[ExI] Zuckerberg just bought 26 days of world peace?

[spike]

From: extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Dan TheBookMan
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>…Recall the last power outage where the unwashed masses ran amok and killed off millions of people? Me neither…

 

The one that was nationwide?  Me neither.  

 





>>…Perhaps they are training for what happens if there is a nationwide power outage or some kind of civil unrest, and soon you have hordes of starving people, just wandering around looking for some means of staying alive?  

 

>…Depends on what your goal is here. If you're only concerned about your safety and well being, then things are quite simple. But if you do care about those starving folks, it's an almost trivial matter to feed and clothe them and give them shelter…

 

Trivial matter?  When we can’t move food?  How long will it take to devour all the food available in every major city?  I would think about ten days would do it.

 

>>…  Mikhail Gorbachev writes in his memoirs about the communists taking over and forming the Soviet Union…They starved.

 

>…The Soviet Union was in far worse shape then than the US is now. Not only does the US have a better over economy, it actually over-produces food…

 

Sure but what if we cannot process it or move it to the population centers?

>>…zombie apocalypse?

>…Do you see these folks, mainly victims of generations of bad social policy, as zombies? I don't…

 

Not generations of bad social policy, I had in mind victims of an EM pulse which took down our communications and power infrastructure.  Then the zombie hordes would be seen within a couple weeks.  It is not at all clear to me how the system could be restarted effectively.

 

>… I don't see collapse as all that likely anyhow…

 

I hope you are right.

 

>… -- but the real world system is likely to just muddle through, IMO. Regards, Dan

 

Hope so.  This might be one of those black swan scenarios worth pondering.

 

spike

 

 

 

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