| Added | Fri, 06/01/2017 |
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This article is written on the background (and largely because) of the universal hysteria that gripped not very serious and the media in connection with the approaching December 21, 2012. In it we will try to understand what the end of the world, where is it from and why so many people believe in him and wait.
Separately, I note that the end of the world cannot be called a phenomenon in the full sense of the word – cannot be a phenomenon of something that never happened. But the willingness of people across the planet to believe in him and to wait, despite the numerous "false alarms", are truly phenomenal. Various insinuations on this subject have had and continue to have a huge impact not only on popular culture but also on the behavior of many individuals. Thus, the author of this article think that it is the place on the website Fern-Flower.ru.
What is the end of the world?
Wikipedia defines the end of the world as "a common idiom, meaning the real or imaginary threat of the demise of all people, civilizations, all humanity, Earth, or even the Universe as a whole. In the narrower sense — the destruction of all the living". [1]
There are several interpretations of this concept. We list them in ascending order of magnitude.
The local end of the world for each person is his death. That's what most of us are afraid of throughout his life, and what is inexorably approaching.
One of the most common interpretations of the end of the world is that it means the end of that civilization, whose members are trying to predict. So, the local end of the world Indians of North America was coming to their lands of the white men who brought with them previously unknown diseases, weapons, and customs. In fact, it led to the destruction of existed at the time of the civilization of the Indians. Another example of this end of the world can be the death of an advanced civilization of Atlantis in the depths of the ocean (if it ever is proven the fact of its existence).
The following variant suggests that the end of the world means destruction of the planet Earth, mostly as a result of anthropogenic catastrophe (e.g. nuclear war) or a collision with another heavenly body of sufficient size.
Finally, the global variant is the determination of the end of the world as the last moment of existence of all things, i.e. the Universe itself. Such predictions are based mainly on religious ideas about the world, involving the moments of creation and Annihilation of the world around us.
There is another interpretation of the concept of "end of the world" – literally. For example, in [5] it is assumed that the world would end due to the fact that "the Earth together with the Solar system passes through the galactic "zero band". This state space where extinguished and may not be distributed no energy, where there are no electromagnetic fields in all objects. The darkness will be accompanied by flashes of space, illusory flashes of light and will last for about three or four days. Then the light of the sun again". In this option we will also concentrate later in the section devoted to analysis of possibilities of implementation of various doomsday scenarios.
The history of the phenomenon
Attempts to predict the date and/or doomsday scenario that is rooted in distant antiquity.
Initially, sources of such information were the prophecies of priests and religious texts, now such predictions are also scientists.
There are more than hundreds of different dates of end of the world, which was expected for the last 2,000 years, through various prophets, mystics, interpreters of religious texts and various religious sects. Many of them are connected with faith in the mysticism of numbers is 666 a year, 1000 year, 1313, the year 2000, etc.
Only in the last 15 years was supposed to happen 45 over the world under different scenarios. The most anticipated was the onset of the end times or the end of mankind on the eve of the Millennium. For 1999 fell to 13 scenarios, myself 2000 – 7, 2001 – just one. Of these the most famous and the most expected scenario was "world-wide computer failure" during which upon the occurrence of January 1, 2000, with a two-digit representation of a year after advancing 99 00 year (that is, 99+1=00), which was interpreted by many old programs as 1900, and this, in turn, could lead to serious disruptions of critical applications such as control systems of technological processes and financial programs. This doomsday scenario has become known as the "2000 Problem". [2]
At the time of this writing, the most anticipated is the end of the world, which should occur on December 21, 2012 according to the Mayan calendar [6]. At the moment when the reader reads it, there must be a better.
Full list of past dates all the light you can see in [3].
Doomsday
All scenarios end of the world can be divided into "scientific" and "mystical", and they differ not only scenarios, but also aspects that are emphasized.
Scientific scenarios are the basis for the plot of most disaster movies. They described the destruction of civilization as a result of global warming or cooling, volcanic eruption or meteorite, a nuclear disaster or deadly virus. Of less real – the invasion of the Earth by aliens from other planets or the uprising of artificial intelligence. This includes theories about the death of the Earth in the explosion of the Sun and heat death of the Universe in a few billion years. All these scenarios have in common is that the events described in them could potentially happen; they are seriously considering scientists in the scientific and popular scientific articles. The main focus of this makes the calculation of the probability of the scenario, the options of its development, ways of prevention and the basics of survival in the midst of the crisis. Few people trying to predict the exact date of the occurrence of such end of the world: the people who write and read these articles, sufficient education, to understand how stochastic are the processes that can lead to it.
We can say that the scientific scenarios for the majority of inhabitants are boring. Few who begin to tremble the knees when you read the article about the meteorite, which in a few decades with a probability of 0.3% will fly at a distance of only a few hundred thousand kilometers from Earth with a probability of 0.0001 % of its gravitational field will raise a huge wave in the earth's oceans, which wash away in the sea of all life on the planet. Most scientific scenarios such as this. To consider them in detail, let alone try to disprove it makes no sense, all they really feasible with a given probability.
Much more interesting for the majority of the population are scenarios mystical. What they are mostly hyping the media, they tickle the nerves of the people frozen in front of the TV in the evenings. These scenarios focus not on HOW the world will end, and WHEN and WHY. And to both of these questions are always clear answers: the majority of these scenarios describe the specific cause of events (usually quite contrived), and are tied to a specific date. But the method of implementation of the end of the world, they are often not even mentioned.
Some of these scenarios, with commentary on their reality, given in the table.
| The script | Analysis |
|---|---|
| Religious scenarios describing the end of the world as the finale of the Divine plan. These scenarios differ from other mystical topics that rarely contain references to the exact date of implementation. | In fact, there is nothing to analyze – it is entirely a matter of faith, which is originally irrational. The reality of these scenarios every man for himself determines. |
| Scenarios associated with the magic numbers. For example, a lot of people were expecting the end of the world in 1999, because the three nines is inverted three sixes, which is the number of the Beast. | All such scenarios are split about elementary logic, telling us that the currently used calendar at least different from what was used even two hundred, even more thousand years ago. The calendar is a Convention adopted to ensure that people in different countries make it easier to synchronize their actions and history. Remain the Nations leading calendar for own calendar systems. Thus, to look for magic numbers in the modern date just pointless. |
| Pseudo-anthropogenic scenarios, including the notorious "error 2000" | These scripts are disguised as scientific, using the ignorance of the majority of inhabitants in technical matters. In particular, any technically competent person would say that in computers the data is stored in binary code, and the transition from 1999 to 2000 for a computer is a transition from value to value 11111001111 11111010000. It's not terrible, isn't it? |
| The predictions of psychics/fortune tellers/prophets | In fact, the predictions of these people is always the most allegorical and confusing, to recall the quatrains of Nostradamus. In generally nothing can be said in advance, however, after any significant event almost always is the prophecy that when the proper level of imagination and creative thinking can be associated with these events. Thus, you can never tell predicted in the prophecy of the end of all things, or explosion at the pasta factory. |
As promised, I will return in the script above with the passage of the Earth through the "zero band of the galaxy." This is a typical example of a play on words designed to cause the unsuspecting listener/viewer/reader the impression of scientific content, really is the reaction of "again I say on TV, it's true, and it seems to me nonsense – so my knowledge in this matter is not deep enough to understand." In fact, in modern astrology there is no such thing as a "null band of the galaxy." Even if this band was real – our scientists are not competent enough to predict the passage of Earth through it in a specific day. Moreover, the idea of no electromagnetic fields in all objects simply untenable – that electromagnetic interactions are the physical basis of existence of matter, they bind particles of a substance and give it to disintegrate. Not to mention the fact that electromagnetic energy is the basis of life itself, organizing it on a cellular level, and the disappearance of electromagnetic waves can cause the actual death of all life on the planet (and the scenario assumes that after four days of darkness of humanity will continue to exist in the "updated" world).
Analysis of the phenomenon of waiting the end of the world
Why do people continue to believe in the approaching end of the world, against all logic and despite the fact that he has several tens of times "undo" and "transferred"?
The answer to this question lies, rather, in human psychology. The author of this article is not a psychologist by training and is an expert in this matter only at the household level, and therefore can not move to bring the terms and definitions, but the theory he has.
The fear of doomsday in the early stages of the development of civilization was beneficial, especially to those in power as a tool to restrict people's behavior and force them to live in accordance with a certain set of rules. This was done mainly with the help of religion. In almost every belief there is a prophecy about the end of the world, and in most cases it is accompanied by the last judgment, where everyone recall his misdeeds and reward you deserved. In an era when education was available only to the elect, for most people, the religious picture of the world was the main, and such a scenario is not in doubt.
What makes people believe in various, even the most improbable scenarios of the end of the world now, when secondary and even higher education available to almost everyone? Unfortunately, as practice shows, the availability of education and the ability to think a head is not the same thing.
For example, the widely known story of the financial pyramid "MMM" in which millions of people in the 90s of the last century lost their savings. Then these people were forced to invest money in it post-Soviet naivete and credulity, belief in the possibility of a quick profit. It can be understood. But anything other than nonsense, it is impossible to explain the behavior of people to invest money in the "MMM-2011", founded by the same man who served time for organizing the first "MMM", and this time openly called his company a pyramid scheme.
Such examples can cause a lot, and not only in Russia. A lot of people around the world have entrusted the management of their capital Bernard Madoff, not interested in what he invested their money and how to earn profit even in the crisis years.
People do not understand the subject matter, trust those who, in their opinion, understands. And the more authoritative and/or convincing the person is, the easier it is to get people to doubt their own knowledge.
Nowadays the main source of information for most people continues to be TV, and they believe him implicitly. However, television is a business, which is based on selling advertising time, and its value depends on the rating. To raise this ranking (and as a consequence maximize profits) most of the TV channels are ready to show what causes the greatest response from the viewer. The easiest way to get a reaction by playing on the baser feelings of the people – fear, curiosity, lust. Thus, the transfer telling about different versions of end of the world, consistently collect the greatest audience. Demand creates supply, the number of such programs grows, and the audience, who are all the channels saying the same thing, start to believe in the approaching end of the world.
Conclusion
Summarise the main ideas given in the above text:
- Mankind since ancient times were engaged in expectation and prediction of the end of the world.
- All the scientific scenarios for the end of the world is boring and unlikely.
- All scenarios end of the world that binds it to a specific date, are a hoax.
- The townsfolk believe in the end of the world because of their habit to believe implicitly the sources of information have credibility.
But the main conclusion is, as always, is simple: if you see or hear something that does not fit into the usual picture of the world – don't start to doubt yourself, and continue to think with your head. You will either be able to avoid a lot of silly things, or understand something new. He and the other result can be considered positive!
Translated by «Yandex.Translator»
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Comments
2017 год выдался богатым на обещания различных концов света во второй его половине. Наткнулся даже на такую новость:
Жители американского округа Орандж, штат Калифорния, не на шутку перепугались из-за недавнего объявления по телевизору накануне 21 сентября. Внезапно традиционный эфир прервался и вместе него жуткий голос начал вещать о конце света.
Ставшая очевидцем холодящего кровь телесообщения местная жительница Стейси Лафламм заявила о том, что на экране внезапно появилась надпись об «Экстренном предупреждении». После этого начал говорить мужской голос: «Граждане Соединенных Штатов Америки, поймите наступают очень жестокие времена! Конец света близко и вам следует быть готовыми к самому худшему».
В пресс-службах пострадавших компаний отмечают, что звук действительно предназначался для передачи по радио, однако из-за определенных неполадок попал на телевидение и сработала стандартная заглушка на случай экстренных сообщений. Операторы данный инцидент изучают. Помимо прочего, рассматривается версия с хакерской атакой.
Очень радиопостановку Уэлса напомнило.