

Information is Beautiful - 2012: the End of the World? - intellectronica
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/2012-the-end-of-the-world/

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rjurney
Y2K in a different number system - at least we're consistent in prophesying
apocalypse.

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roundsquare
If only they had more stones the world would have lasted longer!

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noonespecial
I think it was actually because of the base 20 number system they counted in
because of the fact that they had 10 fingers and 10 toes.

If only the six fingered man had taken a break from killing Inigo Montoya's
father and lent them an extra order of magnitude...

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henrikschroder
Never mind all the times people have predicted the end of the world before,
_this time_ it's for real!

I'm fascinated that people don't lose hope even though the track record is so
bad.

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philwelch
It's kind of like the anthropic principle: of course all predictions of the
end of the world have been false, otherwise we wouldn't be here.

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Hexstream
I should start making up bullshit doomsday predictions to ensure the people of
year 2500 have something "fascinating" to think about.

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Anon84
We're supposed to believe a doomsday prediction made by a society that
couldn't even predict (or avoid) it's own demise?

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roc
Well, purportedly, it's an astronomical/mathematical prediction of doom from
natural causes, made by a society with very advanced math and astronomy.

Whereas their own society was brought down by sociological/biological causes,
which we have no reason to _expect_ they would be particularly adept at
dealing with.

Not that I believe a word of the 2012 nonsense. But logically your critique
doesn't hold much weight for me, despite sounding truthy.

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lemming
End of the world malarkey aside, Information is Beautiful is an excellent blog
- really nice information design.

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vijayr
Check out his book, Visual Miscellaneum. Not all visualizations are good,
overall its a nice book though.

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RevRal
Peak oil... religious fanatics... pollution... nuclear war... an out of
control climate... gigantic tsunamis... nuclear fallout... disease... rising
sea levels....

Sorry if I left something out. I feel like one of those comedians saying as
many slurs possible.

Needless to say, we're plunging into some interesting years. 2012 just feels
so... pivotal.

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fnid
Asteroids, comets, alien invasions, the singularity (aka robot invasions)...

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RevRal
"Our simulation gets turned off" can be tacked on too, but I was trying to
think of things that are real, current, problems. Or more probable in the near
future.

My main point is that 2012 onward will be interesting without mystical
interpretations of the celestial.

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thomaspaine
You could say the same thing for 2009, 2010, 2011...

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RevRal
Yes, every year will will be pretty interesting without "mystical
interpretations of the celestial."

I guess I failed to ask myself if 2013 will be more interesting than 2012. And
the answer is, yes.

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FreeRadical
The solar storm part is scary :/ (especially if you've seen the Nicholas Cage
film 'The Knowing'.)

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adnam
A guy I knew actually quit his job last year to prepare for this event.

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jamesbressi
You should start a blog & vlog on this guy. I have a feeling he would be a
goldmine for you ;)

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run4yourlives
What a ridiculously concise way to handle "omg the end of the world" nonsense
"argument" by argument.

It's amazing how silly some theories become when they are compared visually.

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rick_2047
Actually the 2012 is not always discussed as the end of the world. If you look
at the article it also proposes the possibility of a major change in society.
The completion of cycle in the mayan calendar, I think, indicates just that.
End of the cycle of one society.

My bet, maybe robots will do all our work and we would become all spiritual,
some people may say the time frame is too short for this but it doesn't have
to be abrupt. 2012 may mark the start in some way. May be the first positronic
brain will be completed on that day. sigh... hopes

