Computer game forecasts EOTWAWKI by 2042

October 8, 2008 6:16 AM

According to the Global Extinction Awareness System (GEAS, by the Institute For the Future) - a simulation based on "the worlds’s first massively multiplayer forecasting game" - by the year 2042 AD there is a potentially terminal combination of five so-called “super-threats” which represent a collision of environmental, economic, and social risks. Acting together, the five super-threats may irreversibly overwhelm homo sapiens ability to survive. Spokesperson for United Nations Secretary General “We are grateful for GEAS’ work, and we treat their latest forecast with seriousness and profound gravity.”[[press release]]. The game runs from Oct.8 to Nov. 6, players wanted.
posted by stbalbach (31 comments total)

I just realized that quote from the UN Secretary General (from the [[press release]] link) is actually from a former 2006 candidate for the UNSG, President of Latvia Vaira Vike-Freiberga. Either this is a future prediction itself, or someones typo.
posted by stbalbach at 6:25 AM on October 8, 2008

Couldn't watch the first link because of the stupid robot voice.
posted by autodidact at 6:25 AM on October 8, 2008

Here's the quote:

GEAS notified the United Nations prior to making a public announcement. The spokesperson for United Nations Secretary General Vaira Vike-Freiberga released the following statement: “We are grateful for GEAS’ work, and we treat their latest forecast with seriousness and profound gravity.”

My fault, Vaira Vike-Freiberga is the spokesperson, not the SG.
posted by stbalbach at 6:29 AM on October 8, 2008

ooo, can I be Crake?
posted by Lou Stuells at 6:40 AM on October 8, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Do we seriously think we can out smart natural selection and destroy the world for people?

It is time to admit that as a species we are indestructible... and that all we can do now is make ourselves miserable.

There's your trouble, right there.
posted by ewkpates at 6:54 AM on October 8, 2008

It's TEOTWAWKI goddamit.
posted by Skorgu at 6:57 AM on October 8, 2008

Wait, they're making up new diseases, speculating on policies of non-existent governments and wholly fictional terrorists? Fun perhaps, but in my neighbourhood, modelling means risk curves, applied normal distribution and pretty much anything that is not fun.

I can only hope that the UN quote is akin to the reassuring "why, that's very creative" praise from Mothers of artistically challenged kids. Scientific modelling? Feh!
posted by Serial Killer Slumber Party at 7:00 AM on October 8, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

Right before a US election is a great time to try this.
posted by bdc34 at 7:00 AM on October 8, 2008

Has there ever been a time in human history that there wasn't some group or aNOTHER freaking out about the end of the world as we know it?

I mean 2024 is only reassuring or useful in that I'll get my student loans paid off just in time. :P
posted by Phalene at 7:34 AM on October 8, 2008

It's the year 2019 and the florgons have taken over the world, enslaving all of humanity. There are a few pockets of resistance here and there, but they are slowly being stamped out. The rest of us sit back and do what we are told. We know there is no use. We lost the space war of 2014. The lucky ones died in the war.

Am I playing the game right? Seriously, the year is 2019 and they can't even make a simple link to the actual game blog, forum, video, wiki whatever it is thing? The only thing they have so far is to send an e-mail talking about 2019 and what you're doing. This does not bode well for my 2019 self. I'm addicted to the internet. What will I do in 2019 if all I can do is send e-mail?

We've regressed and I'm scared.
posted by robtf3 at 7:41 AM on October 8, 2008

With any luck I'll be dead long before then.
posted by CynicalKnight at 7:42 AM on October 8, 2008

With any luck I'll be dead long before then.

Any "forecast" that doesn't end with a flaming hellscape interrupted only by sporadic gunfire as my terror squads hunt down survivors is not a forecast we can have faith in.
posted by aramaic at 7:52 AM on October 8, 2008 [4 favorites has favorites]

Greetings, Professor Falken. Global Extinction is a strange game. The only winning move is not to play.

How about a nice game of chess?
posted by rusty at 7:58 AM on October 8, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

It's a good thing there's nobody on the internet who would ever dream of skewing the game to achieve smoking desolation and occasional bloodthirsty mutants wearing leather and spikes by 2019. Nope, given all the careful thought that's going to go on in the mind of every single player, we can all be completely confident in the highly scientific and completely accurate results of this game.
posted by mygothlaundry at 8:01 AM on October 8, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

Also, it's good to see Anonymous's announcer getting some more work.
posted by rusty at 8:01 AM on October 8, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Remember those old flashlights that took two D cells and the bulb filament always broke the first time you dropped it? Find one in your basement and fill it up with Kruggerands.

Burglars never look there.
posted by Rafaelloello at 8:07 AM on October 8, 2008

porntipsguzzardo will save us.
posted by thinman at 8:22 AM on October 8, 2008

Has there ever been a time in human history that there wasn't some group or aNOTHER freaking out about the end of the world as we know it?

Probably not.

Has there ever been a time in human history when humankind itself had more means at its disposal to bring about the end of the world as we know it?

Definitely not.
posted by philip-random at 8:28 AM on October 8, 2008

I couldn't find enough about the game mechanic itself. It's a "extinction prediction" game, so it seems built-in that there will be a prediction of extinction right? Unless they're very tricky about how it works, it seems like we could do essentially the same thing here:

1) everyone in the thread pick a number
2) we take the average
3) OMG it's a finite number!
posted by freebird at 8:34 AM on October 8, 2008

Trying to determine the numbers in the Valenzetti Equation, are they? I thought we already knew those.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 8:48 AM on October 8, 2008

ooo, can I be Crake?

Corknut.
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 8:52 AM on October 8, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Do we seriously think we can out smart natural selection and destroy the world for people?

I find your lack of faith disturbing.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 8:52 AM on October 8, 2008

So tonight I'm gonna party like it's Twenty Forty One!
posted by pardonyou? at 9:10 AM on October 8, 2008

Double.
posted by klangklangston at 9:34 AM on October 8, 2008

I want a t-shirt that says "GEAS ranked me #6".
posted by quin at 9:44 AM on October 8, 2008

Ok...I'm really confused about *how* one is supposed to play.
posted by dejah420 at 12:21 PM on October 8, 2008

Isn't Confusion one of the 4 horsemen?
Anyway,
Here's how you play.
The Wiki-news page is pretty cool.
Look a cute girl works for them! I'm in I guess.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 2:13 PM on October 8, 2008

I'm glad to see this, because it appears my retirement savings will only last a year or two anyway. The timing looks pretty good.
posted by meinvt at 3:36 PM on October 8, 2008

Hmm, this seems to be another project from Jane McGonigal. She has appeared on the Blue before.
posted by GalaxieFiveHundred at 5:53 PM on October 8, 2008

Is it a scenario simulation or a forecasting game? Does gameplay impact the overall outcome, or just your own private outcome?

Also, they need to figure out if their game is called superstruct or GEAS.
posted by b1tr0t at 12:24 AM on October 9, 2008

You "play" by making shit up on wikis and message boards and role-playing as if you're in 2019 or whatever.

It's a "game" just as much as that WikiPresidential Candidate was "comedy".

Totally gay lame bogus.
posted by rokusan at 10:46 AM on October 9, 2008