Go back to China, an actual dictatorship. Hopefully Xi doesn't find all the anti-CCP stuff I said while in the US? China tends to label people who have moved oveeseas as "汉奸" (Han Traitor). I could potentially end up in prison. Also job market has like 10 times more people competing than the US. Also 户口 (Hukou) issues, my Hukou was in some rural village, very shitty place. If I go to a city (where the actual jobs are), I'm essentially treated as a foreigner in my own country. (Also, China revoked my Chinese citizenship already. So I'd technically be an actual foreigner lmao)
Become... stateless and get stuck in an airport?
Or secret option number 4:
Hope an advanced alien civilization abducts me? 😏 /jk, but that's be fun tho
Right now, climate change. This planet was a paradise and we ruined it for ourselves. I don't think we have very long before ecosystems just start breaking down in massive ways.
Not mine, but my parents are aging, and my chickens have a short life span compared to some animals. So I know damn good and well I'm losing someone or something I care a great deal about, and almost certainly in the next decade if not sooner.
Also have a damn chipped tooth and my damn dentist has been on vacation since before Christmas. Wouldn't be a worry, but the damn thing irritates my tongue.
The Internet or the power grid just shuts down one day when I wake up.
Like, yes I know there are the typical fear of nuclear war, or plague and stuff.
But those things, you typically just die.
But imagine you are alive, but have zero access to the internet. Zero entertainment.
I'll be so bored to death, while also not have the courage to end it (because of survival instincts would probably overrule my desire to die). Its just torture.
If the entire Internet/power grid just shut down permanently, it probably wouldn't take very long until you (and everyone around you) died. It's not just your entertainment anymore.
Electricity obviously keeps your electric appliances going, including HVAC. Even if it's gas, it probably needs electricity to work (e.g. fans on the furnace).
Electricity at a grid level keeps the natural gas flowing. Any backup options would quickly deplete.
It's also necessary for gasoline, since it all stops flowing if it can't be billed. Remember the gas shortage because of a ransomware attack? Those systems won't have power very long.
You won't have tap water, nor would there be clean/treated water at the source.
Now, what if you had electricity, but there was no longer any Internet? Well, that's a little better. It's possible that emergency operations could be implemented (using the military) to keep you barely alive, until things could be fixed. But let's just assume the Internet is completely gone. Then what happens?
Remember when I mentioned the ransomware attack? Those systems probably don't have an offline mode. If they can't bill for it, the gas stops flowing.
No credit cards, no bank transfers, no phones. The public Internet is now the medium for nearly all communication outside of an org.
You can't buy food at the grocery store, but it won't matter for long because they can't order anything more, and the trucks can't deliver it.
Most people would be dead in about a week, maybe 2.
Mum. Since dad passed away early on 2024 I've been doing my best to care for her, but there's only so much I can do.
There's no simple explanation, no simple solution. I do what I can, putting both love and logic into every decision, but I am still worried about the future she has.
i worry our species is irreversibly doomed. honestly, i feel certain we are yet i refuse to act as though i believe it. if i give in and give up and sit back and wait for the worst to come then i won’t be able to say “i tried” to whichever younger generation asks the rest of us why we did nothing and let the human race go extinct. climate change will likely bring about the end but any number of things could happen before then, and capitalism will have spearheaded all of them.