

How to destroy the earth - joss82
http://qntm.org/?destroy

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_pius
I loved this. If someone created a geeky analogue to Maxim magazine and filled
it with articles like this on a monthly basis, it'd be a real hit.

~~~
riffic
wired?

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_pius
You know, I was thinking about that as I was typing my original comment. But
no, not _Wired._

I think it's close, but there's some difference in tone that'd be needed,
though I can't quite put my finger on it at the moment.

~~~
GavinB
Swagger.

~~~
_pius
I think you're right. :)

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socratees
Reminds me of one of George Carlin's show where he talks about how humans
destroy planet earth. The earth is built to last, and will be there _even if_
humanity is long gone.

~~~
roc
The problem with that entertaining quip is that when people talk about
protecting mother earth they don't actually believe we're going to _kill it_.

They're specifically talking about preserving things we like about its current
state: things we are perfectly capable of utterly destroying; places we've
demonstrated our ability to render inhospitable.

So you don't really refute the argument by pointing out that the Earth will
endure, or that some degenerate mutant strain of humanity might be able to
scratch a pre-civilization existence out of radioactive slag.

~~~
shpxnvz
_The problem with that entertaining quip is that when people talk about
protecting mother earth they don't actually believe we're going to kill it._

Sure, but then we aren't really talking about saving the earth at all - we're
talking about saving ourselves and the things we happen to like, need, or find
aesthetically pleasing. It's a purely selfish motivation which is why we like
to anthropomorphize the planet itself and pretend we're concerned for
something more than just ourselves. "Mother earth" couldn't care less about
being saved because "she" is a big rock in space, which doesn't have
feelings[1].

 _that some degenerate mutant strain of humanity might be able to scratch a
pre-civilization existence_

Hey now, we were just a degenerate mutant strain at one point too. There's no
reason to think that some other mutation that survives our eventual extinction
would not mature over a few million years to become a much more intelligent,
peaceful and benign civilization.

1\. I guess it's possible the earth does have feelings, but if so it doesn't
seem likely it would care one way or the other about us.

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yters
Not if there are certain things that are truly beautiful and good and will
never occur again if we destroy them. Those things are worth saving, and
that's not being anthropomorphic.

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TeHCrAzY
By definition, if you think they are truly beautiful and good, you have made a
judjgement, and thus are being self serving in attempting to save them.

~~~
yters
Hmm, why must all judgments be self serving? For instance, if a soldier thinks
it is the right/good/noble/beautiful thing to jump on a grenade, I fail to see
how that is self serving by any normal definition.

Plus, many artists and other geniuses live horrible lives by evolutionary
standards, all for the sake of something they consider beautiful and
transcendent.

Finally, most people will report a subjective sense of self-transcendence when
contemplating beauty and moral goodness. If we want to fly in the face of
common experience we can say this is all selfish, but at that point it looks
more like you're bending the data to fit your worldview instead of letting the
data change your worldview.

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rauljara
From the section, "Things which will not destroy the earth":

Gay marriage.

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hugh_
Well, theoretically this could result in destruction by less-plausible method
number eight: "Destroyed by God".

(Of course, so could anything else, what with the ways of God being
impenetrable to Man and so forth, so it's probably safest to just keep doing
whatever it was you were already doing since apparently He was cool with
that.)

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bitwize
Step 1: Procure an Iludium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator.

Step 2: Make sure there are no meddlesome rabbits on your planet...

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fondue
If you follow the link to the advisory board you will see they confirmed the
earth was destroyed last year.

There's a comments section to discuss the topic.

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noonespecial
His fictional methods disappointingly lacked the Vogon method.

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gjm11
No they didn't. You just didn't read far enough down the page.
<http://qntm.org/?fictional#sec2>, second item listed.

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noonespecial
Weird. I swear I ctrl-F'ed that page for Vogon.

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techiferous
"Number of times the Earth has been destroyed: 1"

I was expecting this to reference the event that created the moon.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_impact_hypothesis>

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wkdown
Check out Episode 50 of 'The Universe' --
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Universe_%28TV_series%29#Se...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Universe_%28TV_series%29#Season_4:_2009)

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gills
I'm pretty sure my cat has a plan for this. Good thing I keep him in the
house.

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diN0bot
i love this guy's scifi, too.

<http://qntm.org/?fiction>

i first found the ed stories through scifi.reddit.com

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berntb
For some possible solutions to Fermi's paradox, this can easily be solved. We
just build e.g. radar stations which output lots of MWs and get someone's
attention... :-)

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mbrubeck
That's listed as item 9 in this section: <http://qntm.org/?destroy#sec5>

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berntb
Right you are (it was without a title line, so I missed it).

Also, my way of putting it was much scarier, since we have already built lots
of radar stations. :-)

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stcredzero
Meh. You could roast everything on the surface with the energy of several
large impactors. This would use orders of magnitude less energy than most of
the methods described, and still kill every living thing on the surface. (As
in everything on the surface is engulfed by molten rock, tidal waves, pressure
blasts, and everyone dies in the space of a few hours.)

Lesson: leave the Earth's orbit alone, and just massively disrupt the
biosphere.

~~~
tdoggette
The objective here is to _destroy_ the Earth, as specified in the article.
Sure, there are lots of ways to kill everything on the planet, but it'll still
be there when you're done.

~~~
stcredzero
If I've already roasted/pulverized/drowned everyone, who's going to complain?

~~~
Zot95
And if a tree falls in the forest, will anyone hear it? As has been said the
goal is destroy the earth. Not to leave no witnesses to confirm if the deed
has been done.

