Apocalyptic thrill-seeking

US emotion is running high as we approach 11 September, and a nation remembers the day it realised its own mortality. But a few days short of this looming anniversary, another threat from the skies promised a destruction of life on a far grander scale than an airplane full of terrorists could ever wreak.

If we all spend so much psychic energy on wishing against the odds, perhaps the gods of chance will suddenly sit up and notice.

Georgina Guedes, Journalist, ITWeb

I`m referring to QQ47, a seemingly harmless chunk of space rock that scientists happened to notice on 2 September. A frantic flurry of calculations revealed that this particular rock had a one in 909 000 chance of impacting Earth in 2014. Scientists helpfully pointed out that this was exactly the sort of collision that they postulate brought about the extinction of the dinosaurs, and would at the very least bring about "climatic consequences and widespread regional devastation".

Those are better odds than I have of winning the lottery. I wish my brain hadn`t come up with that analogy, because it sparked a bout of superstitious paranoia. If we all spend so much psychic energy on wishing against the odds, perhaps the gods of chance will suddenly sit up and notice. However, not being concerned with such mundane concepts as the movements of little pieces of paper, they might instead deliver us a giant rock to bring about our final hour.

A day later, after further observation gave the scientists and astronomers the chance to run even more calculations to determine the path of the asteroid, they relaxed a bit and assured us that actually the odds were far less than that, and were really something like one in 2 000 000, which, they said informatively, were no worse than the background odds of us getting hit by an asteroid on any given day. Well that`s a relief.

But also slightly disappointing. It`s not that I`m keen on extinction or anything, but any event capable of bringing about massive change to the way we live would certainly be interesting to see. 2014 is far enough away that any fear of consequence could be put on a back burner, and the voyeur in me could be satisfied by merely observing what people would do.

Billy Connelly did a skit about the end of the world, claiming that at that hour you would find him behind a shed with a syringe full of heroin and a sheep, but in more practical terms, what would society do if confronted with the very real possibility of extinction within 11 years? Would you have children? Would you travel the world? If you didn`t quit your job, you`d certainly stop pumping funds into your retirement annuity. What would happen to the economy? Would they keep trying to find a cure for AIDS?

I also started to wonder if the Americans had some sort of a plan to deal with such an eventuality. Surely the president has watched Armageddon and Deep Impact? Is there an undercover nuclear division of NASA ready and waiting to deal with any pesky rocks that stray a little too close to Earth`s orbit? Is there some kind of backup telecommunications network that doesn`t take into account our ability to bounce signals off satellites? If Florida were to end up at the South Pole after impact, would there be any way to rescue the stranded millions in their Bermuda shorts?

As I browsed through the scientists` reassurances, sadly resolving to seek my thrills elsewhere, I was given a small glimmer of hope by what were described as "daily background odds". We still have a one in 2 000 000 chance of being walloped by an asteroid every day. These are still better odds than winning the lottery, and someone does that nearly every week. If that doesn`t add a frisson of excitement to everyday life, I don`t know what will.