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Comment by LinuxBender | Hacker News Reader

Hours? I need only a few minutes to find a paper bag to put over my head and lay down.

On a more serious note, I would not mind having a device that could tell me hours in advance of a large gamma ray burst if that were even possible. If one can get into deep enough of a tunnel there is a small chance of survival. I am not sure what I would do afterwards short of becoming a gatherer. Hunting would be over. No idea if the plants would survive.

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If u survive in deep enough cave. That mean you would survive on opposite side of earth right? So probably as one of the few alive your goal should be to live from remains of canned food and try to get on opposite side of earth which was not hit by the death ray.

A GRB wouldn’t cause much immediate death. The burst itself lasts from seconds to a minute and would be sufficiently blocked by the atmosphere that whatever reached the surface would not be dangerous.

The danger to life comes later. The burst interacts with the oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere in a way that would greatly reduce the ozone layer and produce a photochemical smog.

This would give us years of dangerous UV levels, a global cooling effect that might not be too bad but could be very bad if we happen to be a time of climate instability, and acid rain.

This [1] is the theoretical one I would factor into my preps. Like anything on the History channel it is probably greatly exaggerated but I see it as a fun exercise or hobby to plan for such things.

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv531fVJ02g

Well described in 'Diaspora' by Greg Egan

The problem here is that the Earth rotates.

For reference, see Inconstant Moon:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inconstant_Moon#"Inconstant_Mo...

Or the TV version:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0667911/

You have been warned.

In Stellvia, the GRB hits near the South Pole, which is kind of a best case scenario (sorry global south). But then they have several years to prepare for the matter ejected from the supernova, which is only traveling at a large fraction of c.

The TV show “Into the Night” played with this idea too.

Almost how remaining people are living in Mariupol right now. No food, no water, no medicine, broken sewer, destroyed buildings with bodies still under the rubble in the summer heat, cholera is starting... That is how end of the world looks up-close.

“This is how the world will end”, from Ministry of Defense by PJ Harvey …

That is a good idea. A part of me would want to stay here and live off my freeze dried foods and see if I can get seeds to grow. It would be so quiet, at least maybe for a while. I better store away some fertilizer and bacteria someplace safe. Maybe barrels of fetid swamp water.

Very quiet places are within reach of most HN crowd, if so they desire. Don't procrastinate waiting for a gamma ray burst :)

It's mostly quiet here most of the time. I am in a very rural area but not far from a highway. I only hear the trucks with straight pipes + JakeBrakes in J2 or J3. Maybe those will be less of a thing soon.

>Hours? I need only a few minutes to find a paper bag to put over my head and lay down.

I wish. I just took a look around my place, and no paper bags anywhere to be found. I'm gonna need to stock up. Maybe pop up a kiosk on the sidewalk and make a killing right up to the bitter end

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