Young Writers Society

My friend just emailed this article about the predicted 'apocalypse' in 2012. I'd be surprised if you haven't heard of it, but for those who don't know: The Mayans, pretty much the astrology masters, had calenders that didn't go past December 21, 2012, something to do with the sun, it's complicated, causing the end of the world as we know it. Right. I think they even had some guy on the Today Show talking about how to survive the end of the world. I'm just concerned about school, I graduate in 2012... So why apply to college, right? It's a long standing joke in my grade, when we get to 12th grade, our Senior Prank would have to be good. I mean, It'll be one of the last pranks, right? Seeing that we're all gonna die...

Jenni

I'm not so sure if I believe in that. There has been other stories about the end of the World that turned out to be about something totally different.

Hey, you never know. *Shrug*

I heard about this when I was in school. Really I think its all smoke and mirrors because the world was also predicted to end around World War II but really it didn't and now...okay maybe something big might happen but that's only because the environment is in such bad shape. Overall, Mayan calenders weren't that much helpful because it was all based on guessing and oh wait I don't know that for sure...but if the world ends in 2012 then life is pretty slow right now. I should be going to college (wait screw college) I should be going to millions of parties and dancing the night away! Well anyways, the worlds not going to end in 2012 it might just disintegrate or something.

Oh, yeah. Supposedly, the world will end on December 21, 2012. Wait...wouldn't it make more sense and go together more if it were 2112?

Also, the calendar had to end at some point, right? There's even a limit to the dates you can switch your computer to, doesn't mean that the world will end at that point. I think that this is basically like Y2K, the same panic over dates.

Now, I'll be keeping my eye on 2010, there's still time for the military to reveal the true existence of the Stargate...

People, you do realize that time (dates included) were man-made?

So of course we predict our own apocalypse, and think that somehow the world will magically explode that day. It's not going to happen; and on the really off chance it does, we'll have warnings. Entire civilizations do not just go poof.

The Mayans lived thousands of years ago. They mispredicted the future -- hey, back in the '60s, they thought this decade would be a real-life Jetsons replica. It happens all the time.

Sorry to be a bit snappy. This whole crock is getting on my nerves. xD

-:pirate3:

Wait...wouldn't it make more sense and go together more if it were 2112?

Because God doesn't want to wait that long to kill us all.

-Jared

You might want to rephrase that Saint. Dates and clocks to keep track of time are man made, but time itself is just the natural flow of all objects to move forward.

I'm pretty sure the Mayans were pretty advanced in there mathematics for the time period. I know they were using some sort of equation to generate their calendar. And who knows why it ends when it does. Maybe they ran out of stone, maybe they were killed by the Spaniards before they could finish.

But overall, what difference does it make. Just live your lives. If the world ends tomorrow big deal. It doesn't do anyone any good to think about it.

Adam_Atlantian wrote:You might want to rephrase that Saint. Dates and clocks to keep track of time are man made, but time itself is just the natural flow of all objects to move forward.

Time is only linear for engineers and referees.

-:pirate3:

Saint Razorblade wrote:

Adam_Atlantian wrote:You might want to rephrase that Saint. Dates and clocks to keep track of time are man made, but time itself is just the natural flow of all objects to move forward.

Time is only linear for engineers and referees.

-:pirate3:

Not fair! Engineers still have to take math courses which tell us everything about dimensions and everything. Just... the only difference is we actually get to do interesting stuff besides theorizing all day.

I second Saint - we decide what dates belong to which day, how does the world know that it's supposed to end at that specific time?

People have been predicting that the world would end for thousands of years. Granted, the Mayans were extremely advanced in their calenders, but remember that they were a very religious people. The "end of the world" for them might have been religious or psychological, not necessarily based in reality.


I guess we'll find out in four years, eh?

Maybe It's the date the Aliens will come back and take us all away! (I'm kidding...mostly.)

Link1
Link2
Link3

Dec. 21 2012 marks the end of the cycle, where all their day names and month names and everything come full circle. You need to keep in mind that their calendar isn't like ours. They didn't have a steady pattern of seven day names and seven days in a week. They had twenty day names and thirteen days. If "Imix" was day one, then "Ix" would be number thirteen. Instead of starting over with Imix as number one again, they kept turning the wheels. So "Men" would be number one the next time around (see link 3). To complicate things a bit more, they also had more month names then they had month numbers (18 numbers, 20 months, I think)(See link 1). Combine that with their days, and you've got something that will take a while to come full circle. Think of those Spirograph toys you used to get as a kid. After so long, you'd just start tracing over the same lines again. You start repeating the cycle.

If you look at their calendar system, you'll find that a Spirograph is a pretty accurate description.

In short, I don't think the world will end in 2012. I think it's the end of a cycle.

If nothing else, they had to stop sometime, right?