What if?

[norrington]

If you get to the stage of certainty, the dynamic would probably change.

But I do like you answer.

Well, depends on the type of disaster. Hollywood logic says they'd announce it in the hopes of a merry band of misfits, led by a rogueish leading man with stubble and a tragic backstory, whose first response to anyone asking him to help is "I'm retired," coming together in a last-ditch suicide mission to save the world and win back the love interest in the process.

In the real world, it might also be worth considering if they'd be allowed to tell (no idea if other gov't agencies have veto power over NASA announcements or not). Based on historical instances of near-doomsday scenarios, my guess is they'd let people know. I mean, the Cuban Missile Crisis would've merited discretion due to the diplomatic delicacy of the situation, way more than a near-certain impending astronomical disaster would deserve a cover-up, and they didn't hide that. Then again, the comparison isn't 1:1 since there's more to be done in response to nuclear threat that could minimize fallout damage (and I have no idea what the situation was as far as worst-case projections and second strike capability and all that shit at the time). Also because it isn't the '60s any more.

Also, do you think it'd impact their decision at all if NASA could be facing blame/legitimate scrutiny for it somehow?

 

[Mecha-Lenin]

Also, do you think it'd impact their decision at all if NASA could be facing blame/legitimate scrutiny for it somehow?

With absolute certainty, there are fuckwits dumb enough to blame NASA. However, if civilization (and possibly humanity) is hypothetically ending, I doubt your reputation would hold much value anymore.

 

[fuehrer_dessler]

The question can be easily answered by a 2x2 decision matrix (disaster strikes/disaster does not strike i.e. false info. vs tell/not tell)

Tell/Disaster -- you did your job, but no one is alive to thank you. Even if you're not dead NASA will no longer exist to give you're pay rise
Tell/No Disaster -- imagine the outroar. Heads -- likely yours -- will roll.
Mum/Disaster-- again, no one will live to blame you. You're likely dead anyway.
Mum/No Disaster -- things go on as usual.

So the rational choice is not to tell.

Not everyone in the NASA is a careerist apparatchik, many would want the people to prepare and news like this would be just too big to be hold under wraps for more than a rather short time.

 

[Geewunner]

You think pedophilia and incestous marriage and beastiality will eventually become legal due to society slowly accepting more and more practices once thought taboo?

 

[Strelok]

What if...

One of these What If threads weren't the most embarassing threads on the site?

 

[Marvin]

You think pedophilia and incestous marriage and beastiality will eventually become legal due to society slowly accepting more and more practices once thought taboo?

 

[MongyPleb]

Is it possible that one day humanity will be able to resolve every conflict without war? Will war eventually be an extinct practice?

 

[AnOminous]

Is it possible that one day humanity will be able to resolve every conflict without war? Will war eventually be an extinct practice?

Probably when humans themselves are extinct.

Of course, there will be some other species somewhere having a war about something, in all likelihood.

 

[Strelok]

Probably when humans themselves are extinct.

Of course, there will be some other species somewhere having a war about something, in all likelihood.

They're more hardcore about it too. Ant Wars make WW1 look like a little slap fight.

 

[Holdek]

E&N

What's that?

 

[autisticdragonkin]

What is the difference between love and infatuation? Traditionally love (as eros) is considered to be the preferable one and infatuation is considered to be the inferior one. I would say that the difference is that whereas infatuation is irrational love can actually be seen as a higher form of rationality and it allows humans to reach their true potential whereas infatuation does not. As a result someone would be willing to fall in love if they were completely unemotional whereas they wouldn't be willing to become infatuated.

Different positions include that love is a long stable emotion whereas infatuation is a volatile brief emotion

Some other terms for infatuation are crushes and lust

Spoiler: links

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sheri-meyers/if-this-isnt-real-love-wh_b_4241987.html
https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachin...iteboard-animations/real-love-vs-infatuation/
http://www.ummah.com/forum/showthre...nate-Love-(ishk)-or-infatuation-not-real-love
http://www.srcp.org/for_some_parents/developmental_disabilities/the_specifics/infatuationDD.html
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blo...01207/the-deceptive-power-loves-first-moments

 

[sassyma seed]

I'm not really sure if this warrants its own thread here, but I'm wondering if anyone ever fears that one day they or someone they know might be considered a lolcow. That they might become a crazy SJW, or an insane cow that people mock or are horrified by.

Or that you yourself might change your beliefs to something insane or begin to act in a crazy way.

 

[norrington]

I'm not really sure if this warrants its own thread here, but I'm wondering if anyone ever fears that one day they or someone they know might be considered a lolcow. That they might become a crazy SJW, or an insane cow that people mock or are horrified by.

Or that you yourself might change your beliefs to something insane or begin to act in a crazy way.

Being scared of becoming a lolcow seems sort of dumb, to me, and I don't think it carries that well. I mean, you're either scared of being called a lolcow on here/getting your own lolcow thread, which isn't that scary (if you aren't an all-out lolcow then it won't garner that much interest, and if you are an all-out lolcow you won't give a shit in the first place, really, or you'd appreciate the attention in a hate-pleasure kind of way).

Being scared of losing your grip on reality, though, yeah, that's fucking terrifying. I'm around the age that schizophrenia typically sets in and presents with initial delusions/fits of paranoia/hallucinations/psychotic episodes, and that scares the shit out of me.

That's what's scary about psychological abuse too; I know pop-psychology terms like 'gaslighting' get thrown around willy-nilly on the internet now, but the idea of someone coaxing you into altering your own perception of reality to suit their needs is incredibly disconcerting, and if it were the real-deal, would leave you with psychological scars where you relentlessly question your perception of people and events and situations for years to come.

TL;DR: To me, losing my mind sounds way scarier than being called a lolcow.

 

[kittie]

Sometimes I wondered what would happen if I was just to drop dead in my dorm room since I live alone. This really applies more to last quarter as I have a boyfriend now who would probably realize in a few days that I was missing, but last quarter I put no effort into my social life and didn't talk to anyone on a regular basis.

 

[autisticdragonkin]

Sometimes I wondered what would happen if I was just to drop dead in my dorm room since I live alone. This really applies more to last quarter as I have a boyfriend now who would probably realize in a few days that I was missing, but last quarter I put no effort into my social life and didn't talk to anyone on a regular basis.

We would notice

 

[APerson]

I'm not really sure if this warrants its own thread here, but I'm wondering if anyone ever fears that one day they or someone they know might be considered a lolcow. That they might become a crazy SJW, or an insane cow that people mock or are horrified by.

Or that you yourself might change your beliefs to something insane or begin to act in a crazy way.

Well, yeah. My beliefs have done a complete 180 from where they were two years ago (I was hearing all about the oppreshun of women by GAMERGATE!!), and it's not illogical to assume that I'll do the same thing in another couple years and be just as ashamed of my current beliefs as I am currently of my former ones. I'm hoping to not do that, but who knows.

 

[autisticdragonkin]

Is legal debate actually fruitful. I think that it is more just a bunch of idiots yelling at each other about something meaningless and the real question should be what is right @AnOminous

EDIT: legal debate in hard cases, constitutional etc

 

[AnOminous]

Is legal debate actually fruitful. I think that it is more just a bunch of idiots yelling at each other about something meaningless and the real question should be what is right @AnOminous

EDIT: legal debate in hard cases, constitutional etc

We need laws so that people know what behavior is expected of them and what is forbidden. There has yet to be a better way of hashing out what laws actually mean than the adversarial system.

 

[Rogowski]

What if our knees were on the other side of our legs? What would chairs look like?

 

[autisticdragonkin]

Is it better to not desire anything or to have desires that go unfulfilled. Many people including Buddhists say that it is better to have no desires because they characterize utility in a negative fashion of all unfulfilled desires. By contrast I define it in a positive sense where a desire is a good thing because it is an opportunity to get the satisfaction of fulfilling it