If an asteroid was about to destroy the US and you have enough time to go to only either Canada or Mexico, which country will you go to?
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Canada – I love their bacon.
Well if an asteroid is big enough to destroy the US then it really doesn’t matter where you go. Canada, Mexico or anywhere in the world – we’re all fucked. So really it’s a matter of choosing where to die. In this case if those are my only two options I’d choose Mexico and have a little fun on the way out.
Canada because Tim Horton’s.
Canada because of the socialized health care, politeness of the people and sensible gun laws. Also, because I have family in Victoria.
Canada.
The weather is better.
I guess Mexico. Better weather and my husband is a citizen so we are not refugees. Although, my husband talks about moving to BC, he loves Kelowna.
We used to party in Kelowna when we were younger great town.^^
Canada. It’s wet, cold, and they have Anne Murrey, Gordon Lightfoot and Rush.
Mexico. The food and climate are better. I’d need to learn Spanish though.
Lol….an asteroid impact doesn’t just stay within the invisible lines made up by colonists. Factoring in traffic and the breakdown of society we’re not just gonna stroll on over to another country.
An asteroid (or more likely, a group of asteroids) could just “destroy” the USA, as long as you’re not talking about utter annihilation stopping right at the border. But yeah, I’d say it is wise to look at just how much destruction is expected where.
I’d choose Canada.
Canada is about five hours by car from where I live, so it would be Canada for me. Plus the climate is closest to what my climate is at home, and the language is my language, so there are two bonuses.
As stated above, it isn’t Canada or Mexico that you want to plan on to survive such an event. Perhaps from orbit around Mars you might want to watch the eradication of everything living planetwide and large enough to be recognized without a microscope.
@stanleybmanly It’s just a hypothetical question. Nobody really thinks this scenario would unfold that way.
Mexico, no question. I love it there.
My husband says Canada, for quality of life.
Guess we’re splitting up because I will never willingly live further north. Haha!
I’d got to Mexico with Willie Nelson and Carlos Santana.
Buenos Dias, got to go!
@janbb Of course it’s a hypothetical question, but LOOK at it. It’s a question about where you would choose to DIE UPON ARRIVAL.
Serious question: Are people not worried about the drug cartels and crime rates in Mexico? I’ve been there a few times and loved it but I don’t think I’d want to go there now.
All you have to assume for this question, is that benevolent aliens sent the asteroid to destroy the colonies, who will erect an impenetrable forcefield around the target, just prior to impact, to contain the annihilation to the region within it.
@janbb: I didn’t want to say it but that was one of my reasons for not wanting Mexico.
I’ve always kind of loved that the US is bookended by two very different countries that appeal to different sensibilities — at least from a lifestyle or ‘how I like to vacation’ point of view.
If millions of Americans are pouring into Mexico it would create large pockets of Americans and I’m not so sure the cartels would have influence in those regions. Already, there are towns that have a lot of American retirees.
I do admit Canada is attractive because it would likely be safer in more than one way. Both crime rates and healthcare would be superior generally speaking, but probably Americans picture both to be worse in Mexico than it actually is.
Another concern about Mexico is the instability of the peso. Are we losing all of our money in the bank when the asteroid hits?
I think that @ragingloli might be the entity in charge of directing that asteroid!
if the asteroid is bad enough to obliterate the US, it’s going to obliterate the rest of the continent too – Canada and Mexico would be no better off.
I’m very interested in loli’s explanation of the proposed “force field” containing the damage. Wouldn’t the field have to arrive with the asteroid? Otherwise the asteroid would be harmless. If the shield merely surrounds our borders, the life of the world is still exterminated. If the rest of the world is isolated, how does the asteroid get in?
@stanleybmanly
1. It is a dome/bubble, so all the radiation/dust/poisonous gases are contained within it. This will also prevent the effects from being diluted, and be concentrated within the bubble.
We also could drop the thing directly onto the Yellowstone Caldera, like popping a giant volcanic zit, to really give the attack some oomph.
2. It will be erected mere moments after the asteroid enters its projected perimeter, by my a giant mothership hovering above the earth.
But again, the fact of this asteroid establishes this not as a question of whether one prefers Canada or Mexico. The premise states that the moment you set foot in the country of choice, you are confronted with your gruesome and agonizing DEATH. At least if you stay home, your death will be instantaneous with minimal suffering.
@stanleybmanly Not me. I am immortal.
Tough choice. Food is more appealing South, but I have a bunch of friends in the North.
Such a conundrum.
I’m going to Canada since it seems most jellies on this question will be there. We can hook up with @reddeerguy and have a party!
@chyna And Squeeky – but we won’t be able to call him on his cell phone to tell him where the party is!
Yes! Him and Mrs. Squeeky.
@ragingloli “destroy the U S” means Yellowstone would go unnoticed, not even worthy of consideration. And about that bubble shield. Where is all of the energy generated from the impact transmitted if contained by your bubble? Might it not blow a hole through to the opposite side of the planet? The shockwave alone through the earth would dislodge and hurl mountains around from the other continents.
This isn’t how I usually plan my vacation – But I think my mangled body would look sexier on a beach in Cancun than scattered through the trees around Kelowna.
And looks are everything.
As far as corpses go, yours will be the penultimate expression of e pluribus unum.
@stanleybmanly
You are severely overestimating the size of the asteroid needed to kill everything inside the bubble.
The one that wiped out the dinosaurs along with 75% of all life on earth was a paltry 80km wide at most.
And it is not the immediate impact that will do the work, but all the after effects.
Continent wide wild fires, fire storms, poisoned atmosphere, darkened skies that prevent photosynthesis, acid rain, everything being covered in ash.
An eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera would have similar world ending capabilities, so dropping the asteroid on it, causing an eruption, could easily double the destructive capacity.
^^ I think I’m changing my mind and moving to Germany!
Aw, crap, looks like I’ll need to find my Lucifer’s Hammer notebook and start prepping again. Pretty sure I’ll need another dog.
@ragingloli And you are underestimating by several orders of magnitude the impact necessary to “destroy the U S.” The dinosaur killer was a joke by comparison. But changing the subject, do you know what your countryman Otto von Bismarck had to say about the U S? “The people of the United States are fortunate in that they are bordered to the North and South by weak nations and to the East and West by fish”.
@ragingloli _“You are severely overestimating the size of the asteroid needed to kill everything inside the bubble.
The one that wiped out the dinosaurs along with 75% of all life on earth was a paltry 80km wide at most.“_
And yet was still large enough that the energy from the impact rippling through the Earth uplifted land in places around the world. The Deccan Traps, in India, are one notable example.
If they fragment the asteroid at the right point in the trajectory, they can arrange a multitudinous barrage of small but still USA-destroying asteroid fragments that I figure ought to do the trick.
And in one sense to “destroy” the USA, they just need to tank the government and/or economy or infrastructure to the point it no longer really exists as the USA. Those things seem pretty fragile to me.
@Zaku
Small problem with that plan – there’s absolutely no way to predict how many segments the asteroid will fragment into, and there’s no way to predict what trajectory they’ll end up along. There’s just as much likelihood you’ll end up bombarding the Earth, not just the US. Also, each impact will send shockwaves around the globe.
I’d rather live on Mars than live in Canada.
@janbb I am concerned with safety, some friends had scary experiences. If you pay up front, you get protected, at least my MIL does. ;)
@Darth_Algar Unless Loli’s technology is good enough for that. Military-minded Earthlings have been theorizing for decades now about “brilliant pebble” weapons that are essentially guided rocks falling from space usable as precision munitions, which are more sophisticated than what I was talking about.
I expect that if Loli’s alien tech has force fields, it can probably aim some space rocks.
The point being that normally yes I would agree that probably any asteroid that destroys the entire USA will probably also be at least ruining Canada and Mexico too, and probably the entire planet, that it seems to me not that hard to imagine scenarios and/or definitions of “destroy the USA” that don’t keep me (who’s usually quick to give snarky answers) from answering the question.
@Zaku
The problem with fantasy hypotheticals like Loli’s is that that (as has so aptly demonstrated in this thread) one can keep moving the goalposts again and again and again. It reminds me of children playing make-believe who keep inventing ever more grandiose super powers on-the-fly to make sure that they’re always “unbeatable”. There’s a point where hypothetical descends into childish fantasy.
So, @Darth_Algar, you are concerned that a question, which is essentially a childish fantasy, is descending into a childish fantasy? :-P
And here I read the question as a hypothetical choice between two countries, not a minute parsing of the destruction of the USA by an asteroid! How people differ!
@janbb Methinks alike with the Penguin.
@mazingerz88 So our interpretation of what the OP intended is the same? It’s almost as if you read their mind!
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