Generational Dynamics World View News

[Bob Butler]

The Nazi nerve gas option that I am referring to is this...

In the later part of the Pacific campaign of WW II, the US wanted to take an island without any civilian population. They consider gas shells from battleships rather than marines with rifles taking caves. They decided against. Everybody one way or another decided against.

[tim]

There is a reason for the GI generation building fallout shelters in their backyards and basements while preparing for nuclear war.

These people weren't stupid or paranoid, they had been alive to see two cities full of civilians bombed with nuclear weapons.

They are gone now, along with their personal memories of the Great Depression and WWII. The cycle repeats.

Is there anything of which one might say,
“See this, it is new”?
It has already existed for ages
Which were before us.

There is no remembrance of the earlier things,
And of the later things as well, which will occur,
There will be no remembrance of them
Among those who will come later still.

Ecclesiastes 1:10-11

[DaKardii]

Anyone here watched the Queen's state funeral?

[Bob Butler]

For me, Ages are one of the perspectives with which to view history. On age boundaries, patterns of civilization change. Rules change. There comes new things under the sun. If you learn too well the lessons of the old age, you might be surprised in the new. Sure, in the Industrial Age there were no weapons which were not used. As you step into the Information Age?

And I did see bits of the Queen's funeral, but was not obsessive about it.

[Tom Mazanec]

Anyone here watched the Queen's state funeral?

Not if it were the only thing on the screen.
A nonagenarian woman in the other hemisphere dies and the world is supposed to stop? The world did not stop when my nonagenarian uncle died earlier this year.

[Trevor]

Based on my own research into thermonuclear war, I'd state humanity and civilization are capable of surviving it. Earth's endured events that would make a full-scale exchange seem like a few firecrackers in comparison, in just its recent past (geologically speaking) However, it would still kill hundreds of millions, mostly those in poor countries, thanks to the world trade system breaking down.

I don't think it would be either the United States or China using the first weapon. Whoever uses it first will be the one feeling backed into a corner and seeing it as essentially to their own survival. I'd bet on it being North Korea or Pakistan, but if I had to choose one, I'd say the latter. It'd take years for the U.S. to mobilize its economy for war, but fortunately for us, China has the same difficulties when it comes to military production.

[Bob Butler]

Just to emphasize a point…

Hunter gathers featured sharepened stick weapons, chiefs and memory. Agricultural empires feature metal swords and arrowheads, kings and the written word. The Industrial Age introduced chemical weapons such as guns and cannon, parliaments and the printing press. The Information Age features WMD, …, and computer networks. (I’d like to say computer networked democracy, but we are not ready for that yet security wise.)

As a new age begins, there are new things under the sun. Patterns which seem settled change.

[John]

Anyone here watched the Queen's state funeral?

wednesday, September 20th, 2022

Me. it was fascinating, spectacular, and brilliant.

it lasted around 6 hours, including several religious services and processions. there were dozens of sites across london, and they all had to be coordinated and synchronized to the second.

there were tens of thousands of people involved, including politicians, visitors, military, police, and clerics. the boys choirs during the services were particularly impressive. and with dozens of world leaders attending, including kings, queens, presidents, dictators, and prime ministers, all of them serving as targets for a massive terrorist attack, Britain's security services faced the biggest security challenge in its history.

and let's not forget the dozens of vehicles, including the hearse especially designed by the queen herself, and the battalion of horses that took part in the processions.

there must have been hundreds of scripts and speeches, and there must have been hundreds of millions of footsteps that all had to be coordinated and synchronized to the second. I particularly noted that there were five or six different kinds of marches among the eight people carrying the Queen's coffin.

the thing that totally blew me away was that this hugely complex funeral, with hundreds of millions of components, was apparently executed successfully without even a misstep, or at least not a misstep that anyone reported. in particular, each of the thousands of participants had to play his part, at exactly the right time to be synchronized with everybody else.

as a computer programmer, this was incredible to me. if I wanted to write a program to simulate this, it would probably take me weeks. but the British authorities were able to choreograph the entire thing within just a few days after the death of the queen. it's no wonder that many analysts said that authorities had been planning for this event for decades.

another reason why watching the funeral was fascinating because of its historic significance. Queen Elizabeth was no candle in the wind, and so every component of the funeral had a historic significance dating back as far as the 1300s.

the 6-hour funeral was viewed by hundreds of millions of people in dozens of countries around the world. it showed how important Queen Elizabeth has been to britain, and it shows how important England and Britain have been to the world for many centuries.

[Bob Butler]

Me. it was fascinating, spectacular, and brilliant.

I kinda agree. One guard did feint as she was lying in state, but that was apparently the closest they came to a problem. Though it was no accident. They have been planning this for years.

[Tom Mazanec]

Based on my own research into thermonuclear war, I'd state humanity and civilization are capable of surviving it. Earth's endured events that would make a full-scale exchange seem like a few firecrackers in comparison, in just its recent past (geologically speaking) However, it would still kill hundreds of millions, mostly those in poor countries, thanks to the world trade system breaking down.

I don't think it would be either the United States or China using the first weapon. Whoever uses it first will be the one feeling backed into a corner and seeing it as essentially to their own survival. I'd bet on it being North Korea or Pakistan, but if I had to choose one, I'd say the latter. It'd take years for the U.S. to mobilize its economy for war, but fortunately for us, China has the same difficulties when it comes to military production.

Yes, the planet survived those events hunky-dorey. The dominant species at the time did not.