[extropy-chat] Dr. Strangelove - the "documentary" :-)

[Spike]

> Amara Graps

> some large pieces from this wonderful article about the
> Dr. Strangelove Movie   ........   "that was a documentary!"
> 
> Amara
> 
... 
> two admittedly regrettable but nevertheless distinguishable postwar
> environments - one where you get 20 million people killed and the
> other where you get 150 million people killed!"
...
> "Wouldn't this nucleus of survivors be so grief-stricken and anguished
> that they'd, well, envy the dead?"
> 
> Strangelove exclaims that, to the contrary, many would feel "a spirit
> of bold curiosity for the adventure ahead." Kahn's book contains a
> long chapter on mineshafts. Its title: "Will the Survivors Envy the
> Dead?" One sentence reads: "We can imagine a renewed vigor among the
> population with a zealous, almost religious dedication to
> reconstruction."...

I had an interesting experience a few yrs ago.  A friend invited 
me to a weekend conference of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness.

http://www.oism.org/ddp/

He knew I am a Mars fan; Robert Zubrin was one of the speakers,
giving a talk on human colonization of Mars.

Turns out this group is composed of actual physicians 
(my friend is a medic) who are interested in learning 
techniques for surviving nuclear war!  It was all quite
Strangelove-ian.  I was astounded at some of the bizarre
comments I heard there.  I thought it was all rather
hilarious, but my friend took all this quite seriously.

One that springs to mind is that if the major nuclear
powers unleashed everything, most of the planet's
population would not know anything had happened, being
in places that aren't worth a nuke.

He has since sold his practice and moved his family
onto a ranch in western Oregon.  Perhaps he will 
someday get the last laugh, if that term is applicable
to the near extinction of mankind.

spike