If Yellowstone Blows

First of all, you don't have knives even in your kitchen?

I'm not saying that no one will die. In fact, I think at least 90% of the current population will won't survive to see the ash dissipate and the sun again (I know I might not, but then again, I'm in Australia, and I don't know how far-reaching the consequences are), and the world will never be the same again. But to say that we overall are even worse than our ancestors who didn't even know what is going on in dealing with it and we will be entirely 100% exterminated is... strange.

edited 15th Feb '12 9:32:24 PM by IraTheSquire

Joe, how much working knowledge do you possess at this moment about how a nuclear reactor works? How to build one? How to maintain safety? How the process actually works? I'm betting that most people, particularly those who are not scientists, have no clue how it works other than that it does. That goes for how a lot of our stuff today works.

Knowing how to use it does not mean you know how to fix it once things break down.

That is why we must make sure the smartest minds in the world survive this. Plus I'm sure there would be written books to teach a person how to farm and hunt?

While there is/should be, I think it'll be easier if we gather the scouts and Aborigines and have them teach us how to live off the land.

That assumes everyone has access to the books. Remember; in this situation you're going to be concerned with immediate survival needs. Books don't count on that list for most people. And there's no guarantee the smartest minds will survive this unless you've moved most of the population well in advance if the thing blowing up. Otherwise, if everyone just goes about their business as usual, it's a crapshoot of chance.

And also assuming that a large amount of Aborigines and scouts will be alive and in the mood to help you. This is the kind of situation that breeds extreme tribalism.

edited 15th Feb '12 9:52:11 PM by AceofSpades

That's why I said it's "easier".

I should probably learn how to survive in the wild by joining the scouts or something. Too bad that I'm already 27...

And I'm not sure if having the smartest mind surviving will help in anyway. After all, our ancestors weren't as smart as we are.

edited 15th Feb '12 9:57:24 PM by IraTheSquire

The biggest sons of bitches with the most knives will survive, methinks.

So, Fallout or S.T.A.L.K.E.R then?

It wasn't about reactors, I'm saying if technology was lost, we wouldn't have to completely re-develope it. We wouldn't be set back to the stone age, we would have knowledge about what the tech was and how to make it. Not complete knowledge, but some. The nuclear thing was just a comparison.

Hate to burst your bubble but I think a post-Yellowstone goes boom, most folks die scenario is going to look like a slightly less fucked up Fallout 3 scenario. Complete with intact and mostly intact buildings, cars, etc. And there will be blood over who gets to ransack the ruins. Human nature being what it is and all that good stuff.

Y'all are getting crazy with this..

Lots of people will starve, die of thirst, etc. The economy would collapse in a giant heap and people would have to make due with localized resources. Some places would eat themselves alive, others would band together and make things work. Some people would make things work in smaller groups, and other groups would take advantage of the ruins left behind and the efforts of other survivors.

That being said, your average human being is dead as a doornail, because they don't know shit about how to get food when all the grocery stores and fast food joints are closed down due to volcanic decimation. They don't know how to hunt, they don't know how to forage, and they damn sure probably didn't get a pack ready ahead of time with all the right tools to survive, just in case.

Meanwhile, I'll be in Sycamore Canyon living off of rabbits, ducks, and prickly pear cacti.

Hate to break it to you, Barkey... But if Yellowstone were to erupt while you're alive, that plan won't work... You'd need to go further south than Arizona if you want to live off the land... And the Yucatan might not be far enough...

I recommend getting a boat, and fish as you sail south...

edited 19th Feb '12 6:52:59 AM by Swish

I can't imagine being covered in magma stopping Barkley.

edited 19th Feb '12 11:30:57 AM by johnnyfog

I'm still wondering why people think they could somehow redevelop nuclear power when the number of people that actually work in nuclear power plants is incredibly small, and working in such a place requires a fuckload of training to make sure you're doing it right. The vast majority of us do not actually know how those plants work, or know what the basic principles behind the reactions are. Given the vast amounts of death that will happen, the chances of any one individual with that knowledge surviving the initial explosion is very small. Not to mention that in the post Yellowstone scenario preserving that exact knowledge will be on no one's priority list. It's going to be on the skills that will initially help you survive; hunting and house building and so on. Nuclear power isn't exactly useful for those things. Redeveloping nuclear power and the like would take decades as the least, more like hundreds of years.

IT WAS A COMPARISON!

Besides, whos to say no nuclear scientists would survive? Unless they have an international Nuclear scientist meeting in yellowstone on the day it blows, there'll be some around.

Same. I have an image of him doing a back stroke through a volcano now.

edited 19th Feb '12 11:42:00 AM by Joesolo

I'm not saying it's impossible, I'm saying it's astronomically small given how many nuclear scientists there are in comparison to the rest of the population. Also, again, their skills and knowledge are not immediately useful in a post apocalypse scenario. There won't be a focus on preserving and teaching those skills.

Hot magma is no match for me!

Though ash very well might be, I hate having to shovel the stuff.

I remember when I was living in the high desert, we had these really out of control forest fires nearby in Big Bear.. It was snowing ash for like 3 days.

It snowed ash by me once. In the middle of summer some wetlands caught fire and we had burnt weeds and stuff falling all over town.

Course, then we went to go watch the fires...

@ Barkley: Hey, I said that humanity will very likely survive (or rather, won't go extinct). I didn't say that over 90% of the population won't die.

edited 19th Feb '12 4:21:26 PM by IraTheSquire

Massive starvation would ensue. No one would be well off under said scenario.

World fatalities would number perhaps 70%... That, and we would basically eat a lot of species out of existence...

I heard nuclear scientists always try to have their meetings in absurdly dangerous places. I think last year they had a conference table and chairs and such set up on tightropes over the San Andreas fault.

Uh...Wow. Ok, I could totally see them all(or a lot anyway) getting killed then.

I really don't think it's going to take Yellowstone erupting to kill them all, then.

Does getting your Ph D in Nuclear Physics (that the right one?) mean you have to get a common sense bypass?

I think getting a degree in nuclear physics requires that you do not have common sense in the first place.

Which really explains a lot.