Apocalypse Now, or what have we learned?

[Cloud]

Since end-of-the-world scenarios and post-disaster stories are a major theme of SF (and given real-world disasters like Katrina), I wanted to ask:

1) what would be a good post-apocalyptic trade item that would be small, portable, and valuable for barter?

2) Do you, personally, have a disaster plan and supplies for RL? If not, why not.

[Winters_Sorrow]

Well I suppose we're assuming that we're past the inital starvation, desperation phase? Because otherwise quite frankly, it's food, water and a weapon to make sure it stays your food & water

and no, I haven't. Because any disasters in my part of the world would either be of such a magnitude as to make most 'solutions' meaningless or be man-made in some way (like riots). We don't suffer hurricanes, volcanoes, earthquakes or the like. The worst we get is a lot of snow or the occassional localised flooding.

[Joel007]

Its nice to think that the country's leaders make a distinction between destroying the planet by accident, and by design.

[Cloud]

I really have been meaning to put together an emergency supply, but it's one of those things that is so easily put off . . . until it's too late.

And come on, I was hoping I'd get lots of imaginative ideas for my first question! Medicine? Batteries?

[Tau Zero]

It's too hard to answer because they're too many unknowns. I mean sewing needles will eventually become priceless. But it'll take a while for the existing supply to run out. Spices and salt will also become valuable as they were in the middle ages. Matches, lenses, Gore-tex, many medicines, soap, nails and screws, saws and other tools, the list go on...

[j. d. worthington]

I would think two of the earliest things to become valuable would be paper and ink, as anything that is left of a society is likely to try to organize and establish a government, and we've become so accustomed to written forms in that, that it would be almost unthinkable to go to either oral or more difficult forms of writing (clay tablets, etc.). While it may seem that there's an almost infinite amount of paper available, if it is no longer being produced, and there would be at least some drive to preserve the knowledge of the past rather than destroy all the books, imagine how quickly the supply will suddenly become very scarce in organizing governments for the survivors; including not only lawmaking, but the necessities of acting on those laws, as we are unlikely to execute someone for minor offenses, especially if we need them as labor -- we may be so short-handed that executions are done away with totally; but there would still be the need for processing them as criminals, and the records for punishment, etc. Not to mention any attempts to pick up the pieces with medical knowledge, any form of currency we might establish, the possibility of citizenship papers being required, or traveling papers from one region to another....

[jenna]

I'm a nerd, I have been working on apocalypse contingency plans for years. My sister, her boyfriend and I are working towards the 2012 theory, so we're not stockpiling yet, we'll do that in 2011. If it happens before then, we have contingency plans for how to get what we need anyway. I have mapped out routes out of the city from my house, my sister's house, my work and other places I go to regularly. Sis and BF are planning on buying land in the country, so when they get that I'll be mapping routes out to there. I have a bag in my house that has a few essentials in it, (that's something I can grab in case of fire too - has backup discs of all my writing and photos). I've been studying the SAS survival handbook, the zombie survival handbook lol (just in case! zombie apocalypse is by far the coolest!), I've been training in martial arts, and watching and reading heaps about the subject - mostly fims and books have great examples of what NOT to do. Actually, I'm thinking about things for the apocalypse pretty much every day.

So, in case you can't tell, I'm really keen for the apocalypse to start already!! *drums fingers* Is it the end of the world yet?

[Harpo]

Jenna, you are very keen and eager.

I too am waiting for 2012, it will be when we get time travel.

[jenna]

LOL most people think I'm insane. But really, what could be more exciting than the end of the world as we know it? I don't know what's going to happen in 2012, but it had better be BIG!

[Ian SCD Officer]

In 2012, a cataclysmic event will occur, which will shake the foundations of the world, it will make us question the basic principles and ideas of Western Civilisationa and Eastern Civilisation alike. It will make us ask the fundamental questions: Who are we? And where are we going? It will make us regret a lot of things. It will make us cry, and will bring despair, destruction, and carnage in it's wake.




The evil, unspeakable atrocity in question is.......


Wait for it......



the 2012 Olympic games in London!

LOL!

Seriously though, I don't think much will happen in 2012, apart from terrorist attacks and environmental disasters. Global warming is a serious problem, so that will rear it's ugly head. So's overpopulation, I think we will see more of that too.

[Harpo]

I live near the 2012 Olympic Village site, I think a lot of things will be changing around here.