Apocalypse: A Primer, part II of V

[The Good Reverend Roger]

"Things fall apart, it's scientific."
- The Talking Heads

The purpose of maintenance is to forestall entropy.  It is our job to make sure that the lights stay on, water comes out of the tap when you want it, that your car will function.  All the little things you never think about - if we're doing our job correctly - that are absolutely essential to your survival.

Entropy always wins, of course.  For example, less and less people go into the trades every year, and the huge gains in industrial technology mean that the older, more experienced people become obsolete as the new tech diverges from their skill set on a daily basis.

It is, like all other things, a battle which we will eventually lose, though I suspect the battle won't be lost due to our efforts...Left long enough, it would, but I doubt we have that much time.

You'll know it when we fail.  Just saying.

It's already started, out here.  Experienced linemen are required to keep the lights on...But there's a shortage of them.  All their high school buddies went on to either meth or college, and in college all they wanted to learn was how to get filthy rich without actually doing any work (JP Morgan geeks, I'm talking to you).

It's worse than it looks, really.  Ask me anything.

Or rather, ask me for anything besides time.

Or Kill Me.

[LMNO]

This one is far too easy to believe.

I'm not mechanically inclined, and I know that some day, it will probably be the death of me.

[Jasper]

Too true.  This is Doom I can believe.

[Adios]

Right on. No one wants to do that work.

[hooplala]

I was talking with my wife the other day about sky scrapers.

Is it me, or were they possibly one of the worst ideas in recent years?  I mean, yes, there will be maintenance performed on them to keep them in as good a condition as possible for as long as possible, but the island of Manhattan... what is that going to be like in 500-1000 years when those things all start crumbling?

Or will they simply demo them one by one when they start to crumble?  That seems like the easiest idea, but not overly easy.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I was talking with my wife the other day about sky scrapers.

Is it me, or were they possibly one of the worst ideas in recent years?  I mean, yes, there will be maintenance performed on them to keep them in as good a condition as possible for as long as possible, but the island of Manhattan... what is that going to be like in 500-1000 years when those things all start crumbling?

Or will they simply demo them one by one when they start to crumble?  That seems like the easiest idea, but not overly easy.

Try "ten years after the maintenance stops, TOPS".  Even a few missing windows can bring a skyscraper down, eventually.

[Epimetheus]

Dude, I  this one.

Vishnu, the Maintainer.

[Phox]

"Things fall apart, it's scientific."
- The Talking Heads

The purpose of maintenance is to forestall entropy.  It is our job to make sure that the lights stay on, water comes out of the tap when you want it, that your car will function.  All the little things you never think about - if we're doing our job correctly - that are absolutely essential to your survival.

Entropy always wins, of course.  For example, less and less people go into the trades every year, and the huge gains in industrial technology mean that the older, more experienced people become obsolete as the new tech diverges from their skill set on a daily basis.

It is, like all other things, a battle which we will eventually lose, though I suspect the battle won't be lost due to our efforts...Left long enough, it would, but I doubt we have that much time.

You'll know it when we fail.  Just saying.

It's already started, out here.  Experienced linemen are required to keep the lights on...But there's a shortage of them.  All their high school buddies went on to either meth or college, and in college all they wanted to learn was how to get filthy rich without actually doing any work (JP Morgan geeks, I'm talking to you).

It's worse than it looks, really.  Ask me anything.

Or rather, ask me for anything besides time.

Or Kill Me.

[hooplala]

I was talking with my wife the other day about sky scrapers.

Is it me, or were they possibly one of the worst ideas in recent years?  I mean, yes, there will be maintenance performed on them to keep them in as good a condition as possible for as long as possible, but the island of Manhattan... what is that going to be like in 500-1000 years when those things all start crumbling?

Or will they simply demo them one by one when they start to crumble?  That seems like the easiest idea, but not overly easy.

Try "ten years after the maintenance stops, TOPS".  Even a few missing windows can bring a skyscraper down, eventually.

Yeah, good point.  This is a good one, Roger, and about a topic people don't think about nearly enough.

[Jasper]

A couple decades after the maintenance stops, the world won't even remember anything good we did.  Just the nuclear waste and the shitty ruins of modern architecture.

[hooplala]

A couple decades after the maintenance stops, the world won't even remember anything good we did.  Just the nuclear waste and the shitty ruins of modern architecture.

We'll always have Mt Rushmore. 

[Jasper]

Ha ha ha ha.

Yes.

That will remain for a time.

[East Coast Hustle]

A couple decades after the maintenance stops, the world won't even remember anything good we did.  Just the nuclear waste and the shitty ruins of modern architecture.

We'll always have Mt Rushmore. 

YOU won't ever have Mt. Rushmore. Your inane petition to have Abraham Lincoln replaced with Pierre Trudeau will be ignored by all right-thinking Americans, and that version you carve into the ice every year on the cliffs of Labrador is hardly a booming tourist destination.

[hooplala]

A couple decades after the maintenance stops, the world won't even remember anything good we did.  Just the nuclear waste and the shitty ruins of modern architecture.

We'll always have Mt Rushmore. 

YOU won't ever have Mt. Rushmore. Your inane petition to have Abraham Lincoln replaced with Pierre Trudeau will be ignored by all right-thinking Americans, and that version you carve into the ice every year on the cliffs of Labrador is hardly a booming tourist destination.

I only proposed Trudeau because he was the only person I knew who danced a pirouette behind Queen Lizzie.  People get their nuts cut off for that shit, or at least they used to.



And as for the labrador carving, are you seriously going to try to tell me that you don't weep a little every time you see the faces of Anne Murray, James Randi, Doug Henning, Leonard Cohen and Wade glaring down at Quebec?  If so, I suspect you are dead inside.

[Juana]

I wish there was less stigma against those who do choose to go into the trades.