Apocalyptic Meteor Scenario

"(CNN) -- If scientists detect a killer
asteroid shortly before it slams into
Earth, should the public be informed? One
researcher, Geoffrey Sommer of the Rand
Corp., a Santa Monica, California-based
think tank, believes the best answer in
some cases is no. Should an alert come too
late to make a difference in the outcome of
a global catastrophe, Sommer suggests
governments should remain silent. 'If you
can't do anything about a warning, then
there is no point in issuing a warning at
all,' Sommer said earlier this month at an
American Association for the Advancement of
Science meeting in Denver."

Ignorance is bliss, eh? I disagree here.
On a number of arguments:

It's not the government's job to mediate
information. Yes, I know that they have to
sometimes. Yes, I know that certain
information is classified. But information
is typically classified to protect the
continuation of government. In an
apocalyptic meteor scenario there's nothing
to protect. The government that protects
its citizens from death by killing others
in wartime should in turn tell its citizens
when there is nothing it can do to protect
them.

Many religions have certain rituals that
they would want to go through before
certain death.

People would want to say things that they
never said to their loved ones.
Interestingly, I think that the last few
hours of the human race would probably be
the most peaceful.

Virgins would want to be given a few hours
to "go for it." Why should we punish the
virgins?

There's also a remote chance that the
people, not the governments, may have a
solution to the problem. Who knows? Maybe
a group of militant lesbians from Alabama
just happen to have a huge ass ray gun that
can destroy the meteor. Why should all of
humanity be denied the right to protect
itself?

Dudes would want to try out the line "if we
were all gonna die tomorrow would you sleep
with me?"

The Zen argument would likely be that the
pain and horror we feel in the last few
hours of humanity is really a flipside of
the excitement and joy that we feel
throughout life. Such a philosophy values
both types of emotions equally.

Everybody would want to put on some clean
undies.

From a purely scientific perspective I was
trained (and probably had a natural
inclination to) understand things. I can't
understand what's happening without the
info.

If you don't tell everybody, the meteor
hits but some percentage survive, they're
probably not going to be a very stable tax
base.

The basic argument that the researcher was
trying to make was that a day of daily life
is better than a day of life knowing you're
going to die. He has nothing to back that
argument up. Is the glass half full, or
half empty? In the last days it would be up
to each of us to make the best of it. Some
may have better than average days. Some
may have worse than average.

My belief is that it's my right to decide
which type I'll have... not the
government's.