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Geek Culture / why do people think a apocolypse will happen in 2012??????

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Aertic
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Posted: 10th Aug 2008 17:36
reminds me of a scene, a wonderful scene, straight fresh from the mind of a comedian, the scene was milk patons birthday.
and his freinds gave him two presents, a soundtrack, and a dvd, they were, the Matrix, the one that everyone liked, but milkpaton disgustingly said, dont like the matrix, prefer the matrix:revolutions, the one that we all hate(besides me )

XD I love that scene.

tha_rami
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Posted: 10th Aug 2008 19:50
I agree with Grandma and with Gil.

Gil is a 100% right that the predictions made now by scientists are more accurate than way back because then was based on nothing and now is based on far more advanced science.

Grandma is 100% correct that science can, by definition, not be 100% correct.


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tha_rami
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Posted: 10th Aug 2008 19:52 Edited at: 10th Aug 2008 19:53
[offtopic]
Quote: "While I agree that it seems rather odd, people do weird things."

You mean like that English guy who's last request was to be cremated and then have his ashes mixed with fishfood to be tossed into the river that was his favorite fishing spot? Ah yes, I understand.[/offtopic]

[apologies]Sorry, I didn't realize I posted on this topic before. My sincere apologies for the double-post.[/apologies]


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Alucard94
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Posted: 10th Aug 2008 20:00
Quote: "^Your post made my head explode.

I would like to be compensated."

Hey get in line buddy, mine exploded last year when a penguin did the robot outside our apartment.


Jeku
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Posted: 10th Aug 2008 20:01
Quote: "but lives would have definitely and undeniably been lost."


Care to explain? Would cars have driven themselves off bridges? Buildings would have collapsed? Come on.

I had an idiotic teacher at art school in '99 warn the class that computers might go bezerk on 9/9/99. I wanted to punch him in the face.


Matt Rock
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Posted: 10th Aug 2008 22:24
Air Traffic Control systems faced very serious risk before engineers sorted things out. They fixed it, but I remember a big fuss about ATC timestamping interfering with ILS systems, which in turn would misguide planes on autopilot. Not a problem for any competant pilot, but in crummy winter weather the results could have been tragic. But, it was all fixed, and nothing bad happened, lol.

Also, what if Banks had errors? You'd have riots in the streets, for sure. I know I'd throw a few bricks if the bank told me my $3k balance was only $250, lol. The banks rolling over to 00 could have screwed up servers and whatnot, but banks spent millions making sure the problem never happened.

I think all of those engineers the world over are unsung heroes. I don't think nuclear weapons would have gone off or anything insane like that, but people could have died in isolated accidents, and our quality of life could have been tampered with. But instead of saying "job well done" to them, we say "ha, nothing happened, I told you so!" Sort of makes their coding efforts a moot point, lol.

bitJericho
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Posted: 10th Aug 2008 22:44
Quote: "I think all of those engineers the world over are unsung heroes. I don't think nuclear weapons would have gone off or anything insane like that, but people could have died in isolated accidents, and our quality of life could have been tampered with. But instead of saying "job well done" to them, we say "ha, nothing happened, I told you so!" Sort of makes their coding efforts a moot point, lol."


Haha, good point. I've heard stories from some programmers out in my area about the serious grudge work they had to do to sort out y2k time issues.


Hurray for teh logd!
Jeku
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Posted: 10th Aug 2008 23:07
Quote: "But instead of saying "job well done" to them, we say "ha, nothing happened, I told you so!" Sort of makes their coding efforts a moot point, lol."


I've never heard anyone say their coding efforts were moot.


Matt Rock
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Posted: 11th Aug 2008 00:26
I think I phrased it poorly, that's usually the case lol. When people say "nothing happened, Y2K was a hoax" or "everyone was nuts about Y2K and nothing ended up happening," I think people negate all of the hard work those engineers put in . That's what I meant anyway. Like, a lot of people don't realize there were people out actively trying to fix the problem to make sure nothing bad happened.

But I just found something horrifying that proves the world WILL DEFINITELY END in 2012. Paris Hilton will run for President, lol.

SunnyKatt
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Posted: 11th Aug 2008 03:25
Woah, who said something about the fourth matrix? That was one of the bests series ever! But it was a trilogy, right?

Favorite Quote: Dramatized code? Code Drama!

Rampage
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Posted: 11th Aug 2008 08:21
Lets wait and see, my science teacher believes it, I think shes a nutter though...

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lazerus
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Posted: 11th Aug 2008 16:00
yeah thanks for the vote of confidence people just because were getting the olimpics =p

mainly the nostradamus which is a load of vague references about the signs of the apocalpes

'two great towers will fall, starting boodshed among races'


by the laws of chance thats has a 100% of happening cause it was wrote over 1000 years ago lol

how many wars have been fought since then, how many towers have fallen?

its just a load of b.s

Darth Kiwi
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Posted: 11th Aug 2008 16:29
Quote: "'two great towers will fall, starting boodshed among races'"

While this seems uncannily relevant to our own times, Lazerus makes a good counter-point. I mean, sooner or later there are going to be two towers built, and someone's going to knock them down - and of course, people are going to be angry.

I mean, if Tolkien's Lord of the Rings books had been controversial, then THAT might have been hailed as a Nostrodamus prophecy, with the "two towers" reference! People only really believe in these things because they think it sounds cool. Unfortunately, what we'd like to believe and what is real are often completely unrelated.

Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 11th Aug 2008 16:55 Edited at: 11th Aug 2008 16:57
A lot of prophecies have a chance of eventually coming true, with their wording and how people percieve them the reaction is, "Oh my goodness, he's right!"

I wonder if during the medieval period there have been any battles where two towers have been destroyed on a fortress?

Though...I wonder, what about the prophecy of Ragnorok - great battles, battles of the heavens, flooding, freezing. I wonder how I could word that to make a modern hint? (Which if you look at my older posts in this thread I think I did)

"Experience never provides its judgments with true or strict universality; but only (through induction) with assumed and comparative universality." - Immanuel Kant
tha_rami
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Posted: 11th Aug 2008 22:44 Edited at: 11th Aug 2008 22:50
"When the master of ignorance directs the fist of the younger to his own, the apocalypse will come."



Oh crap.


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sinisterstuf
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Posted: 12th Aug 2008 01:02
lol

and about any prophecy eventually coming true, I totally agree. I bet if a million monkeys shuffled a million packs of cards for a million years they would eventually shuffle them into order (if you know what I mean). These people who think up all these references to the present from ancient prophecies just have too much time on their hands, maybe they should start shuffling cards... It's nice when it's funny though, like the bush thing above, lol

over and out
Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 12th Aug 2008 01:30
Why does that image remind me of a drunken chav I met in the toilets whilst also drunk?

Has nothing to do with Bush, but it's just an amusing thought.

"Experience never provides its judgments with true or strict universality; but only (through induction) with assumed and comparative universality." - Immanuel Kant
Code Dragon
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Posted: 12th Aug 2008 04:14 Edited at: 12th Aug 2008 04:28
Hmm.. I've heard a few predictions on the end of the world, and it is now my belief that no one will now until it happens. We were supposed to die on 6/6/06 because it's the mark of the beast, or because someone found a hidden message in the Bible that said we were going to die in 2000, which has later been revised to 2012. I remember changing the radio channels one day and this guy was talking about a book he wrote that predicts from the Bible that the world will end on October 21, 2011. But he also predicted that in 1994. They just don't get it, there's no secret message in there.

Even if there was it wouldn't be the date of the end of the world otherwise I and many others would max out our credit cards.

My uncle was also saying yesterday how if we don't do something soon programs written in C are going to crash in 2038 for reasons similar to Y2K.

Quote: "I bet if a million monkeys shuffled a million packs of cards for a million years they would eventually shuffle them into order (if you know what I mean). These people who think up all these references to the present from ancient prophecies just have too much time on their hands, maybe they should start shuffling cards..."


lol, I believe you are referring to the bogosort, it has a possible worst case scenario of taking an infinite amount of time. There was a similar experiment where scientists took a bunch of monkeys and put them in a room for 2 weeks banging on a keyword, and were unable to create a single word in the english language.

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Agent Dink
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Posted: 12th Aug 2008 06:23
The deck has just as much probability to shuffle and be sorted perfectly as it does to be shuffled to any other random combination. It's just incredibly INCREDIBLY slim you'll ever have a deck randomly shuffled the EXACT same way. It's just as improbable as shuffling and having it perfectly sorted.

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sinisterstuf
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Posted: 12th Aug 2008 10:44
Exactly, I think the chance of shuffling them into order (or any other exact order for that matter) is something like 1 in 2704 or something. And it stays that way...

over and out
Grandma
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Posted: 12th Aug 2008 10:51
Ah, but there IS a chance. That's the whole concept here. As long as it's above a 0% percent chance of happening, it WILL happen sooner or later.

This message was brought to you by Grandma industries.

Making yesterdays games, today!
tha_rami
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Posted: 12th Aug 2008 16:10
Haha, I had a vision of Grandma running into a room with his finger held up correctingly. He is right, though. Improbable is anything but impossible.


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draknir_
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Posted: 12th Aug 2008 16:45
Improbable is not technically impossible, indeed. But some improbabilities are so vast that we can consider them impossible (if only for our own sanity). Many extreme improbabilities can be calculated to having a chance of once in a hundred or thousand billion year. The universe is only 13 billion years old, and it will eventually end (due to gravitational collapse, heat death, or the 'big freeze').
Little Bill
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Posted: 12th Aug 2008 16:50
People at Pixar have already found a solution! Have you not seen WALL•E? Perfect plan!

Gil Galvanti
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Posted: 12th Aug 2008 18:07 Edited at: 12th Aug 2008 18:08
Quote: "I think the chance of shuffling them into order (or any other exact order for that matter) is something like 1 in 2704"

Whoa, no, it's WAY above that. If my crappy math skillz are right, I think it's 52x51x50x49...all the way down to 1.


Pixelator
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Posted: 12th Aug 2008 18:14
aalso, in 2012, the earth, sun, and center of the galaxy will line up for the first time in quite a very very long tome.

tha_rami
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Posted: 12th Aug 2008 20:18 Edited at: 12th Aug 2008 20:36
Quote: ""52x51x50x...""

52!

Gil is kinda correct, by the way. The cards are removed from the play in order, so at the first card you have a chance of 1/52. Then, for the next card you have a chance of 1/51. If all cards until the last one are correct, you'll have a 100% chance that the last card is correct and indeed: 1/1.

52! is the amount of possible results when shuffling the cards.


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sinisterstuf
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Posted: 12th Aug 2008 20:20
@Gil Gilvanti
I don't agree with you, how did you come to that conclusion?

@Pixelator
is that a joke or are you serious?

@the people who posted above Little Bill
I know that, that's why I said the monkey thing which was relevant to: although it's really unlikely , prophecies can be relevant to mulitple situations, especially if you try hard to make them so. You know what I mean?

over and out
Matt Rock
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Posted: 12th Aug 2008 22:30
Pixelator is serious, and the Mayan's knew that forever ago. We thought it was garbage until the early 1990's, when our modern computers were able to tell us exactly what the Mayans somehow knew back in the day. That's why so many people give credit to the whole 2012 end of the world thing, but I'm still skeptical. I mean, so what? Everything lines up, it'll be a really pretty light show lol, but I don't see how that could end the world or anything. I think we should be spending more time talking about how awesome Mayan astronomy was and trying to figure out how they knew so much that we were ignorant about.

Irojo
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Posted: 12th Aug 2008 23:05
There's been a lot of posts in this thread, so I don't know if this has been said before...


The USA Owes over one trillion dollars to China, and a large sum to Japan, and other countries too. As the debt get's larger, the lenders may want their money back, and a nuclear war is possible. Even if not nuclear, it will/could be devestating.

tha_rami
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Posted: 12th Aug 2008 23:14
Yeah. The USA should nuke the planet to doom when their debt gets too large.


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Pixelator
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Posted: 13th Aug 2008 00:21
i agree with matt, but about a third of the scientific community thinks is will cause a major shift in earths crust.

AndrewT
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Posted: 13th Aug 2008 00:24 Edited at: 13th Aug 2008 00:25
I don't know if I've posted in this thread yet, but I think all of this is a load of crap. And even if somehow the world IS going to end in 2012, well there's nothing I can do about it so why worry??

90% of statistics are completely inaccurate.
Robert F
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Posted: 13th Aug 2008 01:20
Quote: "Ah, but there IS a chance. That's the whole concept here. As long as it's above a 0% percent chance of happening, it WILL happen sooner or later."


Well yeah eventually the sun will explode melting the earth, but not for Millions of years, and buy that time im sure humans will be on a different planet.

All this stuff is crap. Just because you read something in the bible doesn't mean its true. Oh here I am going to write a book, put some secret message in it, and in 2000 years people will believe it. Come on thats a load of crap.
Agent Dink
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Posted: 13th Aug 2008 01:31
Ah, but what if God inspired the writing of it. Then you are screwed.

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 13th Aug 2008 01:47 Edited at: 13th Aug 2008 01:47
Could you not also assume that such a god might have a sense of humour...I mean I'd find it in credibly hilarious if in 2012 some kind of deity appeared from the heavens to say "aprils fools!", whilst pointing a gargantuous finger. Now that would be pretty epic.

"Experience never provides its judgments with true or strict universality; but only (through induction) with assumed and comparative universality." - Immanuel Kant
sinisterstuf
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Posted: 13th Aug 2008 02:07
Yeah, that'd be good... Except 12 December 2012 (or whenever) is not the 1st of april so I don't think he'll say april fool unless he's confused or we got it wrong and december was supposed to be called april and the first day of april (decemeber) is the 12th of that month. But that would bea bit messed up. Maybe he/she/it would just laugh and say "psyche"! Hahahahaha

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Matt Rock
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Posted: 13th Aug 2008 02:11
Quote: "Could you not also assume that such a god might have a sense of humour...I mean I'd find it in credibly hilarious if in 2012 some kind of deity appeared from the heavens to say "aprils fools!", whilst pointing a gargantuous finger. Now that would be pretty epic."

If that happens, I'll start going to church... like, every day lol. That's the sort of god I'd want to worship

tha_rami
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Posted: 13th Aug 2008 03:40
By the way, the winter solstice will indeed see that a lot of stuff lines up, but it has been that way for quite some solstices now. Actually, the last 25 winter solstices and the next 25 summer solstices will see pretty much the exact same thing, as it shifts by a pretty epic 1 degree per year if I understood the formula correctly.


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Irojo
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Posted: 13th Aug 2008 03:45
Quote: " eventually the sun will explode melting the earth, but not for Millions of years, "


Though it varies, scientists generally agree on 2-8 Billion years.

Jeku
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Posted: 13th Aug 2008 05:29 Edited at: 13th Aug 2008 05:30
The infinite monkeys typing for infinite time will eventually write the entire works of Shakespeare is a myth. Mathematicians have a way of determining if something is so beyond a chance that it is impossible, and this is one of them. Sorry to burst anyone's bubble Just because there is a chance, does not make it mathematically possible.

Or as Karl Pilkington put it: "It wouldn't happen. I've never seen one publication by a monkey."


Robert F
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Posted: 13th Aug 2008 06:43
Quote: "eventually write the entire works of Shakespeare is a myth."


Good I hate reading his crap in English class.
tha_rami
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Posted: 13th Aug 2008 07:11
Quote: "The infinite monkeys typing for infinite time will eventually write the entire works of Shakespeare is a myth. Mathematicians have a way of determining if something is so beyond a chance that it is impossible, and this is one of them. Sorry to burst anyone's bubble Just because there is a chance, does not make it mathematically possible."

It is not. In the example of the monkey, it would occur eventually, although probably it wouldn't for endless millenia. Now, what we're talking about is monkeys.

Mathematicians would never say something with an extremely small chance is impossible. They could say the chance equals 0 so closely it is almost impossible to happen. Or such a slim chance you could say it's impossible, but it isn't.

As Grandma put it: If the chance of something occurring is bigger than exactly 0, it will happen if you continuously repeat the experiment.


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Robert F
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Posted: 13th Aug 2008 07:20 Edited at: 13th Aug 2008 07:21
Nothing is impossible

I mean look:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080810/sc_livescience/newmaterialcouldmakeobjectsinvisible

I thought that was pretty cool. Also totally off subject
Rampage
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Posted: 13th Aug 2008 10:17
Yea thats awesome, girls changing rooms here I come!

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Robert F
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Posted: 13th Aug 2008 10:30
lol!
sinisterstuf
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Posted: 14th Aug 2008 00:03
And the example I gave wasn't typing the works of shakespear, it was shuffling cards, sonething which is much more probable...

over and out
Frankie Pawnage5
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Posted: 14th Aug 2008 02:46
Quote: "so if we just put like 1,000 people in the volcano then we should be fine... haha."

LMAO!
that was hilarious

FrAnKiE
Matt Rock
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Posted: 14th Aug 2008 02:56 Edited at: 14th Aug 2008 02:57
Quote: "Or as Karl Pilkington put it: "It wouldn't happen. I've never seen one publication by a monkey.""

He never saw this, lol. Sorry, I just had to do it

You guys could always do a practical experiment with this monkeys thing. Pick some work of literature, enter a portion of it into DBP in string form, and use randoms to pick different letters. 0 could be used as a space, a period, or a comma, randomly. Have it randomly assemble gibberish over and over again, and count how many times it repeats the process before it finds the right combination. Simulate monkeys and typing with the sleep command. Presto, a monkey typer, lol.

But I agree with Jeku. I think it's so improbable that it's impossible mathematically. If anyone tries that, don't plan on using your computer for... uh... the rest of your life, lol.

BiggAdd
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Posted: 14th Aug 2008 03:01 Edited at: 14th Aug 2008 03:28
Quote: "He never saw this, lol. Sorry, I just had to do it"

HA! Well said Sir. I do believe you have earned yourself a cookie. Use it wisely.



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