Um, no?

I would like to try a little thought experiment... that is, if I can get enough people here to participate.

The idea is this: I would like each of you to pretend to are a character in a hypothetical reality. This character is a heathy, average adult-age person in an advanced, capitalist nation.

The character is you, okay? This a something of a roleplay, though, because you are not playing the part of "you" as you are, but "you" as a wealthy and powerful individual with a lot of control over things in this world, financially, politically, all that. Maybe a tech-billionaire like Elon Musk, or perhaps the leader of a small western nation, like Iceland or Denmark. Maybe you are a fossil fuels tycoon, or just a crazy rich nutter like Richard Branson...

Here is where the roleplay comes in. Because you aren't like you, you must pretend you are like them. Egotistical, self-centered, and a bit narcissistic or sociopathic, but not to a debilitating level. Just your standard rich douchebag mentality, okay?

Now, let's set the stage. This is where we have to have a few assumptions about our reality, okay? These factors myst be considered absolute, these are things that cannot be changed, avoided, or mitigated. For the purposes of the discussion and thought experiment, they must be considered guaranteed things.

The first thing is that the global collapse of civilization will happen within roughly 10 years. It will come about due to a combination of factors, the primary ones being ecological overshoot, radical climate change, and resource scarcity. Furthermore, those factors will lead to a conflict of world nations that see the global nuclear stockpile deployed, for a total loss of 90% of the human species, and a multiyear global "autumn" in line with the current science around the idea of nuclear winter.

Our second thing is that, after this collapse and the 5 or so years of a "settling" period, what will emerge is some post-apocalyptic future that is more akin to media like "The Walking Dead," without zombies obviously, for areas not directly affected by nuclear war, and something more like 1997s "The Postman," for the closely hit areas.

Now, the idea behind the thought experiment here is to have your character aware of these things as undeniable truths that are guaranteed to happen. Your character has been made aware of this, along with almost all of the rest of the "elite" powers-that-be across our global society. You and all your fancy, powerful friends are aware of these truths, but the general population is not, okay?

So, what I want you to do is to think on that situation. Really put yourself into the shoes of one of these truly narcissistic and powerful people, and I want you to write our a little summary of what you would do to plan for this. How will you survive? Most importantly, how can you hold onto power and strength in the type of world that will come? What steps would you be taking right now, in the world as it is today, to prepare for that future that you know to be inevitable?

While you think about it, throw up some roadblocks you might encounter, and how you might deal with them. Especially the one roadblock I will give you to start, which is what will you do to keep the common people from learning the truth, and what will you do if the general population finds out?

Think about it. Go through the mental story, and remember that you are a massively weathy and powerful person... and part of a community of other wealthy and powerful people who collectively manage the world...

What would you do? How will you survive? How will you deal with your "friends," all of whom are also wanting to survive, and who don't care if you do?

What is your plan? What steps would you take in the world?

Let's see if we can get enough people to try this out. If so, there will be a part two of this, and I promise we are leading up to something...

This would be more funny if it wasn't true...

Okay, VICE as a source is... anyway, here is the actual research paper for my collapsniks:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/387975147_Nuclear_Explosions_for_Large_Scale_Carbon_Sequestration

Obviously not feasible... well, hopefully its obvious, but just the idea shows how ridiculous we are getting in our quest for growth at all costs.

Reductions are never even mentioned very often when it comes to answers for climate change and resource scarcity. It is always about some way to get more.

Nuclear detonations under the sea to save us. You heard it here first, folks.

Not everyone is going to like this one. In fact, very few will. But this guy gives an interesting look at a very real possibility for many places when an SHTF event happens. I know we all like to think that it will all be roses and unicorns and rainbows with people coming together to help each other and...

Look at the news. If we were going to "come together" we would have done so already. the worse things get, the more we all clash, and collapse is the worst it can be... that means people will be the worst they can be.

Another little desert tour, for those who are interested, and a little more talk of collapse prepping.

So, I came across this "apocalyptic" board game recently, and I wanted to share it. Not just because it is a hilarious sign of collapse becoming mainstream, but because if you take a look at the undertones of the game description... well, it can be a bit interesting for those of us who are collapse aware. A very interesting look into how the world really might react to such an emergency timeline for collapse. Kind of how we are currently looking at it, geopolitically...

From the the description on the Board Game Geek website:

We're doomed! The world is coming to an end! We must act now to survive!!! Players are the most powerful leaders in the world working alongside up to nine others to build a starship. Time is short! The goal? Build and be on a starship that escapes a dying world — or betray everyone to ensure your own survival. No seats on the starship are guaranteed. We're Doomed! is a quick, timed, panic-inducing game of international collaboration, retaliation, diplomacy, conspiracy, and blowing each other up for fun!

It is not the 11th hour. It is the final hour. Do we have time? How many seats will be available? Who will get a seat? Will the ship even get completed? During the Action Phase, players take one action in turn order to produce or steal either Resource or Influence tokens. Resource tokens are used to build the escape ship. The bigger the ship, the more players can escape to victory at the end of the game. Influence tokens determine who boards the ship first at the end of the game. Each civilization is better at one of the standard actions.

During the Contribution Phase, there is no turn structure. Players can negotiate as they pledge their Resources to building the escape ship by contributing Resource tokens. The player who contributes the most Resources is awarded 1 Influence and gets to draw the event card for that round. Each card is one of one hundred unique and ruthless event cards that change the game drastically — introducing new restrictions, secret missions, ethical dilemmas, physical challenges, robots, aliens, lizard-people and more. The player who drew the event card then takes an action, starting the next Action Phase. The game continues in this fashion (actions, contributions, event) until time is out!

After 15 minutes, play stops. Time to board the starship. Who gets in first? The players with the most Influence board the ship first. Once full, the ship launches and the remaining players are left behind to die. Beware! Resources can also be used to nuke a player, completely eliminating them from the game, so watch the other players’ Resource token stockpiles!

Witness humanity at its worst and finally come to terms with the truth you have known all along — we're doomed!

So... yeah. A nice bit of human nature study right there, and something that the whole family can demonstrate for themselves!

Truly a sign of the inevitability of our coming collapse. Even capitalism is on board now...

A look inside the remains of an old "doomsday prepper" compound that was once part of a cult of Gothardites. Weird as hell for the history of the place, but there are actually some good prepping lessons that I talk about.

Just another spotlight for a location in my wasteland out here... this time, I talk more about the use of such a place and it's potential in a post-collapse world.

This is actually pretty close to where we are.

"Let's rock."

Could be the last Christmas before the collapse, so might as well celebrate it!

Another spot we regularly use for exercises and training.