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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005 Posts: 132129
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Posted: 25 January 2015 at 12:59pm | IP Logged | 1
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And does anybody care?For as long as I can remember the "Doomsday Clock" has been telling us we're on the brink of, well, Doomsday and ------- it hasn't happened! It's a fiction -- science fiction, in fact -- and its predictive powers have been just about as accurate.
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Carmen Bernardo Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 08 August 2006 Location: United States Posts: 3666
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Posted: 25 January 2015 at 1:15pm | IP Logged | 2
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I remember them pulling this one one out quite often during the Cold War era. Back then, the United States and its NATO allies were in a standoff with the Soviet Union and its allies. Somewhere along the line, cooler heads prevailed ____ or we were being "Rick-Rolled".
I doubt that anyone seeking to take over the world would want to have to clean up after a full-scale nuclear war to get there. But then the Soviets weren't religious fanatics with a "Twelver" End-Times kick. They were about two steps forward, one step back. ISIS and other such people want to get to paradise NOW!
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Bob Simko Byrne Robotics Security
Negative Mod
Joined: 16 April 2004 Posts: 5982
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Posted: 25 January 2015 at 4:30pm | IP Logged | 3
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It was a product of the time during the Cold War and is best left there, in my opinion.
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Michael Casselman Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 14 January 2006 Location: United States Posts: 1210
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Posted: 25 January 2015 at 5:51pm | IP Logged | 4
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It was supposed to convy a powerful image of the hands of the clock inching towards midnight.... but what does a new generation care about hands of a clock. "What are 'hands' on a clock?", they ask, as they look at a digital time on their iPhones/Androids devices...
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Jeremy Simington Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 10 April 2011 Location: United States Posts: 687
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Posted: 25 January 2015 at 7:34pm | IP Logged | 5
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Which doomsday should I be most worried about: Nuclear terrorism? Super-virus? Economic collapse? Climate change? End of fossil fuels? At least we can be certain it's not zombie apocalypse.
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Jozef Brandt Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 03 March 2007 Location: United States Posts: 2655
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Posted: 25 January 2015 at 9:43pm | IP Logged | 6
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I've always thought this was pretentious twaddle.
I remember writing a skit in German class back in 1990 or so where these dour Swiss scientists are sick of nobody taking them seriously, so they attempt to connect with the youth be renaming it the Doomsday Swatch. (I was 15, it was funny at the time).
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Carmen Bernardo Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 08 August 2006 Location: United States Posts: 3666
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Posted: 26 January 2015 at 5:23am | IP Logged | 7
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Maybe they should replace the clock image with a screen that goes from green ("Everything's okay!") to red ("OMG!"). The day the event happens as predicted, everything goes black (>x<).
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005 Posts: 132129
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Posted: 26 January 2015 at 6:48am | IP Logged | 8
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Given the natural disasters that could at any moment wipe us out -- errant asteroids, supervolcanoes, pandemics, etc -- we might as well go digital on the "Clock" and just leave it flashing 12:00.
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Robert Ingrao Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 April 2012 Location: United States Posts: 284
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Posted: 26 January 2015 at 9:51am | IP Logged | 9
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im thinking it should be set at 9:38
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Joseph Gauthier Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 11 March 2009 Posts: 1413
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Posted: 26 January 2015 at 12:27pm | IP Logged | 10
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Regardless of how one may feel about the doomsday clock (it strikes me as superficial symbolism, much like the color coded terrorism threat levels of the Bush era) the nuclear era in which we find ourselves today is far more precarious than that of the cold war era. Pakistan has a nuclear arsenal, and a significant Taliban problem. We, in the west, are on the verge of abandoning Afghanistan in a way similar to our abandonment of Iraq. We have witnessed the fruit of that decision, and I fear similar choices in Afghanistan will yield similar fruit in South Central Asia. If a nuclear arsenal falls into the hands of a Taliban state, the world utterly changes overnight. Furthermore, if Iran succeeds in creating a nuclear arsenal (which seems almost inevitable, at this point), their Sunni Arab rivals in Egypt and Saudi Arabia will begin work on their own; and if the so called Arab spring has taught us anything, none of these governments are at all stable; Yemen, on Saudi Arabia's doorstep being the latest to fall. At least in the case of Iran, the opposition (which we in the west failed to support in 2009) seeks liberalization, but this is not so in the case of the others, yet we in the west inexplicably chose to offer our support for the uprisings in those cases.
All in all, if one is to fall back upon the facile doomsday clock, given the precarious nature of the ledge we perch upon, as well as the lack of integrity in western foreign policy- who we support, who we don't support, and who we choose to abandon all together -I'd say three minutes to midnight may be an overly optimistic assessment.
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Jack Bohn Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 13 July 2013 Location: United States Posts: 747
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Posted: 26 January 2015 at 1:52pm | IP Logged | 11
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While the chances of a nuclear bomb being launched are increasing, the chances of a large exchange, that is, Doomsday, are lower.
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Joe Zhang Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004 Location: United States Posts: 12857
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Posted: 26 January 2015 at 10:10pm | IP Logged | 12
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Joseph is conflating the issues. You can keep the Kabul government propped up yet still lose Pakistan to Islamists. It's up to the Indian and Pakistan governments to resolve their differences and disarm their nuclear arsenals, not for the US to act as a super-nanny state for every corner of the world.
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