For my part, I've started looking seriously at The Plan for such dark times. Important factors (and keep in mind that I've just started thinking about this):
* What's the evacuation trigger? At what point do I actually unplug from society and run like hell. Simple fact is, as long as I stay plugged in, (a) the higher my standard of living (b) the more likely it is that my retraction will not hasten the collapse.
* What constitutes preparedness? Do I need (a) gun (b) gallons of water? How many? (c) fuel for the vehicles? How much? (d) food? How much, what sorts? (e) alternative modes of production? (f) land?
* Where would I go? There are two primary places I would consider, which are with my family in VA (a farm that has been used in a demonstration by my hippie parents that they could store up enough food for winter) and up near Ann Arbor (where I'm confident that there will be a colony of intelligent and motivated people trying to preserve civilization.
* Can we make a positive change now, which obviates this dark future? I think that the nanotech answer is very 'head in the sand.' We might as well say "genetics will save us" (it might), or "artificial intelligence will save us" (it might too). However, the fundamental problems leading us towards collapse will still be there. Unsustainable economic patterns, overpopulation, ....
As you mention, how useful are our skills? If useless, then what skills do I need to build? Besides the fact that I like gardening and preserving the foods that I grow, that seems clearly useful. What else? Sometimes, when it plays out in my mind, I introduce myself as "fit, a hard worker, and able to solve problems." I really doubt that my ability to write parsers for bioinformatics applications will be worth a damn if were' riding through the desert shooting mutants.
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branchandroot
Reason...
Date: 4 September 2005 07:59 (UTC)* What's the evacuation trigger? At what point do I actually unplug from society and run like hell. Simple fact is, as long as I stay plugged in, (a) the higher my standard of living (b) the more likely it is that my retraction will not hasten the collapse.
* What constitutes preparedness? Do I need (a) gun (b) gallons of water? How many? (c) fuel for the vehicles? How much? (d) food? How much, what sorts? (e) alternative modes of production? (f) land?
* Where would I go? There are two primary places I would consider, which are with my family in VA (a farm that has been used in a demonstration by my hippie parents that they could store up enough food for winter) and up near Ann Arbor (where I'm confident that there will be a colony of intelligent and motivated people trying to preserve civilization.
* Can we make a positive change now, which obviates this dark future? I think that the nanotech answer is very 'head in the sand.' We might as well say "genetics will save us" (it might), or "artificial intelligence will save us" (it might too). However, the fundamental problems leading us towards collapse will still be there. Unsustainable economic patterns, overpopulation, ....
As you mention, how useful are our skills? If useless, then what skills do I need to build? Besides the fact that I like gardening and preserving the foods that I grow, that seems clearly useful. What else? Sometimes, when it plays out in my mind, I introduce myself as "fit, a hard worker, and able to solve problems." I really doubt that my ability to write parsers for bioinformatics applications will be worth a damn if were' riding through the desert shooting mutants.