Social Question

6rant6's avatar

Now that scientists have discovered a hidden room revealing the Mayans' calculations of time beyond 2012, just how relieved are you?

Asked by 6rant6 (13710points) May 11th, 2012

Here’s the article.

Will you be sleeping better tonight?

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55 Answers

SpatzieLover's avatar

I will still be sharing Mayan jokes with friends. My recent fav is this one regarding Dick Clark’s death.

tee hee :D

King_Pariah's avatar

Didn’t believe it in the first place, even if I did, I don’t think I would have cared much either.

mazingerz88's avatar

Quite relieved indeed. But still cant help wondering, what if there’s another hidden room inside that newly discovered room? Inside are walls depicting mischievous Mayan astronomers rolling in their stomachs laughing their heads off, as monument to the cruel joke they have inflicted on our modern day end of the world paranoia? Bastards.

wundayatta's avatar

Oh yeah! Let’s Party. Like 1999!

Blackberry's avatar

Why would I be relieved? I think it’s amazing when we find remnants of earlier humans. I’m on my phone now, but scientists recently found a perfectly preserved body of a woman from 500 years ago. Her clothes and accessories were still on her, too. It’s amazing.

Lightlyseared's avatar

I’m concerned that conciparcy theory nuts have wound people up so tight that scientists had to waste their time on this shit.

6rant6's avatar

@Lightlyseared You may be overestimating the importance of “scientists”.

@mazingerz88 And behind that… Another door. And another, And another.

Like a book from Stephen King (or Stephen Hawking).

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

lol
oh yeah, how convenient

TexasDude's avatar

I wasn’t worried in the first place.

josie's avatar

Now I have to once again be pissed off that I won’t get back the money that I’ve been putting into Social Security.

rebbel's avatar

Initially I felt relieved, yes, untill I realized that there might be more scientists searching the Mayan areas and they might discover a calendar that predicts that in fact the world has ended in 2010.

Coloma's avatar

I like to read all about these things but I don’t buy into any doomsday theories, sooo, life goes on. Actually, in a way, I wish “they” could pinpoint the end of times, that would give me a reason to live like there is no tomorrow, oh wait, I already do. ;-)

Death is a great way to save money. lol

mazingerz88's avatar

@6rant6 In the end, probably, the last room to be discovered would have a box inside and inside that box is an iPad with its screen showing a countdown and it’s at 00:10…

marinelife's avatar

Not at all relieved, because I was not at all worried.

Coloma's avatar

If anything I’ve thought that the increased solar activity might create some solar flares, etc. Ya never know, if a giant meteor comes at us it will be the end. If the nukes and bio-warfare don’t get us first. Odds are probably better of man creating his own destruction over space rocks in the near future. lol

LuckyGuy's avatar

I’m still not going to buy the extended warranty for my new wood splitter.

ucme's avatar

20:12 is a little early for bed, especially on a friday night.

WillWorkForChocolate's avatar

Meh, I’m sending this link to a friend whose girlfriend actually believes the world is ending this year.

tinyfaery's avatar

Damn. I was counting on the world ending.

mangeons's avatar

I didn’t believe in it anyway, so it doesn’t really matter to me at all.

amujinx's avatar

I’m still going to throw an “End of the World” party in December. I like celebrating all doomsday prophesies though.

Dutchess_III's avatar

LOL! Well, I can think of some End Days people who are going to be SOOOO disappointed!

6rant6's avatar

I’m so confused about what “doomsday” means any more.

So the earth gets obliterated by Mayan ghosts or asteroids or whatever. What about the solar system. Does it keep on trucking? If it’s doomsday here, how long does it take to reach Alpha Centauri? What about all those other galaxies? Those other universes? It was all so much simpler when it was just the earth on the back of a giant turtle. It was pretty clear: the damn things slips off, boom! Game over.

Sunny2's avatar

Yes, I’ll be sleeping better. Predictions of the end of the earth make me think, ” I don’t really believe this; but what if it’s true?” I remember going to bed as a child, scared of some doomsday prediction and being relieved when I woke up in the morning. I couldn’t talk to my parents about it, because they were obviously not afraid and would just pooh pooh my fears. I can still remember the anxious feeling in the pit of my stomach as I waited for sleep that night.

gasman's avatar

@6rant6 Thanks for posting an interesting link (AP story published yesterday), which I probably would have otherwise skipped.

I think everyone knows that scientists, historians, & skeptics give no credence to the popular myth of the world ending at the conclusion of 2012, according to the ancient Mayan calendar – even if it was turned into a major motion picture. It’s kind of refreshing to see a story on this subject based on an actual publication in a prestigious scientific journal:

The calculations include a time span longer than 6,000 years that could extend well beyond 2012…“Why would they go into those numbers if the world is going to come to an end this year?” observed Anthony Aveni of Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y., an expert on Mayan astronomy. “You could say a number that big at least suggests that time marches on.”...Aveni, along with William Saturno of Boston University and others, report the discovery in Friday’s issue of the journal Science.

The room, a bit bigger than 6-feet square, is part of a large complex of Mayan ruins in the rain forest at Xultun in northeastern Guatemala…Experts unconnected with the discovery said it was a significant advance…

woodcutter's avatar

This information probably has been kept under wraps for years and more is allowed to dribble out over the years. Possibly to insure financial security for the researchers and to justify their existence as well.

Berserker's avatar

Cough. Excuse me kind sir, but I was never worried. Granted, I know next to fuckall about Mayans and their culture and beliefs, but I always did figure, as the article says, that a lot of their science was ushered by religion and spiritual beliefs. It’s bound for a lot of miscalculation and fabrication, although the Mayans seemed pretty bad assely accurate on moon phases and planet sighting stuff. Although I did actually think that their calendar stopped around 2012 based on all that stuff about the end of the world, I never believed in the end of the world part. I just thought it was like the year 2000 thing, where some computers still in use for various things were old enough to not register anything after 1999. Where was it ever even said that they predicted the end of the world anyways? Was it ever? Or was it because until recently, it is to be presumed, their calculations didn’t cover anything beyond our current dates, and people just went, oh shit!? They were a very spiritual people…hell, they went and got themselves sacrificed willingly. If there was an end of the world for them to predict, or some kind of apocalypse, they wouldn’t have been as subtle as just going; you know what, man? This calendar stops here. Fuck you guys, this is where it ends.

Cool and interesting article, although I admit, I was kinda hoping to see something about xenomorphs and predators in it.

Also, this; Maybe the scribes were “geeks… who just got carried away with doing these kinds of computations and calculations, and probably did them far beyond the needs of ordinary society.

Mayan nerds. That fuckin rocks.

Coloma's avatar

Well…sleep tight survivors of the apocalypse.

mazingerz88's avatar

Has anybody ever suspected that maybe the Mayans were disrupted in the middle of finishing that calendar and there was no prediction at all? They were disrupted when they were ALL abducted by aliens? ( for being too good at making calendars maybe )

Dutchess_III's avatar

Wake me up when it’s over.

6rant6's avatar

Personally, I think if the Mayans were really all that smart, where the hell are they today?

Berserker's avatar

@mazingerz88 Yeah. And there’s also a little something about Spaniards waltzin’ up there and being dicks.

mazingerz88's avatar

Without electric lights blocking their view of the night sky, it’s not that surprising the Mayans were able to observe, record and understand the patterns of their world’s movement or the shifting of the universe itself around them. They were too busy looking up instead of down looking for cures for diseases that an invading force like the Spaniards’ dicks might inflict. Lol.

Berserker's avatar

Also I read that they didn’t believe it was right to use metals for war or something like that. So, all their weapons were made of wood and rock. Although they could have fashioned metal weapons, they didn’t believe in this. Not that this would have helped them much against the Spaniards’ firearms, but it probably didn’t help their downfall. :/

mazingerz88's avatar

Question in my head right now is not that whether people care or not about the prediction but whether there is absolutely zero chance the Mayans are correct?

Berserker's avatar

Well, as I asked earlier, did the Mayans themselves predict that all would end in 2012, or did people come up with that conclusion based on their calendar apparently ending at that date?

Dutchess_III's avatar

Anybody here speak or read Myan?

Trillian's avatar

Well, at least we now apparently have a shot at having an “I told you so” party on the 22nd. Everyone warm up your smug.

Dutchess_III's avatar

I don’t have a thing to wear for the 22nd.

mazingerz88's avatar

There could be a Mayan prediction that in order to stop the world from ending, all human beings need to do is dance naked the day before. : )

woodcutter's avatar

My kids Birthday is on the 23rd so now we may have to change the theme of the party, goddammit.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Well. I won’t have a thing to wear to your kid’s birthday either. I’m so sorry!

woodcutter's avatar

Since the end is definitely not coming I suppose you could just wear….anything now.

Only138's avatar

Maybe they just got bored. They made it to 2012, and said…aw fuck it. Who cares? I’ll be long gone before this date rolls around. :)

6rant6's avatar

@Symbeline I think the Toltecs used wooden swords. Some people think they didn’t want to kill the vanquished (so they could be taken back to use as slaves or sacrifices); other people think they didn’t know how to make metal swords, but they did what they could to make their wood ones lethal.

Berserker's avatar

@6rant6 I thought that sacrifices were specifically chosen, usually from their own people?

And yeah, no doubt their weapons were efficient, but I don’t think you can do much with wood against armor, which I believe Spanish frontliners wore. (dun quote me though)

6rant6's avatar

Oh, yeah, the Spaniards were better armed, without a doubt, @Symbeline. But I think the idea of choosing sacrifices from within the society has largely been abandoned except for low budget scifi movie makers. It appears that many of those Central American societies conducted raids – some of them massive – on other cultures. Which resulted in lots of captures. Human sacrifice was actually a pretty efficient way of converting the unwanted captives to calories.

Berserker's avatar

@6rant6 Interesting…but before South America was colonized, weren’t they the only ones there? So they waged war against their own people. The whole sacrifice thing you mention seems plausible, when compared to the tired movie cliché though. However, I do remember reading in books as a kid that sacrifices went willingly. :/ and also, the Mayans invented Basketball

Paradox25's avatar

I had never taken the 2012 nonsense seriously anyways. No affect.

Dutchess_III's avatar

@Symbeline They did not invent basketball! Naysamith Smith did!

WillWorkForChocolate's avatar

@Dutchess_III and @Symbeline You’re BOTH wrong. The vikings invented basketball. After a vicious raid one cold afternoon, Gunnar Peterson tossed a severed head to Rolf Vigfusson. Rolf was kind of a dummy and held his arms too wide, and the head swooshed right through, to the ground. The other vikings thought it was so funny that they took turns doing that for the rest of the day. Thus began the primitive game of “basketball”.

woodcutter's avatar

@Dutchess_III Well sure. But remember its going to nipplehard weather !

6rant6's avatar

@symbeline, I’ll betcha someday scientists prove there were many other societies in North America – some who left no archaeological record behind and some whose archaeological contributions have been wrongly attributed to their conquerors. You just wait. As soon as they get that worm hole up and running…

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