Shadowrun's Mayan prophecy is fiction, right? Options

[Herald of Verjig...]

[Kagetenshi]

Say, is Giftbringer making the salsa again? That stuff is to kill for.

~J

[Kesh]

I really hate to give them more exposure but, if you really want to read all the crackpot end-of-the-world ideas regarding the Mayan calendar, hit the forums at Godlike Productions.

Just beware, this will hurt your brain. Everything from folks claiming to be travellers from the future, to old native American wise men who know secrets of the world, to twelve-year-old goths who know the secrets of the world, to people who believe President Bush performed a human sacrifice at the Giza pyramids on New Years in a dark celebration of Satan at the behest of the Illuminati to help usher in the destruction of the world when Planet X collides with Earth in 2012 even though the aliens are here to help us ascend to a higher plane of existence after we've banded together in suffering during the aftermath.

And yes, all of those are actual examples from those forums. Including the last one. :dead:

[Euchrid]

Along with the Mayan prediction, which different historians have put at different years on our calender (but always withing a couple of years of 2012), there's the Spike or the Singularity. The deal here is that if you map the technological level of the globe over time, it's (obviously) rising. Thing is, the bastard's rising exponentially (according to Moore's Law), and eventually an exponential curve goes vertical. Many futurologists (no, that's really a job) put that point at somewhere around 2012. Nobody has any real idea what's going to happen then, if anything.

That's a MASSIVELY simplified explanation, check out this wikipedia article for more: Technological Singularity

Pure conjecture, of course, and all sorts of stuff could happen (plateau in technological growth, massive recession, run out of resources) but still kind of creepy.

[Critias]

[Kagetenshi]

Moore's Law is an observation that relates to a transistor count, nothing more.

The simplest definition of a technological singularity is a discovery or breakthrough such that it is impossible to make meaningful predictions beforehand about things afterwards.

~J

[Euchrid]

[Kagetenshi]

[Vuron]

Actually reason indicates that it will definitely hit a wall beyond a certain point as either total chip size becomes astronomical and/or you need nanomanufacturing. Further even with nanomanufacturing of atomic scale chips you eventual need computers of astronomical size.

Simply put it's a theorem that's held true to date but seems unlikely to hold true for that much longer :)

[Aku]

that stuff was just...scary...

[Garland]

[Spookymonster]

[ef31415]

When the Gautama Buddha was dieing, he prophesized that there would be five stages of Buddhism. In each stage, the Dahrma would become more and more diluted, until at the end the teaching would be nearly worthless. Then, a new Buddha would appear, and the cycle would start again.

The Buddha died in 483 BC (contemporary with Socrates, roughly).
-- 500 years after that, Mahayana Buddhism was founded (and Christianity started).
-- 500 years after that Buddhism was supplanted by Hinduism in India (and Islam dominated the arabic peoples).
-- 500 years after that Tibetean magic was merged with Biddhism to produce the Tantra.
-- 500 years after that Zen Buddhism was founded (and Protestantism started).
-- 500 years after that is 2012, give or take a few.

[ef31415]

[frostPDP]

Yanno, here I thought that being a Pagan priest and all, I might just know a bit about prophecy. Some of you guys just scare me :)

Yes, the semi-authenticated date is December 21, 2012. I've heard from friends (trustworthy? Not likely) that the Muslims have at some point agreed with this date within a week. Furthermore, even the History Channel has predicted this through its "Bible Code" shows. (Asteroid, end of world, 2012. Go figure.)

Of interest to me is that the Mayan cycle includes a "Harmonic Convergance." They thought the start of this would end the world, it clearly hasn't. The Harmonic Concordance, however, happened about two years ago (a sort of spiritual high-point.) On this day, at least where I live, there was a full lunar eclipse and, if I am right, it was on a halloween. THAT is pretty freaky. I might have the dates wrong, so don't hold me to it.

All in all, there are a whole bunch of ways we'll end the world. Oil production is gonna pass its peak sooner or later, (I believe the resources I saw said that an optimistic outlook is that in 40 years "Cheap" oil will be no more, economic collapse, blather blather...) nano-technology can evolve to a point that it just eats up carbon life-forms, ummm diseases both man and nature-made, our old friend nuclear war, polar-inversion, or any other theories as to our deaths.

The way I look at it is this - When you have a prophecy, there's a chance you can change it. The inverse is, of course, that by attempting to avert it (AKA knock an asteroid out of its path, and one is supposed to hit in 2014 if I have the date right...again, grains of salt people!!) can ultimately cause it to happen.

So basically, some day we're all gonna die and we'll find out anyway. I have faith, a lot of people do and a lot of others don't, but I agree with one guy who said the end of the world can be either good or bad - If it goes well, great! If it goes bad, boo!

[Krazy]

too bad the bible code was rigged (sorry dudes, the theology behind it, not to mention the translations are just a little off) But look at whats happening to indonesia that whole plate hasn't shifted for a while and it looks like the december quake is setting off more big ones. and all the plates are connected. I don't want to know what kinda anyting is gonna hit the fan if any major geopolitical events happen. just the wacko's thinking the end of the world is here will be enough to pull the rest of us over the bring. (I hope the pre-trib guys are right, but if not, well, that's what hills are for)

[frostPDP]

Yeah I wouldn't be surprised if the code was rigged, but the big question becomes "Okay, so its rigged to the Mayan calendar, but what if the Mayans are right and the world ends at that time - Then the Bible Code was right, so was it really rigged?"

Ahh paradox.

All I know is I did read a NASA report saying 2012 or 2014 or something will be a near-Earth incident with an asteroid, and a few days after this announcement it vanished from all trace. Its like the Roswell incident (or, perhaps, the "There is no SR4" one)- You either deny or acknowledge it, but NEVER switch from yes to no and never give a "well we can't tell you even though you know we know." :)

[fistandantilus4....]

Suddenly an upside to living in Utah! I AM in the hills!

[John Campbell]

The Mayans were pretty good astronomers. They accurately measured the precession of the equinoxes, and predicted that in 2012 CE, Sol, at the winter solstice, will appear from Earth to pass through the intersection of the Milky Way and the plane of the ecliptic. This happens regularly, every 26,000 years or thereabouts, and the Mayans based their calendar system on this predictable cycle.

So, yes, on December 21st, 2012, the Mayan Long Count rolls over. What happens then? My guess is - the exact same thing that's happened the previous hundred and fifty thousand times the planet's wobble has caused it to happen since there's been a star and a planet for it to happen to..... absofragginglutely nothing.

[Spookymonster]

I for one welcome our new Shedim overlords.

[lumbercis]

[Snow_Fox]

NYC does NOT sit on a major fault line. There is a minor fault line north north east of it along Long Island Sound. every now and again there is a minor rumble but it was never enough to wake me up. I wouldn't worry about an earth quake leveling parts of Manhattan.
Think about it children, 9/11/01. 'nough said.

[Snow_Fox]

double post

[Kagetenshi]

[Snow_Fox]

The fact that end of the island has already been swept clean and is all set for Fuchi city to move it.