Did anyone else watch Prophets of Doom last night on the History Channel? I thought it was well done. Theybroke it into categories with an expert per category. One guy each on economic collapse, water depletion, peak oil, nuclear bomb proliferation and artificial intelligence gone amuck. Kunstler did an excellent job on peak oil. I sent him an email telling him I like the show and that I thought the artificial intelligence guy was weird.
His response was that the original name of the show was The Futurists, but the History Channel changed it to Prophets of Doom to boost ratings. He also said the AI guy was nutty and a creep. He described the room they were in as Hannibal Lecter’s Family Room.
Avalon thought I would have fit in well. She liked Generation Zero better.
I’m not sure when it will be on again, but here is a link to a youtube of most of it.
printmemoney says:
I don’t think water will be a problem. I’ve seen people drink shit water when they were thirsty and be find. The problem will be the adaptation to the water. Some people will adapt immediately and others won’t
and that is called life……………………aftert the collapse
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6th January 2011 at 3:29 am
Kill Bill says:
Women, we have also hit peak makeup.
Doom! Gloom!
Prepare by hoarding crayons and palm oil.
Aiiiiiieeeeeee!
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6th January 2011 at 4:40 am
marissa says:
I watched it. Caught it by accident.
As far as mainstream TV goes I thought it was very unusual. All the ugly issues currently playing out discussed by a merry band of doomer outsider journalists, bloggers, and academics? Pretty stunning stuff for the History channel. I’m guessing a lot of people who may have bumped into it turned it off quickly as the discussion was neither political nor upbeat, nor easy to fathom for those who are regular consumers of USA Today news.
One thing that struck me about the participants (outside of Kunstler, who were those guys?) was their age. Nearly all of them in their early sixties….roundabout my age. We of this age remember our grandparents and parents in the US, the America that they knew and talked about going back to the turn of the twentieth century. Our own lives in the US from the fifties and forward–this collective memory of the last hundred years of America will soon be lost. The people who know where we came from and what we have become over the last century will be gone.
When the memory legacy of the old America disappears who will be here to ring the bells of alarm? When these guys are gone there will be no one with their depth of background and experience to wring the real issues from the propaganda of media noise.
When men like these are gone, will take their places? Who will remember what America is supposed to be?
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6th January 2011 at 4:57 am
Robmu1 says:
How nice that you found a show like this – we were tired of your overly optimistic viewpoint on the world.
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6th January 2011 at 8:26 am
Administrator says:
Robmu1
This show will drive you back to TBP for a dose of optimism. The dude talking about the mini-nukes going off in NYC was scary.
Kunstler was the least pessimistic of them all. He still had hope for a future.
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6th January 2011 at 8:50 am
Thinker says:
Neil Howe expects us to face something like nukes going off in our cities…but of course, he has the optimism that the Crisis will eventually end and be replaced by a High.
Boomers (Prophets) are generally more doom-and-gloom as they age.
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6th January 2011 at 9:49 am
Administrator says:
Thinker
It will be replaced by a High as long as you’re not in the city where the nuke goes off.
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6th January 2011 at 10:05 am
Kill Bill says:
The new LEAN report includes the following analysis:
Doom and Gloom Food. I cant wait to gullet some of this delishus grub.
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6th January 2011 at 10:55 am
Administrator says:
KB
Are you contending that the EPA and FDA are misleading the American public? Please report yourself to the Dept of Homeland Security for a little reprogramming.
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6th January 2011 at 10:59 am
Kill Bill says:
Please report yourself to the Dept of Homeland Security for a little reprogramming. -Admin
Hah.
Napolitano didnt volunteer for a backscatter x-ray other day. They cant reprogram me with that picture now!
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6th January 2011 at 11:04 am
Milw05 says:
Well done. The part which spooked me the most was the nuclear terrorism. The worst of all of them IMO. I liked the A.I. guy, he made sense, but resources will probably run out before robots take over. Someone running the show and asking the right questions would have improved this already great show. Jim would have made an excellent moderator. Maybe we’ll see Jim in Prophets of Doom II, or better yet Prophets of Doom the series.
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6th January 2011 at 2:00 pm
Whippet says:
Those are absolutely astounding numbers- 12,500 mg/kg is a full 1.25% by weight. In other words, if you eat 8 ounces of oysters, almost three GRAMS of your dinner are petroleum.
This stuff is extremely carcinogenic- not to mention hepatotoxic and nephrotoxic. Stay far away!
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6th January 2011 at 3:15 pm
LM says:
THE SHOW WAS WELL DONE.ALL REAL TOPICS WITH A LOT OF FACTS AND HISTORY SUPPORT.IT’S THE BEST SHOW ON THIS SUBJECT TO DATE.I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT.
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6th January 2011 at 4:56 pm