Thought Experiment

[icecream-guy]

An Alien entity confides in you that in 30 days nothing on earth will be able to generate electricity. no wind, no solar, no turbines, etc..

Do you try to get the word out, and risk being tagged as a nut?
Do you hoard as much as you can and risk being tagged as a nut?

after much thought. I wouldn't tell anyone, and go about my usual business. most likely doing nothing.

and you?

[deanwebb]

Then there goes all our nervous system, which runs on internally-generated electricity. That means I got 30 days to get right with {$DEITY}.

On the plus side, I won't have to fill out another round of 360-degree evaluations this year. Another plus, I can go nuts with the credit cards and take my family someplace noice.

[routerdork]

Well I was going to hoard and become a mountain man until Dean decided we're all going to die. So now I'm going to eat steak all day and wash it down with whiskey and beer. Hookers and blow wouldn't be a bad desert either...

[that1guy15]

Wasnt there a TV series on this exact topic a few years back? Watched the first episode but was blah.

Yeah if this happened shit would go south PDQ after a month. Think I would spend the time and money getting prepped. How to sustain food, shelter and safety for the family would be my focus.

[deanwebb]

Wasnt there a TV series on this exact topic a few years back? Watched the first episode but was blah.

Yeah if this happened shit would go south PDQ after a month. Think I would spend the time and money getting prepped. How to sustain food, shelter and safety for the family would be my focus.

Assuming that bioelectric sources of electricity are still functional. Why those would work but others not work flies in the face of logic. Electricity itself is the flow of electrons from an electron-rich source to an electron-poor destination, so if electrons aren't going to flow, we're in deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep trouble, as I'd have to assume that other basic chemical processes wouldn't fly, either.

Maybe this alien is totally full of it. I'm going to need some proof. Still taking vacation days, but maybe not maxing out the credit cards after that thought.

[Reggle]

I'd do both, but focus on the hoarding part I think.

Edit: ristau, is there anything we should know about something that will happen in the next 30 days?

[icecream-guy]

I'd do both, but focus on the hoarding part I think.

Edit: ristau, is there anything we should know about something that will happen in the next 30 days?

nah, it's just a question asked me by my buddy when were were having a few beers.

deanwebb, you are going in way too deep, this thought experiment not thought analytics
.

[deanwebb]

This is why my family won't watch sci-fi movies with me.

And I think the show was "Revolution". Totally convoluted science in that one. My wife liked it, so I wasn't allowed to watch it and criticize the idiocy.

[that1guy15]

This is why my family won't watch sci-fi movies with me.

And I think the show was "Revolution". Totally convoluted science in that one. My wife liked it, so I wasn't allowed to watch it and criticize the idiocy.

Yeah just like many others shows I wish it would have been a movie instead. I just want to  know what caused it! Not drag on for 14 seasons and get a stupid ending season like others. Nope dont like TV that much.

[icecream-guy]

This is why my family won't watch sci-fi movies with me.

And I think the show was "Revolution". Totally convoluted science in that one. My wife liked it, so I wasn't allowed to watch it and criticize the idiocy.

Yeah just like many others shows I wish it would have been a movie instead. I just want to  know what caused it! Not drag on for 14 seasons and get a stupid ending season like others. Nope dont like TV that much.

I got turned on to The Expanse (SYFY network original series... plug plug), watched the 2nd episode last night on demand. its getting pretty good so far, first episode was kinda slow. (no spoilers please)

[deanwebb]

That one guy gets totally spoiler alerted in episode 4.

[dlots]

Assuming we won't die, and assuming you can't get the Alien to do anything else useful for you:

1st kill the Alien and sell the body for start-up money (go ahead and eat a little, you'll be the 1st human to eat Alien meat and that's got to be at least worth something)
2ed steal the alien's ship for emergency use (having a space ship sounds amazingly useful)
3ed use the dead-alien money to buy huge amounts of propane, guns/ammo and setup wind-mills, water-wheels,  horses (as cars require electricity to spark a spark-plug), booze, smokes, porn (you know, all the vices people would rather die than be without) and books on how to do stuff without electricity (farming, husbandry etc), candles and lamp oil... and maybe kidnap some Amish people.

Tell no one other than those you trust and trust you, other people would just say your crazy.

[deanwebb]

Dude, I'm not gonna kill the alien.

By the way, how does said alien arrive? Can he take on another passenger?

Or will nothing on earth be able to generate electricity because, like, the universe ceases to exist because of some stupid hyper-advanced weapon test that went wrong on the other side of infinity or whatever.

What, exactly, *is* the root cause of this "no electricity" situation? If it's a natural disaster, like black hole, sun exploding, asteroid impact, massive flare, burst of gamma radiation reaching the earth, loss of magnetic field and exposure to hard radiation from space, or something like that, I'm sticking with my "prepare to meet {$DEITY} scenario.

[dlots]

The alien came to rub my nose in the fact I was doomed, and he won't do anything to help... honestly now that I go down this path it sounds like ET is just playing a prank on me or he would have told more people so we could prepare properly... I think the alien deserves to die now, so still killing and eating (some of) the alien.

[deanwebb]

Call his bluff: "I know the world will not have electricity. That is why I developed my mind-swap technology. 30 days from now, your body will host my consciousness. Even if I'm dead, my conscious will migrate to your body... unless you can make me a more... attractive... offer."