2012/12/21

[Zu Ra]

I take most doomsdays conspiracies as pure fiction . Though there is some minuscule amount of scientific backing on this . Till it actually happens it will still remain pure fiction in my books .

The Maya's ancient calendar's long term, (which is supposed to be very precise on dates of eclips and such) voluntarily ends on that day.

I seen a documentary on this by the History Channel and its quite intriguing . Only if I could remember the name of that documentary . =/

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by Zu Ra

I take most doomsdays conspiracies as pure fiction . Though there is some minuscule amount of scientific backing on this . Till it actually happens it will still remain pure fiction in my books .



I seen a documentary on this by the History Channel and its quite intriguing . Only if I could remember the name of that documentary . =/

Calling something like that a documentry is stretching the definition of the word.

Originally Posted by Ricky Controversy

Cracked.com's article about the 2012 apocalypse predictions is rather illuminating.

Frankly, looking forward, if we're going to be wiped out by something other than a competing sentient race or a supernatural event, it will have to take place relatively (on a cosmic scale) soon, before the accelerating advancement of technology puts human civilization beyond the reach of such things. If humans are still around in a billion years, let alone five, I highly doubt we'd let anything harm our homeworld, and by that point it would most likely be a matter of letting it happen.

If our decendents are still around in a billion years, I doubt they would even remember where their homeworld is. Assuming they hadn't long ago completely disassembled Earth for raw materials.

[Zu Ra]

Originally Posted by Kamui4356

Calling something like that a documentry is stretching the definition of the word.

Well that qualifies for most of History Channel's so called Quality programming


EDIT :

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Well some company is going to launch satellites into orbit and mindwipe all of us.

Well I can say even go so far as to say . Though 6 years late when it comes to Propaganda Tv we beat em commies

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by Zu Ra

Well that qualifies for most of History Channel's so called Quality programming

True enough.

[SaintessHeart]

Well some company is going to launch satellites into orbit and mindwipe all of us.

[Mr Bland]

That day is simply when the Mayan Calendar rolls over. Ours rolls over every December 31st. The Mayan calendar just lasted 5000 some years. So basically it would be like people in the future being scared every new year that the world would end, just because that's when an ancient calendar rolled over.

[OceanBlue]

Originally Posted by Mr Bland

That day is simply when the Mayan Calendar rolls over. Ours rolls over every December 31st. The Mayan calendar just lasted 5000 some years. So basically it would be like people in the future being scared every new year that the world would end, just because that's when an ancient calendar rolled over.

Far, far in the future, technology has advanced at an enormous rate. Genetic engineering has changed the concept of time, as the amount of time it takes people to process information has been dramatically reduced. The expansion of networking has allowed tasks to be completed almost as soon as they have been conceived. Travelling has approached close-to-light speed. The acceleration of changing social trends has reached a blurring speed, and trends change almost as soon as they have begun. Time is measured in milliseconds.

One minute, a historical scientist finally uncovers the secret of the ancient calendars. It tells of the beginning of recorded time and tells of the end of time, measured under the concept of the "year". He realizes the message their ancestors had left for them: their warning of the end of time, and that they don't have much time left.

lololololol
Anyway, I don't believe this at all, for most of the reasons already mentioned. In fact, other than mass media coverage and public hype, I don't believe anything will happen at all, because I don't see a need to. It's a fun joke topic though.

[npcomplete]

While the time period does coincide with a galactic alignment--which is interesting in and of itself--it's really unfortunate that people misinterpret and further sensationalize this date as some doomsday or apocalypse.

The Mayans did not say that at all. I would recommend this book as the author, who spent 23 years on the subject and with the Mayans themselves, dives deep into Mayan culture and cosmology. The only thing suggested by the Mayan legends is that it reflects a period of transformation.

In 1966, scholar Michael D. Coe first proposed the idea there could be cataclysmic events tied to end of the Mayan calendar in December 2012. But Coe's Armageddon-styled interpretation was seen through the biases of his Judeo/Christian background, Jenkins argued.

One of the few surviving Mayan books (most were destroyed during the Conquest) was the Dresden Codex, which contained sophisticated and accurate astronomical charts and a calendar of Venus' cycles. The planet, which changes from the Evening Star to the Morning Star over time, was incorporated into Mayan mythology in legends like Quetzalcoatl that invoke sacrifice, death, and rebirth, said Jenkins. He also spoke about the roots of shamanism in ancient Maya-- their High King was a shaman who would take sacred plants, to travel between this world and the supernatural realm, to bring back knowledge.

And while one can dismiss the myths as myths, the cosmology and calendar is uncannily accurate. It would be funny if that knowledge also came from taking the shrooms

[qwertyuiopz]

i will end the world on 2010, just to prove you believers wrong

[Irenicus]

Originally Posted by npcomplete

And while one can dismiss the myths as myths, the cosmology and calendar is uncannily accurate. It would be funny if that knowledge also came from taking the shrooms

For all the heaps of insult we throw at astrology nowadays (most deserved), such systems of beliefs did inspire humans to achieve amazing breakthroughs in scientific knowledge.

Looking at the stars is a common thing to do in many civilizations, and they often spurred similar results in sufficiently advanced ones -- Chinese knowledge in astronomy owed a lot to their astrologers looking at the stars to determine the Mandate of Heaven or, more practically, the "most auspicious" time to start planting rice.

Such accidents and beneficial side effects of otherwise useless pursuits don't limit themselves to observing the skies, either. The Egyptian Old Kingdom pyramids being the most prominent example: prestige projects of petty, superstitious god-kings with too much resources on their hands, yet I have no doubt they must have been the force that led many an Egyptian priest to the pursuit of mathematics.

Of course, nowadays we don't need them. Modern scholars working in the framework of the scientific method are churning out new knowledge at a dizzying rate. So fast that most of the population can't catch up and resort to old prophecies to make sense of their world.

[Solais]

In 2012, one of this will occur:

- Duke Nukem 4ever get released and the world explodes
- I lose my virginity and the world implodes
- ZUN dies of liver failure, signaling the end of Touhou, and the fans go berserk. Three days later he returns and the world Takes It Easy
- Suzumiya Haruhi
- All of the above

Seriously, nothing will happen.

[Miyuki-ism]

As long as the world ends sometime after 2092 I'll be fine. (I hope to reach 100 years of age.)

[bhl88]

Mayans 'Fed Up' With 2012 Doomsday Scenarios
Experts Insist End-Of-World 'Prediction' A Baseless Western Myth

By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press writer
MEXICO CITY (AP) ―
Apolinario Chile Pixtun is tired of being bombarded with frantic questions about the Mayan calendar supposedly "running out" on Dec. 21, 2012. After all, it's not the end of the world.

Or is it?

Definitely not, the Mayan Indian elder insists. "I came back from England last year and, man, they had me fed up with this stuff."

It can only get worse for him. Next month Hollywood's "2012" opens in cinemas, featuring earthquakes, meteor showers and a tsunami dumping an aircraft carrier on the White House.

At Cornell University, Ann Martin, who runs the "Curious? Ask an Astronomer" Web site, says people are scared.

"It's too bad that we're getting e-mails from fourth-graders who are saying that they're too young to die," Martin said. "We had a mother of two young children who was afraid she wouldn't live to see them grow up."

Chile Pixtun, a Guatemalan, says the doomsday theories spring from Western, not Mayan ideas.

A significant time period for the Mayas does end on the date, and enthusiasts have found a series of astronomical alignments they say coincide in 2012, including one that happens roughly only once every 25,800 years.

But most archaeologists, astronomers and Maya say the only thing likely to hit Earth is a meteor shower of New Age philosophy, pop astronomy, Internet doomsday rumors and TV specials such as one on the History Channel which mixes "predictions" from Nostradamus and the Mayas and asks: "Is 2012 the year the cosmic clock finally winds down to zero days, zero hope?"

So there is no 2012... there's probably be a small rock hitting earth which will cause no damage lol but nothing at all.

[RadiantBeam]

I honestly never bought that whole "the world ends in 2012" stuff. There's always a new prediction for when the world will end, because for some reason humankind is fascinated with the concept of our own demise. The world didn't end in 2000, it didn't end anytime before then, and there's certainly no reason for it to end in 2012.

[Tsuyoshi]

Originally Posted by bhl88

So there is no 2012... there's probably be a small rock hitting earth which will cause no damage lol but nothing at all.

Interestingly enough, I heard a meteor will hit the Earth in roughly 20 years.

[RadiantBeam]

Originally Posted by Yoko Takeo

Interestingly enough, I heard a meteor will hit the Earth in roughly 20 years.

How big a meteor are we talking about? It'd have to be a pretty big one to have a negative impact on the planet.

[Quzor]

Originally Posted by Yoko Takeo

Interestingly enough, I heard a meteor will hit the Earth in roughly 20 years.

If this is in relation to what I think it is, they've ruled that out. There was apparently a meteor that looked like it would collide with earth in 2032?...but they've since said that their calculations were off, and it'll miss us by a fair margin.

On topic note: I thought the end of the Mayan calendar was supposed to represent some significant change, and radical sensationalism led to the idea that it would be the apocalypse? Personally, my friends and I subscribe to the idea that a particular day in December, in the year 2012, will be the birth of real AI. Not Asimo, or your robot dog, but an actual computer which can interact, understand, and respond to human communication.

[Tsuyoshi]

Originally Posted by Quzor

If this is in relation to what I think it is, they've ruled that out. There was apparently a meteor that looked like it would collide with earth in 2032?...but they've since said that their calculations were off, and it'll miss us by a fair margin.

!!!
That sounds about right. They said it was supposed to hit Japan.

[RadiantBeam]

Originally Posted by Yoko Takeo

!!!
That sounds about right. They said it was supposed to hit Japan.

Ah yes, I heard about that too. Apparently it's supposed to miss us by a rather large margin.

[Tsuyoshi]

Originally Posted by RadiantBeam

Ah yes, I heard about that too. Apparently it's supposed to miss us by a rather large margin.

Damn you Canale 5. Damn you.