, are there?

[aerius]

There.... there really are no optimists on this thread, are there?

Of course there are, I'm still convinced that I can score a 3-some with my fiancée and her sister, I just gotta work my mojo a little better.

[Singular Intellect]

There.... there really are no optimists on this thread, are there?

Why would there be? If you're falling from a hundred thousand feet with no parachute, just how optimistic could you be?

[Qwerty 42]

There will probably a stretch where times are rough. Food and transportation will spike in price, but it's not as if the wealthiest of corporations won't be able to institute uranium power once it becomes economical and the last of political resistance to it fades.

[Surlethe]

There.... there really are no optimists on this thread, are there?

What is optimism in this case? By the standards of Her Grace, I am mildly optimistic; I happen to think that we will enter a prolonged depression in the next year, and it will continue until we have constructed enough alternative fuel infrastructure (read: nuclear power) to pull ourselves out and continue growing. Starvation deaths in the first world will be minimal, and in a few decades we'll be on our way to the stars.

The subdiscussion here about giving up all enjoyment is based off an absurd black and white strawman. Even in the worst case scenario, you have to realize that they'll still be stuff to enjoy without cheap energy. I can't even comprehend how someone can think otherwise; maybe my brain isn't wired to perceive fun in the same way. If nothing else, we'll always be able to dream and debate.

You forgot sex. If nothing else, that alone will make life enjoyable.

[Mayabird]

Being lectured about nihilism by the card carrying Stalinist. Somebody pinch me.

As Marina's roommate, I can assure you that she carries no such card.

[Big Phil]

Well assuming the future plays out as Valdermar's and Duchess's hypotheticals the following happens. Totalitarian governments become more prevalent in even democratic parts of the world. Speaking as a third world dweller energy efficiency and food growing is least of your worries when there is an oppressive government in power. So even if someone contributes 0.0000......01 % to world energy crisis ultimately they get picked up by paramilitary thugs who confiscate their personal survival fortress. Realistically the cutthroat politician and local strongman type with shady connections and hired guns dominate the world in absence of fair and balanced justice. Unless someone has all the required traits of an Afgan warlord or Lebanese politician I don't see how any amount of technical know how will save oneself if world political and social situation deteriorates.

My only plan is to complete dealing with medical issues and get a graduate-level education in nuclear engineering before everything goes to Hell. Society will still be organized enough that I'll be able to find plenty of work--I mean, I expect my combined household income (me and others) will come out to 400,000 USD a year equivalent within 12 years. So even if the standard of living has declined by a factor of eight in the next 12 years, which is ludicrous, I'd still be able to afford everything a middle class American can today. The whole world is not going to become like Afghanistan. The third world might.

Realistically, if you don't criticize the government, work hard on mitigation projects, and don't complain about having waiting lists for any sort of luxury item or living in a one-room apartment with a family of six, there will probably be no real severe consequences for your life if you're not impoverished. You might, even in the USA, starve to death if you're both impoverished and in a remote area where food is difficult to be shipped to. And that's probably true even in the worst case.

That's a pretty aggressive plan; what's your educational background right now? Do you have a BA (in what), and are you currently in school? Who will you be living with? What do they do and how much will they make? What happens if your plans fall apart?

[Big Phil]

Duchess, I'm not trying to be nosy. I'm just wondering whether you're proposing (for yourself) a realistic plan, or an idealistic pie in the sky plan.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Duchess, I'm not trying to be nosy. I'm just wondering whether you're proposing (for yourself) a realistic plan, or an idealistic pie in the sky plan.

It is realistic, it is presently in progress, and I have no desire to divulge anything else on a public message board. Sorry. Can't people trust me to be rigorous about preparations for my own future? I'm a paranoid neurotic, I'm not going to leave my future to mere chance. If I didn't have enough fail-room in my plans, I'd be dead already. Or worse. There's always worse.

[Master of Ossus]

I know I was tangentially involved in this whole thing, but I'm locking the thread, anyway. This has degenerated into a giant DR2 violation, IMO. If you want to complain about the lack of propriety in me doing it, please start a senate thread or ask someone to do it for you. The thread was meant to discuss a new and potentially valuable technology, but has degenerated into complaining about various posters' personal views on Peak Oil--a topic only tangentially related even to the original thread topic. Locked.

[Mr Bean]

After reading the thread I will sign on and agree on Ossus's description this is a DR2 violation in multi-page form. We Debate here, not preform unnecessary character assassinations.