Tonight -- and 2012

Tonight’s our UFO debate (and, as explained at that link, remember that you can also catch debater Jen’s philosophy-themed comedy performance two days from now — not to mention my birthday on Sunday).

I trust that no matter how strange the debate gets, it will make more sense than this video alleging that sparking an invasion from space by the Anti-Christ is the true purpose of the Large Hadron Collider.  Then again, with NYT reporting that the damn Collider still doesn’t work (way to go, government-funded science!), maybe it deserves to be attacked by the Anti-Christ.

The oddest part of that video, by the way, is the sincere-sounding way that the man asks at the end whether he’s committed any flaws in reasoning.  He also mentions a mythical planet, the name of which I keep mixing up with Naboo from Star Wars, that some people, inspired by the finite Mayan calendar, fear will cause the end of the world in 2012, an idea that has in turn inspired a film called 2012 by Roland Emmerich, coming out in a few months (which will give him at least two years to spend the profits).  I hope it’s at least as entertaining as that guy’s YouTube clip about the Anti-Christ.

The actual year 2012 should be an interesting test of the strength of multiple threads of our culture, since (a) mystics will have loudly predicted the end of the world, (b) greens will be clamoring for a renewal of the expiring Kyoto Treaty lest the planet catch on fire or whatever, (c) a socialistic/left-liberal U.S. president (who even some libertarians apparently voted for, to their eternal disgrace) will be up for reelection, and (d) about three major sci-fi or fantasy film franchises happen to be scheduled to reach their climaxes.  Maybe all of these trends will end then, which really would yield a different world.

Speaking of political change, Roland Emmerich isn’t the only one thinking about saving the world with giant sea-arks: As I’ll explain in more detail tomorrow morning, you can join me to hear a speech tomorrow night by Patri Friedman about “seasteading” (building artificial islands to escape government) at the New York Junto.