Alt + Del.

I have a beef with Marvel.

Now, before I begin, understand that I love the storytelling and characters that Stan Lee and company have created. The rich tapestry of drama, comedy, and tragedy is a spectacle to behold.

But, sometimes to sound cool and smart, they weave in concepts from the real world without really understanding them. They throw around terms and phrases that have meanings vastly different from what they actually mean. The one that really ruffles my fur? Gamma Radiation...

We all know the story of The Hulk, Bruce Banner, Gamma bomb, purple pants, "You won't like me when I'm angry." Great story and character arcs, wonderful depth, superb.

What in the ever loving fuck did Stan smoke?

Gamma radiation is one of the highest energy forms of radiation. In fact, one of the things that happen when a star collapses into a black hole is, that in the moment of collapse, a shockwave of gamma radiation bursts out, spreading and dissipating as it expands outward. This high energy burst propagates for light years across the galaxy.

If a burst was to happen within 5,000 to 8,000 light years of our planet, it would severely damage our atmosphere. Scientists even think the Ordovician extinction was caused by such a burst. Two thirds of all life died at that time.

Now, I want you to read that distance again. That is a ring, not a radius. Any planet closer then 5,000 light years. Weeeelll... Let's just say that their fossil record stops.

There are somewhere between 300 and 600 million stars within 5,000 light years of Earth.

Do you feel that tightness taking ahold of your chest right now, I am about to make it worse.

Gamma radiation is a type of light...

It travels at that speed.

There is no warning, there is no known way we, at our tech level, can stop it.

It would happen in seconds.

Most of us would not even feel it.

I want you to take a moment and look directly at what you are feeling. Why are you scared? No pain would occur, no suffering, no one left behind to remember what even happened.

Tom Lehrer has a song about nuclear war, "We will all go together when we go." You should listen to it. one of my favorite lines is: "There will be no more misery When the world is our rotisserie, Yes, we will all fry together when we fry."

From a logical point of view, it is perhaps the least painful way a civilization ending event can happen.

The fear you are feeling right now has several things laced in it, but I think the most telling is the fact that there is no way to stop it.

Humans have an intense need for control, this is logical, if you do not feel like you are in control, you can not feel safe. Without feeling safe, you can not plan for the future. This need is baked into the very fabric of who and what we are.

But it is not true.

If we cannot defend ourselves from this, we cannot be 100% sure of our survival tomorrow. Now, we might devise a solution for this, but what about the next calamity? or the one after that?

I am not saying lay on the floor and give up. You can if you want, but why?

We have never needed control. We need to feel like we are in control. Those are not the same thing.

But we also need to acknowledge that it is a need for an illusion. Not a static location. And we do ourselves a great disservice approaching it like a junkie approaches heroin.

You will excuse me, I am starting to have my own withdrawals...

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