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Thursday, May 6, 2010

«Everything is Going to Kill Everybody»

So a couple of weeks ago I happened across an article on Cracked.com that was a sample chapter in a book called Everything is Going to Kill Everybody. I don't remember how I came across it, I don't follow Cracked.com.

After reading that, I determined it was worth getting. I have a morbid interest in doomsday, so the book fell in line with my sense of humor. For the entire 2 years and 105 days I've been doing my blog, I've only read 21 books. Yeah, I'm that bad... I do my reading online.

A few of the disasters covered in the book are a bit unrealistic, like the hypercane or verneshot. The part about robots pointed out a bunch of new technologies that are more-or-less harmless by themselves, but when combined you get an overemotional flesh-eating monstrosity. Why would such technologies be combined? Well why would accelerometers, cameras, and clocks be combined? They are such different technologies, yet they are useful when combined. Just look at the iPhone.

So it will be with other technologies like the EATR (Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot). It can eat bio-matter (like plants or meat) to power itself. How cool would it be to have a lawnmower that feeds itself on the very grass it cuts? Of course, meat is the most efficient fuel for the EATR, so it might rather eat you than your lawn...

The book also covered other more mundane doomsdays, like the asteroid Apophis that will buzz past Earth closer than our geosynchronous satellites in 2029. Depending upon the small gravitational effect those satellites have on it, it has a very good chance of colliding with Earth on its next pass in 2036. It'd be like the dinosaurs all over again. But perhaps by then the supervolcano we call Yellowstone National Park would have already killed us.

It really was a hilarious book, in a frightening non-fiction sort of way.

I finally delved into the Amazon Associates program, so the link to the book here is a referral link. Amazon.com handles all the transactions, so it's not like you have to trust me with your credit card number. I figured since I have to declare my blog as a business on my taxes, I may as well act like it is one!

1: The two books I read are Everything is Going to Kill Everybody (duh), and The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

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