16 replies to this topic

[wjfox]

One of the best (and scariest) documentaries I've ever seen. You might not agree with it 100%, but he makes some excellent points - especially regarding peak oil and the fiat money system. The whole thing is now available on YouTube for free. In fact I'm pinning this thread because everyone should watch this.

[Logically Irrational]

He does make some good points. One thing to keep in mind though, is that the film was meant to be both an exposition of Rupert's views, and a character study of Rupert himself. Here's a great article on the movie from Forbes:

http://www.forbes.co...afx6883061.html

[Roh234]

Awsome movie. I watched it 6 months ago.

[jjf3]

I saw that movie, and even though I didn't like the "entire world is going to end" crap, it was still very informative to hear about what is made from oil. The rest was rather filler about him talking about his life... If you want to make a documentary about your life do that, if you want to make a documentary about oil just stay on topic.

[wjfox]

[h.g.Whiz]

http://www.youtube.c...v=8gi53kq4vzY#!

Here is another interesting documentary titled "Prophets of Doom" featuring Rupert. There is a discussion about money, water, oil, terrorism, and hostile technology.

[truthiness]

Regarding that last video, what about religious extremism... in the event of an economic collapse, in many places in the country the church would become the de facto center of community and of power... the parts of the country that he is highlighting are also many of the places where apocalyptic evangelical devotion (I'm just going to call it like I see it... the crazy ones) is the strongest... I wouldn't want to be an "outsider" in a place like that in a world without a stable secular government...

Looks like the only hope for someone like me is the Delmarva peninsula or south-central Florida... I'd rather take my chances with the Burmese pythons down there than with those people when the next Dark Ages get started... I remember what they liked to do to guys like me last time...

Edit... Wait a minute... Florida and the Delmarva peninsula will be pretty much gone once the sea level rises...

Welp... looks like I'd better get started making a raft for New Zealand.

[mic of orion]

^^

haha brilliant analogy, Although I think Colorado, California, Montana, Washington State, Oregon will be fine, they have have rain precipitation throughout the year, San Francisco has identical climate to London and Paris, Seattle too. Southern California being exception here. Washington State having more rainy days than any other place n USA and is scarcely populated, unless you are afraid of bit of snow that is, lol BTW region that nutcase said was best to live is facing some of the worst climate changes in recent times, with hurricane storms in summer/autumns and no precipitations for years, just look at texas and midwest dry spell.

Bst places to live

Northern California,
Oregon State,
Washington State
Colorado,
Wyoming
Montana and Idaho.

New England and Michigan might also be nice, they have similar climate to northern England and Scotland.

[Mr. Carmichael]

I honestly think the documentary is more about one mans passionate crusades to fill the emptiness life than it is about oil.
I think the guy is a little unstable and is probably seeing the bad in this situation at its worst to avoid his own problems.
This is where I think this documentary is quite clever, it's a sheep in wolf's clothing.
Watch the scenes were he breaks down and cries and the way it is edited is there to make this guy seem slightly unhinged.
When he stops the camera over and over again because of his WAVES of emotion due to the magnitude of what he is dealing with mentality.
I think this guy WANTS it to be this bad to vindicate a lifetime of being pissed off at the establishment.
Look at the sad epilogue on the end about him being evicted.

If you did think this was about the energy crisis you really missed the point.

I think it's extremist.
There are many things this documentary casually brushes under the carpet such as solar power.
He mentions solar plants in the Mojave desert, etc. What about private solar panels or solar paint which isn't far off private power generation, etc.
recycling of existing plastics and other materials derived from oil?
He mentions wind as a solution? Bullshit, wind is completely clean but way less efficient than building one nuclear plant versus however many wind towers.
I think we will come through this with less pain than he maintains.

[mic of orion]

One of the best (and scariest) documentaries I've ever seen. You might not agree with it 100%, but he makes some excellent points - especially regarding peak oil and the fiat money system. The whole thing is now available on YouTube for free. In fact I'm pinning this thread because everyone should watch this.

Watched it, tbh, not most brilliant documentary about something we all knew was coming, I was telling ppl same shit since 2005 on SSC forums, explaining why, what and when, also it was more of a personal portrait of an interesting person, not really major investigative piece that we normally associate with .... BTW I spoke to him on youtube he is indeed interesting and former police officer too.

But worth a look if you have keen interest in subject theme.

[Logically Irrational]

I think it's extremist.
There are many things this documentary casually brushes under the carpet such as solar power.
He mentions solar plants in the Mojave desert, etc. What about private solar panels or solar paint which isn't far off private power generation, etc.
recycling of existing plastics and other materials derived from oil?
He mentions wind as a solution? Bullshit, wind is completely clean but way less efficient than building one nuclear plant versus however many wind towers.
I think we will come through this with less pain than he maintains.

Yeah, as a rule, I usually take everything Michael Rupert says and then bump it down a few orders of magnitude. Still, I like the documentary just for the overview of the problem (and it most certainly is a problem) and all the details that go with it.

[eacao]

Welp... looks like I'd better get started making a raft for New Zealand.

It's alright bud, come live in Aus, we all share the same view

[antovador]

Regarding that last video, what about religious extremism... in the event of an economic collapse, in many places in the country the church would become the de facto center of community and of power... the parts of the country that he is highlighting are also many of the places where apocalyptic evangelical devotion (I'm just going to call it like I see it... the crazy ones) is the strongest... I wouldn't want to be an "outsider" in a place like that in a world without a stable secular government... Looks like the only hope for someone like me is the Delmarva peninsula or south-central Florida... I'd rather take my chances with the Burmese pythons down there than with those people when the next Dark Ages get started... I remember what they liked to do to guys like me last time... Edit... Wait a minute... Florida and the Delmarva peninsula will be pretty much gone once the sea level rises... Welp... looks like I'd better get started making a raft for New Zealand.

Remind me Afterworld

[stevo]

^^

haha brilliant analogy, Although I think Colorado, California, Montana, Washington State, Oregon will be fine, they have have rain precipitation throughout the year, San Francisco has identical climate to London and Paris, Seattle too. Southern California being exception here. Washington State having more rainy days than any other place n USA and is scarcely populated, unless you are afraid of bit of snow that is, lol BTW region that nutcase said was best to live is facing some of the worst climate changes in recent times, with hurricane storms in summer/autumns and no precipitations for years, just look at texas and midwest dry spell.

Bst places to live

Northern California,
Oregon State,
Washington State
Colorado,
Wyoming
Montana and Idaho.

New England and Michigan might also be nice, they have similar climate to northern England and Scotland.

i wonder if Vermont would be a good place to live.
Either that or high in the mountains

[MarcusAurelius]

As much as the mood setting musical score did it for me, I remain unconvinced that its as dire as he says it is. Corporations are dumb but they are not shortsighted. There are ways around this people. Necessity is the mother of invention. I agree this exposition of his life did run parallels with his gloom and doom predictions. It reminded me abit about the hysteria caused by Y2K and planes falling out of the sky. Anyways an entertaining doco nonetheless.

[kjaggard]

Whew, I'm not the only one who doesn't jump on the "The End Is Nigh!" Band wagon. Yup we will hit peak oil from natural sources. Oh well. I've mentioned thermal depolymerisation a few times in other threads.

We also have massive coal, and natural gas reserves in the US. Between those and Nuclear options we have a lot of choices on how to power the important things. Trust me when things start to get bad and prices go up on things, people will start to see that solar paneling their garages and putting up two or three roof top turbines will be a good investment.

We'll see energy rationing before we see Duracell bandits. People will realise that elevating costs of electric are not worth watching big screen football games every weekend. But if they start to generate enough power on home systems they might see that electricity could be a way to make some income at the prices it moves toward. Keep budgets tight by minimizing usage and sell surplus to the grid. Can't afford veggies at the grocery store, community gardens, and back yard greenhouses.

My biggest worry is medicine and continued forward scientific progress. Pharmacuticals get harder to comeby and advance without the oil industry supplying power and materials and chemicals. But I've studied the work of Paracelsus, and know a fair number of herbalists. We could have a pharmacy going before they chemical stuff disappered. A few of the higher coplexity things might be hard (I'm not sure what the heck we could do for an insulin dependent diabetic unless we could swing the neural stem cell trick that they've cracked recently. Might be the best option. Surgeries get harder to deal with but still possible, and bio deisel gnerators for mash like units might minimise the threats of loss of life.

We'll have to step way back from extravagant usage of power, at least until we find a way to build up a sufficient supply of power again. There are safe ways to do nuclear. Solar on most every house, wind on a personal home level. Smarter house building. Use of Ice houses (look it up, if you've got your own land this could be a smart investment, especially for those of us that get several months of below freezing temperature to make ice supplies that can last the rest of the year.), and hearth cooking, or even solar cooking. I've been giving serious thought to glow in the dark materials. We've got several types that can glow for upwards of six hours pretty brightly, just set them out in the sun for the day bring them in at night. Solar powered LED lanterns the same idea, easy as spit to make with a small solar cell and an LED a small circut board (pretty much just a capacitor for storing the electricity and a light sensor for turning it on).

There could be some lifestyle changes, sure. They wouldn't be a bad idea anyway.

I have additional limitations on my capabilities due in part to my health and the requirments to tend to it. But even I could get by. Using vermiculture and gardening from heirloom veggies to get me a stable food supply, raising protiens sources like reptiles, snails, insects, mushrooms, chickens and fish. Composting, with sustainable mixed crop beds. greywater and solar water distillation. I may be crappy at gardening But I know enough people who arn't and I'd learn damn quick if it was a months pay for a cucumber and even faster if it's garden or die.

Between food, shelter and health needs. I'm pretty good. If we can continue to improve our situations on both a personal and larger level that is even better. Okay so maybe the hadron collider doesn't get used anymore. If we can get the fusion projects to pass into the viable area that'd be cool. Refining methods of solar and wind and hydro derived power, that'll be one of the first focuses of what we got left. making more efficient devices that use little more power than solar pocket calculator (they are working on laptop computers that can be powered by a small solar panels and another group is looking at ways to power them by typing -so I'll probably have excess to sell back to the grid, lol- mix that with things like e-ink/paper and kindles that have displays that have zero power use when not changing the display and human ingenuity...).

Vertical farming in communities and a boom in local manufacturing to support local needs, especially with Local Exchange and Trade Systems (LETS) aka local currencies for local needs. I can forsee somebody in Newyork state making only thirty dollars a year but living a decent family life on Ithica Hours earn in local manufacture positions. Kids playing sporting events and chess club rather than video games and parents going to those instead of watching TV.

We'll adapt. and then we'll improve. and we will keep approaching singularity.

[H3llion]

Video link is down, this has not had any new post for several months so if possible it could be un-stickied.