Long-term prospects: Mitigation of supernova and gamma-ray burst threat to intelligent beings

Ćirković, Milan M.; Vukotić, Branislav

doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2016.10.005

Cited by 20 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…The measures to be undertaken to mitigate more extreme cosmic risks are tightly connected -as far as we can see today -with human control and management of the resources of the Solar System. For instance, this applies to constructing swarm shieldings for Earth and other local habitats in a case of predicted close supernova or a Galactic GRB (Ćirković and Vukotić 2016). Similar reasoning, however, is valid for other existential and global catastrophic risks.…”

Section: Instead Of Conclusion: Say No To the Blade Runnermentioning

confidence: 88%

Anthropocentrism and the Roots of Resistance to Both Human Bioenhancement and Space Colonization

Ćirković

2020

Human Enhancements for Space Missions

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A cartel is usually defined a group of independent actors with heterogeneous goals, whose one common goal is to improve their profits and/or market position by reducing their mutual competition. A special-or not that special at all-kind of cartel are drug or other criminal cartels in which, for instance, crime families gather in order to monopolize black market of prohibited substances, or in order to efficiently control a territory whose government is weak or corrupt. Historical examples of such cartels are the Italian-Jewish-American Mafia (especially after the famous meeting in Atlantic City in 1929, which was attended by Al Capone, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, Dutch Schultz, representatives of the Gambino clan, and others; cf. Bernstein 2002); Mexican drug cartels like the Gulf Cartel or the Guadalajara Cartel; or the now dissolved Columbian Cali Cartel. The fight against these extreme forms of organized crime is so difficult exactly because of the strong support of their "clients" as long as the cartels enjoy monopolistic position in either a geographical region or a social stratum. Some totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, such as the fascist Italy or Spain under Franco endeavored to construct a total cartel system comprising all or most trades of the economy. Cartelization exists, however, in the domain of ideas as well-and often has at last as ominous meanings and implications. From sophists in the time of Socrates, to the present-day socialconstructivists on the academic extreme left, thinkers of otherwise heterogeneous bents and interests have joined forces in order to promote particular idea, meme, or the way of thinking, not on the merit of intrinsic value, but on the quasi-Hegelian notion of converting "quantity into quality" and the vernacular "strength in numbers". In the rest of this paper, I wish to briefly defend the following theses: ➢ There is a strong anthropocentric cartel with vested interest in human exceptionalism, geocentrism, and other forms of parochial, self-indulgent, small-scale, and solipsist thinking.

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Section: Instead Of Conclusion: Say No To the Blade Runnermentioning

confidence: 88%

Anthropocentrism and the Roots of Resistance to Both Human Bioenhancement and Space Colonization

Ćirković

2020

Human Enhancements for Space Missions

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“…Islands away from the equator could provide protection against some of the direct effects of a gamma ray burst (muons) (Ćirković and Vukotić, 2016) if they were in the constant shadow of the Earth, below the horizon of the gamma ray source.…”

Section: Island Requirements For Survival Of Catastrophesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This creates a chance for survival, as there is a probability that some parts of the Earth will be affected to a lesser extent. For example, a gamma ray burst (Ćirković and Vukotić, 2016) that happened away from the equatorial plane would have less of an effect on one of the polar regions. Likewise, extreme global warming (Hanna and Tait, 2015) would be more survivable on mountains at high latitudes, while atmospheric pollution (Mount, 1970) by some toxin or contamination could be less of an issue in the Southern hemisphere because of geography and atmospheric circulation patterns.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Islands as refuges for surviving global catastrophes

Turchin¹,

Green

2019

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Purpose Islands have long been discussed as refuges from global catastrophes; this paper will evaluate them systematically, discussing both the positives and negatives of islands as refuges. There are examples of isolated human communities surviving for thousands of years on places like Easter Island. Islands could provide protection against many low-level risks, notably including bio-risks. However, they are vulnerable to tsunamis, bird-transmitted diseases and other risks. This paper aims to explore how to use the advantages of islands for survival during global catastrophes. Design/methodology/approach Preliminary horizon scanning based on the application of the research principles established in the previous global catastrophic literature. Findings The large number of islands on Earth, and their diverse conditions, increase the chance that one of them will provide protection from a catastrophe. Additionally, this protection could be increased if an island was used as a base for a nuclear submarine refuge combined with underground bunkers and/or extremely long-term data storage. The requirements for survival on islands, their vulnerabilities and ways to mitigate and adapt to risks are explored. Several existing islands, suitable for the survival of different types of risk, timing and budgets, are examined. Islands suitable for different types of refuges and other island-like options that could also provide protection are also discussed. Originality/value The possible use of islands as refuges from social collapse and existential risks has not been previously examined systematically. This paper contributes to the expanding research on survival scenarios.

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“…In the case of a prior spacefaring species that had settled the Solar System, such an event would only permanently extinguish the species if there were many cataclysms across the Solar System closely spaced in time (a swarm of comets, or interplanetary warfare perhaps), or if the settlements were not completely self-sufficient. Alternatively, an unexpected nearby gamma ray burst or supernova might produce a Solar-System-wide cataclysm ( Ćirković & Vukotić, 2016). Even without a cataclysm, the species may have simply died out, or become permanently non-technological at some point, or (at the risk of committing a "monocultural fallacy" Wright et al, 2014) abandoned the Solar System permanently for some reason.…”

Section: The Search For Other Intelligent Life In the Solar Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prior indigenous technological species

Wright

2017

International Journal of Astrobiology

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Long-term prospects: Mitigation of supernova and gamma-ray burst threat to intelligent beings

Cited by 20 publications

References 78 publications

Anthropocentrism and the Roots of Resistance to Both Human Bioenhancement and Space Colonization

Anthropocentrism and the Roots of Resistance to Both Human Bioenhancement and Space Colonization

Islands as refuges for surviving global catastrophes

Prior indigenous technological species

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